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VOL. 37 • NO. 1 • JANUARY 2024

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Talking Points

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The Major Trends in eCommerce Marketing for 2024 Economic uncertainty and a growing expectation for seamless commerce continue to dominate

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talking points

to help utilities better integrate distributed energy resources, and Ranovus, a company that works with data centre providers to reduce energy demands. Assent Compliance, a supply chain data management company, Advanced Symbolics, an AI polling, market research firm, and MindBridge AI, an AIpowered auditing solution fit into this sector as well. Watch for developments in this story.

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A new integration of the AdsPostX with accesso is designed to help venues maximize revenue and enhance guest satisfaction. accesso Technology Group, which also works with Ripley’s Entertainment to feature the accesso Passport eCommerce platform at Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada in Toronto. The

The story might not be over yet for this fascinating company that was transforming retail data analytics. Founder Gary Saarenvirta also started another company in the sector, Adastra, and worked for IBM’s Business Intelligence Practice and The Loyalty Group.

Daisy’s customers include Walmart Canada, Arkansas-based grocery chain Harps Food Stores Inc., and SpartanNash, a major U.S. food distributor based in Grand Rapids, Mich. Daisy Intelligence, a venture capital-backed startup with 50 employees, also works with insurance and benefits, including Green Shields Canada, to track claims for potential fraud.

Daisy Intelligence expected to grow faster when the crisis eases. But the short term was challenging, with much of the retail sector shut down. Saarenvirta says companies are understandably reluctant to buy new software. The company has cut its workforce by 20 percent to help weather the crisis. He worries that the next round of venture-capital funding for the company, which has so far raised $15 million, may be delayed, leaving the company in limbo at a time when rapid growth is within reach. “Our capabilities and services will be more valued than ever on the back end of this pandemic,” Saarenvirta insists.

Companies such as Daisy Intelligence fall into the computer systems design category of advanced industries. This sector has added nearly 90,000 jobs in Canada since 2009.

Exports of computer and information services have grown by $2.3 billion over the 20162018 period, accounting for nearly 40 percent of the growth in total service exports. This is a broad category that includes a host of other new economy industries that range from Opus One, a company that develops software ❱ DMN.CA

© 2015 MICHAEL HOPE

Daisy Intelligence is looking for solutions in the midst of bankruptcy protection.

made purchases, a key moment to engage customers. This “post-purchase magic” creates a unique opportunity to surprise guests with relevant, valuable perks, discounts and exclusive deals from trusted brands. Through this new partnership, accesso clients using the accesso Passport eCommerce ticketing system and/or the accesso ShoWare live event Ticketing platform can maximize both yield and engagement across their guests’ digital purchase journeys via one simple integration.

With AdsPostX, accesso Passport and accesso ShoWare clients can: Increase Average Order Value; deliver personalized offers for experiences, merchandise and add-ons that entice guests to spend more; showcase relevant offers from trusted brands, creating a win-win for guests, accesso partners and participating advertisers; tailor offers based on guest preferences and purchase history, ensuring a more relevant and engaging experience, gain valuable data on guest behavior and preferences to inform future marketing and operational strategies. accesso is the leading global provider of patented and award-winning technology solutions that redefine the guest experience, drive increased revenue, streamline operations and support data-driven business decisions for leisure & entertainment operators.

firm, a technology solutions provider for attractions and venues worldwide, has entered into a strategic agreement with AdsPostX, a rapidly growing advertising technology company that is building a reputation for its delivery of impactful engagement moments that delight and enhance a customer’s shopping journey. This strategic collaboration empowers accesso clients to unlock new revenue streams and deepen guest engagement through personalized, postpurchase offers distributed directly within their existing ticketing platforms.

“Accesso’s extensive reach and expertise in the attractions and venue space make them the ideal partner to bring our post-purchase advertising to the forefront of our industry,” said Jon Nolz, CEO of AdsPostX. “Together, we’re rewriting the rules of engagement, transforming post-purchase and other key shopping moments into powerful revenue generators and unforgettable experiences for guests.”

AdsPostX’s powerful platform provides highly relevant offers to guests at the perfect moment — right after they’ve

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Coming fall 2024, a new print and digital publication will be Canada’s first mainstream media brand focused on celebrating the country’s flourishing population.

Preparing for a record-high number of new Canadians, purpose-driven 369 Global Inc. is excited to announce its partnership with SJC Media, publisher of Canada’s largest portfolio of media brands, to launch a new custom lifestyle magazine and digital platform tailored to new Canadians. Set to debut in fall 2024, the magazine will revolutionize Canadian media with an in-demand product for readers and advertisers alike that reflects Canada’s evolving population. According to StatsCan, Canada gained over one million newcomers, inclusive of immigrants and nonpermanent residents in 2022.

“For a long time, I’ve been passionate about JANUARY 2024

// 5 stories and creating a positive impact on the ever-evolving media landscape.”

SJC Media publishes Canada’s most iconic magazines, including Chatelaine, Maclean’s and Toronto Life. It also custom produces award-winning industry magazines, including Pivot magazine, in partnership with CPA Canada, which the National Magazine Awards recognized as Canada’s Best Magazine: B2B in 2021 and 2022.

Signalling a milestone in women’s health technology, Femtech Canada is the first organization in the country dedicated to advancing women’s health innovation, commercialization and investment in an effort to address a global market estimated to exceed $4.8 trillion by 2025. Femtech Canada represents and supports companies with technologies that cater to the health and wellness needs of women, girls, non-binary individuals, trans people, and those assigned female at birth — thereby shaping a more inclusive and effective healthcare landscape.

The team provides strategic networking, training, and business advisory support including fundraising and mentorship. Playing a crucial role in nurturing and strengthening the community, Femtech Canada has assembled a strong ecosystem with over 120 Canadian women’s health start-ups and scale-

and even considered to be “niche” within the business and investment community. Rachel Bartholomew, the founder of Femtech Canada (and founder of Hyivy Health, a women’s health company) began the initiative over 2 years ago, enabling Femtech Canada to serve as a platform for companies to come together to share knowledge and connections while addressing barriers ranging from a lack of resources and investment to advertising bans and talent shortages.

Femtech Canada is proudly backed by an advisory board of venture capital members including, Esplanade Ventures, Amplify Capital and Wittington Ventures; femtech companies including Future Fertility and Hyivy Health, and the business accelerator, Innovation Factory.

“We are truly overdue to rally around women’s health — the health of 51percent of the global population. Femtech Canada exists to advance the recognition and resourcing of women’s health and wellness companies. We take a founder-first approach in all of our programming and are excited to support those innovating for the betterment of Canada’s diverse population,” says Karen Linseman, VP of Operations at Innovation Factory.

Ella Seitz, Femtech Canada advisory board member, women’s health investor and a partner at Esplanade Ventures, a leading Canadian Healthtech venture capital firm is committed to the growth of the sector and points to the tremendous investment and impact opportunity in the space, “50 percent of the population is not and should not be considered ‘niche’. Globally, women account for over 80 percent of healthcare decisions.

ups, industry partners, investors, accelerators, and service providers.

The launch of Femtech Canada signals a milestone for women’s health technology and innovation.

Women’s health has historically been underresearched, under-funded, under-served,

Moreover, the femtech industry is growing at a 16 percent CAGR and is expected to grow to $97 billion by 2030”.

Femtech Canada is a national network committed to connecting Canadian femtech companies with essential resources and recognition.

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launching a publication to tell stories that reflect the full spectrum of the newcomer experience and celebrate Canada’s diverse population,” says Muraly Srinarayanathas, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of 369 Global Inc., co-founder and publisher of the new publication. “Whether it’s a Fortune 500 company appointing a leader from overseas, a physician coming to Canada to lead a department at a hospital because their credentials are recognized, or the story of a self-made entrepreneur delivering tremendous community impact, all of these stories need to be told. I’m proud to be at the helm of making this happen and hope the magazine will reinforce our collective responsibility to build a stronger, prosperous and more competitive Canada for us and the world.”

Each issue will be composed of 70 per cent editorial, including stories that uplift and inspire, exploration of key issues affecting the country and practical resources around immigration and settling in Canada. With YouGov data reporting that over one-third of new Canadians say they don’t see their lifestyle represented enough in advertising, the magazine will also serve as a unique new vehicle in modern multi-channel marketing.

A 2023 Ipsos report reveals that immigrants have become a target audience for many organizations to tap into, and there is a need for new insights and opportunities.

“SJC has always been at the forefront of media, adapting and innovating to align with Canadians’ ever-changing interests and the needs of our partners,” says Cameron Williamson, VP Client Solutions for SJC. “This collaboration with 369 Global is more than just an expansion of our portfolio – it’s a new chapter in storytelling, deepening our commitment to telling Canada’s diverse JANUARY 2024

COURTESY FEMTECH CANADA

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Femtech Canada, a women’s health network initiative operated by Innovation Factory, celebrated its official launch recently at a gathering in Toronto, Ontario.

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CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT

Build a Content Marke SET OBJECTIVES

UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE

BE RELEVANT

USE THE CONTENT MARKETING FUNNEL TO DRIVE SALES

ESTABLISH YOUR CONTENT PILLARS

BY MISCHA McINERNEY

C

ontent marketing is something you’re aware of as a marketer, but do you realize how effective it can be at all stages of the customer journey?

While many marketers create landing pages, blogs, or copy for social media posts, great content marketing requires a strategic and multi-faceted approach (and most importantly it relies on you understanding who you’re talking to).

In this article, we’ll explore ten steps to help you develop a successful content marketing plan. ❯ Set objectives ❯ Understand your audience ❯ Be relevant ❯ Use the content marketing funnel to drive sales ❯ Establish your content pillars ❯ Develop a ‘Push and Pull’ approach ❯ Use a hub and spoke model ❯ Create data-capture content ❯ Amplify your brand using advocates ❯ Set KPIs and measure success Content marketing’s strategic marketing approach involves creating and distributing content that your audience finds valuable. The reading needs to be relevant and consistent to attract and engage a target audience and provide information, entertainment, or utility. A key consideration is to remember it’s not a sales message. objectives 1 Set The path here is to set objectives that look at all stages of the funnel. This will help you to understand the motivation at each stage and see what content is required to drive them to the next.

For each stage, set KPIs that are relevant and important to your ❱ DMN.CA

business. Here’s an example of how you can map out your objectives: a. Grow brand reach and engagement to increase unprompted brand awareness from x to y and to increase reach and engagement on social media from x to y. b. Consideration to grow non-blog organic traffic from x to y and grow blog traffic from x to y c. Conversion to Increase organic sales from x to y and increase data capture from the blog from x to y d. Advocacy to increase shares on social media from x to y and increase the number of backlinks to the website from x to y, which increasing testimonials from customers from x to y DMI Insider tip: Have one or two objectives under reach and engagement, consideration, conversion and advocacy. Keep it really simple to begin with, don’t overcomplicate it. your 2 Understand audience Before you develop any content, you need to understand who you are talking to and what they need.

That requires you to build target buyer personas.

You can get this type of information in Google Analytics (GA4) to examine who your audience is. For example, what percentage is male or female?

What devices are they browsing on? What ages are they? What interests do they have and what sites are they looking at?

DMI Insider Tip: We often see that people are browsing career sites. So we know they’re either changing or starting their careers. The second

thing we know is that they shop for value. That’s important because when we’re building landing pages, the value side of our messaging needs to be dialed up.

Once you establish who your target personas are, you need to figure out their need states: these can be emotive (desire or fear), social (FOMO or vanity) or logical (financial gain). From this point, you can create content to tap into those needs. relevant 3 Be Being relevant is the content

sweet spot. It’s the intersection of what you want to talk about and what your audience wants.

Many brands don’t really get this part of the content plan. They talk about what they want to tell people about, rather than focusing on what the customer needs and wants to hear.

But how do you know how to be relevant to your audience? Here are some starting points: ❯ Keyword research ❯ Social listening ❯ Leverage SEO ❯ Review in-house data ❯ Experiment with content ❯ A/B testing ❯ Ask your customers ❯ Track competitors DMI Insider Tip: Listening to your customers through social channels is one of the easiest and most effective ways to connect with them, as well as with your competitors and others you’d never thought of following. Learn more in our comprehensive guide to social listening. the content marketing 4 Use funnel to drive sales

Content marketing can have a huge impact on the customer journey.

The McKinsey model shows the four stages in a loop as people decide on a purchase.

At each stage of the journey, you should use different channels and content: ❯ Consideration - Build brand reach and engagement through engaging content and optimized SEO. ❯ Evaluation - Build brand advocacy through customer testimonials and influencer engagement. ❯ Purchase - With stronger brand recognition, you may see an increase in brand-led searches, increase the clickthrough rate and reduce the CPC. ❯ Post-purchase - Increase upsell and renewals through compelling content: using the right message to the right audience at the right time.

DMI Insider Tip: The more content you create where you’re talking about meaningful and relevant content, the more people will share your social media posts and the more top of mind you’ll be when they’re actively evaluating what product or service they want. your 5 Establish content pillars

The content pillars should be a blend of both brand and commercial drivers. One pillar could be a hub and spoke model where you can drive traffic to a website and increase keyword rankings and metrics like leads or sales.

DMI Insider Tip: Decide on four key business pillars. Some will be brand, like thought leadership and some will be commercial. There should be a blend of two, no more than four, and all of your content should fall under each of these pillars.

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CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT

eting Plan in 10 Steps DEVELOP A PUSH-AND-PULL APPROACH

USE A HUB-AND-SPOKE MODEL

Sample content pillars include: Hub and Spoke Content, based on revenue-driving keywords & product set ❯ Careers ❯ Thought Leadership ❯ Skills ❯

Bonus Tip: Check out our site for a short video from DMI expert Will Francis on ChatGPT prompts to generate ideas for your content pillars.

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Develop a push-and-pull approach The push-and-pull approach is valuable to brands as a strategy to communicate with consumers.

A combination of the two can help consumers make purchasing decisions that go in your favor, but you need a balance: Push too hard and you can put potential customers off, Pull too lightly and they will never stop to read your content. So how can you use the Push-Pull tactic effectively?

Push This technique is about a brand tooting its own horn and promoting a product or service.

For example, pushing out your content via all the social media channels you’re using, as well as your podcast or webinar series.

The aim is to capture data through a download or sign-up or gain followers. KPI = Advocacy or community growth.

Pull The aim here is to attract people to your website, product or service and create loyal customers that advocate on your behalf. This relies on website and SEO optimization, and referrals that link to your content (blog or otherwise). KPI = Website traffic, page rank, domain JANUARY 2024

CREATE DATA-CAPTURE CONTENT

authority and data capture. a hub-and-spoke 7 Use model

The hub-and-spoke model helps you generate content in a focused way around a broad topic.

It’s a great way to build relevance and authority on a topic/s while also helping you increase keyword rankings, traffic, and metrics like conversions, leads, and sales.

DMI Insider Tip: For example, if your focus is on social media, your hub could tap into high-volume keywords, like our post on ‘How to Choose the Best Social Media Channels for Your Business’. From that broad topic, we created posts that focus on low-volume long-tail keywords such as ‘How Do Social Media Algorithms Work?’ to attract other users. data-capture 8 Create content Data capture content is content that prompts people to provide their personal information.

The key is to promote relevant and valuable content on topperforming pages or blogs because you know that traffic is going to that page.

Types of data capture content include: ❯ Ebooks ❯ Infographics ❯ Original research ❯ Expert-led webinars ❯ Live videos ❯ In-depth guides ❯ Templates ❯ Toolkit ❯ Tests DMI Insider Tip: The content you offer needs to add value. It’s like a fair value exchange. For example, if you are a clothing company,

AMPLIFY YOUR BRAND USING ADVOCATES

people could visit a blog on top tips for dressing for a wedding. The download could be something like a guide to dressing for your shape. your brand 9 Amplify using advocates

With customers becoming less inclined to trust advertising (64 percent take action to avoid ads on free and ad-supported video services), advocates, or ambassadors, are a powerful way to cut through the noise and get your brand noticed.

Three types of advocates can help amplify your brand: ❯ Influencers - Well-known celebrity influencers are out of reach for many brands, but micro-influencers or SMEs can be effective as the engagement rate is higher and is more authentic. ❯ Loyal customers - Use customers to advocate for the brand through reviews or testimonials as they have experience with the product while employees can also be great advocates. ❯ Referrals - Referrals are powerful as they have been recommended by someone trusted. Reward customers for referring a friend.

DMI Insider Tip: Who are your top ten people who consistently engage with your content? They are your advocates. Your influencers are the people who are opinion leaders in that space and use social media listening tools to identify who those influencers are.

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Set KPIs and measure success In your content marketing, it’s essential to set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure

SET KPIs AND MEASURE SUCCESS success. It’s the only way that you will know if your content marketing strategy is working and gain insight into what content is driving sales.

Examples of content KPIs are: ❯ Website traffic ❯ New vs returning visitors ❯ Dwell time ❯ Engagement ❯ Downloads or sign-ups (data capture) ❯ Bounce rate ❯ Conversions ❯ Backlinks ❯ Shares ❯ Track your KPIs with our Tracker Template To implement a comprehensive strategy, you need to measure your success on an ongoing basis. Use a Content Marketing dashboard tool to keep track of your KPIs based on the four categories of awareness, consideration, conversion, and advocacy.

If you want a business to invest in your content marketing, your blog, and your social media, you have to prove ROI. To do that you need to set KPIs and measure success.

In this new age of AI, marketers — new and established — need to refresh and refine their skills.

Our Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing will introduce you to the fundamentals of digital marketing and dive into key areas such as content marketing, social media, SEO, email, digital strategy, and much more.

MISCHA McINERNEY is the Chief Marketing Officer, Digital Marketing Institute. Mischa has over 20 years’ experience in various countries, industries, and roles across the world.

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FORECASTS & RESEARCH

The Major Trends in eCommerce Marketing for 2024 Economic uncertainty and a growing expectation for seamless commerce continue to dominate

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s we navigate the explosion in AI, data privacy and disruptive technologies, marketers are reimagining every stage of the customer lifecycle as well as their own organizational structures.

With continued demands from internal stakeholders for growth, and external consumer pressure for better service and lower prices, marketers will continue to be challenged to rethink how they do business.

Wunderkind recently released a report identifying 10 trends that will have the biggest impact on digital marketers, and this article is based on the findings of that report. (For more details or to download a copy of the report, please see the end of this piece). While this report focusses on the U.S. retail market, there is no doubt the influence of these trends flows across the border into our market, while our own retail and eCommerce marketing efforts follow similar paths that empower strategy and tactics with technological evolution.

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JANUARY 2024

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FORECASTS & RESEARCH How Retail Evolves Even with robust eCommerce sales, brick and mortar retailers are playing a bigger role in the omnichannel marketing process.

At a time when shoppers can get most of what they need on Amazon, the ability to offer a highquality, personalized experience is an important differentiator that retailers have been embracing.

As technology and consumer expectations advance, in-store and eCommerce experiences will become even more sophisticated and integral to the retail landscape.

This trend is good for everyone.

Shoppers benefit with a more convenient and personalized experience. Marketers forge deeper connections and build brand loyalty with recurring visits.

Beauty behemoth Sephora has been doing this effectively for years.

Associates on the selling floor are equipped with mobile devices with access to a shopper’s account and purchase history. They can instantly help a customer in need of a second tube of that perfect lipstick when the shopper cannot remember the name of the shade.

And even better: the sales associate can upsell the customer by knowing what other items the shopper has purchased in the past.

Target and Nordstrom have reorganized their stores’ footprints and the role of the store associate.

There are larger areas for pickups and returns, and store associates are well-versed on how to direct an eCommerce shopper who is searching for the online returns or pick-up area. Whole Foods ensures that self check out areas are fully staffed. A customer service associate can be at a shopper’s check out kiosk within seconds if a scanner glitches or a digital payment method stalls.

Higher expectations for integrated AI will become more ubiquitous and improve the customer experience Retailers are increasingly using automated styling tools to boost customer satisfaction, minimize returns, and deliver a richer, more immersive experience to customers. Consumers can virtually try on clothing or visualize furniture in their homes before making a purchase. While this type of AI isn’t new, it’s JANUARY 2024

becoming more commonplace.

AI improves the customer experience while brands can simultaneously upsell and crosssell complementary products.

“This technology could extend to in-store purchases as well,” explains Ken Pilot, founder of Ken Pilot Ventures, a strategic advisory and venture investment company focused on retail. “If a customer picks up a skirt in-store, the sales associate could pull it up on the site and help them complete the look in person. The customer could do this as well.”

Fashion brands that leverage this technology like Stylitics see up to 46x return on investment (ROI) and 320 percent average annual growth.

“The consumer experience from a merchandising and correlation perspective is going to get more sophisticated and thus better,” predicts Jeffrey Douglass, VP of Marketing at Weyco Group, an American footwear company. “For instance, in merchandising — if we show black dress shoes, we know to suggest other black dress shoes. Very large retailers might show items that aren’t necessarily correlated, but because of the algorithm and click data, they know that people buy those things together. There’s a higher probability of disruption in this particular field.”

AI is improving the customer experience when it comes to apparel sizes. “There are platforms that help customers measure size accurately. You take your iPhone, scan your body, and it will give the retailer your measurements so they can serve you the right sized products — and that all happens through machine learning,” Pilot explains. “Nailing size is going to continue to be more important.

Returns are such a big problem for brands — especially items like denim and intimate apparel.

Minimizing returns will be huge.”

Augmented reality (AR) plays a role in digital styling too.

Companies like Sunglass Hut are leveraging AR to help close sales. With permission to use a customer’s mobile camera, the customer can “try on” sunglasses to see how they’d look on their face without ever putting them on in a store. The same goes for some furniture companies. Now you can

see how a chair or table would look in your room courtesy of AR. Fashion brands that leverage this technology like Stylitics see up to 46x return on investment and 320 percent average annual growth.

Baby boomers may not capture the attention of marketers the way Gen Z does, but there’s no changing the statistic that more than half of all wealth in the United States is held by Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation. Older generations have the most capital to spend, making them a primary target group for online retailers.

Social Media Usage among Baby Boomers Researchers predict that in the next year 53 percent of boomers will regularly be using social networks. Facebook remains the most popular social media app for boomers, but platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit, and Instagram are gaining popularity.

This has given rise to lifestyle influencers like Barbara “Babs” Costello, the 73-year-old TikToker, who is “the internet mom/ grandma you didn’t know you needed” with nearly four million followers. Or Gym Tan, a 62-yearold fashion executive who became an Instagram and TikTok star with her daughter’s encouragement.

Tan offers fashion inspiration for women of all generations, with the largest segment being twentysomethings. It’s so lucrative she now devotes herself fulltime to creating content for Instagram and TikTok. As consumers over the age of 60 maintain more active lifestyles and continue to embrace the conveniences of technology, marketers must create content, campaigns and promotions that not only engage these consumers, but feature them prominently with customized messaging. Knowing and trusting a brand is a top factor influencing purchase decisions for US adults, particularly among those ages 60 and older. Marketers must be authentic when targeting these consumers.

With their population size, social media activity, and roughly $2.6 trillion in buying power, the Baby Boomer market remains a high priority for businesses. ❯ Increased focus on targeting

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Boomer shoppers 53 percent of boomers will regularly be using social networks.

A recent global study found that eight in ten adults want more control over their identity on the internet and are advocating for enhanced data privacy rights. This includes the right to be informed about the data collected, the right to delete that data, and the ability to take legal action in cases of misuse. Compliance with these rights is becoming a focal point for businesses.

According to Insider Intelligence, more and more states are enacting laws that restrict the collection of personal information and give consumers more agency over how their data is used, favoring privacy protection over ad targeting and retargeting. “Privacy controls will continue to increase, but I think progressive brands will let customers openly own their data and decide how they want it used,” predicts Shelly Wilson, Senior Vice President of Digital at Saje Natural Wellness. “If a customer shares a lot of their information, but in exchange it saves them time, money and reduces email volume and non-relevant communication, there is a strong value exchange.

Brands need to share how carefully they will protect data very soon as consumers will be voting not only with their dollars, but with their data.”

“Customers want to know their data is safe and secure, but they will give you their data if there is a true benefit to providing that info about themselves,”says Christi Korzekwa, founder and CEO of ABL Marketing and former Chief Marketing Officer at Tractor Supply Company. “A lot of customers want monetary value. The more I spend, the more money or points you’ll give me. But second to monetary value is knowledge—they want to be more informed on how to live a particular lifestyle. You have to dig into your customers’ psyches and determine what’s most important to them.”

Consumers will take more control over their personal data Customers want to know their data is safe and secure, but they will give you their data if there is DMN.CA ❰

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FORECASTS & RESEARCH a true benefit to providing that info about themselves. A lot of customers want monetary value.

The more I spend, the more money or points you’ll give me. But second to monetary value is knowledge — they want to be more informed on how to live a particular lifestyle. You have to dig into your customers’ psyches and determine what’s most important to them.”

Christi Korzekwa, founder and CEO of ABL Marketing and former Chief Marketing Officer at Tractor Supply Company.

As digital privacy becomes more prominent and regulated, marketers and data teams are working more collaboratively. In an era where data protection is a significant concern, involving privacy professionals in marketing strategy discussions is crucial to ensure that campaigns adhere to regulatory requirements and respect user privacy.

The rise of privacy-first marketing A privacy-first approach allows marketers to access the data they need to make insightful decisions but incorporates data privacy principles throughout the marketing process. It respects consumers’ personal rights, complies with major data privacy regulations, and safeguards consumer data from mismanagement or security breaches.

“Privacy, like security, is best when it is baked in from the start, not fixed after the fact,” says Anne Toth, trust, privacy and tech policy advisor, and member of the ISACA Digital Trust Advisory Council, when discussing the results of their Privacy in Practice 2023 survey report. “Our research underscores and validates what many practitioners know from experience to be true: privacy by design is a smart investment that pays dividends in customer trust.”

Marketers will become privacy champions As data breaches become more common, consumers are becoming more discerning about the companies they choose to interact with. Businesses that prioritize data privacy are more likely to remain competitive.

A comprehensive understanding ❱ DMN.CA

of data privacy empowers marketers to navigate the evolving landscape of digital marketing responsibly. It not only safeguards the interests of consumers but also protects the reputation and longevity of the business.

Privacy, like security, is best when it is baked in from the start, not fixed after the fact. Our research underscores and validates what many practitioners know from experience to be true: privacy by design is a smart investment that pays dividends in customer trust.”- Anne Toth, trust, privacy and tech policy advisor, and member of the ISACA Digital Trust Advisory Council The eventual removal of third party cookies for data collection has been known for years. Yet marketers have been slow to adopt alternative solutions. In a recent webinar Jennifer Fleck, senior principal of global business advisory services at Slalom, cited internal stakeholder consensus as one of the key reasons businesses have waited so long to invest in a modernized marketing system. “We need to have some consensus around where this data lives, how it’s governed, how it’s operationalized, and who owns it.” eMarketer reports that B2B marketing data spending will continue to grow through 2024.

Technologies and methods to make better use of first-party data have come a long way and are giving brands more control of their customer retention and acquisition. Investment in firstparty and 6 zero-party data will increase US B2B Marketing Data Spending, 2020-2024.

This year in the US means both a presidential and mid-year elections. This means political spending will flood the advertising markets with more than $12B, according to Insider Intelligence.

Brands that lean heavily on paid channels to retarget consumers will find this tactic failing miserably as the year progresses.

With a projected 362 percent increase in digital spending alone from 2023 figures, marketers can expect scarcity in ad inventory as well as skyrocketing costs as they compete with massive political ad budgets. Furthermore, consumers will continue to turn a blind eye to ad units as they get pummeled across their digital journey. Brands that can leverage owned channels such as email and sms will stand out and win. ❯ Adding a strong identity partner increases marketers ability to reach more consumers across these channels. ❯ Political ad spends will wreak havoc 7 on retargeting tactics

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for brands 362 percent projected 362 percent increase in digital spending alone from 2023 figures

Total Political Ad Spending Ethical AI focuses on developing and deploying AI systems that prioritize fairness, transparency, accountability, and respect for human values. The emphasis is on avoiding harm and promoting responsible AI use.

“Retailers have a lot of data around their customers,” says Christi Korzekwa, Founder and CEO of ABL Marketing and former Chief Marketing Officer at Tractor Supply Company. “You’re going to see them using AI to consume that data more swiftly and generate actionable insights that will allow them to drive their business forward.”

In late 2023, Walmart unveiled its Walmart Responsible AI pledge. In a recent blog Walmart’s SVP Nuala O’Connor, and chief counsel, digital citizenship wrote “The Walmart Responsible AI Pledge is about more than just AI. It is a moment in time for us to speak directly to our customers, members and associates; be transparent and address the concerns they may have with the rapid pace of technological

Source: eMarketer, Dec 2022

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FORECASTS & RESEARCH

Source: eMarketer, Dec 2023

innovation; and reinforce our commitment to using technology in ways that are safe and beneficial to them. And by leading in this space, we hope to pave the way for adoption of ethical AI in retail.”

According to a recent Gartner survey, 34 percent of organizations are either already using or implementing AI security tools to mitigate the accompanying risks of generative AI generative AI, artificial intelligence capable of generating text, images and other media.

The rise of ethical AI “What we’re seeing is an increased need for ethical AI,” explains John Bates, Vice President of Product at Wunderkind. “There’s explicit consent that data subjects can give around the collection and use of data, but sometimes there is synthetic data that can be created based on the intelligence of these algorithms. Some of these models are so good that they can predict your gender, income, race, etc. How do you balance out explicit consent for that personal identifiable information (PII) with pseudo PII that gets derived by models and is getting increasingly more accurate? They’re going to need to figure it out.”

Retailers have a lot of data around their customers. You’re going to see them using AI to JANUARY 2024

consume that data more swiftly and generate actionable insights that will allow them to drive their business forward.” - Christi Korzekwa, founder and CEO of ABL Marketing and former Chief Marketing Officer at Tractor Supply Company.

AI will disrupt not just the technology that marketers use, but also the business models with which marketers engage vendors.

“The subscription vendors will die,” says Richard Jones, Chief Revenue Officer at Wunderkind. “The companies that sell outcomes will replace subscriptions.”

Many tech companies have a business model in which they sell seats to their platform, and regardless of how much a customer uses it (like an ESP where you could send one email or a million emails per month), you pay the same prefixed amount. On the other hand, companies that guarantee outcomes (leads, conversions, or revenue) where the customer doesn’t pay until that guarantee is met, will be positioned to win in 2024 and beyond.

Many legacy vendors will find it nearly impossible to move to an outcomes-based, AI-powered business model because of the amount of revenue they have tied up in subscriptions. Tim Glomb, VP Digital, Content and AI at Wunderkind, says “We predict up

to 50 percent of niche martech SaaS vendors will fail in the next few years because of this.”

“Towards the end of 2024, we’ll start to see the rise of autonomous marketing platforms,” Jones adds.

“AI is the disruption; the impact is autonomous marketing. This will attack the Microsoft Clippy-style, AI-assisted mentality.” This means platforms with unique, proprietary datasets that can feed AI engines that are powering their core value and offerings are poised to truly disrupt existing models and accelerate the impact they provide for brands.

AI will impact business models and how 9 brands work with martech vendors “We predict up to 50 percent of niche martech SaaS vendors will fail in the next few years because of this” -Tim Glomb, VP Digital, Content and AI, Wunderkind Brands that are investing in long-term organic growth strategies are better poised for revenue growth and for buffering themselves against rising customer acquisition costs. Paid channels like Google and Facebook advertising have seen lower engagement and conversion rates as consumers become increasingly intolerant with intrusive content.

Many eCommerce marketers are leveraging owned channels and

first-party data amidst shrinking budgets for smarter, scalable growth. While paid channels yield a more immediate lift, organic channel growth is more steady, more trustworthy and more consistent. Paid content helps your marketing efforts via broad and immediate exposure. Organic users often share quality content, amplifying your brand awareness through word-of-mouth. Paid display ads, for example, don’t generally lead to customer referrals; they must leverage retargeting to consistently remind potential consumers about the brand.

Marketers are seeing a decline in the ROI of legacy paid channels like Facebook and heightened concern about unsafe digital brand environments. Glomb says, “There is a real need to identify and invest in the channels Brands are re-prioritizing their owned channel experiences versus paid channels that deliver efficient revenue growth. Those who focus on collecting and leveraging zero- and first-party data to personalize content and offers across their owned channels will find email, sms and their own digital properties acting as robust, customer-centric growth engines.

Those who nail this will be the marketing leaders of tomorrow.”

The role of the marketer will continue to evolve in 2024 as the pressure rises to deliver efficiencies, value and growth. Technology will impact every touch point of customer relations and give rise to internal teams with increasingly diverse skill sets. Now more than ever, the right marketing partner could mean the difference between survival and success.

WUNDERKIND is a leading performance marketing solution that delivers guaranteed revenue.

Brands, publishers, and advertisers confidently use Wunderkind to grow customer relationships and revenue through one-to-one messages across their website, email, texts, and ads. This article is based on a report and is not sponsored content. https://convert.wunderkind.co/2024marketing-predictions-guide

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FORECASTS & RESEARCH

How Digital Marketing Shapes Our Future: The 2024 DGTL Study

T

he 2024 DGTL Study sheds light on five key findings that will guide your thinking for your digital strategies in 2024.

This second edition reaffirms the importance of crafting a researchdriven digital strategy. Leger DGTL converts insights into tailored strategies, seamlessly aligning with the unique expectations of our clients’ audiences, unlocking maximum potential and return on investment.

While they can’t guarantee the end of your sleepless nights, this study serves as your guiding light, illuminating the path to insights that provide certainty and ease of mind addressing the pressing questions that keep you awake night after night. ❱ DMN.CA

What Keeps You Up at Night?

Research empowers a deeper understanding of your audience’s needs and expectations, including: ❯ Actively used platforms; ❯ Top -performing content types; ❯ Preferred means to connect with brands; ❯ Brand perception insights; ❯ And so much more.

A bit of background. The 2024 DGTL Study represents a step forward in our research efforts.

This year, we introduced a refined questionnaire designed to better capture the diversity of the communities we survey, aligning with Leger’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). We also surveyed Canadians and Americans to

enrich the depth of the insights presented in our study.

By improving our questions and including additional audiences, we create a more inclusive environment, which leads to better insights and more meaningful research.

What? Online survey of 4,079 respondents available in English or French.

When? Data collection from September 5 to October 4, 2023.

Weighting: Canadian results were weighted by gender at birth, age, region, mother tongue, education and presence of children in the household. U.S. results were weighted according to respondents’ gender at birth, age, region, mother tongue, education, number of individuals in the household

and ethnicity (Hispanic or not), according to Leger’s weighting standards.

1. Online Habits & Behaviours The new generations are transforming the digital landscape. It’s not just fashion that changes from one generation to the next; online behaviours evolve as well. While it’s important to continue engaging with your more mature audiences, keeping an eye on and drawing inspiration from what younger people are doing is an excellent strategy: one day, these young people will become your target audience and bring with them all their digital knowledge and habits.

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FORECASTS & RESEARCH

75% of first-generation immigrants have a WhatsApp account.

75 percent have a WhatsApp account ❯ 34 percent with an account on at least one platform would prioritize WhatsApp if they could only keep one platform ❯ 48 percent use WhatsApp at least once a day and 61 percent use it at least once a week ❯

Recommendations include using a multilingual approach to communicate with each of your audiences in their mother tongue, promoting understanding and inclusion. Develop content focused on family, culture and shared experiences, in a context where family conversations are often at the heart of communications on WhatsApp. Ensure responsive customer service to build trust and engagement with your audiences.

First Generation Immigrants WhatsApp is very popular with first-generation immigrants.

While Facebook still dominates the social media landscape in Canada, WhatsApp wins hands down when it comes to first-generation immigrants alone. If done in a non-intrusive way, integrating WhatsApp into a brand’s strategy can strengthen the relationships with audiences.

Among first-generation immigrants: JANUARY 2024

of Canadians are looking for job opportunities on social media at least once a week.

seekers acknowledge the value of social networks in their job search, and brands should establish solid strategies to promote their employer brand and attract top talent in their respective industries.

Influencers: Content Appreciated and Credible Influencers are often very close to their followers: including them in your digital strategies can allow you to reach audiences that you might not be able to reach with your usual channels.

Thirty-five percent of Canadians follow influencers, a significant

34% 48% of first-generation immigrants use WhatsApp at least once a day. 61% use it at least once a week.

21%

where they can share moments of their lives in a more immediate and sincere way.

The platforms that have seen more unsubscribes than subscribes are Twitter, Twitch, Pinterest and Snapchat. With a third of the population having an account, TikTok continues to gain ground.

Contrary to popular belief, its appeal is not limited to GEN Z; millennials (millennials (25-44) have also found their place on TikTok. Despite the initial craze, Threads and BeReal have failed to engage their users, leaving a trail of fading interest. For 2024, caution is

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prompting Canadians to adapt their presence on different platforms.

This year, some digital consumption habits persist. For example, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Pinterest are not recording any significant increases or decreases in membership levels. However, other habits are emerging: a growing number of Canadians are joining LinkedIn, TikTok and WhatsApp. Although it still ranks first among the platforms that Canadian social media users would keep if they could choose only one, Facebook is gradually losing momentum. Of the 21 percent of internet users who prefer Facebook, 73 percent are aged over 45. Conversely, those under 45 would prefer to keep Instagram. While other platforms maintain their rank compared to last year, WhatsApp stands out with an increase in digital platform users who would keep it as their sole platform.

of first-generation immigrants with an account on at least one digital platform would prioritize WhatsApp if they could keep only one platform.

increase from last year (31 percent in 2022). Among these followers, 68 percent hold a positive perception of the credibility of influencer content (66 percent last year).

Podcasts Canadians are listening and not just reading or watching. Audio is on the rise as more of us are streaming music and listening to podcasts on a weekly basis than we were in 2022.

Work We are looking for work. At any given time, 21 percent of Canadians are job seeking.

Catalyzed by labour shortages, the economic context, and the evolving motivations of employees, the professional dimension of the Web is gaining momentum. Job

2. Emerging Platform Adoption Canadians are inclined to sign up for new platforms, but consistent usage is not guaranteed. New platforms are both opportunities and nightmares in the daily lives of marketing professionals — we all remember the madness when Threads was launched. So here are a few statistics to help you answer your boss’ question: should we be on [insert name of new platform here]?

Threads and BeReal seem to have been born out of a growing desire for authenticity in the content and interaction that occurs online. WhatsApp and Discord are a notch above, providing spaces for instant, raw communication. All these platforms want to capture the essence of spontaneity and transparency, offering users spaces

advised: the initial appeal of these platforms is proving to be more fleeting than deep-rooted, requiring strategic consideration before any investment.

How do you determine whether a new platform is worth investing in? The emergence of new platforms undoubtedly represents a major challenge for marketing professionals, who find themselves juggling their desire to innovate with the need to develop sustainable, carefully executed marketing strategies.

Evaluate the Type of Content Posted Determine whether the platform is aligned with your brand’s content strategy and objectives.

Some platforms are better suited to visual content, while others are more focussed on text or video.

Evaluate User Profiles Assess whether the demographics of the platform’s users match your target audience and check their level of engagement.

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FORECASTS & RESEARCH

3. Digital Fatigue and Anxiety Digital fatigue and anxiety are two very real phenomena.

Canadians excel at the art of online scrolling. But with this habit comes boredom, anxiety and doubts about content credibility.

In this context, the desire to connect and communicate with our community, whether real or virtual, is even stronger, as is our urge to follow people and accounts that make us feel good.

A less enjoyable digital presence.

Information overload, constant notifications, pressure to stay connected, negative content, multiplicity of platforms, data protection issues...Canadians’ distrust of content and platforms is trending upwards compared to last year, reducing their enjoyment of the Web. Answers to questions changed: ❯ I like to visit the Web for entertainment or inspiration? 76 percent (down from 80 percent in 2022) ❯ When I browse a digital platform I am very suspicious. 60 percent (up from 56 percent) ❯ I find it difficult to discern the real from the fake on digital platforms. 49 percent (up from 45 percent) ❯ The Web is a source of stress for me. 23 percent (up from 21 percent) ❯ I am open to sharing more personal information on digital platforms if this enhances/ personalizes my online experience. 22 percent (down from 25 percent) About a quarter (23 percent) of the population reports feeling stressed by digital media. Yet only 15 percent of Canadians with an account on at least one digital platform have ❱ DMN.CA

implemented mechanisms to limit their time on social networks. This disparity suggests that, despite the stress, reducing online time may not be the preferred solution for Internet users. What if, instead, they seek to enhance the quality of their content, making their online experience more meaningful and less stressful? Brands could play a crucial role in creating more engaging, informative, or entertaining content to meet this demand.

Less Bogus Content Lack of interest in posted content is the main source of digital fatigue.

What’s more, among those who left a social media platform in the past year, at least 40 percent cited a content-related reason.

Reasons for quitting a platform include lack of interest in content (40 percent), doesn’t suit the viewer anymore (31 percent) and for privacy and security reasons (27 percent).

What’s more, people worried about: ❯ 26 percent: Toxic content ❯ 24 percent: No longer need the platform ❯ 21 percent: Lack of time for this platform ❯ 21 percent: To reduce my stress/ lessen the impact on my mental health ❯ 19 percent: Change in the platform’s vocation or policies ❯ 14 percent: My social circle is no longer there or is no longer active ❯ 12 percent: The accounts I follow are no longer there or active ❯ 8 percent: Other reason(s)

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22 percent: To entertain or inspire myself or pass the time

Other reasons included to keep informed, keep up with trends, be part of a community, meet new people, for a specific need, to express themselves, and others.

How can I make my content more engaging?

Despite digital fatigue and anxiety, Internet users stay connected. So, it’s up to brands to create content that will be perceived as interesting, relevant and value-added.

Humanize Your Brand Internet users prefer to interact with people rather than companies, so, give your brand a personality to create a more authentic connection.

Put Aside Overly Polished Content Create User Generated Content (UGC), post photos without filters or graphic elements. Use the functionalities (typography, colours, stickers, etc.) specific to each platform.

Focus on Conversations Integrate messaging apps in your strategy: WhatsApp, Chatbot, SMS, etc.

4. Online Habits The Leger report includes extensive information about American online habits, but we’re going to focus on the comparison of American and Canadian behaviour that was revealed in the research. There are some significant differences.

Besides being present on various platforms, Americans participate in a diverse array of online activities. While some marketers might perceive this plethora of choices as a potential challenge, we view it as a tangible opportunity for brands to enhance and diversify their strategies.

Moreover, over half of Americans (61 percent) admit to “virtual window shopping”, presenting an opportunity to leverage in retargeting strategies.

A High Level of Trust in Social Media The credibility of traditional media is being called into question. The polarization of information and concerns about bias are prompting Americans to turn to social media as more credible sources of information. They generally have more confidence in platforms, even emerging platforms, and fewer (37 percent in the U.S. vs. 49 percent in Canada) say they have difficulty recognizing true from false on digital platforms.

I do this activity at least every week:

Despite this fatigue, Internet users seem to feel good when they engage in meaningful conversations. Brands have a vested interest in developing human, positive and enriching communication strategies − a ray of hope in an increasingly toxic digital universe.

People who joined a new platform included: ❯ 43 percent: To connect or communicate with people around me ❯ 33 percent: To follow accounts I like ❯ 27 percent: Interest in content

COURTESY LEGER DGTL

Consider TikTok Its ever-growing popularity makes it an excellent platform for reaching the working population and younger audience. In 2023, about one third (31 percent) of the Canadian population is on TikTok. Canadians who joined TikTok this year primarily did so for entertainment (48 percent), to follow interesting accounts (44 percent), or to keep up with trends (32 percent).

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FORECASTS & RESEARCH

COURTESY LEGER DGTL

Yes to Advertising, as Long as It’s Well-Targeted

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Inspires More Trust Than Social Media

Preferred Social Media Platform

Should I target Canadians and Americans in the same way?

The American market is both mature and pioneering. By monitoring what is happening with our southern neighbours, we can identify strong indicators that help anticipate upcoming trends in Canada. If you are a Canadian brand, this gives you the opportunity to integrate these trends into your strategies and gain a competitive edge.

Hypersegment Your Platforms Expand the platforms where your brand is active and tailor your strategy for each. The diversity of platforms become an advantage for your brand, helping you reach a more targeted audience and solidify your place in the digital landscape.

COURTESY LEGER DGTL

Embrace Content Repurposing As Americans are on different platforms and consume different types of content, repurposing (and adapting) your different content can help you engage with your audiences more effectively.

JANUARY 2024

Segment your audiences to better personalize your content Americans welcome advertising: capitalize on this receptiveness to carve a distinctive space in their minds by presenting content and DMN.CA ❰

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FORECASTS & RESEARCH ads that genuinely align with their interests, needs, and their position in the buying journey.

Usage Trends: Arts & Culture, Gastronomy, Beauty, Fashion, Luxury Goods

5. Platform Usage by Industry

Usage Trends: Nature, Health & Wellness, Sports & Travel Who hasn’t dreamed of being on a beach in The Bahamas or hiking in the Dolomites after seeing a Reel on Instagram? With its visual focus, Instagram is favoured by travel and nature enthusiasts (67 percent of 16-24 year olds and 59 percent of 25-44 year olds). Not surprisingly, the age under 45 prefers this platform for consuming content. As a platform to long-form content, vlogs and educational tutorials YouTube is a great reference for sports content.

COURTESY LEGER DGTL

Preferences for digital platforms vary significantly according to demographic segments and user interests. This highlights the importance of a targeted digital strategy to effectively reach different audiences on the channels they use most.

Usage Trends: News, Politics, Finance, Technology, and Video Games

The DGTL Interactive Report offers you the ability to filter data from the DGTL 2024 study, allowing you to better understand the actual preferences of your audience. Whether by age group, gender, region (province or country), or interests, you can precisely select the platforms on which to invest your resources with confidence. https://legerdgtl.com/en/dgtlstudy

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Five Key Takeaways ❱ DMN.CA

COURTESY LEGER DGTL

The new DGTL Interactive Report, developed in close collaboration with our research and analytics teams, represents a significant advancement in effectively developing your marketing plan.

1

New generations are reshaping the digital landscape. Younger people are increasingly moving away from Facebook, with many now following influencers on Instagram. In time, these younger demographics will have significant purchasing power — it’s crucial to evolve alongside them.

2

While the registration rate for emerging platforms is high, actual usage remains low. On the contrary, TikTok continues to expand its reach, now attracting more than just Gen Z. It’s seeing increasing activity from those aged 44 and under.

3 4

The phenomena of digital fatigue and anxiety are very much a reality Despite this, people are staying online, seeking interactions that are more human, positive, and fulfilling.

The online presence is diverse, and often sets trends Keeping an eye on developments in the U.S. can help in identifying upcoming trends and incorporating them into your strategies ahead of time.

5

The choice of platforms varies greatly based on interests Once you understand your audience’s interests, direct your marketing efforts toward the platforms where they are most active. Ongoing projects constantly linger in your thoughts, and finding the reliable, precise data needed for decision-making proves challenging. Let’s admit it: juggling the ever-emerging platforms and trends can become a dizzying endeavour.

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Marketing Transformation: An Interview with Brent Chaters, Managing Director, Accenture

Brent Chaters leads the Marketing Transformation practice at Accenture Canada and is a noted expert and celebrated speaker on search marketing.

BY STEPHEN SHAW

A STEPHEN SHAW is the Chief Strategy Officer of Kenna, a marketing solutions provider specializing in delivering a more unified customer experience. Stephen can be reached via e-mail at sshaw@kenna.ca

JANUARY 2024

ny way you look at it, these are troubling times if you’re in marketing.

You’ve got AI coming full speed at you, maybe about to take away your job. No one understands what you do — not your mother, your best friend, or most of the people outside of marketing in your company. And even worse, just about everyone thinks they can do your job. Which leads to imposter syndrome because you likely don’t have a whole lot of training yourself. Fake it until you make it, you keep saying to yourself.

Your CMO keeps changing every few years, forcing you to prove yourself all over again. And the career ladder looks pretty shaky right now, with tighter budgets and almost no senior mentoring (no one sticks around long enough or is too busy to take the time).

Most of your younger colleagues think marketing begins and ends with communications. Clicks, followers, fans — that spells success for them. They can’t understand why finance folks are so dismissive of their requests for more dollars at budget time. And geez, what happens when Google starts phasing out cookies? How will

we prove all those digital media dollars are actually working? What will finance have to say then?

Maybe this wasn’t such a great career choice after all, you think. And yet … you love what you do. It’s CREATIVE! You get to have a say in how the company represents itself in the marketplace. If only the CEO could appreciate the fact that marketing is in the front lines of the battle for growth. After all, we’re the company’s connection to the market! But you worry the CEO has no real clue what would happen if the company stopped marketing altogether. Most CEOs, you’re told, come out of finance or operations. To them, marketing is and always will be a cost centre.

That last concern may be the most troublesome of all. Only 10 percent of Fortune 250 CEOs have marketing experience, according to McKinsey. They don’t really appreciate the power of branding and they see marketing primarily as the brand steward rather than a growth driver. And even when they acknowledge that a great customer experience is crucial to success, they don’t necessarily see marketing as the ones who should be in charge. In fact, marketing, for DMN.CA ❰

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COURTESY ACCENTURE CANADA

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INTERVIEW the most part, has been shut out of the strategic conversation at the Executive level.

This growing divide between CMOs and the C-suite — the furious pace of technological change — the rapid rise of generative AI — the complexity of managing customer interactions across a myriad of channels — the criticalness of delivering memorable experiences — these and many other stress points are forcing marketers to rethink what they do and why. How can marketing find common ground with Finance? How can they spike company growth? How they can they play the long game at the same time as generating quick wins? How can they avoid spreading their budget dollars too thinly across all of the available media options? How can they build a leaner marketing technology stack that makes everything easier? For that matter, where does AI fit into the picture exactly?

These challenges, and many more, haunt today’s marketer.

The only solution is to transform marketing: make it more relevant, more strategic, more impactful.

Scrap the orthodoxies. Empower marketing to become agents of change rather than foot soldiers.

Teach marketers to speak the language of the boardroom. All of that falls within the mandate of Brent Chaters at Accenture: to drive transformational change in marketing organizations that recognize the importance of rapid adaptation in times of uncertainty.

Brent got his start in digital marketing, became a renowned expert in search marketing and today leads a team that helps CMOs reenergize their operations.

Stephen Shaw: You were an English major who followed that up with a college degree in interactive multimedia.

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Those were the early days of the commercial Web — did you see it as a ground floor opportunity?

Brent Chaters: My plan was to either go into journalism or medicine. My mom worked at HP and she was very heavily into technology. Her career advice to me then was, “Hey, there’s this Internet thing and you love technology.” That time was the Wild West for the Internet. There were no rules. Nobody knew what it was going to be. I was able to take some of my graphic design background from high school, combine it with my English major degree, and so make use of my right and left brain.

Shaw: Do you sort of wipe your brow now and say, “Phew, I could have gone the journalism route and possibly be out of work by now”?

Chaters: I think if that had happened, I just would’ve ended up some way in tech and communication.

Shaw: You got started at HP, and you were there for quite some time before moving on to Intuit. What lessons did you learn then that are still applicable today?

Chaters: It probably comes down to some of the leaders that I had.

Georgia Sievwright had a huge impact on my career. She was our VP at HP for legal and corporate comms. Back in early 2000 when I started, they didn’t know where to put the Internet people, so they stuck me in IT: “You know how to make web pages, so you must know how to run a web server.” I had no idea how to do any of that stuff, but I figured it out.

Georgia took me under her wing in corporate comms

and said, “We’d like to communicate to our employee base in more interesting ways through digital technology.” What she taught me was that, as a leader, don’t let silly things get in the way. She just found ways to make things happen. She wasn’t afraid of taking big swings.

I remember one time we had Carly Fiorina, who was the global CEO at the time, coming to Canada. Georgia asked me, “Do you think we could live stream Carly?”. I told her, “Absolutely we can!”, not realizing how big a deal that was. We did our first test and took down the entire network.

I got a call from our network guy demanding to know: “What are you doing?”. I explained it to him, and he goes, “Oh, okay, you need to do multicast.” The team came together to make the Carly experience excellent. It was the first time she was ever live streamed across the nation in real-time. That may seem so simple today, but this was pre-YouTube.

And then, at Intuit, Jeff Cates, who I had actually worked with at HP, was the CEO for Canada.

He allowed me to explore things like product marketing. If you give somebody an opportunity to expand, they’ll grow into the space that you create for them.

And then I would also say Gail Evans. She is now the Chief Digital Officer at Disney Parks. She was an EVP for us at HP globally. And she took a big bet on us. At that time, we were consolidating all of the websites. We didn’t think it was going well. I felt we needed to voice our opinion and she gave us a platform to speak to the Executive group. We were able to have a very

mature conversation that allowed us to pivot so that what we were building was right. I felt that she had my back.

Shaw: You came up through the ranks of digital. I think you earned a bit of a reputation in search marketing as well.

Chaters: Certainly went very deep in search.

Shaw: Let’s fast forward to today. Your mandate is marketing transformation. Let me ask a very basic question to get started: What is the role of marketing these days? The fact that there is a need for transformation would suggest that role is changing, but what would be your definition of marketing as it exists today?

Chaters: Very simply, marketing is the way that organizations communicate to their customer base.

Shaw: The C-suite thinks of marketing as purely demand generation.

Chaters: Demand gen is certainly part of it. But it’s not just about demand gen: it’s about managing the customer experience across different parts of the organization.

Shaw: The official AMA definition of marketing, if you distill what is a long paragraph into a simple statement, is to create value. If you ask Seth Godin what his definition is, it’s to serve customers. So, neither is talking about ads or comms even. They’re saying marketing’s role is to drive value in the enterprise by serving customers.

Do you agree with that?

Chaters: I do, but our job is to make sure that we’re actually putting revenue in the company’s pocket. I think people want to soften it a

JANUARY 2024

// 19

INTERVIEW little bit by saying value because it doesn’t sound so corporate. But that’s how businesses operate.

And I think if you don’t have a pragmatic view, you get lost in what is the goal or objective that you’re trying to achieve. At the end of the day, businesses really try and do two things: drive more revenue and cut costs, right? And you’ve got figure out how to do that.

Shaw: I think that businesses today are fundamentally asking themselves, what should marketing’s contribution be to the business? Is that at the heart of marketing transformation?

What are the main drivers?

Chaters: I see transformation in a few different ways. First, there are the organizations that are shifting from brand building to performance marketing. How many leads are you driving? How many are you converting? Then you’ve got organizations that are trying to drive higher levels of technology adoption: We have to do more with less, so how do we do that? With Gen AI, for example, how do I produce and create content faster? Do we shift from being creatives to being editors?

And then, there are organizations just trying to figure out how to be more efficient as a whole. There the transformation is more about workflows and people alignment.

That’s really more about partnering with the finance team, with the sales team, with the tech team, to get work done. Customers are engaging differently as well, right?

They’re changing the way they’re engaging with brands. Brands are having to meet those shifting customer needs.

Shaw: Are marketers asking for help to make the transition to this new digital-first era? Or is it coming from business leadership saying that we need to upgrade

JANUARY 2024

our marketing practices?

Chaters: It’s a little bit of both. I’d say probably 80 percent of what I’m doing, marketers are saying, “I’ve been challenged to rethink my business model. I’ve been challenged to rethink our goals and objectives.” Or they’ve been given a bigger mandate. Sometimes we’re pulled in from a VP or EVP of IT or technology who’s saying, “ I need to help get the marketing team highly digital.” A lot of that was accelerated through COVID. Everybody had to get digital overnight, so you saw this huge rise of digitization. And then sometimes it’s just driven by the businesses where they’re saying, “We’ve got new targets to hit. We don’t know how we’re going to hit them. We need your help. Can you come and figure it out?”

Shaw: Does the demand for marketing transformation go hand in hand with the demand for digital transformation?

Chaters: Yes, absolutely. That’s a huge driver.

Shaw: Are these clients also facing disruption in their business model due to the changing habits of people?

Chaters: So there’s a lot of legislation that’s coming out now in terms of how you utilize customer data, and that’s disrupting the personalization strategies of a lot of organizations.

They’re also recognizing that there’s new technology coming along that they’ll need to adopt.

And then COVID really did change the way that consumers engage with companies. It led to new habits. People found new tools and ways of using their time. The role of marketing is helping to connect digital technology and people, making sure that customers understand their options.

Shaw: I want to move on to another pain point for a lot of marketers these days, and that is the relationship between the C-suite and the CMO. CMOs today don’t have quite the influence they used to have. CEOs and CFOs have a hazy understanding of marketing, and this leads to a disconnect around what they feel marketing should be doing versus what marketing feels it should be doing. What can be done to bridge this divide?

Chaters: I think it’s up to marketers. You asked me earlier about some of the things I learned.

At Intuit, I remember being given a budget for a new product that we were introducing. It was a small budget, but this was a product that we wanted to grow long term.

I went to the CFO and said, “I’m going to make you a deal. You give me a cost per acquisition cap, and if I stay below that cap, you’ll fund me until I go over it, and then you can freeze my funding. But the second I go under it again, you’ll increase my funding.” He goes, “Yeah, that makes complete sense.” So, we ran it as an experiment. We went from a $50,000 budget, super small, to $6 million by the end of the year.

What I did differently was talking to the CFO with a financial hat on.

Shaw: Let me go back in time a little bit. Between the mid 1950s and the mid ‘80s, marketing actually had a fairly big role in influencing business strategy and direction. That doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.

Marketers have lost a lot of prestige and influence relative to that era. What do you think accounts for that change? Is it a feeling that marketers don’t have the necessary gravitas anymore to play with the adults?

Chaters:The “Mad Men” era, right? Showmanship, that was all

part of marketing. Marketing was seen as the way to get that zingy thing out there that everybody would remember. If you nailed that, it affected the business significantly. We’ve lost a little bit of that flare for showmanship. The challenge now is marketers can’t keep up with all the channels.

Back then, you won on billboards and TV and radio. The end. Now, hey, what about Threads? Virtual reality? E-gaming? And the explosion of channels has diluted the creative. But yeah, I mean, as a whole, I don’t think marketing is being invited to sit at the C-suite table as much as they used to be.

Shaw: The other thing that holds marketers back is just 35 percent of marketers in Canada are formally trained.

They’re what’s called “accidental marketers”. In fact, we may be the only business discipline that doesn’t insist on some sort of formal accreditation beyond having an MBA. Is that because in business, marketing is seen as something anybody can do?

Chaters: So, I had this very same conversation with a colleague, and he made this statement, and I kind of laughed, but it was so true: “Marketing is the only industry where some yahoo can come from anywhere in the organization and think, ‘I can do marketing.’ Part of it is people thinking it’s arts and crafts: “I can come up with an ad.” The art of marketing is not the ability to create the ad.

The art of marketing is to create something that will resonate with the largest potential audience.

It’s the one thing that’s going to drive conversation with people, right? That’s what separates true marketers from someone who shows up thinking they can do it.

Shaw: So, I’m going to cite another disturbing figure, which

DMN.CA ❰

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INTERVIEW

is that CMO tenure is at its lowest in a decade, something like just over three years. What accounts for this level of churn?

Are CMOs set up to fail due to the unrealistic expectations of the C-suite? Are they often scapegoats for lower than expected growth?

Chaters: What the stat doesn’t tell us is, are they being fired or are they just moving into different jobs? In my job in Canada, I’ve got good exposure to the Fortune 500 CMOs, and their tenure is definitely a lot longer than what that stat says. And then the ones that I know who have moved on, at least in Canada, have taking a better job, jumped to a competitor, or moved to their global or U.S. head office. And then I’d say maybe 10 percent have exited because marketing is seen as a cost center and the marketing group has not been able to articulate the value it creates. The CEO doesn’t really understand what marketing does while the only response of the CMO is to say, “Look at the ads”.

The CEO says, “Yeah, but what’s that doing for my business?” When the CMO can’t answer, that’s when you see this turnover.

Shaw: Is the main challenge for marketers today managing the proliferation of media options?

Is the whole exercise of media planning now really more an exercise in throwing darts than anything?

Chaters: I think before, marketers needed to think two dimensionally, channel and message, that was it. And then on top of that, there were segments. Now you also have to think in a third plane as ❱ DMN.CA

well with the shift to always-on marketing. When you talk about throwing a dart at a board, a marketer who’s doing a really good job has the right tools, they have access to the right data, and they have the ability to scale. You just need to be very smart in terms of how you’re implementing it.

Shaw: Marketing is now made up of many specialized functions and they’re all battling for their own slice of the budget. Is there a need to streamline marketing so that there’s greater cohesiveness and consensus as to where dollars get spent?

Chaters: That’s been a problem for at least the last five or six years.

There’s a bunch of factors that come into play. There’s how your organization is aligned internally.

Then you’ve got your agency partners. You might have a team that’s buying mass media, and then maybe an agency partner for digital channels, and then an in-house agency that’s creating onsite web banners and ads, and whatnot. What organizations are having to do is figure out how to bring all of them together. And so, I’ll work with them to define their operating model, how each of them are coordinated, how they are governed. At Intuit, I could tell you how many units we would sell of a product based on the day of week, the month, and what offer we were going to put out. And I’d be plus or minus probably five units. There was that level of rigor to what we were doing. But you have to coordinate across all those different channels.

When we talk about orchestrate, it’s not just planning, it’s coordinating all of the different people, all of the different teams.

So when you think about doing a marketing brief, everybody’s got to be at the table. When you’re talking about strategy, everybody’s got to be at the table. And then on top of that, it’s no longer “set it

and forget it”. You’ve got a person quarterbacking it in real time, shifting and adjusting budgets, who can say, “Okay, we’re one week in. Are we performing to what our plan was? If not, why not? What do we need to change? OK, hey, Search Team, I need you to ramp up and we’re going to shift some of the paid TV budget to you, and whatever else.” Whereas in the old days, pre-digital, once you made your buy, you made your buy. There was no going back. So, it’s a very complex machine and organizations that get it right drive performance; organizations that don’t, miss out.

Shaw: I think largely what you’re describing is performance marketing because the demand is to show results today, not next year, right?

Chaters: When I was at Intuit, we were launching new products.

Conventional wisdom would have said you start with mass advertising.

You need to get people aware of the product. But we started at the bottom of the funnel and worked our way up. The thinking was, run it like a startup. Eventually you hit a point where you need to go wider.

So you turn on the faucet for a TV ad or a radio ad or an out-of-home bus stop or billboard or whatever it is you need to do. But we worked our way up to it instead of starting with a big blast.

Shaw: One thing Intuit absolutely gets right is the customer experience.

And the vast majority of marketers admit that their own organizations aren’t doing it very well. What’s your perspective on who should own CX within the enterprise?

Chaters: I think everybody has to have accountability for it. Because CX means different things. So, the CX view a marketer is going to have is very different than somebody from sales, or somebody from the call center, or somebody

in-store. The role of marketing is to corral them all together and coordinate. It’s bringing the right experts to the table and saying, “What does a great CX look like?”.

Shaw: If marketing’s job is to shape the perception of the brand and ensure that the brand experience is right, you would think they should be driving the customer journey mapping and ensuring that there’s no dissonance between what the brand is saying and what the customer’s actually experiencing.

Chaters: Yeah, I agree. I definitely think marketing should drive the customer journey mapping and if they don’t own that, they should have a very heavy hand in it. I guess part of the reason I struggle with that right now is probably 98 percent of marketing organizations just struggle to remove the walls within their own group. They’ll often be split up by lines of business. I think every bank out there is that way. That’s how their P&L is set up. Same thing happens in retail, right? So if marketers can’t even get their own house in order, how can they fix the experience?

Shaw: That’s why business transformation has to move in lockstep with marketing transformation, because if you remain a siloed organization, it is going to be very hard for marketers to accomplish what they need to do. And the other challenge is the overweighting of acquisition versus relationship management.

Shouldn’t marketers be investing more in existing customer relationships?

Chaters: That is one that drives me nuts. There is nothing worse when you’re treating everybody as if they’re a net new customer.

Capture an email, capture a phone CONTINUED ON page 21 JANUARY 2024

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Resource Directory 10-1634-DCM-Resource Directory-OL.pdf

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Marketing Transformation: An Interview with Brent Chaters, Managing Director, Accenture number, capture a mailing address — that becomes a way you evolve the relationship. But then the next time you reach out to them, you should be acknowledging who they are. And I think as marketers we think, “We just got to make it rain.

We’ve just got to show results. And if that’s a blast to the base, so be it.” You’re in such a grind to get the campaign out instead of stepping back and saying, “Hold on a second.

I could send out half the number of emails and probably still get the same results because I’m just hitting people who’ve already bought. Let’s scrub them out.”

Shaw: One of the other major challenges is that marketers now have less than a year to prepare for the loss of third-party cookies.

What’s your advice to marketers?

Chaters: It will change the way you think about the channels that you’re going to engage with. There’s going to be a drop in numbers. It doesn’t mean that your marketing has failed, it just means that the benchmark that you had before has changed. I think we often treat marketing data like financial data, to the penny. No, it’s directional, plus or minus 30 percent.”

Shaw: The other thing you might start to see is more aggressive collection of first party data.

Chaters: Marketers are rethinking

how they collect that data too. This is why CDPs are probably the hottest piece of technology out there. What that is allowing marketers to do is to collect both the CRM-type data but all the different interactions that you have.

Shaw: I want to come back to the subject of AI. It’s early days but it could certainly be a boon for marketers. From a customer service perspective, it has a lot of clear advantages. And it will alleviate the complexity of interaction management.

However, I think if you ask most marketers, they’re worried about losing their jobs. Where do you come down on this debate?

Chaters: Here’s a way to think about it: when AI was used in medical scenarios to identify a specific disease, it was probably 80 percent accurate.

When humans tried to identify it, they were probably about 60 percent accurate. But when you used human plus AI, it was 98 percent accurate.

I think the same analogy applies to marketing. Does it mean fewer marketing jobs? I don’t think so. I think what you will see is the roles will change a lot. The expectation of what people do will be very different.

You just have to be malleable to learn new skills and new trades, and make sure that you are in a spot where you’re creating relevant value for the organization that you’re in.

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// 22

FORECASTS & RESEARCH

COURTESY VISTAR MEDIA

The Ins and Outs of Marketing in 2024: Elevating your DOOH campaigns

BY SCOTT MITCHELL

A

s we kick off 2024 amid tougher economic times, rising geopolitical and social issues around the globe, and shifting consumer habits as a result, advertisers are faced with several new challenges this year.

Some of these challenges include reduced budgets and resources, assessing where and how consumers are engaging with brands today, nuances in brand messaging considerations, among others.

However, challenges like these force advertisers to take a fresh approach when it comes to achieving their campaign goals and reaching the people who matter most. One channel that’s worth considering this year, especially when brands are hyper-focused on media spend and channels that offer the most flexibility, is digital out-of-home (DOOH). It’s out there, in the physical world, always in the moment — surrounding people every day of their lives as they live, work and play. DOOH ad spend is expected to reach $45 billion by the end of 2024 for good reason, and it’s important to reflect on what’s “in” and what’s “out” when tapping into this powerful channel this year.

IN – Thoughtful Measurement & Targeting Measurement was a top priority going into 2023. This is largely due to marketers looking to do more with fewer resources available, requiring them to effectively demonstrate a strong return on investment (ROI).

Fortunately, DOOH is one of the most measurable and attributable advertising channels, as it uses anonymized, privacy-safe GPS data and verified exposure to understand and measure consumer movement patterns ❱ DMN.CA

while respecting privacy. Through third-party measurement solutions, marketers can measure their DOOH campaigns against a variety of KPIs including awareness, brand favorability, consideration, purchase intent and foot traffic. With programmatic audience targeting technology, DOOH also ensures your ads reach the right people at the right places and times. This approach minimizes media waste, optimizes ROI and delivers your message precisely when your audience is most engaged.

IN – Dynamic Creative – Leveling up When it Comes to Personalization According to a recent playbook created by Vistar Media and The Drum, The Advertiser’s Playbook for DOOH in 2024, 85 per cent of all adults look at OOH and 65 per cent of viewers take action after seeing an OOH ad. With that said, OOH poses a significant opportunity to reach the masses while catching their attention in a short time frame, making the creative execution and messaging that much more important.

With dynamic creative, brands can integrate personalized messaging into their ads that meet customers where they are in that exact moment. Whether incorporating details to the nearest retail location to drive foot traffic, pulling in live scoring on the latest sports game to encourage tune-in, or highlighting current weather conditions to promote a tourism destination, a relevant, dynamic creative strategy will be a game changer for advertisers this year.

IN – The Year of Retail Media Networks Retail media is the fastest-growing digital ad segment, which grew

26 per cent in 2022 according to IAB Canada. IAB Canada and marketers alike expect this category to continue to grow as retailers look to monetize their existing digital channels. In-store retail media offers advertisers direct access to brick-and-mortar retailer audiences that come in weekly, even daily, to spend money on brands found within these stores. As this segment continues to grow, there’s an opportunity for marketers to tap into existing customers in the “purchasing mindset” through place-based DOOH screens across these retailers. It’s time to re-assess media spend in 2024, allocating both time and resources to the channels that are likely to yield the best engagement and results.

OUT – Using One Platform to Connect with Consumers A one siloed channel approach is out. In fact, three or more channels for marketers is the sweet spot and can earn a 257 per cent higher purchase rate than single-channel campaigns, so it comes as no surprise that an omnichannel marketing campaign is essential in 2024. It engages audiences at various points such as when scrolling on social media, then out running errands, and again when ending the day with their favourite TV show. These touchpoints create repetition, with customers more likely to recognize the brand and keep it in mind for purchases.

DOOH is a one-to-many medium, targeting key consumers in contextually relevant environments. For marketers with a strong understanding of their target audiences, DOOH is a natural extension to other channels, allowing advertisers to seamlessly reach consumers when they are out and about in the real world.

OUT – Quantity Over Quality DOOH is more than just billboards — it’s screens located in checkout aisles, bus shelters, gas stations, elevators and more. While largerthan-life billboards are a powerful way to reach large groups of people, it may not be the best approach for a brand’s unique target audience.

Marketers need to ask themselves where their audience is and select more thoughtful, quality screen placements that are relevant to their customers and most likely to drive results.

Data has given marketers the tools for strategic targeting, and as a result, they no longer need to rely on a mass push for effective OOH campaigns. As DOOH continues to grow, media owners have become increasingly more transparent in regard to the quality of their inventory — which reigns over quantity each and every time — giving advertisers the confidence that their dollars are invested in premium placements.

This year will continue to present new opportunities and challenges for Canadian advertisers and brand marketers to thrive. By leveraging learnings from 2023 to help inform the year ahead and beyond, Canadian consumers will continue to engage with highquality content that will ultimately yield a higher ROI for advertisers and brands. How is your brand maximizing its efforts this year?

SCOTT MITCHELL is managing director, Canada, at Vistar Media. Vistar has built a complete end-to-end programmatic ecosystem to enable data-driven, automated, and measurable DOOH transactions. This ecosystem helps its partners, from retail to casual dining, incorporate DOOH and mobile as part of their broader marketing strategies to achieve key results, such as awareness, consideration, favourability and foot traffic, through custom and efficient targeting, messaging and measurement.

JANUARY 2024

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Ratio of Website Visitors to In-Store Visits s Augu

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Toronto CSD by Dissemination Area

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Changing Demographics

Online & Offline Habits

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Deposits by Region: Penetration vs. Wallet Share

Vulnerability Index | Social Vulnerability Unemployment Rate

49.1% Index:188

124 SOCIAL VULNERABILITY INDEX*

Community Involvement

11.7% Index:117

Perceived mental health is fair or poor

People know well enough to ask favour (none)

51.5%

Index:197

Deepen and Maintain

Index

"You cannot be too careful in dealing with people"

14.9%

Strategy: Acquisition

91

Wallet Share

Household Size -1 Person

24.6%

Index:118

Index:235

Deepen Relationships

Develop New Strategies Close relatives (0-2)

Close relatives in same city (0-2)

34.7% Index:156

47.1% Index:110

Close friends (0-2)

33.4% Index:124

Close friends in same city (0-2)

29.9% Index:107

Product Penetration (HHs that Hold Product)

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