Marketing communication professionals have been exposed to how technology such as AI, virtual reality (VR) and, metaverse can assist them to create, capture and deliver communication values.
This is on the understanding that technology has transformed the marketing space, enabling marketers who have embraced it to create and enhance communication value more effectively with insights and predictive analysis.
Bayo Adekanbi, founder and CEO of Data Science Nigeria who discussed ‘’Tech-driven-marketing communications: Bridging minds and machines’’ at BrandComfest conference last weekend in Lagos discussed the intersection of technology and marketing, where creativity meets innovation and where minds and machines can converge.
He told marketers some of who have remained traditional that the marketing principle remains the same but what has changed is how to use technology to optimise and systematise the whole process of value creation.
Discussing marketing 6.0 where technology is enabling the whole process of marketing, Adekanbi explained that “technology has evolved, the reality of the people has evolved, and so technology application must be intentional”.
In the whole mix of marketing, he said the biggest driver is data. According to him there is so much data around the customers.
“If a marketer wants to secure the consumers loyalty, he/she must understand the consumers behaviour, their need, the marketer must get enough data to understand the customers better. When the marketer gets the data, he/she must be able to profile them better to service them optimally.
With better service, “ it is certain that there be affinity to the brand because the marketer is giving them exactly what they want.
“When you have so much data, the marketer can create what is called augmented experience for the customer where you use technology to bring the world of imagination to their reality. If you want to buy a shoe, for example, digital technology can bring the shoe and you will see yourself wearing the shoe imaginatively which can stimulate purchase”, Adekanbi explained.
“ Also you can get a dress, put it on yourself before you buy it and see it in a virtual world, this can stimulate purchase rather than seeing it far away”.
“We can see that technology can actually drive purchase which has direct impact on the bottom line of the business”
Adekanbi warned that it is not marketing for the fun it but marketing that drives revenue and allows business do much more. That is what technology demonstrates, he said.
On media budgets and on which media channels/platforms marketers should spend more money, called marketing attribution, Adekanbi said technology allows the marketer to know exactly what each of the media platforms is contributing. “We must begin to be more precise so that board members can begin to trust our decisions that indeed you are putting money in the right place to get the right value”.
On present situation in the industry, Adekanbi said what is happening presently, is that there are marketers who have remained with the traditional. They want to remain as a marketer and technology is after though. Then there are those who have jumped in to technology without understanding the marketing. He emphasised that creativity is more important than technology, maintaining that technology enables.
He called for new model of training marketing practitioners stating that it must not be the old way as they need to learn AI, blockchain, virtual reality and everything must come together in order to integrate it into marketing purposes.
Speaking earlier, Joshua Ajayi, convener of BrandComfest conference, the topic speaks to the transformation we are all experiencing in the industry. “Technology is reshaping the way we think, connect and engage but at the heart of it all remains the creativity and insight that only humans can bring”.
Ajayi said that the digital transformation offers incredible opportunities for marketers. “Social media, data analysis and automation have given us the tools to understand our consumer, allowing us to deliver personalised experiences”
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