AOL’s David Shing: 'the advent of wearables will force marketers to embrace notification language'
The advent of mobile and consequently wearables is changing the role of notifications, meaning marketers must learn a new language if they are to keep pace in the rush to reframe their brands around services rather than adverts, predicts AOL’s digital prophet David Shing.
The breadth and depth of the mobile devices consumers use everyday is in danger of inciting notification numbness among people. From unchecked push notifications to a smartphone promoting a special offer at a store close by to annoying vibrations on a smartwatch every time a text is received, brands aren’t always leveraging the contextual data they have on audiences to create additive experiences.
“Calls are no longer the main thing people are doing on their mobile device and so that language of notification is something marketers can really grab a hold of,” Shing told The Drum. “There has to be a reason for me to pull my device if this is doing everything else for me. That’s where the utility element of marketing comes into play because the notification makes sense [on the device] if it helps.
The prospect of another communications medium to get to grips with is a daunting one for brands already toiling to understand the nuances of a splintering media landscape. However, Shing advised brands to start with the question; “how do we get peoples’ attention’. Viewability click throughs, CPMs are all proxies for attention in some shape or form, he continued though they aren’t necessarily what consumers care about”.
The implication being that the humble notification, once an afterthought of mobile marketers, should now be a core part of the customer experience on smaller screens. It is an issue highlighted in the wake of the Apple Watch last month, with brands and publishers alike keen to build relevance for their notifications around quick and timely alerts ahead of the medium spilling over into the mainstream.
The power of push hasn’t gone unnoticed by Facebook either, which sees notifications as another way – alongside video and gaming – to tighten its grip on mobile revenues. The social network is letting small businesses use its Messenger app to push out messages via text, eschewing long threads and altering users to their messages.
The way that people deliver the data to the wrist is going to be very different and that’s something we need to think about,” said Shing. “We’re going less from a visual display device to a utility display device and that can relay different types of gratification. If [brands] can provide a different kind of value system that’s core to their DNA then they become a purpose or useful to people.”
To achieve this mindset requires internal changes and different relationships with partners, from publisher to agencies. It is where AOL has been trying to base the future of its advertising business, particularly when it comes to content and more long-term programmatic. While its recent acquisition by Verizon may see some deviation from the roadmap, the media owner agreed to share and develop content with NBC Universal last month alongside bolstering its ad tech stack in the UK that could stand it in good stead moving forward.
“What we’re finding [interesting] at AOL at the moment is the different types of consumption, added Shing. “Whether it’s short for or long form [video] we’re still in the experimentation stage because we’re moving out of the world of appointment viewing.
“When it comes to programmatic the challenge is getting the right message. Brands have the data to know the right person, the right place and right time but imagine having the ability to dynamically change that right message on any level and on any screen.”
It is an issue top of mind for programmatic stalwarts like WPP’s Xaxis, which is exploring the possibility of self-assembling ads. Shing predicts that such a format could only be produced when “artificial intelligence is laid on top of programmatic".
“If [brands] can actually access the mind-share of a consumer of people then that that might mean market share over time,” he added.
As far out as it sounds, it is not beyond the furthest realms of impossibility. Those brands operating at the tip of the spear when it comes to content marketing increasingly espouse about the need to develop content that actually makes money rather than just sells goods. Nike, Mondelez and Netflix are among this progressive set, using content to build their brands over time while selling products over night.
The points build on Shing’s presentation at last month’s Adobe Digital Summit where he also described a future where consumers are much more in control of their data, sharing it across a platform that would support the “internet of everything”.
“What happens when a person decides to share the data on their smarpthones that has been measuring their daily lives? What if that data was available to my yoga instructor or my personal trainer. And not just the data to understand my fitness but also to understand what my diet is. When that all becomes free data and people could use it as their proprietary self, then that could be key to the [internet of everything].”