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Marketers say commerce is both a priority and a challenge for accelerating brand

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By Amit Bapna, Editor-at-large

April 13, 2021 | 4 min read

With technology and consumer behaviours pushing the acceleration of change for marketers, iProspect has launched a report that dives into the consequences of this momentum. The Drum picks out the key trends for brands.

future

Marketers, get future ready

The world of marketing is evolving at a superfast clip, making it challenging for marketers to make sense of the changes and keep pace with them.

As per the findings of a recent report ‘Future Focus 2021: Brands Accelerated’ launched by iProspect, a Dentsu company, 32% of marketers feel that expanding commerce capabilities was the critical piece of the 2021 roadmap, and 26% see this as one of the most difficult challenges to face this year.

It's not all bleak though. The good news is that the marketers who can make sense of these significant intersections of media, data, commerce and culture and adapt accordingly are likely to emerge the winners.

Here are some key takeaways for marketers:

Commerce is ubiquitous and integral to be future-ready

The importance of commerce and the key role it can play in helping brands get future-ready cannot be undermined. Towards increasing their readiness, organisations should be equipped to build and maintain an accurate picture of their commerce capabilities across five key dimensions: desirability, availability, findability, buyability, and repeatability.

This will help them in multiple ways: define the most profitable commerce model for their brand, better integrate their e-commerce and stores into an actionable omnichannel strategy, explore new growth channels, and turn media opportunities into transaction opportunities.

Consumer attention is important but do not forget the ground rules

While brands should consider factoring attention into their media optimisation and measurement efforts to maximise the impact and efficiency of their investment, they should not lose sight of some ground rules.

For example, brands should not relegate diversity and inclusivity as afterthoughts while developing their campaigns. To maximise audience attention, the content and experiences they design should be carefully aligned with consumer intent.

Deploying care and caution with data in a data-sensitive world

While data remains the oil that would power the new-age marketing, the rules for sourcing and deploying the data cannot be overlooked especially as the world becomes increasingly data-sensitive.

Organisations have to re-evaluate the value exchange they offer to their audiences in the new privacy-conscious world. They should use this opportunity to explore prospects for automation, assess the quality of the data they collect and process, and introspect on how data is effectively deployed to inform decisions.

What do experts say

Prerna Mehrotra, CEO, Media, Dentsu APAC and MD, Media Group, Dentsu Singapore, comments, “By leveraging these trends where culture, technology, commerce, data and content converge, we can help the marketers design experiences that are meaningful and valuable to consumers.”

Marketers must be ready with future-ready solutions, especially in the current uncertain times, she adds.

An optimistic Amanda Morrissey, global president of iProspect, says, “Despite the challenging times we live in, there have never been so many opportunities in media.”

The astute marketers will be the ones who will be able to make sense of the new age rulebook and explore the latest consumer and industry advancements and make the most of them for their brand’s growth.

Holds forth Rubeena Singh, CEO, iProspect India, "As a digital-first, end to end agency, our perspective allows us to rapidly optimise the work and adapt to ever-evolving human intent at the pivotal intersections in life when culture, content, data, and technology meet."

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