The industry’s top digital marketers took the stage at Marketing and the Canadian Marketing Association’s 2014 Digital Day conference on Monday. From programmatic buying to privacy, they discussed the most pressing issues facing marketers today.
Here’s what we learned:
1. Digital marketing is dead…because it’s so prevalent
It took less than 20 minutes for a speaker to declare digital marketing is dead. During the day’s first presentation, Peter Ignazi, senior vice-president and executive director of BBDO Toronto, threw down the flag, explaining the term digital has lost its use, because it’s now a part of every campaign.
To succeed in marketing, he said, marketers must shift their mindsets to reflect consumer experience – and stop thinking of marketing as a traditional/digital dichotomy.
“To young people, a book is a book, Facebook is Facebook. There’s no two boxes they put them in, where one’s digital and one’s not,” he said. “That’s how we’re going to have to think [and] talk to them in the future.”
2. Consumers crave privacy – and that craving is getting stronger
Sean Moffitt, managing director of Wikibrands.
Privacy is a theme that speakers returned to frequently throughout the day. Microsoft’s global head of consumer insights, Kelly Jones, provided numbers to back up the notion that privacy is of the utmost important to consumers. According to Jones, 86% of consumers expect brands to ask permission before using their data.
Sean Moffitt, managing director of Wikibrands, also offered stats on privacy, noting 16% of people are fearful for their privacy when they use social media – a percentage Moffitt said is growing every year.
The good news for marketers? Protecting consumer privacy can be beneficial. According to Jones, 65% of consumers are more likely to buy from brands that are transparent about how they use consumer data.
3. Young consumers want to track their own data
Millennials want to take their data into their own hands. In many cases, they’re also looking to track themselves, using analytics to better their lives or their health.
According to Microsoft’s Jones said many young people are using analytics-based services that offer advice based on patterns, like Mint.com, which helps consumers manage their money, and Lift – a daily life coach in the form of a data-tracking app.
Ipsos Reid’s Steve Levy.
4. Marketers know less about mobile than they did a year ago
A year ago 40% of Canadian marketers reported they were “very familiar” with mobile marketing. This year, that percentage shot down to 35%. The reason, according to Ipsos’ Steve Levy, is that mobile has become more nuanced – there’s more to know and marketers are struggling to bridge the gap.
Meanwhile, mobile is becoming more essential to marketing plans, with 33% of marketers reporting they use mobile “always” or “often,” up from 26% last year. Levy said the way marketers will deal with the gap in the short term is the lean on agencies. For now, that’s where the expertise is, with 59% of agencies reporting they are very familiar with mobile marketing, up from 48% in 2013.
5. Programmatic is set to boom in Canada
According to Ipsos, 34% of Canadian marketers plan to dramatically increase their programmatic spend in the next year. That change hasn’t taken hold yet, though – just 21% said they currently use programmatic “often.”
6. 24% of Marketing’s articles are about content
Here’s a little something we didn’t know about ourselves: 24% of the articles we publish are about content. Wikibrands’ Moffitt crunched the numbers on the last 150 stories we published and found that almost a quarter of them are content related – a sign our coverage is shifting as the industry invests more heavily in content marketing.
In fact, content was the most prevalent topic in our coverage overall, beating out the catch-all topic of advertising.
