Looking back to look forward; key themes to focus on in 2021

Every year we experience things that we predicted, and have to manage the unpredictable. 2020 has thrown the unpredictable at us in spades!

Every year, we learn, and we try to put ourselves in the best possible position to be even better over the next 12 months so we can manage those unpredictable events.

At Go Ignite Consulting, we have been fortunate enough to have some brilliant conversations about marketing effectiveness with some truly inspirational leaders throughout 2020.

We thought it would be useful in our latest blog post to share three of the key themes from these conversations. They aren’t necessarily new themes, however, focusing on them will help businesses best prepare for the next 12 months.

1) The need for increased data intelligence, not more data

Whether legacy systems struggling to feed a complete customer view, or cloud-based platforms hosting both structured and unstructured data, the need is for a timely and relevant data to understand where consumers are on their customer journey and how best to engage with them.

To quote Kimberly Clark’s Chief Growth Officer at Neustar’s recent Brand New Worlds virtual event:

“Through reclaiming people-based marketing that connects the customer journey to the right message, to the right person, at the right time based on the data signal… people will respond.”

Increased data intelligence is the enabler.

2) The simplification and integration of historically separate insight capabilities

The way consumers think and behave is intrinsically linked. So why do organisations have separate insight capabilities creating their own version of the truth? The answer is organisational silos.

In our recent report on the Positive Brand Friction for the IPA, we spoke of the need for an experience intelligence ecosystem which can help overcome organisational silos by creating a single version of the truth that provides the foundation for data intelligence.

You can watch the presentation or get your copy of the report at https://ipa.co.uk/effworks/effworksglobal-2020/positive-brand-friction/

3) The increased role of emotion

Neutral is the new negative. Neutral experiences erode marketing budgets as they negatively impact brand consideration (Blades, Fiona. (2019) ‘All experiences are not equal: How to build positive experiences for brand growth’ USA: Admap Magazine).

COVID-19 has changed consumer expectations and changed how consumers engage with brands. This is particularly true for retailers, who are used to providing physical experiences. This has evidently accelerated digitisation but there is another trend which is worth picking out.

This is the increasing trend of humanising experiences and focusing on return on experience. Have a read about this great case study from eightinc and their work for Lincoln cars in China; creating a totally new automobile experience. https://eightinc.com/work/lincoln/lincoln-concours