Campaigns simply don’t cut it anymore, according to new Forrester research which has found that no more than 32% of US online adults trust ads in any channels.
Only 22% trust emails from companies and brands and just 13% trust online advertising, The Power of Customer Context study found.
Marketers must change their focus from customer acquisition to interaction management, from media schedules to customer moments if their brands are to stand apart.
“Campaigns are far less effective at winning and retaining customers than they once were,” the study said.
“To achieve sustainable competitive advantage now, you must deliver self-perpetuating cycles of real time, two way, insight-driven interactions with individual customers.”
As the marketing discipline’s focus turns to interaction management and focusing on customer context “media agencies will vaporize”.
“Mass media will die a slow death as marketers shift toward context and utility. Media-buying expertise will vaporize along with it.”
The media agencies which will succeed will be those that combine strategy, branding, and content services with innovation and technology will be the ones that thrive.
Also, the ‘marketing cloud war’ will have no victor. According to the report the marketing cloud providers will jostle for dominance and be blindsided by start-ups who will become acquired partners with companies who want to scale unique platforms.
“The enterprise marketing vendors will end up selling a suite of point solutions to laggard customers.”
Businesses will also focus on owned data, new methods to measure the value of customer context will be developed and partnerships around data will be established.
