38 Reasons Why You Need a Social Media Expert

Advertiser Campaign Management, CMO Strategy

Article | June 3, 2024

With live sports on hold for the foreseeable future, broadcasters have started reairing games from yesteryear to keep audiences entertained during the coronavirus pandemic. For sports fans who know the outcome, reruns can be dull. Enter Super Squares, an app developed by Tampa-based React LLC that can put the adrenaline back into those dusty classics. The iOS and Android app is a modern take on “football squares” players check in before a game and make predictions, answer questions about ads and the game at regular intervals, and earn new super squares.

Advertiser Platforms

Article | March 12, 2024

Stay ahead with insights into alignment of sales and marketing for unprecedented business growth. Discover how the latest trends in sales intelligence are shaping the future of business strategies. Contents 1. Introduction 2. Top Sales Intelligence Trends to Watch in 2024 2.1. Hyper-Personalization 2.2. Customer Data Platforms 2.3. Multi-touch Approach 2.4. Shorter Sales Cycle 2.5. Cross-Selling and UpSelling 2.6. Calling Cognitive Conversational AI 2.7. Voice of Customer (VoC) Analytics 2.8. Automation of Routine Tasks 2.9. Real-time Analytics: 2.10. Predictive Analytics 2.11. Alignment of Sales and Marketing 2.12. Enhanced Customer Profiling 2.13. Blockchain for Sales Data Security and Transparency 2.14. Quantum Computing in Data Analysis 2.15. IoT-enabled Sales Intelligence 3. Final Thoughts 1. Introduction The ever-growing advertising market in sales and sales intelligence demands for aligning business strategies with sales trends. The impact of modern sales intelligence on businesses and their ROI is profound. It drives significant enhancements in lead generation, customer engagement, and conversion rates. Companies can optimize sales strategies by using sales intelligence trends like intelligent data to gather and apply insights from customer data. This targeted approach reduces the sales cycle and increases the efficiency of sales teams. Eventually, it leads to a higher conversion rate and customer lifetime value. Sales intelligence and its role in business evolution is crucial owing to its predictive capabilities. This allows businesses to anticipate market trends and customer needs. Doing so will enable them to make proactive adjustments to offerings and strategies. As a result, organizations experience a marked improvement in revenue growth, cost reduction, and competitive advantage. They demonstrate a substantial return on investment (ROI) from their sales intelligence initiatives. 2. Top Sales Intelligence Trends to Watch in 2024 2.1. Hyper-Personalization The implementation of hyper-personalization is crucial as it increases customer engagement, conversion rates, and, ultimately, revenue growth. This methodology enables sales and marketing leaders to craft highly individualized customer interactions. Such a tailored approach aligns with the escalating consumer demands for personalized experiences. The fact that 71% of consumers demand customization and 76% are dissatisfied with generic interactions contributes to competitive differentiation and a high ROI. McKinsey reports highlight that entities mastering personalization can surpass their peers by 40% in revenue generation, with a notable 8x return on marketing spend. 79% of organizations that exceeded revenue goals have a documented personalization strategy. Hyper-personalization enables the delivery of nuanced, context-sensitive sales pitches and marketing messages. It optimizes customer acquisition costs and fosters deep, meaningful connections that enhance customer lifetime value. 2.2. Customer Data Platforms Customer data platforms, one of the sales intelligence trends, are integral to businesses, especially Marketing Cloud. In 2022, a Genie was introduced, built upon the capabilities of the Marketing Cloud Customer Data Platform. CDP extends the functionalities across the businesses' entire product portfolio, facilitating data unification, identity resolution, and activation. Despite this expansion, the Marketing Cloud Customer Data Platform remains robust and relevant, offering distinct advantages. As organizations increasingly rely on diverse and aggregated data sources for personalized customer experiences, the significance of CDPs in conversations continues to grow. 2.3. Multi-touch Approach Multi-touch attribution represents a nuanced approach to measuring marketing effectiveness. It acknowledges the complexity of the customer journey by attributing value across multiple touchpoints, leading to a conversion. Unlike traditional, rule-based attribution methods such as first- and last-touch, multi-touch attribution offers a more equitable and comprehensive analysis. It leverages advanced analytics and allows integrating AI in sales strategies to accurately measure the impact of each touchpoint. It, thus, eliminates biases and lets marketers make data-driven business decisions. According to HubSpot's 2022 sales strategy & trends report, a third of sales reps say they average 2-4interactions with prospects in the sales process. 26% of reps report 5-7 interactions. Multi-touch attribution models provide distinct perspectives on the customer journey, including first-touch, last-touch, linear, time decay, u-shaped, w-shaped, and custom attribution. They emphasize the significance of the initial engagement and acknowledge the importance of interactions closer to the conversion. Adopting multi-touch attribution allows companies to gain deeper insights into campaign performance. It enables them to optimize their future marketing strategies and budget allocation. Future-proofing business strategies in sales ensure an eminent fair distribution of credit across marketing channels and partners. It enhances understanding of the paths that drive conversions. Ultimately, it guides more effective marketing strategies and investments in the complex digital advertising environment. 2.4. Shorter Sales Cycle Optimizing the sales process is as essential as accelerating revenue growth. Here, a pivotal aspect lies in shortening the sales cycle. Sales intelligence offers deep insights into prospect behaviors and preferences. This information facilitates quicker identification, qualification, and conversion of leads. "Prospects are less interested in 'seeing how it works' and more interested in making sure you understand their needs, have a comprehensive idea of their requirements, and that the product will work." -Dan Tyre, Inbound Fellow at HubSpot It empowers representatives to pinpoint and engage with key decision-makers efficiently, ensuring personalized outreach that resonates with an account's specific needs. This justifies its ability to identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities within an existing customer base. It eventually leads to streamlined revenue growth from current relationships. While these real-time lead enrichment and targeted outbound prospecting efforts hone in on high-quality leads, ideal customer profiles significantly reduce time to conversion. 2.5. Cross-Selling and UpSelling Understanding and implementing cross-selling and upselling strategies are pivotal in today's competitive market. A 2022 HubSpot Blog survey found that most sales professionals use cross-selling and upselling strategies to drive up to 30% of their revenue. This demonstrates their critical role in sales intelligence and customer lifecycle management. Cross-selling encourages customers to purchase complementary or related products alongside their primary purchase. The process enhances customer experience and satisfaction by offering more value. According to a HubSpot Blog survey of more than 500 sales professionals, 72% of salespeople who upsell and 74% who cross-sell say that it drives up to 30% of their revenue. Upselling involves encouraging customers to purchase a premium or upgraded version of the product they are buying, thereby increasing the transaction's value. This business intelligence strategy relies on understanding the customer's needs and goals and offering solutions that align with their growth trajectory. Both strategies necessitate a deep understanding of the customer journey, trust-building, and personalized engagement to be successful. Encouraging sales teams to leverage these strategies involves: Regular customer check-ins Comprehensive product knowledge A focus on adding value to every customer interaction 2.6. Calling Cognitive Conversational AI Cognitive conversational AI is transforming customer service operations by delivering personalized, efficient, and dynamic interactions based on cognitive science principles. This advanced technology surpasses traditional chatbots and generative language models by understanding, remembering, and responding to inquiries in a human-like manner, tailoring responses to each user's unique history and needs. It can handle a wide range of customer service tasks well. Its ability to recall past conversations, analyze sentiment, and provide contextually relevant responses allows it to address a broad spectrum of customer service tasks effectively. Companies like Walmart have significantly improved customer satisfaction scores by implementing AI-driven chatbots, with a reported 38% increase in CSAT in certain regions. These systems can reduce average call handling times by efficiently directing calls. They assist agents with real-time information to expedite resolutions. Their ability to continuously learn from interactions helps them improve performance over time. Sean Downey, Google's President, Americas and Global Partners, believes that growing in importance in AI will be the single biggest trend in 2024. 2.7. Voice of Customer (VoC) Analytics Voice of Customer (VoC) analytics has emerged as a critical tool for sales leaders. They use VoC analytics to align their sales strategies with buyers' evolving needs and expectations. This analytical approach provides invaluable insights into customer preferences, pain points, and behaviors. Additionally, it enables organizations to optimize their sales motions, messaging, and overall customer experience. VoC needs to be implemented as backed by a research that 61% of consumers switch brands due to poor customer service. Implementing VoC analytics across the sales process empowers teams to identify opportunities based on customer needs. It enables teams to refine messaging to address specific buyer concerns. It also streamlines sales processes to enhance customer experiences and gather competitive intelligence. Furthermore, it pinpoints areas for retention and expansion efforts. This data-driven approach ensures that sales strategies are responsive to current market dynamics. It also proactively addresses potential challenges and opportunities. Additionally, closing the feedback loop by communicating to customers how their input has influenced business decisions is crucial for reinforcing the value placed on customer insights. 2.8. Automation of Routine Tasks A significant portion of a salesperson's time can be consumed by manual data entry and report generation. Automating data entry and reporting frees up reps to focus on more strategic initiatives that drive growth. Robotic process automation (RPA) tools seamlessly capture data from multiple systems, populate CRM and sales databases, generating regular performance reports. While lead qualification is essential for identifying and prioritizing promising opportunities, automated lead scoring uses demographics, behavior, and history to gauge lead quality. Bots can further enrich profiles with firmographic data and intent signals. Forrester also predicts that the market for AI-powered platforms will grow to $37 billion by 2025. Intelligent scheduling automation enables reps to automatically sync calendars, rapidly find mutual availability, and instantly book meetings. The automated collection and analysis of buyer and account data to uncover sales opportunities scrape data sources to update key prospect details like technology stacks, initiatives, and structures. 2.9. Real-time Analytics: The ability to access and analyze data in real-time is becoming crucial. This immediacy allows for quicker adjustments to sales strategies and more timely responses to customer needs. Traditional lead scoring models, based on past behavior analysis, are giving way to real-time analytics. These models assess prospect engagement as it happens. This method provides instant insights into buyer signals across multiple channels, revealing key changes in stakeholder influence and priority requirements. Such timely intelligence allows sales professionals to adjust their approaches and negotiations more effectively. Real-time analytics also monitors competitors’ online activities. They alert sales teams about the new product launches and marketing efforts. This enables quick strategic adjustments to maintain a competitive advantage. Additionally, it tracks evolving buying behaviors and preferences and offers a transparent view of the true ROI from campaigns and marketing assets. This way, they let the sales teams customize business strategies with sales intelligence for improved outcomes. 2.10. Predictive Analytics Using the power of AI analytics in sales, firms are dissecting vast data to forecast trends and shape strategic actions, enhancing agility in market responses. Voice of the Customer (VoC) analysis is crucial for gauging consumer insights from diverse data points like reviews and social media. It enables rapid sentiment analysis and product adaptation. Additionally, adapting to sales changes allows real-time analytics to revolutionize advanced business strategies like customer engagement. This enables on-the-spot adjustments to sales approaches. Predictive analytics further extend to refining pricing, inventory, and supply chain management, showcasing its broad utility in business optimization. 2.11. Alignment of Sales and Marketing Integration of sales and marketing, also known as "Smarketing," is becoming increasingly important. Integrating sales and marketing procedures and goals lets them work together throughout the consumer journey. Contemporary sales methodologies also encompass the application of digital tools to generate streamlined and customized product demonstrations tailored to the clientele's specific requirements and inclinations. Businesses with sales marketing alignment say that goal attainment is 107% more likely than companies with misalignment. With the assistance of sales intelligence tools, sales and marketing function integration is becoming increasingly prevalent. This alignment guarantees uniformity in customer correspondence and enhances the effectiveness of lead management. 2.12. Enhanced Customer Profiling Enhanced customer profiling is still a trend among top sales technologies to boost buyer engagement. This is because customers tend to prioritize personalization and data-driven insights over the traditional ways of knowing the product. Advanced business intelligence in profiling techniques for customer profiling includes demographic, psychographic, and behavioral data, allowing for more targeted sales approaches. This gives rise to better ads, that suit the right target audience and appeal businesses to buy the product or service. Customer profiling thus helps increase profits, engage more customers, make marketing easier, and help understand the customers better. 86% of customers say that they are ready to pay more if it means getting a better customer experience 2.13. Blockchain for Sales Data Security and Transparency Most companies store sales data in centralized databases and data lakes. While convenient, these repositories have single points of failure that make data vulnerable to cyber-attacks and insider threats. Blockchain is a distributed digital ledger that establishes trust, accountability, and transparency without a central authority. In blockchain, data is distributed across many nodes in peer-to-peer networks, eliminating single points of failure. In addition, transactions are secured with cryptographic hashing and digital signatures to prevent tampering. For any business that values sales data security and transparency, blockchain is the future. This is because it enables encrypted storage, granular access controls, irrefutable audit trails, and supply chain traceability for sales records. 2.14. Quantum Computing in Data Analysis Although still in its infancy, quantum computing presents a potential for handling extraordinarily complex data analysis much faster than current technologies. It provides unprecedented insights into business intelligence trends, including customer behavior and market trends. Quantum computing can process data exponentially faster than classical computers. Certain types of data analysis tasks like pattern recognition, clustering, and regression analysis can be accelerated massively using quantum algorithms. This aspect lets the sales teams crunch large datasets in seconds as opposed to hours or days. Quantum machine learning algorithms are extremely adept at detecting hidden patterns and insights in complex, noisy datasets. Quantum machine learning models like quantum neural networks can deliver far more accurate predictions than the classical techniques. This increased predictive precision allows sales teams to forecast sales more reliably. 2.15. IoT-enabled Sales Intelligence The Internet of Things offers new streams of real-time data. Executives can leverage this for live insights into how products are used, enabling more next-level sales strategies for precise targeting and product development. IoT creates intelligent systems that sense, analyze, and integrate data from across the. It then translates it to new streams of information on prospective buyers, their behaviors, and their interactions with the company. It identifies promising new prospects by tracking digital signals like web traffic, content downloads, and social media engagement. Smart sensors enable the tracking of prospects through the sales funnel by monitoring online and offline interactions. To leverage IoT for next-level sales, organizations need capabilities to ingest, process, analyze, and interpret the influx of data. These include prescriptive analytics, augmented intelligence, smart data visualization, contextual guidance, among others. 3. Final Thoughts As we look towards the future, sales intelligence in advertising is set to become more sophisticated and integral to business success. The continuous refinement of technologies and strategies will enable organizations to meet and even exceed the consumers’ ever-increasing expectations for personalized and engaging experiences. The integration of quantum computing and IoT will further amplify the ability to process and analyze data. It will open new avenues for customer engagement and strategic decision-making in sales. This intelligence in sales promises an era where advanced analytics, deep customer insights, and strategic alignment between sales and marketing converge to boost customer happiness and business growth. This foreseen evolution will empower businesses to manage the intricacies of digital advertising and forge stronger connections with their customers. Eventually, the process sets the stage for sustained competitive advantage and revenue growth.

Advertiser Platforms

Article | January 9, 2024

Embrace the power of data-driven sales and learn how to harness real-time insights, personalize outreach, and optimize sales process for unmatched efficiency through sales intelligence best practices. Contents 1. Introduction to Sales Intelligence 2. Sales Intelligence is the Future of Sales 3. Best Practices for Efficient Sales Intelligence in Businesses 3.1. Track Buying Signals 3.2. Understand Buyer Motivations 3.3. Personalize Outreach 3.4. Prioritize Leads 3.5. Track Performance Metrics 3.6. Analyze Data Analytics in Forecasting 3.7. Monitor Market Trends 3.8. Integrate with CRM 3.9. Comply with Sales Ethics and Data Privacy 3.10. Power up Social Selling 3.11. Enhance Customer Retention 3.12. Discover Total Addressable Market 3.13. Improve Lead Qualification 3.14. Gain Insights in Real-time 3.15. Lean into Personalization 4. Building a Modern Sales Culture 1. Introduction to Sales Intelligence Sales intelligence combines internal and external data to provide deep insights into accounts, prospects, and markets. Internal data from CRM provides behavioral insights about leads and customers. Similarly, marketing automation platforms and other systems offer valuable information. External data sources such as business databases and social media provide relevant firmographic, technographic, and buying intent signals. Sales intelligence analyses this data to offer a clear overview. Eventually, it boosts sales targeting, messaging, and forecasting. 2. Sales Intelligence is the Future of Sales Sales intelligence is like a secret weapon for sales teams. It uses data, analytics to give full picture of customers and prospects. This means sales reps can have more meaningful conversations and close deals faster. Business intelligence strategies include sales intelligence tools to integrate data from multiple sources, like CRM, marketing automation, and social media. This way they can create detailed profiles of prospects and customers. The capacity to convert raw data into actionable insights differentiates successful sales organizations today. Forward-thinking companies are wisely investing in sales intelligence platforms from providers. Equipped with real-time alerts and predictive analytics, sales reps can engage in smarter conversations to boost pipeline velocity and conversion rates. The competitive advantage provided by sales intelligence solidifies its role in crafting strategies for the future of sales. For a successful modernization initiative, sales leaders need strategic alignment across the business. This involves recognizing the role of AI in sales to improve sales efficiency: Partner with IT- Ensure seamless systems integration and data flows Collaborate with Marketing- Coordinate campaigns, assets, and messaging Involve Operations- Optimize processes to maximize sales efficiency Educate Executives- Demonstrate value and progress through analytics reporting Empower Sales Managers- Provide enablement resources to improve team adoption 3. Best Practices for Efficient Sales Intelligence in Businesses Adopting best practices in the sophisticated approach to sales and marketing intelligence arena enables companies to dissect vast amount of data. This effective data utilization propels them to execute informed strategies. This methodology helps to understand the leads and interact with customers efficiently. The approach catalyzes growth and prepares companies to compete by being innovative in the market. 3.1.Track Buying Signals Understanding and responding to buying signals in real-time can give an edge to the advertising firms. Businesses can identify accounts in the market or do research by tracking actions such as website visits, content downloads, and social media interaction. This allows sales teams to focus on hot leads instead of cold outreach and time their outreach and proposals perfectly. 3.2.Understand Buyer Motivations Businesses can uncover what motivates buyers to purchase a particular solution through market research, customer interviews and previous deals. This helps create targeted messaging that speaks directly to the buyer's needs and pain points. Grasping why clients invest in advertising services or products allows for more focused and effective sales strategies. This could be the desire for brand visibility, market expansion, or digital transformation. Tailoring your approach based on these motivations increases relevance and impact. Segmented personalized automated email messages average 46% higher open rates than normal marketing messages. 3.3.Personalize Outreach With insights into each lead's role, challenges, and interests, sales teams can craft personalized emails, social media messages, and other touchpoints. This tailored approach improves engagement and helps convert leads faster. Personalization is not just beneficial; it is expected. Using gathered intelligence to customize communications ensures that messages resonate with the specific needs and interests prospects through sales intelligence in B2B prospecting in the advertising sector. Companies that track buying signals see a 70% increase in lead conversion rates. 3.4.Prioritize Leads Not all leads are equal. By scoring leads based on fit, need, and readiness to buy, sales teams know where to focus their efforts for the best return. Data like firmographics, intent signals, and engagement can help segment and prioritize leads. Utilizing scoring mechanisms to identify and focus efforts on high-potential leads ensures optimal allocation of resources towards engagements that are most likely to convert. A 2023 LinkedIn study reiterates the importance of detailed prospect profiling, noting that companies with comprehensive lead information recorded 40% higher conversion rates than those with sparse data. 3.5.Track Performance Metrics One of the best practices of sales intelligence is monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs). These include conversion rates, average deal size, and sales cycle length. These KPIs provide insights into sales effectiveness and areas for improvement. Additional key metrics like win rates, deal sizes, sales cycle length, and lead response rates should be diligently tracked. Monitoring this data helps optimize processes and double down on what's working. 3.6.Analyze Data Analytics in Forecasting Advanced analytics helps create accurate sales forecasts to meet targets and gain visibility into the pipeline. Historical data and predictions provide actionable insights for territory planning. Leveraging data analytics to predict market trends and customer needs allows for proactive pipeline management. This helps in anticipating demand shifts in the advertising industry and aligning offerings accordingly. 3.7.Monitor Market Trends Staying ahead in the advertising industry requires a keen understanding of evolving market trends. This includes shifts in digital marketing, consumer behavior, and technology adoption. These factors enable your team to adapt and innovate, and is a best practice for sales intelligence. This external data paired with internal intelligence guides sales strategy. Companies that stay ahead of market trends see a 25% increase in revenue growth. 3.8.Integrate with CRM A CRM (customer relationship management) system integrated with sales intelligence solutions provides a single source of truth. This enables seamless data sharing across sales, marketing, and customer success for complete visibility. A robust CRM system is foundational for managing and analyzing customer interactions. Integration with sales intelligence tools enhances data accuracy and accessibility. The process fosters data-driven decision making and provides a 360-degree view of the customer. 78% of sales pros say their CRM is effective at improving sales and marketing alignment. 3.9.Comply with Sales Ethics and Data Privacy While leveraging sales intelligence, businesses must ensure ethical data collection and usage practices. Protecting customer privacy enhances long-term loyalty. In an era where data is a critical asset, adhering to ethical sales practices and data privacy laws is paramount to building trust with clients. Additionally, it ensures compliance with regulations such as GDPR and CCPA. 42% helps influence customer buying decisions based on trust in organisation’s data security & privacy practices. 3.10.Power up Social Selling Social platforms like LinkedIn provide a goldmine of sales intelligence. Following target accounts, engaging with connections, and monitoring content shares provide valuable insights. This utilization of social media platforms connects with prospects and clients, adding a powerful tool to the sales arsenal. It allows for the sharing of relevant content, engaging with brand conversations, and building relationships. 78% of salespeople who use social selling generate more leads than those who don't. 3.11.Enhance Customer Retention Analyzing customer churn, satisfaction, and upsell opportunities helps retain and grow accounts. Sales intelligence plays a key role in understanding customers better. Beyond acquisition, the focus should also be on retaining advertising clients. This can be achieved through exceptional service, regular check-ins, and understanding evolving needs to foster long-term relationships. 67% of churn is preventable if the customer's problem is resolved during their first interaction. 3.12.Discover Total Addressable Market Market research and data analysis helps assess the total addressable market (TAM) for products and services. This guides sales goals, resource allocation, and growth strategies. Identifying the TAM enables advertising firms to understand their potential market size and segment focus. This strategic insight guides marketing efforts and resource allocation. 3.13.Improve Lead Qualification Solid lead qualification is as essential for an efficient sales process as building trust and rapport. Sales intelligence enables businesses to define ideal customer profiles and accurately identify qualified leads. Lead qualification processes can be improved by cultivating leads. Eventually, this maximizes sales efficiency on prospects with the highest likelihood of conversion. Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at a 33% lower cost. 3.14.Gain Insights in Real-time With real-time alerts and dashboards, best practice in sales intelligence includes sales teams acting on critical events as they occur. This level of agility and visibility drives faster deal progression. Real-time sales intelligence provides immediate insights into customer behavior and market changes. This paves the way for agile responses and strategic adjustments. 3.15.Lean into Personalization Businesses segment audiences and customize messaging for relevancy using sales intelligence for business growth. Personalized communication converts leads into customers more effectively. Personalization across advanced sales practices can significantly differentiate an advertising firm in a competitive era. Tailor experiences, solutions, and communications to meet the unique needs and preferences of each client. According to McKinsey, personalization marketing can increase revenue by 5–15% and marketing ROI by 10–30%. It can also reduce customer acquisition costs by up to 50%. 4.Building a Modern Sales Culture Looking ahead, AI in sales intelligence will become even smarter leveraging to surface patterns, recommend next steps, and even orchestrate actions across sales and marketing stacks. Perhaps most importantly, leading sales teams will increasingly view intelligence not as a utility but as an integral part of their workflow. They will use it to guide everything from targeting to messaging to forecasting. For executives, prioritizing sales intelligence today lays the foundation for data-driven selling and a formidable competitive edge. Leveraging sales intelligence and marketing automation insights is pivotal for businesses aiming to refine their strategic positioning and enhance operational efficacy. Utilizing cutting-edge sales intelligence, organizations pinpoint lucrative prospects with unparalleled accuracy. They craft sales strategies that resonate on a deeper level with their target demographics. Future trends in sales technology will include strategic deployment of marketing analytics driving the creation of highly targeted campaigns, optimizing channel performance and ensuring elevated ROI.

Article | December 8, 2020

While brands have dabbled in augmented reality (AR) for years, 2020 marks the tipping point where it’s becoming an integral part of marketing strategy, helping create meaningful and emotional consumer connections. AR has finally grown up; once infamous for gimmicks such as face filters on social media, it’s now a cross-platform tool to build truly interactive environments, compared to VR which requires a headset to create computer-aided stimuli. The figures tell us that the global market is expected to grow substantially from $13 billion this year to more than $67 billion by 2024. The technology is graduating from being used solely for entertainment to providing real-world value and utility for marketers through immersive and experiential opportunities. So – in the midst of a global pandemic – what makes this the perfect time for AR to come of age, and how can marketers make use of its unique attributes? Extensive investment in the ecosystem is laying the foundations for AR’s long-awaited, mainstream emergence. Google and Apple’s mobile tech stacks, ARCore and ARKit, mean more than four billion smartphones across the world are already AR compatible, and Google now includes AR in mobile search. In addition, the imminent arrival of 5G will dramatically boost mobile connectivity, enabling developers and content creators to use approximately 100 times the bandwidth of 4G to build a new type of experiential, 3D environment where users can intuitively interact with the people, objects and information around them. Alongside these tech developments, the global COVID-19 context is inevitably changing consumer needs and behaviors, increasing demand for the virtual, contactless experiences that can be achieved through AR. And in the near future, wearable tech such as AR spectacles will also join the party to propel evolution in the space even faster. Here are four ways AR can be a game-changer for marketing in 2020: Enabling product visualization In a world where consumers order everything from clothes to cars online, marketers can harness AR to help shoppers visualize products in an interactive and immersive way that goes far beyond a static image or video. This could mean experiencing what it’s like to sit inside a dream car, watching AR panoramas unfold through the virtual windscreen, or seeing what a jacket looks like on the actual shopper, without them having to leave the house. Augmented Reality enables consumers to explore customization options and the unique elements that a product can offer. Brands that utilize the technology witness up to 8x longer dwell times, as giving consumers control over their digital experiences boosts engagement levels. For instance, participants at an AR smartphone launch can virtually see and interact with detailed specifications and features of the device. AR is certainly not restricted to just online browsing – it has a real benefit in the physical world too, for instance helping shoppers in stores discover how and where the product was made, just by scanning a code –subsequently helping move them along their purchase journey. Future-proofing education and development AR enables a more sophisticated, discovery-based form of learning. For example, students in a classroom can engage with virtual, 3D objects to help grow their understanding of certain topics. Teaching concepts such as orbits in the solar system can be optimized using AR-powered, interactive models. Additionally, AR allows for the gamification of learning experiences, helping to boost knowledge retention through educational puzzles and treasure hunts. The learning benefits of AR also extend beyond the classroom. In mechanical fields especially, the technology can train people how to complete tasks by superimposing the end result on the version the trainee is practicing with. Implementing AR in professional development cases has shown significant improvements to learning curves, creativity, and spatial awareness. In fact, according to a study by the National Training Laboratories, “learning by doing” has shown to increase learning retention rates by up to 75% compared to simply listening to a seminar or lecture. By progressing education onto understanding and experiencing, as opposed to reading and writing, AR offers huge benefits across the industry. Invigorating interactive advertising Product visualization, along with other attributes of AR, can be used to deliver interactive advertising experiences that truly connect with consumers and boost conversions by 40%. AR ad units drive far more engagement and dwell time than conventional media and can give digital display advertising a new lease of life. What’s more, the real-time interaction between user and ad enables advertisers to effectively measure the impact of their campaigns and optimize accordingly. Advertisers have cautiously experimented with AR for years but they have largely added minor elements to traditional campaigns simply to ‘tick a box’. To make the most of AR’s capabilities and deliver real engagement, marketers need to take a different strategic approach and put this disruptive technology at the heart of their ad campaigns. Superseding live events At a time when social distancing makes live events and product launches problematic, AR can be used to digitally create immersive and emotionally-charged experiences that generate buzz around a brand. In fact, AR improves upon the in-person experience by allowing marketers to scale events beyond the natural boundaries of any physical location and enable hundreds of thousands of participants from all over the world to share the experience simultaneously. This will revolutionize how audiences engage with live music and sports events in particular, enabling unique forms of interaction. By augmenting the user’s immediate environment with a digital presentation layer, AR allows users to interact with players and performers in a way that is not possible with a traditional passive offline event, and to be true participants rather than simply viewers. AR reduces the need for traditional physical events and paves the way for a new era of participative, immersive and scalable online experiences, with visceral and emotional engagement. The perfect combination of tech evolution, advanced connectivity and contextual circumstance means this is the year AR really comes into its own. By taking advantage of product visualization, interactive advertising and immersive digital events, brands can leverage AR as a game-changer for marketing in 2020.