Breaking news: Advertising — as we've known it — has died to clear the path for the new generation's experiential advertising. What is the essence of human experience? It is hard to tell, yet it is something that defines every one of us. We are wandering from screen to screen, place to place and career to career to capture this sense of the first experience.
When you look at commercials and banners that brands have been producing over the past decade, you will recognize a simple pattern. Advertising wanted us to be part of something complete and pre-defined — "We know how you should look, how you should feel about it and where you can buy it." That's what has shaped what critics call the mass consumer culture of the past decade.
There would be nothing wrong with this kind of experience if it weren't so passive and forgettable. In the new marketing realms, customers will influence brands. Yes, technologies have already changed standard brand-customer interactions, and technologies will remain the main driver of customer experience 10 years from now. Still, brands will have to deepen their personalization options drastically to keep up with the competition — because the future has just begun.
AR and the future of product placement
More than 53% of viewers don't watch any live TV ads; meanwhile, 70% of millennials claim to be among those who completely ignore all TV commercials.
What if there were no ad breaks on channels, and the advertising fit right into the TV show or movie? This idea was demonstrated in the 1927 movie Wings, which featured a Hershey's chocolate bar in one scene.
Soon after, the world embraced the idea of product placement. It's not uncommon to see a movie or TV show character use a well-known product or see that a company's logo is featured somewhere on the screen. The trick doesn't sell the product directly, but subconsciously, customers remember that moment, and when they get the need, they may buy the product featured. This industry has grown to the point that the James Bond film Skyfall boasted $45 million in product placement ads.
This product placement is now making its way into virtual reality and film. With these capabilities, advertisers could change product placements based on market specifics, perhaps touting Taco Bell for American audiences and a European chain for British viewers.
The largest Chinese video hosting platform, Tencent, has recently partnered with Mirriad AI to test this brand-new, real-time advertising placement mechanism. Banners, ads and corporate logos will appear in videos by request. If an actor drinks coffee, you'll see a personalized ad on his cup, relevant only to you. This feature was demonstrated on Twitter. In the future, such technologies may become a gateway to ultimate branding opportunities, especially when it comes to addressing multi-screen millenials and most tech-savvy Generation Z members.
Virtual Influencers
Gen Z was born with smartphones in their hands, and some virtual influencers were practically born inside these smartphones. These influencers are AI and ML-powered characters. In fact, last year, Sequoia Capital received $6 million in funding to build Lil Miquela, an AI-based influencer that manages to entertain almost 1.6 million followers on Instagram — an influencer who snags real money from Silicon Valley.
Three years ago, subscribers argued about whether or not it was a real girl or fan art of a Sims enthusiast. Today, big brands solicit her to post promo content, appear in print publications as a model or feature their luxury brand and lifestyle goods in her videos.
Influencer marketing established efficiency long ago; every dollar invested in an influencer brings in approximately $7.65 in return media value. In the future, virtual influencers like Lil Miquela have the chance to become a sort of cultural phenomenon, used for all kinds of marketing and advertising purposes.
How The Role Of CMO Will Change
For two decades, marketers have been trying to build personalized messages, but still, many companies are broadcasting a huge number of messages that don't engage customers on an emotional level. To reach this level of personalization, it's vital to create different versions of content for different audiences.
Marketers can't analyze the sea of big data generated by expanding customer interactions and develop exciting creative concepts at the same time. AI-based systems, however, are capable of acting upon specific rules and guidelines set by these marketers. Such systems as programmatic platforms, email automation platforms and self-learning chatbots already enable personalized content delivery. The CMO's role will eventually encompass the position of a data-driven marketing architect who sustains a brand's unique voice — while AI and ML are engaged in the segmentation, analysis and content delivery processes.
To get started in this role, CMOs should begin merging their ad technology and their other tech tools. If they can connect the data found in their customer relationship management software and other databases with their advertising tools, they can create highly targeted and personalized campaigns. From there, it's important to make sure your communication is straightforward, engaging and beneficial for your customers.
In this regard, the significance of sophisticated AI-based, personally tuned advertising is hard to underestimate. Very soon, marketing personalization strategies will largely depend on smart automation technologies to make each customer part of a fascinating branding experience.
