Source: hotemarketer.com
While core principals of marketing still hold true in today's day and age, the way in which we can interact with customers, or potential customers, has changed significantly largely due to technology. Winning customers' hearts no longer means having the funniest ad campaign or biggest budget, but by creating connections or 'moments,' as referred to by Jim Lecinski, VP of U.S. Sales, Branded Solution Sector at the Think Travel Google Conference I attended in NYC last week.
Lecinski, the author of Winning The Zero Moment of Truth, went on to talk about how in an effort to translate these 'moments' into opportunity, we need focus on more than just the backend metrics of what customers do after being exposed to a marketing message. We need to be thinking about what insights we have available to determine the best 'moment' to reach them, when we reach them, and what content or in what context we are choosing to engage with the audience.
The necessity to translate this 'moment' into something of meaning, or an action, requires brands to deliver something of value. And not only does perceived value vary by individual, but the value you deliver one day can be seen as useless if you deliver the same thing again one week later.
As a society, we have learned to have high expectations of value. After all, we create our own value quite often in today's day and age. We have transparency into the cost to manufacture a car and predictions of airline flight costs for the next year. As consumers, we have so much power at our fingertips that brands need to create true 'value' in order to leave a lasting impression or memory. This means doing more than just having a great rate or serving a billion impressions.
The power that technology gives to individual consumers can often be overwhelming, but it can also give brands the opportunity to leverage technology to deliver something truly unexpected and clever. Mike Glaser, a Display Product Marketing Manager at Google, closed the conference with a presentation of Google's Project Re:Brief. In a world of online clutter, this is truly an inspiring project. My favourite quote in the video was from Andy Berndt, VP of the Google Creative Lab, "If anything can be; it can be good. If we have time to make it; you have time to make it wonderful." The video takes you through the project, which reimagines famous advertisements using today's technologies, is definitely worth a watch and does a great job at conveying the possibilities.