Come to grips with the three biggest challenges marketers face in 2016, an era with shifting priorities and disruptive changes that reshape marketing as we know it.
Nowadays, chief marketing officers are flush with data, but they may not always know what to do with it. As new sources of data emerge regularly and the tide of technology churns at a faster rate, marketers have a hard time trying to keep up with rapid changes.
Of course, these same headaches can be considered blessings once their power is properly harnessed. Transforming an issue into an asset most often involves tackling common challenges marketers face in light of the data influx and rapid technology shifts. Here are three of the biggest challenges:
Finding Attribution Models That Work
Digital advertising has allowed us to connect the dots farther and faster than ever before when it comes to who is exposed to what and how they react to it. At the same time, connecting the dots makes the gap in the picture all the more obvious, and marketers are wondering how to fill it.
As investments in digital marketing increase, the challenge of determining whether a digital impression has led to an actual sale can be difficult. In a recent survey, 59% of CMOs claimed that data collection was their key issue with forming a solid attribution model, while 50% cited a lack of trust in reporting accuracy.
These issues only grow larger as more CMOs must handle multichannel attribution and attribution across multiple devices. The solutions we have now are piecemeal; therefore, more robust efforts are needed to track ROI reliably from digital efforts.
Making New Technology Work for You
Challenges and opportunities are often one and the same. A good case in point is the fact that virtual reality technology has both the marketing and consumer communities abuzz, but many still are not sure how to best use the technology. Others are not certain they even need to use it in the first place. Yet, brands soldier on with great VR marketing, and growing public interest indicates that the niche could soon swell exponentially.
At the same time, some brands show off their ability to improvise in the face of similar unexpected trends. As an example, the release of the mobile game Pokémon Go has seen more daily active users than social media giant Twitter.
McDonald’s has supposedly taken advantage of this fact by partnering with app developer Niantic and intellectual property holder Nintendo to draw players to their restaurants by making each one a hub for competitive play. The move could drive both foot traffic and share of voice as eager players come to McDonald’s to compete.
Adjusting to Shifting Media Priorities
“Disruption” has become such a buzzword in marketing that it threatens to disrupt common principles. Established channels like broadcast television are being slowly dismantled in favor of online video streaming models, and marketers have to adjust.
Consumer habits are changing like no other time in history. As more traditional TV watchers look to streaming through devices, the established dominance of TV advertising comes into question. “This shift in behavior has marked the slow decline of traditional TV, but a new landscape of original programming, clips and on-demand video content of all kinds has arisen from the ashes, which marketers must not only understand but fully incorporate into their brand marketing strategy,” said Foundation Capital partner Ashu Garg.
Coming to grips with these rapid changes means simultaneously taking risks, while doubling down on data to afford extra insight and security. Marketers now face more uncertainty than ever before, but the same ingenuity that disrupts can also allow them to capitalize on the new opportunities that result. In other words, the same technologies that present marketing’s biggest challenges could be its saving grace in the very near future.