Seven weeks ago, I started the Digital Marketing Strategy module. My expectations were simple. I believed I would be given the formula to create an ever winning strategy for digital marketing. However, I was surprised that such a method does not exist. Well, not entirely. I learned one extremely essential rule, which will help me to stay on top of my game in the future.

History has shown it. Since “handwriting” or “the printing press” were invented (Harris, 2020) for some reason, the public pushes away the new technology or at least does not embrace it. That said we currently came to face a new revolution altogether in the marketer’s world. Artificial intelligence bringing opportunities we only could dream — ranges from playing games to diagnosing critical health conditions, i.e. breast cancer (Walsh, 2020). Nevertheless, there are various challenges to AI success in the marketing world. Lack of data or sparse data in general, weak trust in software; insufficient budgets; underwhelming numbers of professional talent; concerns about the ethical application, privacy and scrutiny from regulators (Adixon, 2019; Berner, 2019; Rajeck,2019).

The answer is simple, not really. I am just happy it may have a chance to make the world a better place for everybody. And I will be able to see it happening. Going throughout this module, I read about new, sometimes unfamiliar digital tools and practices. New knowledge, particularly around data privacy and exploitation raised central concerns. To learn and interact more in a digital environment, I will have to give something in exchange. My “currency” is my time and my data touchpoints. Every click we make, every button we press will leave a trace online. Later companies will be able to target us based on very accurate algorithms. It could allow businesses to target ads based on race, religion, sex and other points (Cole, 2019). Such examples make me raise my eyebrows, wondering how the collected information about me is being used against me? I guess I will have to install ad and cookies blocking applications.

Social media brings communities together, even if it is for a short time, yet it is only in the digital world. Those networks help us to share a moment on Instagram, challenge our professional knowledge and grow our business networks on LinkedIn, share and read quick short messages through Twitter. Therefore, in my head, I followed the steps of the customer journey and principles of a digital identity. I managed to create one identity for all social media networks. On the other hand, when I think from the business perspective, it takes away control from us and gives it the users or customers, who make up the content. So it might get very challenging or rewarding if customers were enticed to create content for businesses. Daniel Wellington is one of the exceptional case studies on how the Instagram platform was used to grow their business (Wilson, 2018).

For the future, I will stay with this thought that the world is ever-changing. I might learn something new today and tomorrow. Let me know your thoughts. Don’t be shy; leave a comment.

Sarunas

Word count 522.

REFERENCES:

1. Addison, R. (July 24, 2019). Artificial intelligence & challenges in businesses. Medium. Retrieved on February 23, 2020 from: https://towardsdatascience.com/artificial-intelligence-opportunities-challenges-in-businesses-ede2e96ae935 
2. Anderson, G. (January 27, 2015). The medium is the message. BBC Radio 4. Retrieved on February 23, 2020 from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko6J9v1C9zE
3. Brenner, M. (February 6, 2019). The 6 biggest challenges to AI marketing success. Retrieved on February 23, 2020 from: https://marketinginsidergroup.com/artificial-intelligence/biggest-challenges-to-ai-marketing-success/ 
4. Cole, S. (April 4, 2019). Researchers find Facebook’s Ad targeting algorithm is inherently biased. Vice. Retrieved on February 23, 2020 from: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/59x79k/researchers-find-facebook-ad-targeting-algorithm-is-inherently-biased 
5. Harris, L. (January 2, 2020). Technology acceptance. (BEMM177Z3) Digital Marketing Strategy. Retrieved on February 23, 2020 from: https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/mod/page/view.php?id=1019318
6. Reject, J. (June 11, 2019). Why marketers are struggling to adopt AI. Retrieved on February 23, 2020 from: https://econsultancy.com/why-marketers-are-struggling-to-adopt-ai/ 
7. Walsh, F. ( January 2, 2020). AI ‘outperforms’ doctors diagnosing breast cancer. BBC News. Retrieved on February 23, 2020 from: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-50857759 
8. Wilson, Ch. (October 22, 2018). How Daniel Wellington turned $15000 into $220 million within 4 years with influencers. Retrieved on February 23, 2020 from: https://pmyb.co.uk/daniel-wellington-turned-15000-220-million-within-4-years-influencers/ 

Have you ever wondered what has Siri, Alexa, Google or Bixbi in common? They all help us to get by our lives a bit easier and quicker. These all are some of the very well-known examples of a chatbot. You may ask them to schedule that appointment next week with your doctor, make a reminder to send flowers for your anniversary or to turn on the heater before you get home so you would enjoy the warmth in your home. Although it seems like a great tool to be enjoying, does it seem to be just too much of a fairytale?

Do you agree with the headline picture’s calculations? Consumers every day are browsing on their mobiles looking for the information they need to make their mind up about the decisions. We tend to check our phones around every ten minutes (don’t believe me? Check out my previous post here). Chatbots are a part of a bigger picture here. I like to refer to them as Conversational Agents (CA). It sounds more human, and they are getting better at it, sound more like a human (Selvi et al., 2019). Well, with their help and ours, of course. Yet, not everybody is on board with this technology.

According to Gartner Hype Cycle (see Table 1) Artificial Intelligence for Marketing has played a big part of the game in Digital Marketing and advertising in recent years and will continue to be one of the hot trends in the marketing and advertising (Panetta, 2019). It combines several technologies under the umbrella of AI for Marketing. Although AI, Big Data, Machine Learning are significant for digital marketing operations, mainly Chatbots is going to be at the front desk facing customers every day (Spychalska, 2019). Yes, customers. Let’s make sure we agree that the cornerstone of any brand is the Customer Experience. 84% of the companies’ CIOs agree to focus on customer experience (Vision Critical, 2019). So do not forget to board a ship.

To do good business, all you need is to serve the needs of the consumer. However, it is not enough to build loyalty to the brand. Customers interact with businesses at the different stages of the customer journey (Jain, 2020). Remember Awareness, Discover, Purchase, Use of a product of service and Bonding with Product (Roberts, 2013). Customers could reach out for your product at any point of his journey. It is essential not to forget this. Ask yourself, how can you improve their journey with you at any touchpoint.

Has anyone told you that with every opportunity there is a challenge? Same goes for conversational agents. You may use them at any stage of the customer journey. That said the prospects for chatbots could be limitless. Therefore, I find it most interesting at becoming somehow a Hero for some people and save the day. Corti, the Danish startup company, managed to diagnose 93% accurately cardiac-arrests compared to 73% diagnoses made by human operators (Marr, 2018).

Imagine how many other opportunities there are in the Healthcare industry. Schedule the appointment, send your feedback or update personal information these are just a few simple examples of what may lie ahead. Think about checking a transaction with a bank, or changing a recent order you made online(Brown, 2019). All this could be done fast and straightforward through the company’s conversational agent. It may come in different forms: like Siri, who is a voice assistant; other mobile chat application or as an assistant to a human service agent. Similarly, like successful Finnair example with quicker response times and more cases handled in an hour (Karaksela).

There are so many customers in the world, and so many of them are on the internet. Our children are on it as well. As parents, it is almost impossible to look after them 24/7. Unilever recently announced it would stop using targeted ads to target minors below age 13 (Joseph, 2020). Using chatbot technology, ML and AI if integrated with most of the messaging applications we could detect and stop cyberbully as well (Selvi et al., 2019). Therefore, there are considerable opportunities in mental health. In several ways: when communicating with customers; when helping other people to stay healthy or complete platforms to maintain the wellbeing of their users.

Yes, you may ask: So where are those challenges you mentioned earlier? Let me share with you a formula. Use it and you will become well-prepared for any future obstacles.

When you will interact with the conversational agent will you love a green colour background? Let me know in a comment section or just email me.

References:

1. Brown, E. (January 2, 2019). Over half of customers will choose a chatbot over a human to save time. ZDNet. Retrieved on February 16, 2020 from: https://www.zdnet.com/article/over-half-of-consumers-will-choose-a-chatbot-over-a-human-to-save-time/
2. Jain, A. (February 16, 2020). Trends marketers need to look out for in 2020. Retrieved on February 16, 2020 from: https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/marketing/trends-marketers-need-to-look-out-for-in-2020/74157688
3. Joseph, S, (Febuary 13, 2020). ‘It will mean we buy less on social media’: Unilever will no longer target young kids with ads. Digiday. Retrieved on February 16, 2020 from: https://digiday.com/marketing/will-mean-buy-less-social-media-unilever-will-no-longer-target-young-kids-ads/
4. Karaksela, S. Finnair and ultimate.ai take a customer service to the skies. Retrieved on February 16, 2020 from: https://www.ultimate.ai/customer-stories/finnair?utm_source=adwords&utm_campaign=Case+study+search+ads&utm_term=chatbot%20developer&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_ad=397557498129&hsa_grp=85360428474&hsa_tgt=kwd-297480783293&hsa_acc=9916259511&hsa_ver=3&hsa_src=g&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_kw=chatbot%20developer&hsa_cam=7940939914&hsa_mt=b&gclid=Cj0KCQiA7aPyBRChARIsAJfWCgITxmBfG_zlPktUnglJgSF-6WgktoBaafTLPp-rTq5vW5sIu8SJTdkaAgNZEALw_wcB
5. Marr, B. (December 21, 2018). AI that saves livesL the chatbot that can detect a heart attack using machine learning. Forbes Digital. Retrieved on February 16, 2020 from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/12/21/ai-that-saves-lives-the-chatbot-that-can-detect-a-heart-attack-using-machine-learning/#567205a450f9
6. Panetta, K. (August 29, 2019). 6 technologies on the Gartner Hype cycle for Digital marketing and advertising, 2019. Retrieved on February 16, 2020 from: https://www.gartner.com/en/marketing/insights/articles/6-technologies-on-gartner-hype-cycle-for-digital-marketing-and-advertising-2019
7. Roberts, J. (October 22, 2013). Examples of customer journey mapping. Retrieved on February 16, 2020 from: https://www.smartinsights.com/user-experience/customer-experience-management-cxm/mapping-customer-journey/
8. , V., Saranya, S., Chidida, K., Abarna, R., (2019). Chatbot and bullyfree chat. Retrieved on February 16, 2020 from: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=8878779
9. Spychalska, D. K., (2019). How chatbots influence marketing. Management 2019 Vol23-1. DOI: 10.2478/manment-2019-0015. Retrieved from: http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.uoelibrary.idm.oclc.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=300e8d7c-d1e0-45a7-964d-89c621348ed2%40pdc-v-sessmgr02
10. VisionCritical (October 22, 2019). 7 Habits of customer-obsessed companies. Retrieved on February 16, 2020 from: https://www.visioncritical.com/blog/customercentric-infographic

Word count: 764.

When was the last time you checked your phone? Most probably somewhere around 10 minutes ago (Asurion, 2019). That means we continuously crave for news, want to do more shopping or check out the latest updates from our friends on social media. Does it mean we all are addicted to our phones so severely? Most of us would answer – “no”. Because, our smartphones became the main gateway to search information, make purchases and connect with other people. Therefore, smartphones, which are used by almost half of the world’s population (Turner, 2020), happen increasingly vital for brands to reach their potential customers.

On the other hand, marketers could misuse it. Their job is to sell products and services to all of us. Through smartphones, there are many ways how they make us buy advertised products. Imagine, none of us would understand that we see an advertisement for a product or service at this very moment. This strategy is called Stealth Marketing (MarketingSchools.Org).

According to Curalate study (Gupta, 2018), 76% of US consumers and 67% in the UK buy an item they saw in a social post by a brand. Now that means that brands are on social media working always to get customer’s attention. What if they do not follow yet? You might turn to targeted ads. Marketers expect to increase Social media budget spending by 73% in the next five years (CMO Survey, 2019, p. 30). That means we will see more paid. Or maybe not. Ultimately, only 4% of consumers trust marketers and advertisers (Gallegos, 2017). Influencer marketing could be a great tool to reach new customers. Yet, some of the brands want to hide that. Latest was MDL Beast that backfired influencers for trying to hide it (Deahl, 2019).

With the help of targeted ads, brands can reach each of us based on any data point they want. It is all based on the digital trace we leave while we surf the internet and browse through social media posts. Have you seen your own social media search feed? I currently see meal prep, new cars and fitness posts. When I look through story feed, targeted ads are bombarding my screen. All of this is happening because of paid social media posts: we see what we are looking for to buy. But in this example, we could still see it is an ad. Recently, even Google decided to change the way advertised and organic results appear on the Google search. They look very similar. It becomes harder to tell the difference between paid and not.

It seems marketers are facing an ethical dilemma between advertising their products and make sure it clearly states that it is commercial. Or make it look like a genuine review from a customer about their products or services. At a glance, the latter could bring more significant trust compared to the first one. However, it may backfire, on top of that, it is against the law (Chacon, 2019). In 2002 Sony Ericsson hired actors. Then made them pretend to be tourists and ask strangers on the street to take a photo of them with the new phone (Blanchard, 2020). This stunt considered as one of the firsts stealth marketing examples.

Marketers work under constant pressure to deliver growth, brand recognition and sales. They may choose to take the right path. Be creative. Be strategic. Be smart. Or they could turn to the other side. There are companies which allow brands to connect to the right influencers. Let’s take some examples:
– a hotel brand could invite an influencer to stay in one of their suits and ask them to share photos on their social media platforms, ask them to share a review on google reviews, Tripadvisor and similar platforms.
– A new beauty product could send examples to some key influencers and ask to post their reviews for their followers to see.
– A food blogger would create their daily video post on YouTube and have some products just standing in the background of the video

Now, coming back to the title of this post. Actors drove Mini Cooper in the film The Italian Job, Fed Ex helped saving Tom Hank’s sanity in the movie Cast Away, Louis Vuitton bag took a side of Jessica Pearson (a very influential woman in Suits TV Show).

For us marketers, being honest and creative is one way to go. Make sure you follow a fair business policy and your customers know about it. Ensure that paid advertising always reflects in your social media partnerships.

For other readers, a bit of marketing knowledge and how the advertising works would enable you to question what you see, it might be an ad. Suggestion! Learn how critical mindset could help change your perception of the messages bombarding you. Even political. Remember, just because you see that your idol posted about a new dress or car, it doesn’t mean he/she was not paid.

Word count: 844.

Now, What do you think about your last liked post? Or your endless shopping suggestion on Instagram? Leave your comment.

References:

1. Asurion (November 21, 2019). Americans Check Their Phones 96 Times a Day. Retrieved from: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/americans-check-their-phones-96-times-a-day-300962643.html
2. Blanchard, T. (2020). 10 Best Stealth Marketing Campaigns. Retrieved from: https://www.delnext.com/blog/en/stealth-marketing-campaigns/
3. Chacon, B. (December 10, 2019). How to properly disclose sponsored Instagram post according to the FTC. Retrieved from: https://later.com/blog/sponsored-instagram-posts/
4. Deahl, D. (December 23, 2019) Influencers face backlash for promoting a Saudi Arabian music festival. Retrieved from: https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/23/21035306/influencers-models-promote-saudi-arabia-music-festival-mdl-beast-diet-prada-instagram
5. Gallegos, J. A. (October 3, 2017). Attention Marketers: People don’t trust you. Retrieved from: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/attention-marketers-people-dont-trust-you
6. Gupta, A. (November 6, 2018). Planning for 2019: What’s next for social commerce? Retrieved from: https://www.curalate.com/blog/2019-planning-whats-next-for-social-commerce/
7. org (2020). Explore the Strategy of Stealth Marketing. Retrieved from: https://www.marketing-schools.org/types-of-marketing/stealth-marketing.html
8. The CMO Survey (February, 2019). The CMO Survey. Highlights & Insights Report. Page 30 Retrieved from: https://cmosurvey.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2019/02/The_CMO_Survey-Highlights-and_Insights_Report-Feb-2019-1.pdf
9. Turner, A. (January, 2020). How many smartphones are in the world? Retrieved from: https://www.bankmycell.com/blog/how-many-phones-are-in-the-world