Key insights: AI in Marketing Summit highlights, microbrowser advertising, and customer engagement sweet spots

The answers lie in the data and how it is digested and applied will continue to play a vital role. Today we’ll take you through key takeaways from our AI in Marketing Summit, new shopping habits, microbrowser advertising, and the prerequisites for becoming a marketing masterchef.

AI in Marketing Summit: Quick takeaways

As hundreds of marketers from across the globe networked and dove into bundles of key industry insights around AI in marketing, consumer behaviors, advertising, and a lot more – these were some highlights from yesterday:

• We’re not in a “post-COVID” world, we’re in a “coexisting-with-COVID” world where essentialism and humanization will matter the most
• Data-driven empathy will be key 
• Now is the time for marketers to dive into their data and reconsider the technology they use to understand the customers’ pulse
• Businesses will need to shift their focus from customer experience to “customer’s experience” and how touchpoints will be redefined

UK shopping habits: Then vs now

Mobile advertising company TabMo commissioned Dynata, the leading data and insights company for ‘TabMo’s Retail Spotlight: UK Shopping Habits Before, During and After the Coronavirus Lockdown’ study. The survey asked consumers about their preferences for returning to shopping ‘In Real Life’ (IRL) when they could do so and here some key takeaways:

74% of respondents said they would go back to stores they frequently visited pre-lockdown as soon as the government said it is safe to do so.

Businesses that will soon see more footfall within one month of reopening:

1. Coffee shops are likely to see the fastest return to near pre-pandemic footfall (79%)
2. Health, beauty and cosmetics retailers (78%)
3. Fast-food restaurants (75%)
4. DIY and homeware outlets (75%)
5. Fashion retailers (64%)
6. Luxury fashion and jewelry boutiques (62%)
7. Car showrooms (52%)

Emerging habits of the “Interim Normal”

Tech titan Brain Solis, brilliantly stated in our AI in Marketing Summit on June 25th that we are not in a “New normal” but an “Interim normal” which will see so many new consumer habits emerging.

He also burst the bubble that it takes 66 days to form a new habit which means brands that are agile and data-smart will manage to win more customers.

TabMo’s report saw these new behaviors in the making:

• 70% of respondents shopped in person pre-COVID-19, of these 25% took to online grocery shopping
• People ranging from age groups of 18 to 55 showed intentions of returning to pre-pandemic shopping habits
• 48% of respondents would prefer browsing online and purchasing in-store
• However, there’s also a grey area of many people being unsure about their future shopping habits
• Local businesses will see continued opportunities as 49% of people reported they would be more committed to shop locally

TabMo’s head of agency sales, Shanil Chande, says

“We are sailing in uncharted waters, but it seems that the UK’s love of shopping hasn’t waned during lockdown.  However, consumer behavior does seem set to change, at least in the short term. Advertising has a huge role to play in promoting what is possible when it comes to IRL retail while also enabling people to stay safe. Content, context and cross-channel promotion will be key, along with the smart use of data to ensure that messages reflect each shopper’s specific needs and can be quickly adapted in a rapidly-changing environment.”

All these face a complex set of permutations and combinations of challenges that businesses will need to overcome. The common line of vision for the bigger picture of the oncoming times will be based on hyper-targeted advertising and marketing, which brings us to the next segment.

Mobile, the visual-first age, and microbrowsers: The blend for marketing success

Did you know, WhatsApp has more than two billion users worldwide? People have been closer to their phones more than ever, staying indoors, using their phones to connect, learn, and entertain themselves which supports the logic of targeting mobile phones for advertising and marketing. 

Messaging apps like iMessenger, Whatsapp, Slack, Snapchat, and Fiver continue to succeed as the modern age go-to pigeons for businesses to reach their message to their customer base/audience.

The Cloudinary’s ‘2nd annual State of Visual Media Report’ reveals some key visual media insights and trends based on billions of media transactions across more than a dozen vertical industries, including eommerce/retail, media, travel, and entertainment.

The most popular messaging apps for Western Europe which include the “Big Four of Europe” – France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom were:

1. iMessage
2. WhatsApp
3. Facebook

The top messenger platforms remained the same for North American countries – The United States, Canada, Mexico, and the others were:

1. iMessage
2. WhatsApp
3. Facebook

However, the percentages for each of these regions vary simply indicating that there are many dimensions to data that can provide specifics.

The visual-first era and microbrowsers

Keeping it light, engaging, and interactive isn’t an option anymore – it’s a prerequisite for brands wanting to succeed in marketing and advertising. Cloudinary’s report states that microbrowsers are a key factor which when paired with visual-first content holds the potential for success. What are microbrowsers? Microbrowsers are basically browsers that serve handheld devices.

The big four of microbrowser advertising

Every brand wants to win peer-to-peer referrals. To succeed at microbrowser advertising these are the elements to ensure:

• Thumbnail images – Using The first step to a visual-first approach, PNG images are the most popular but if you’re thinking futuristic the HEIF could be a better-optimized one
• Link previews and descriptions – Serve as huge engagement opportunities
• Using open graph markups – To ensure that each digital platform grabs the exact information you want to sell resulting in specific outcomes
• Using nano-videos or gifs – Earns you big engagement and conversion moments in just 10-20 seconds

Jumping in the opportunity window

Understanding microbrowser traffic and its relationship to social media can help correlate where your conversions are really coming from — and as a result boost or reduce spend accordingly to see a better ROI.

The global view of the best days and time slots as per Cloudinary were:

1. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday between 9 am to 12 noon (Hot)
2. Monday, Tuesday, Wed, and Friday between noon 1 to 2 (Warm)

If you look into the US table, these were the best time slots and days to reach your audience:

1. Wednesdays – 9 am to 1 noon (Hot)
2. Monday and Thursday – 9 am to 10 am (Warm)

Marketing budgets: The exotic produce for Global campaigns

Worldwide marketing spends exceeded $1.6 trillion in 2019. As our pulse survey’s findings, marketing budgets are mostly staying the same while a mere 21% of marketers said that their marketing budgets are increasing.

Let’s think of marketing leaders as the main chef in a global campaign restaurant where only the main chef is allowed to work with fresh, exotic, expensive produce. That’s exactly how precious budgets have become for marketing professionals in the current times. If not executed well, it can cost brands hundreds of thousands of dollars — if not millions — each year. 

Crucial factors to becoming the main chef

Now if you think of it, what separates a brilliant marketer from the rest and what differentiates a main chef from the rest is – Expertise and insight into how their product needs to be dealt with.

Cloudinary shared some insights that can help marketers get smart:

• Typically 64% of ad campaign ids are tracked while the other 36% can’t and they leave ambiguity
• Cultural differences can be the make or break of campaign engagement rates
• While most follow a Monday through Friday workweek, more than a dozen countries have a Sunday through Thursday workweek, and more than seven countries have a one-day weekend versus two
• There are many silos in tracking touchpoints and moments

Three prerequisites for measuring marketing success and removing blind spots

• A cohesive technology stack that works pan-organization
• A futuristic approach in terms of functionality and scalability of the tools and platforms they currently use
• Focus on the right message, for the right audience, on the right channel(s) at the right time. (which brings us back to point one above)

ClickZ readers’ choice for the week

As our AI month nears its conclusion, there’s a continued appetite for AI-centric content and our key insights articles.

1. Marketing strategies during – and after – Coronavirus
2. How Netflix uses big data to create content and enhance user experience
3. Top 10 marketing-related AI thought leaders to follow
4. Key Insights: CXO is the new hero of 2020, UK consumer trends, and local SEO strategy
5. Three steps to prepare for the post-COVID-19 business world