The Top Emerging Technologies For B2C Marketers New technologies are always emerging in response to customers demands and marketers needs. To help you focus your long-term tech investment strategies, we ve identified the 11 most important emerging technologies, which fall into three main categories: systems of insight, systems of engagement, and enabling technologies.
Business impact (years from now) SYSTEMS OF INSIGHT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Content Intelligence Customer Journey Analytics Enterprise Preference Management SYSTEMS OF ENGAGEMENT ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES Mobile Engagement Automation Identity Resolution Creative Advertising Technology Embedded Advertising Intelligent Agents Artificial Intelligence Virtual Reality And Augmented Reality The Internet Of Things 2
Systems Of Insight The business discipline and technology to harness insights and consistently turn data into action. 3
SYSTEMS OF INSIGHT Content Intelligence Content intelligence technologies will automate insights that are associated with content including the tone, voice, language, and topics that interest customers and link them to an expected customer response, analysis and planning process, and campaign delivery. Business impact: 1-3 years Uses artificial intelligence technologies to understand and capture the inherent qualities of any content its emotional appeal, subject matter, style, tone, or sentiment. It s time to create a new campaign. With a few keystrokes, you enter the parameters of your campaign such as message type, audience, offer, and language. Content intelligence increases your tactical efficiency by serving up messaging that delivers optimal results for your objective and audience. 4
SYSTEMS OF INSIGHT Customer Journey Analytics Business impact: 3-5 years Combines quantitative and qualitative data to track, measure, analyze, and optimize customer interactions across touchpoints and predict future behavior. Journey analytics will provide deeper levels of customer and marketing performance insights. Marketers will use journey insights to closely monitor customer behaviors and paths, enabling dynamic and relevant content creation. A travel company set out to reduce panicked calls from customers who thought that the firm had lost their bookings. Using journey analytics, the company found that the root causes of those calls were email campaigns that inadvertently promoted comparable offers to customers who d already booked a stay. This insight enabled it to fix the campaign, reduce service calls and costs, and provide a better customer experience. 5
SYSTEMS OF INSIGHT Enterprise Preference Management Enterprise preference management (EPM) builds trust with customers by letting them choose the type of communications a firm can send them, and it provides accurate, explicit zero-party data for marketers that would otherwise spend time and money trying to infer intent. Business impact: 3-5 years Validates marketers assumptions and captures customers preferences that are otherwise difficult or impossible to infer. A retail customer could choose the specific day that she receives weekly specials, indicate what types of products she s in the market for, and provide an opt-in email address to receive that communication. 6
Systems Of Engagement Technologies that empower customers, partners, and employees to make decisions and act immediately in their moments of need. 7
SYSTEMS OF ENGAGEMENT Mobile Engagement Automation Mobile engagement automation (MEA) identifies customers on mobile devices and applies rules based on channel, behavior, and context to dynamically assemble content and deliver personalized interactions to channels such as SMS, push messages, and in-app messaging. Business impact: 1-3 years Applies real-time and contextual insights to proactively engage with known users in the appropriate mobile moments. A marketer can bring customers pharmacy account information directly into her MEA platform and design the rules of her prescription reminder campaign to automatically deliver the reminder message to those customers 1) with prescriptions to pick up and 2) who are close to a store. 8
SYSTEMS OF ENGAGEMENT Creative Advertising Technology Creative advertising technology allows marketers to provide frictionless, anticipatory, immersive experiences. Technology will not replace the skills of people who come up with the big ideas, but there is potential for applying AI with creative adtech. Business impact: 3-5 years Delivers more personalized digital ads by combining optimal headlines, images, and messages that are based on customers behaviors with dynamic creative optimization tools. Retailers can track the products that a customer views on their sites and deliver digital ads that use those products in the creative. Marketers use creative management platforms to make small changes in the design, increasing their speed-to-market and making them less dependent on their creative agencies. 9
SYSTEMS OF ENGAGEMENT Embedded Advertising Embedded advertising opens up a world of new surfaces for brand messages stitched right into premium content or communication channels. This is critical given consumers distaste for traditional display ads and their love of personalized experiences. Business impact: 3-5 years An ad format that, when twinned with devices that can resolve a customer s identity, is extremely effective and valuable for content creators. A luxury car brand desperately wants to get its new twoseater in front of young urban professionals. With the help of embedded advertising, the car manufacturer can have its car star in a few big-ticket feature films that appeal to this audience. Also, the car is offered as a special unlocked feature in the latest release of EA s Need for Speed racing game. 10
SYSTEMS OF ENGAGEMENT Intelligent Agents As intelligent agents (IAs) provide high customer value in a low-friction interface, they will support previously direct relationships with brands. Brands that are prepared to work with IAs will benefit from their customer access and knowledge, gaining more relevant moments. Business impact: 3-5 years Connects to customers calendars, email accounts, browsing behaviors, playlists, and purchases, and gathers a complete view of what matters to a given individual and delivers experiences against it. Imagine a customer s doorbell rings, and it s the delivery of a new pair of running shoes in the right style, color, and size, just as she needs to replace her old pair. The IA was able to initiate this purchase and delivery by knowing her running habits and shopping preferences. 11
SYSTEMS OF ENGAGEMENT Virtual Reality And Augmented Reality VR will enable marketers to offer highly immersive and intimate experiences on top of new storytelling capabilities. With AR, marketers will be able to engage consumers in more places by adding relevant contextual information on top of brand experiences. Business impact: 5-10 years Virtual reality (VR) is a fully digital world either previously developed from video or imagined from scratch. Augmented reality (AR) is the virtual overlay of digital information on a physical-world object. Auto manufacturers give customers the ability to configure and try out vehicles through VR. Cosmetics companies use AR to recommend products to customers based on what shades of makeup match their complexions. 12
Enabling Technologies Technologies that are foundational to both systems of engagement and systems of insight, providing the underpinnings for new marketing capabilities and activities. 13
ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES Identity Resolution Customer identity is the foundation for contextual marketing. Robust identity resolution integrates data into a rich customer profile, which then informs precise campaign targeting strategies, closed-loop measurement and attribution, and campaign personalization. Business impact: 1-3 years Integrates identifiers across available touchpoints and devices with behavior, transaction, and contextual information into an addressable customer profile. Identity is more than name recognition. A coffee shop chain can use identity resolution to identify a customer s name, order history, frequented shop locations, and loyalty card number when he s on their app enabling a more efficient login and more targeted interactions. 14
ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) will become a core component of martech, driving substantial gains in efficiency, agility, and marketing performance. Marketers must develop familiarity with AI to assess how it affects their data requirements, processes, and campaign delivery. Business impact: 3-5 years An umbrella term for a variety of technologies that collect, apply selflearning statistical techniques to, and act on data. AI-powered marketing solutions support a variety of use cases, such as ecommerce recommendations; creating and refining campaign content; programmatic ad buying; email send-time optimization; audience discovery and creation; and continuously optimizing marketing campaigns. 15
ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES The Internet Of Things Business impact: 5-10 years Enables objects and infrastructure to interact with monitoring, analytics, and control systems over internet-style networks. The internet of things (IoT) will give marketers significant opportunities to access real-time data insights, predict customer behaviors, improve the customer experience, and even invent new business models. L Oréal s Kérastase Hair Coach a smart hairbrush with advanced sensors and an accompanying mobile app provides insights and customized product recommendations to help people better care for their hair. 16
Recommendations It s tempting to test out every innovation but budget, resources, and time constraints make that impractical. Instead, narrow your focus on emerging technologies that build on your current marketing technology stack. Use these principles as your guide: Prioritize your insights and engagement use cases. Identify your most critical use cases and look for technologies that enhance what you can do today. Look to your service providers and agencies for help. Learn from their experience working with a large pool of clients and a wide variety of technologies. Assess the data and process demands before you buy. Understand how new tech is deployed, what data you need, and how processes and resource allocation will be affected. 17
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