The marketing industry is changing a lot, and Cardlytics has been at the forefront of enabling marketers to make smarter business decisions and more meaningful customer connections. We invited Scott Grimes, CEO and cofounder of Cardlytics, to share his thoughts on where the industry is heading.
The marketing industry isn’t just changing, it’s going through a complete renaissance; the way people think, the way they execute campaigns, and the tools they use are completely different from even two years ago.
With this renaissance comes a laser-like determination to focus on tactics that truly move the needle and clear the clutter of marketing issues that have hampered results for far too long. Here’s what Cardlytics predicts will be the top three key marketing trends that marketers need to be aware of in our rapidly changing industry.
- Intelligence marketing performs better
Call it “personalized marketing,” “experience marketing,” or “intelligent marketing,” in 2018 marketers will be refocusing their attention on directly engaging individual customers through meaningful experiences.
A recent McKinsey study supports this shift—it showed that 61% of consumers were more likely to buy from companies delivering custom content. Marketers are going to continue leaning heavily on analytics that gives them a holistic view of customers so they can execute smarter marketing.
In the spirit of direct, one-to-one engagement with consumers, many of our clients are taking a fresh look at their loyal customers. Customers they may have considered brand loyal are actually category loyal. With a full-wallet view of customers’ purchase behavior (understanding where else customers spend their money when they’re not spending with them), marketers can better understand potential headroom, and more effectively and efficiently drive their bottom line.
- Trust remains an issue
Fraud, questionable data sources, and unexplained fees continue to plague the marketing industry. According to a CMO Council study, 72% of marketers surveyed said they had concerns about safety and controls with their digital ad placements. Online and mobile bot fraud is one of our industry’s most challenging problems.
The marketing industry is continuing to address the issue so brands can have confidence in where their marketing dollars are going. From our perspective, since bots don’t have bank accounts, we think that Cardlytics’ native bank channel serves ads will do more to connect your ads to real people with real money than your standard cookie-based retargeting or programmatic campaigns.
Even better, brands know their message will be well-received because it is based on consumers’ actual purchase history. After all, more relevant ads means happier customers.
- The marketing industry is setting new standards to measure performance
Both marketers and publishers have a stake in showing how ad campaigns impact real-world sales. Outdated proxies and inconsistent analytics are particularly problematic for marketers under pressure to demonstrate how their spend improves their bottom line.
Marketers who stick with outdated metrics like click-through rates (CTR) and online conversions are missing most of digital’s impact (and opportunity). At Cardlytics, we’ve seen that while online spend continues to grow, the vast majority (over 90%) of purchases still take place at brick and mortar locations. Being able to close the loop between digital media and in-store sales is critical for measuring marketing effectiveness.
Outdated proxies that only imply a sale are becoming less relevant as the marketing industry adjusts.
The old Wanamaker quote, “Half of the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half,” is a phrase of the past. Marketers are dedicated to making every dollar count, which means it’s no longer about driving eyeballs, but creating real consumer experiences that result in true bottom-line sales.
For more ideas on how to take advantage of the marketing renaissance, take a look at LiveRamp’s IdeaBook: 300 Ways To Do People-Based Marketing.