DIGITAL MARKETING

Outlook 2017:
Trends And Essentials
What digital marketers need to keep
an eye out for in the coming year
2 Outlook 2017: Trends And Essentials DIGITAL MARKETING

Contents
Summary3

Introduction3

The Guide 4

Conclusion8
About The Author
Andrew Warren-Payne is an award-
winning marketer and industry
analyst who helps brands, agencies
and vendors make the most out of
the changing digital landscape. He
has spoken to thousands of marketers across four
continents and more than 10 different countries,
and written dozens of reports and best practice
guides. Having held positions at Econsultancy
and ClickZ, and having collaborated with startups
in London and Seattle, Andrew now works as an
independent consultant.
Contact details:
andrew@templumconcepts.com
@agwp

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DIGITAL DOUGHNUT 2017 OUTLOOK 2017: TRENDS AND ESSENTIALS
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Introduction
Summary

Marketing has changed more in the past five years than

it has in the past 50. So what does 2017 have in store and
what should marketers be aware of?
In this guide, we lay out what we think are the main trends
for the year ahead. From agile marketing and automation,
to rapid retail and mobile, a lot is happening in the industry
which marketers need to keep abreast of. But, notably, some
trends such as wearables and 3D printing arent included as
we dont think their potential is quite there yet.

Introduction
While there are a number of exciting trends for the year In the trends below, one that hasnt been pulled out
ahead, make sure you take a pragmatic approach. There explicitly is customer experience. We believe this is
remain many basics such as the quality of data in your vital, but it should be something that permeates all
companys CRM or improving mobile site speed that are aspects of marketing and it should stay constant as
easier to implement and much more likely to yield an your customers shift between channels. This requires
immediate result. That being said, keeping an eye out investment in listening to your customers, something
for the state of the art should provide inspiration and a which is often lacking in many companies.
vision to sell to agencies, colleagues and peers.
Finally, as you read through these trends, make sure to
While areas such as voice have huge and growing consider your customer first, as providing them with
potential (and much like the original App Store, value is the primary purpose of all marketers.
currently offer a first-mover advantage for brands
that get there), research from Capgemini shows
that companies that blindly pursue new technology
without considering the processes and management
(the so-called Fashionistas) actually see an 11% drop in
profitability. Marketers would be wise to test and learn
rather than overcommit too quickly.

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The Guide
Dont let anyone tell you digital is dead
Over the past few years, there have been many who
have proclaimed the death of digital. Analyst house
Forrester says we are living in a post-digital world,
where technology is so embedded we dont need to
think about it. Professor Mark Ritson claims those with
digital in their job title are becoming an anachronism,
while P&Gs global marketing officer Marc Pritchard
claimed way back in 2013 that digital was dead.

Despite these protestations, the reality is that digital

is not dying. A quick comparison of search volumes
between digital marketing and brand marketing will
quickly illustrate that.

Indeed, companies with a digital-first heritage are
continuing to grow significantly faster than their peers.
Analysis by venture capitalist Lou Kerner shows that, on
26 July 2016, the largest five companies in the world by
market capitalisation were those dubbed collectively
as FAMGA Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Google (the
parent group now known as Alphabet) and Amazon.
Through 2016 their market capitalisation grew by an
average of 9.9%.
By contrast, the US economy grew by just 1.6% in 2016.
For CEOs outside of these companies, the need to be
digital is a top priority. PwC even claims that the rise of
the digital C-suite is pushing out the COO:
It is unsurprising that the CEOs partner
of choice is fast becoming the digital
C-suite, consisting of the chief data
officer, chief digital officer and chief
information officer. In the past, the COO
was often regarded as the second in
line and natural successor to the CEO.
Today, the increased complexity and
digitalisation of operations have led to
other leaders with more relevant skills
taking on some of what were the COOs
traditional responsibilities.

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5 Outlook 2017: Trends And Essentials
The mixture of opportunity and threat means that
legacy companies are looking to adapt through digital
transformation, which, despite emerging as a term some
years ago, has never been more popular.
In short, if anyone says digital is dying (and especially if
they start talking about the importance of television or
print), rest assured its their job at stake and not yours.
Agile is the word, but what does it mean?
The ideas born out of the agile manifesto and agile
project management have been major influences in
companies and organisations looking to adapt.
Companies will continue to discuss agile as a way to
adapt and become more fleet of foot, however, there is
a lack of clarity in the term.
While agile to some means adapting practices from
agile project management (and specifically a reaction
against the plan everything up front approach of
traditional waterfall methodologies), others see it as a
philosophy that means quick messaging, particularly in
response to events on social media.
The year 2017 wont see a let-up in this confusion, so
next time someone mentions agile marketing, ask
them to clarify. Do they mean an iterative project
management approach that welcomes shifting priorities
and requirements, or just getting marketing stuff done
quickly?
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DIGITAL MARKETING
Automation is mainstream, but still difficult to
get right
Personal automation is a big trend for 2017 as a number
of devices and services have come onto the market or
become more integrated with other products in the
past. Smart assistant Amazon Echo expanded beyond
North America, while Google Home was released in
the US. They are becoming increasingly integrated
with devices for the smart home such as Philips Hue,
Samsungs SmartThings or Googles Nest, as well as
services such as Uber and Spotify.
But the bigger trend is the use of automation in-house.
According to an Ascend2 study, 71% of companies are
now using marketing automation, with a further 23%
planning to do so.
Getting automation right in the context of a great
customer experience will continue to be difficult.
Sending the right messages or creating personalised
experiences requires a lot of upfront work in
determining the triggers, rules, actions and the creative
that customers will see. This requires a properly set up
CRM and good management of all the data fields and
points, along with working integrations with all elements
in the marketing technology stack.
6 Outlook 2017: Trends And Essentials
Data is big, but its not big data
Forget about big data. This term was dropped off the
Gartner Hype Cycle back in 2015, instead being replaced
by more specific examples of technological trends. But
harnessing the volume, velocity and variety of data will
continue to be a priority for marketers.
Despite the promise of a scalable cloud, that doesnt
mean volume or velocity stops being an issue. Where
volume can be a problem most commonly surfaces
itself for digital marketers in terms of slowing down or
preventing the customer experience from functioning
correctly.
Most marketing software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions
contain within them data limits, whether in terms of user
records, product listings or calls on APIs (and also the
data flow per day). Where this can be a challenge is that
the pricing models of these SaaS companies can make
the cost much higher than anticipated, or things just
stop working once they hit predetermined ceilings.
And despite the third V variety being touted as
opening the potential of unstructured and messy data,
automation and personalisation rely on having the right
data of the right quality. Most businesses will need to
keep on top of the basics before they explore other
areas.
For these reasons, marketing ops as an approach or
discipline will grow as using data effectively requires an
understanding of business processes (where does the
data come from and how is it used?), technology (how
do we connect and integrate this data?) and analytics
(what does this data mean?).
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here but isnt that
intelligent yet
While Googles AI arm DeepMind made news in 2016
having beaten the human champion of the Chinese
board game Go (a task much harder than IBMs Deep
Blue beating grandmasters at Chess), this doesnt quite
mean that AI is superintelligent yet.
For marketers though, there are a number of exciting
applications on the horizon, particularly in the potential
for AI to assist in understanding and creating natural
language.
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Chatbots have started to emerge for customer service,
particularly through social platforms. Amex has a
bot that can alert customers about activity through
Facebook messenger, while Twitters chatbots include
Transport for Londons channels that respond to queries
about train delays. For business, a whole range of bots
now exist within messaging tool Slack.
The type of AI which chatbots run on is focused on
natural language. This is making its way into other areas.
For example, business intelligence tools Tableau and
Sisense can now turn data into natural language to help
people interpret data more clearly.
Its not just text which is being processed in this way.
The rise of Amazon Echo, Google Assistant (which
powers Google Home) and Microsofts Cortana all create
interesting possibilities, particularly as these voice
platforms both open their services up to developers and
typically use search engine technology to find results
(meaning that SEO professionals will soon have yet
another factor they need to consider).
On the topic of search and AI, Googles RankBrain is
now in use to provide more relevant search results,
while IBM Watson scours medical databases and
ecommerce tool Slyce allows shoppers to search by
taking photos of products.
Humans matter more
Despite the promise of AI, the reality today is that some
digital marketing forgets the personal aspect that
brands should be offering. While a profitable tactic,
much retargeting falls into this camp as a quick uptick in
revenues hides the damage done to a brand.
In the context of falling trust globally (as detailed by
Edelmans Trust Barometer), businesses that view their
marketing channels as black boxes to create money will
likely lose out to those offering a personal touch. Studies
from the likes of InSkin Media and RichRelevance have
shown that excessive retargeting is either creepy or
annoying.
By contrast, brands offering a personal approach will
reap the rewards. Spotify has been particularly active in
this respect by responding to users on social media with
customised playlists. Virtually all examples of brands
leading KPMG Nunwoods customer experience study
are brands that are unmatched amongst their peers
when it comes to the personal touch.
7 Outlook 2017: Trends And Essentials
Content marketing will also be less about gaming
the algorithm as Google RankBrain and other factors
become too sophisticated. Instead, providing value
to real people and influencing them will be the
distinguishing factor.
Facebooks big push on live video will also reinvigorate
personal communications for marketers. In the social
media platforms push to get brands hooked on formats,
expect this to initially come at a very effective cost per
engagement before it climbs in price.
But some humans matter more than others
influencers
On the note of social, marketers are increasingly
accepting the new world in which they have to pay
to play and appear in the newsfeeds of their target
audience. This cost means marketers are looking for
new solutions.
Influencer marketing will continue to grow as a way of
cutting through the direct pay to play model. While
top influencers such as Kendall Jenner will represent
major brands like Este Lauder, the long tail of small-
time and middleweight influencers will provide cost
effective opportunities at getting coverage.
Rapid retail and a want it now mentality
As ecommerce companies including Amazon start
delivering at ever-faster rates (its Prime Now service
providing city dwellers with what they want within
the hour, seven days a week), this will only increase
expectations from consumers.
Last mile services such as Doddle (which runs click and
collect points) or Shutl will provide retailers with the
ability to get stuff to their customers more quickly and
easier than before.
In the purely digital world, site speed will be even more
of a determining factor, particularly with mobile devices.
Sites with fewer images, elements and cleaner code will
see higher conversion rates.
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Media efficiency in the age of Google dominance
Although Googles revenue continues to grow by around
20% year-on-year, its average cost per click is actually
decreasing, according to its investor reports. End-of-
year filings for 2016 show that aggregate cost-per-click
is down by 9%.
While some may point to the CPC fall as a criticism,
the fact that a company can grow revenues by double
digits while dropping its prices by nearly 10% in a year
is astounding, and represents an opportunity for digital
marketers to get better potential value from their media
spend.
The rise of programmatic advertising is also likely
to increase ROI from online media spend, meaning
marketers have an opportunity to make themselves
even more valuable to the companies for which they
work. That being said, over 22% of computer users now
use adblockers, which means that other forms of media
should be considered in the mix.
Mobile still a frontier
Although the iPhone will be 10 years old in June 2017,
there is still much unexploited potential in the mobile
world. The time spent on mobile now consists of over
two-thirds of digital media time, compared to just one-
third for desktop. But for apps, dont expect your new
one to be downloaded, as 49% of smartphone users
download zero apps in the average month, and just 13%
download five or more apps, according to comScore.
For brands looking to push the boat out, the emergence
of augmented reality apps such as Pokmon GO or
LOrals Makeup Genius (which allows people to try on
and buy makeup using their mobile) shows the potential
of the device. Expect further interesting applications in
2017.
As previously mentioned, site speed is a critical area
which marketers need to get right, particularly as it is all
too easy to bloat a site with unoptimised images, code
and excessive JavaScript tags.
8 Outlook 2017: Trends And Essentials DIGITAL MARKETING

Conclusion
The year 2017 will, undoubtedly, be an
exciting year for marketers, particularly as
their digital skills enable them to command
greater influence at the organisations within
which they work. As new trends, technology
and customer behaviours emerge, the key
to success will be in continually learning and
staying up-to-date.
Former CEO of Google Eric Schmidt referred
to the 70/20/10 rule in his approach to
innovation, in that companies should spend
70% of their time on the core business, 20%
on related projects, and 10% on unrelated new
ventures. While each business will be different,
it highlights that, only when time and resources
are set aside, can innovation happen.

Experimentation with new tools, tactics
and marketing campaign ideas will help
marketers do that at the same time as
discovering where the greatest return on
investment can be made.
With that there is one recommendation: block
off time in your calendar now to work on new
projects and ideas. By doing so, at the very
least, you will learn something new and, at
most, you will get exceptional results.

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