Seven Marketing & Data Trends for 2017

It is that time of year again. While 2016 was certainly filled with lots of excitement and change on many fronts, one consistent was the continued and rapid evolution on the tech and digital marketing front. As we move into 2017, M&A activity is poised to accelerate and with the current bull market, IPOs will likely be on the rise. So what can we expect in 2017? Here are my top seven trends and predictions for 2017.

1.    The MarTech/Ad Tech Convergence Accelerates

For years, MarTech and AdTech have been on parallel courses. Each evolving and expanding capabilities. More recently, large Cloud providers like Oracle, Salesforce, Adobe and IBM have stepped up their M&A activity to link marketing technology and ad tech capabilities through data and robust identity management solutions. Moving into 2017, we will see the combination of first party and third party data as DMP solutions move from management to activation. These expanding platforms will increasingly look to power both targeted acquisition ad initiatives and intelligent retention/crm efforts. This trend will continue, not only with the big cloud providers, but across next generation point solutions looking to expand their multi-channel marketing orchestration capabilities.  Finally, this growing view of the consumer from a data perspective will also raise additional privacy concerns, as industry associations move increasingly to self-regulate to head off government involvement.

2.    Programmatic Capabilities Extend to Old School Channels

The world has gone programmatic. According to research from WideOrbit, more than 72% of marketers buy ads programmatically. Formats bought include display ads (89.1%), Digital Video (80.1%), Mobile Display (71.8%) and Mobile Video (60.9%). Further down the list are TV (21.2%), Radio (3.9%) and Other including direct mail/out of home, etc. (1.3%). But that is about to change as new point solutions enter the marketplace looking to bring the power of programmatic to these traditional channels. 2017 will see the emergence of new powerhouses’ flush with capital and offering new and innovative solutions for programmatic TV, Radio, Direct Mail and Out of Home. Expect these providers to expand their SaaS platform capabilities and become more fully integrated into the identity management systems and tech stacks at leading brands globally. Further fueling the growth of these new entrants will be the realization at many brands that they can now apply already large budgets for traditional marketing efforts in new and innovative ways. Point solutions in these emerging programmatic channels will later become acquisition targets and expect the large Cloud Providers to make some moves here to expand their data and marketing cloud offerings.

3.    Location Intelligence Blossoms

As mobile continues to dominate consumer’s minds, hearts, and attention, the importance of mobile data will become increasingly mission critical. In fact, mobile is the medium that will allow marketers to bridge the gap between digital and physical behavior to create better user experiences. Insights and knowledge obtained through a consumer’s interactions within app as well as their location and even linger time will become essential components in understanding a consumer’s journey including the user’s current and future interests and intent. This data will also play an important role in attribution efforts, understanding audiences better, and fueling advances in predictive decisioning, machine learning algorithms and AI. Look for ad tech and or Cloud providers to either buy emerging mobile data providers, or like xAd did, buy strategic apps like the WeatherBug to gain access to these location signals directly.

4.    Predictive Decisioning, Machine Learning and AI – M&A Continues

More channels and interactions will produce an enormous amount of data. This provides the opportunity to yield additional learnings and insights about the needs and interests of consumers. Advances in processing big data and turning it into smart data by utilizing machine learning and AI will give rise to a new era – intelligent predictive marketing efforts. While all the cloud providers are investing heavily here - IBM’s Watson, Oracles Adaptive Intelligence and Salesforce Einstein, their platforms lack the ability to access and calculate decisions based on a user’s online and physical movement activity in real-time. As a result, mobile and specifically location/mobile data companies will become acquisition targets as previously referenced. Their data will be used by the large cloud providers to inform their predictive marketing capabilities and to better sense and respond to customer needs in the moment. Additionally, as the cloud platforms and data collection points continuesto grow, a focus on analytics, attribution and user intelligence will emerge in the form of new data visualization tools as we move into 2018.

5.    Bots Get Smarter & More Useful 

Intelligent bots, powered by AI and machine learning continue to evolve and in some cases are, improving the customer experience. The most successful ones today are purpose built to help address a specific problem or address an opportunity that offers value to the consumer – like the ability to save money.  One powerful example is Trim’s chatbot release last month (disclosure – I’m an investor in Eniac who invested in Trim). The bot is programmed to chat with a Comcast customer service rep, using a series of arguments to lower the consumer’s monthly bill. As intelligent chat bots get better and provide more value, their usage and adoption will expand to the masses. As a results machine learning/AI chat platforms will also become acquisition targets to fuel those investing in AI/Machine learning or looking to expand marketing/customer service execution capabilities. 

6.    The Emergence of the Voice UI & Intelligent Assistants

The emergence of Intelligent assistants including Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri, Cortana are much more than cute products to help you search, play your music/games, control your home automation or re-order products. They are always learning, voice enabled AI platforms. As I wrote in my October ClickZ column, Intelligent assistants can be integrated and can interact with other IOT devices. As a result, they will continue to proliferate everything we do, as the key providers open their platforms up to a growing number of outside developers and voice emerges as the new UI. Look for thousands of new solutions and integrations down to the app level. In fact, Google recently announced its Google Assistant SDK availability, bringing its intelligent assistant capabilities to potentially every app on your phone including Uber and beyond. This is an exciting development and one that is designed to help make our lives easier, more convenient and frictionless. It is important to note the privacy concerns present here may also heat up in 2017 as consumer noise increases around these “always listening” devices.  

7.    Marketers Build Best of Breed Stacks and Turn Attention to Activation vs. Management (DAP vs. DMP)

Many marketers have realized the need to build a best of breed technology stack to better understand, manage and market to their consumers quickly. The organizational focus has shifted dramatically from data management to data activation. With the emphasis on speed to market with sense, and respond marketing capabilities. As a result, marketers are looking for best of breed solutions. While cloud providers had been on an acquisition tear to acquire and build offerings on this front, the marketers’ focus has been selecting, for the most part, point solutions that work best for them. While this requires more work, Cloud Providers have quickly realized the need to create a more open and flexible cloud platform that allow marketers the ability to pick, choose and seamlessly integrate solutions outside the family portfolio. Look for these diverse, open, flexible stacks to be the solution of choice for the next several years. However, this will shift again as a second wave of M&A activity expands capabilities to traditional marketing channels and fuel better AI/Machine learning capabilities for predictive marketing i.e. sense and respond marketing capabilities. As a result, brands will look to partner with a single provider over time to build efficiency and save costs. 

There you have it – my top 7 trends and predictions for 2017. Have a very happy and prosperous New Year!