The heart of digital marketing lies in managing different forms of online company presence – this can be achieved by reaching out to the target customers via the digital space, such as online advertising and social media marketing. Nevertheless, technological innovation today changes so rapidly that many companies are struggling to keep up.
AI is becoming increasingly dominant
To stay ahead of the game, companies integrate modern technologies with traditional marketing techniques to create innovative marketing solutions. The doom of the high-street shops is nigh as digital marketing becomes increasingly dominant. The VR, Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence hold the key to the future of digital marketing.
It is apparent that today customers do not just want products, they want experiences. Unlike the past, Customer Experience Management (CEM) systems are replacing the Customer Relationship Management (CRM). To offer a fresh and unique experience to customers, many companies have begun using artificial intelligence and virtual reality as part of their marketing strategies.
A prime example is “Coca Cola’s Santa’s Virtual Reality Sleigh Ride”. This marketing campaign gave the people in Milton Keynes (UK) a chance to be Santa for a day, flying on a sleigh in an immersive experience. By using the VR experience, Coca-Cola has effectively established a strong connection between the brand and the joy of Christmas. We can only expect even more sophisticated, VR-based marketing campaigns in 2017’s Christmas.
A wonderful experience such as this last longer in the mind of customers, thus, ensuring Coca-Cola’s sustainable growth despite the changing business environment; this is especially true for the millennials and younger generations who will purchase a can of Coca-Cola because of the positive connection they had with the brand. Currently, there are around 43 million users worldwide. As this technology continues to develop, it is estimated that the number of users will reach 171 million by 2018.
In March 2016, artificial intelligence’s greatest achievement went down in history when Google’s Deepmind’s AlphaGo beat a Go professional player, Lee Sedol in the game of Go. Nevertheless, it should be acknowledged that the game of Go has long been very challenging for artificial intelligence due to the boundless possible ways to play the game – the number of possible positions made up of more than the number of atoms in the universes.
Artificial Intelligence’s impact on the marketing industry
Thanks to the new machine learning algorithm, the technology has continuously improved itself at an exponential rate, continuing to shape our world beyond our imagination. For instance, the new Samsung refrigerator can track what groceries you buy at your local supermarket; it places an order on your behalf just before your food hit the expiry date. Amazon’s “Anticipatory Shipping” also integrated AI tech to help determine when to relocate products to its nearest fulfilment center, making it available before you click the “Buy it now” button.
Given the development of this technology, many marketers today work alongside artificial intelligence to deliver effective and impactful customised ads across the digital channels. Some may argue that artificial intelligence may make marketer job obsolete, but this is not the case. As marketing is about connecting with the customers emotionally to implant a lasting memory within the mind, thus, it will require the human intellect to come up with creative campaigns – AI tech will make this job easier.
In the future, Data and information will be more important than ever. Those with access to new technologies will have the upper hand in the digital marketing realm: the smarter the machine learning capabilities, the better the data, thus, the more effective the execution of the marketing campaigns.
