CHAPTER 6

New Frontiers to a Digital Revolution

In this chapter, you will read:

Introduction

Technology has changed the way firms and users communicate with each other. It is extremely clear by now that a higher level of personalization and app engagement is crucial. The key is not just thinking about the user experience in app, but the user experience being created around the app. Most of the mobile phone users spend their time on apps. It doesn’t mean that they will use any type of apps. Users are becoming more and more selective regarding the usage of the apps. For that reason, the browsers still continue to drive more traffic.

It makes perfect sense then that firms are trying to follow that trend and all their efforts are concentrating on how they could deliver an awesome experience to their mobile targets. The problem is that mobile and web at some point converge. The key here is to be able to provide for both media the same experience. Don’t overpromise on your website and underdeliver in your app. It’s a very thin line in the converging app and mobile-web experience. In both cases, what you need to do is personalization. Personalization is the key to future success. A more personal and engaging app and website that will be focused on content and discoverability, rather than friction and discrete downloads, will lead you to success.

New Technologies That Shape New Frontiers

Technology is not everything! Of course, technology has helped us to change the way we communicate with our users but becoming digital is something more than that. Becoming digital should be more about a change in the mindset and the philosophy of our firm. Apparently, most firms can use digital media, because the required budget is relatively small, but not all firms are ready to change their mentality. By changing their mentality means that they need to find a new way to conduct their business and this is where the problem begins. If higher management doesn’t have a common vision regarding how the company should become digital, then a lot of missed opportunities and bad performance will occur. As we discussed, the need of becoming more digital is initiated from the changed behavior of the users. It means that your firm needs to adjust the core values and enhance their delivery. That is after all the whole concept of becoming digital. You should be open to readjustments and, in some cases, you should be open to changing completely your business model. It all depends on the nature of your business. At the same time, you should keep in mind the constantly changing behavior of your users. Their expectations as well as their decision journey are constantly changing.

An extremely important aspect of becoming digital is to find out how you can improve your overall customer service. Right now, we are not talking about the user journey but also how your digital capabilities can design and deliver the best possible experience, across all parts of your business. Your mentality should be about implementing a cyclical dynamic where processes and capabilities are constantly evolving based on inputs from the customer, fostering ongoing product or service loyalty. Something like this is not easy to happen. All of your decisions should be based on relevant data that you have collected from your users. At the same time, all of your actions should be based on delivering content and experiences that are personalized and relevant to the users. You should make full use of analytics in order to understand your customers’ real-time behavior, which is the one actually that will determine the type of communication you will have with them. If you don’t feel comfortable using analytics, then you should outsource. That is the only way to understand the underlying behavior of your users. By doing so, you will be able to improve the customers’ experience.

The new frontiers of the digital environment indicated extremely high levels of automation. This type of automation of course is not just an e-mail sent to the user. The automation should be extremely personalized as well as in real time. The users constantly interact with your firm, and in order for you to support this dynamic, you need to take it to the next level. We have already discussed in previous chapters the different types of automations you could make use of. It is certain that automation of customer interactions can boost the number of self-service options that help resolve problems quickly, personalize communications to be more relevant, and deliver consistent customer journeys no matter the channel, time, or device. Essentially that could mean, having lower running costs and higher probability to understand customer needs and wants. Overall, a digital mindset institutionalizes cross-functional collaboration, flattens hierarchies, and builds environments to encourage the generation of new ideas. Incentives and metrics are developed to support such decision-making agility.

Apart from just changing their mentality, firms have in their hands new types of technologies. More and more brands are experimenting with virtual reality as well as with interconnectivity, in the sense that connected devices could help building stronger and more meaningful relationships with the users. Virtual reality is a great opportunity to understand customers and have a live feedback of their most inner thoughts and behaviors. It is one thing for someone to be able to hold a branded experience in their hands on a mobile phone, and another to feel as if they are inside a branded experience on their virtual reality headsets. We should not take light that this type of close relationship has raised some concerns from the user’s side. Users are getting tired of any type of interruptive advertising; so imagine if your firm is more intrusive than that. In order to be successful, publishers, advertisers, and technology companies will need to come together to develop creative ad formats that truly put the user first, in order to create new standards and benefit from the new “mobile only” world order. Undoubtedly, virtual reality is adding a totally new perspective in e-branding. A new perspective is far more equitable than any other previous technologies. The great thing about this new type of technology is that it changes the way we communicate. Virtual reality is giving a new way to meet a brand’s objective and redefine the way that customers engage and revisit your products or services in the long term.

Apart from virtual reality, another type of technology that reshapes the frontiers of digital branding is wearable tech. More and more firms are launching new accessories that either work as stand-alone products or need to be connected to the smartphone of the consumer. Although wearable items used to be quite expensive breakthrough products, now we are witnessing a lot of low priced products in the sector. Especially in the fitness sector, wearables have gained the broadest acceptance among consumers. The question that firms are facing now is if the consumers will continue to buy limited-function devices when their smartphones can deliver a lot of the same value. For example, smart watches are often designed as smartphone extenders, allowing users to see messages and caller ID without taking out their phones and are the category where fashionistas are making their mark.

User-Generated Content

User-generated content is the next big thing in e-branding. Most of the millennials are being influenced more from the user-generated content, than from any other form of advertising. That is so simple and it makes so much sense, yet it’s very difficult to be applied from most firms out there. One thing is for sure that there is a huge shift away from ads and product promotion, and closer to personalization and visualization in content marketing and social media. The only thing that needs to happen is for marketers to activate not only their customers but also their employees as well as their partners to start creating content.

It has been quite difficult in the past years for somebody to create high-quality content. With the use of today’s affordable technology and with the plethora of free software programs, anybody could create high-quality content. To make it even easier, the only thing an average consumer will need in order to do so is a smartphone and some free apps! More and more users are creating content every day. More and more apps are being designed around that very concept. Users must create the content in order to appeal other users. Apps like InstaStories, SnapChat, and Facebook Live are just some examples of user-generated content. Consumers are getting more and more comfortable with shooting and sharing their content. At the same time, firms have started to realize the immediate impact of user-generated content in their sales.

The reason why user-generated content is more appealing to the new generation is just because it emits an inherent authenticity. Users who watch the content could somehow connect with it because they get a feeling of familiarity. They could also be the ones, in any given stage, who will upload similar content. Because we have already established the power of user-generated content, it’s time that we have a plan to capitalize on this new trend. How can we use this type of content? One thing we could do is to collect all the videos from our followers and edit them into one branded video. Sometimes, of course, that might be extremely difficult to do so. What you can do is just ask initially your employees to collect videos that they have created. Don’t forget that your employees are your ambassadors, given that you treat them as your customers. You should encourage them to use their phones and shoot videos in company’s events or even during normal working hours in terms of giving some behind-the-scenes footage. You could even create an internal contest on the company’s Facebook page and give some incentives to the web page fans with prizes.

Crowdsourcing video is one of the greatest ideas in terms of gathering user-generated content, and even if you don’t have the capacity to create a video, it is very cheap to outsource it. If you want, you can use some extremely easy apps to do it yourself. If you play your hand right, you can gather some amazing content. But as we discussed, users will not just do it by themselves. They need a nudge and this is where your input is important. If you manage to create a video, from the material given by your users, you could have something intrinsically shareable and perfect for social media. At the same time, you minimize your costs, because you wouldn’t need any professional team. If the video that was taken from the users seems unprofessional, it just makes it more believable. That is the brilliancy behind it. All users know that they can’t create any extremely professional video and it makes perfect sense for them if they watch something a bit unprofessional. It reassures them that the content is coming from the users and not from the company.

New Users versus Brands

Globally, users are making their smartphones part of their everyday routine. This is a truth that everybody acknowledges. The key though is to be able to capture consumers in crucial everyday moments where buying decisions are bound to happen. Those moments are the ones you should be focusing on. The new type of user is called Social Local Mobile (SoLoMo). Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are growing rapidly as channels of human communication, allowing brands and consumers to engage in public discussions. As consumers are using social media as their main source of information, communication, and entertainment, marketers will be finding a fruitful environment full of opportunities. The rapid proliferation of advanced smartphone and other mobile devices allowed people to exchange information by pinpointing consumers’ location and providing them on their mobile devices with location-specific advertisements. The integration of mobile advertising with location-based services is what characterizes location-based advertising. Smartphone penetration has increased for two reasons. First, wireless networks have become faster and ubiquitous. Second, mobile devices are nowadays more affordable. Mobile marketing can provide consumers with personalized information based on their location and the time of receipt. Having in mind this new type of users, we need to focus on how we can reach them through digital branding. For this reason, we first need to check their search intent, which are basically more crucial than their actual demographics. This is based on the simple motion that when users are ready to shop, what they want matters much more than who they are.

A very interesting new trend on e-branding is YouTube. The importance of online video has been recognized by the marketers. They all understand it but it’s incredibly difficult to harness it. Just the idea of managing another media platform creates a new heading. But what you need to realize is that this online platform could create a total new dimension for your brand. You should not overlook the fact that a lot of people still watch a lot of television. Hence, this traditional type of media remains an extremely useful tool for a marketer. If you are already spending some marketing budget on TV advertising, then you should think of spending 10 to 20 percent, depending on market maturity, of that budget to YouTube, which is a people-focused neutral platform. You will not have to create new ads but you could use the same add with some tweaks or if you have the extra budget, you could develop new advertising campaigns.

Because you will spend fewer budgets and at the same time you will be able to have a more targeted campaign, you could lengthen your campaign and improve the coverage. By doing that, you will be able to create a top-of-mind awareness for your brand, which is one of the key purchase drivers across a wide range of industries. The clear media implication is a need to be on air all year round, but this is often challenging given campaign-led approaches and the sizes of media budgets. That is why online video is the new and extremely powerful tool, but at the same time a controllable opportunity, to just add some messages in between your media campaigns. You shouldn’t worry if you don’t have a big budget in order to create new campaigns. There are a lot of companies that you could outsource by investing a small amount of money. You could use some super-user partnerships, which make it possible to create additional content in a flexible and affordable way. I must stress here the fact that serious marketers should be looking to drive meaningful paid scale behind every execution. What you need to realize is that in order for your campaign to be effective, you should be consistent. At the same time, you can’t just drive true media continuity just by posting content and hoping people find it.

The marketing budget is getting lower and lower each year and that is why you need to think twice before allocating your communication expenditures. Just a low budget online video initiative can drive meaningful reach and business results. You don’t have to spend lots of money as long as you target correctly. Many firms out there underestimate the amount they should spend on online video, and as a result only tap into a fraction of the audience. For a big brand that spends millions on TV, it’s time that YouTube’s budgets were six figures, not just five. When you include the impact of skipped views, then you start to see the huge potential scale that is currently ignored. One of the main differences between TV and online advertisements is that, by definition, the TV ads are limited to a specific location and often at one specific time of the day, depending on the audience you want to target. On the other hand, online video ads (mobile or laptop) don’t suffer those limitations. That is the many reason why they are becoming more and more popular. At the same time, people are watching more and more online videos because it’s more convenient for them to do it while on the go. Next time you are in the train, try to notice that most people who are on their phones are watching some sort of clips. Most of the times, they are directed to those clips through a social media platform. Almost without trying, brands will find that something like a third of their paid YouTube activity already lands on mobile, but the opportunity to specifically target and optimize for it is only just being explored. There are, of course, some key creative watch-outs, in particular, that sound is often muted or that attention spans are even shorter on smaller screens. We have analyzed over the previous chapters the different types of strategies that you could employ in order to build a strong online brand with the use of social media. Increasingly, this also includes the opportunity to reach new consumers in developing markets for the very first time, though data access can be a challenge here. One of the main problems with the online video is that this type of new user has been used on over exposure to online ads. You need to be able to cap the frequency of adverts for users in order to prevent overexposure.

One of the ways to succeed this arduous task would be to personalize the ads. It is a huge field that few brands have explored. The opportunity to reach people with subtly or radically different creatives based on who they are and what they are doing should be the next frontier in digital. Imagine if you could provide slightly different types of ads in order to target different groups of people. The effectiveness of your communication campaign would hit the roof. Another great benefit of this type of targeting is that it would allow you to tell sequential stories to the same consumer. That would just take it to the next level of branding. You would be able to build a strong narrative over time or even actively push them along a purchase funnel. Of course, another huge benefit of online video, when it supports the new brand, is the ability to click on it. Video advertising is hugely powerful when passively consumed but when it’s online, there is also an option to click immediately and explore or even buy something. When establishing a new brand in the electronic environment, online video is the most powerful tool that you could use.

The new type of consumer is ready to replace the TV ads with the online ones. For most brands, online video won’t begin to truly replace TV until there’s a much more substantial shift in consumer media consumption. At the same time, there are a few brands that already maximize the huge opportunity that is already there. And don’t forget the future. Viewing habits are beginning to radically change and marketers would do well to understand how their marketing can too.

New Habits of Your Digital Brand

We are living in a time where technologies are converging. This is creating a social and economic revolution that’s transforming the way we live and work. It’s transforming not only what we consume, but how we consume. There are a few new trends that could transform your brand. These new trends should be the new habits of your digital brand. All of these trends and new habits represent a new opportunity for brands and marketers to engage with people in new ways.

The power of the crowd is getting more and more attention. It doesn’t really matter for what use we decide to involve our users, as long as they believe that they are a part of our brand. Of course, it is very difficult to harness the network power of many individuals. We could use individual users for crowdsourcing. Many big firms have already put this idea into motion. Crowdsourcing is basically involving your users to participate in the creation of your new products or services. Imagine how your users would react if one of their ideas was actually implemented by your firm. They would feel that they have the power to create new products or services. In fact, in order for you to discover what they would like, you would have to perform market research and that would cost you money and time. Now, with crowdsourcing, you could do it a lot cheaper. So, basically you need to think the ways through which you can bring ideas from the outside in. Along with crowdsourcing many firms now employ crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is nothing more than pooling lots of donations from individuals.

Another new habit of your digital brand is something that we discussed in a previous chapter and that is the SoLoMo user. This trend involves using digital tools to create face-to-face, real-world interactions. It’s the combination of social (trust), local, and mobile. This type of user should be the center of your attention. You can do that by employing social design. Social design basically puts your users, and not your product or content, in the center of the overall experience. It involves building online communities instead of marketplaces by allowing the social network to become a “trust network.”

What firms need to realize is that the electronic environment is changing rapidly. A few years ago, people wanted to buy products or services online. There was an emerging trend whereby consumers want to buy things online. Of course, many consumers still want to do that. But a new trend is emerging. Users no longer want to own products or services. Instead, their focus is on the needs and experiences these products fulfill. This is seen in the shift from an asset-heavy lifestyle to the asset-light generation. For example, the physical ownership of music, movies, and books has shifted to on-demand access. As the meaning of ownership is being transformed, we need to ask ourselves how it will transform what we value and how should we express our brand.

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