DM Magazine July/August 2020

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Will Marketers Understanding Give Up On Behaviour in a Personalization? Pandemic Age

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VOL. 33 • NO. 6 • JULY/AUGUST 2020

SPECIAL COVID-19 REPORT 4 How to Tackle the Issue ❯❯ 11 Inside the Shift to Digital ❯❯ 12 The Path After it’s Over ❯❯

THE AUTHORITY ON DATA-DRIVEN ENGAGEMENT & OPERATIONS

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Vol. 33 | No. 6 | July/August 2020 EDITOR Brendan Read - brendan@dmn.ca PRESIDENT Steve Lloyd - steve@dmn.ca DESIGN / PRODUCTION Jennifer O’Neill - jennifer@dmn.ca

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Crystal Hyde Rupen Seoni Stephen Shaw

LLOYDMEDIA INC. HEAD OFFICE / SUBSCRIPTIONS / PRODUCTION:

302-137 Main Street North Markham ON L3P 1Y2 Phone: 905.201.6600

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Here’s How to Tackle an Issue

ON THE COVER

ADVERTISING SALES Steve Lloyd - steve@dmn.ca

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Worldwide Share Now Half Inside the Shift to Digital Advertising

Fax: 905.201.6601 • Toll-free: 800.668.1838 home@dmn.ca • www.dmn.ca EDITORIAL CONTACT: DM Magazine is published monthly by Lloydmedia Inc. DM Magazine may be obtained through paid subscription. Rates: Canada 1 year (12 issues $48)

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Finding a Path to Marketing Growth After It’s Over

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Understanding Canadians’ Behaviour in a Pandemic Age

Will COVID-19 Usher in Decade of the Home?

New research highlights how retail and consumer goods companies must adjust their product and service portfolios to meet consumers locally

TACTICS ❯❯6

Will Marketers Finally Give Up on Personalization?

JULY/AUGUST 2020

DMN.CA ❰

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COVID-19 REPORT

Here’s How to Tackle an Issue

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s a public relations/ corporate communications strategist, I have spent a career working with extremely talented marketing communications leaders and always admire the way they look at the world — with creativity and focus that pinpoints target customers and speak directly to them, motivates them to act, connects with them and makes them a brand believer.

It’s increasingly common for Marketing and Communications to fall under a single umbrella within an organization because the skillsets have some overlap and the work we do together can boost both area’s efforts. Despite this compatibility, our approaches and the way we see the world are quite different. Let me explain as a corporate communications professional, I see myself as being in the business of reputation management. Of course, I want to enhance the brand and promote its positive attributes and benefits, but it is also and sometimes mainly my responsibility to protect the brand by identifying and mitigating risks, managing issues, and navigating crisis to minimize impacts on the brand.

I have watched my Marketing colleagues, similarly, make calculated risks when telling the brand story, attempting to win over customers, build a following, increase sales. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t.

Their focus was (and should) always be about the customers and user experience of the brand.

Then when these amazing brand builders work with me, we bring our worlds together, pooling our efforts to help retain the success they have built which can include defining a strategy to position a failing on the company’s behalf.

Often, my time is spent conducting a 360 analysis to determine how a given situation will be perceived not only by customers, but by employees, ❱ DMN.CA

partners, the community, and the government. Then I focus on the company’s messaging, turning it inside out to see how it could be perceived, misconstrued, if they are legal implications, if there are positives to highlight. Essentially I pressure test everything the company or organization is saying to make sure it protects or enhances the brand, making changes and improvements to minimize risks.

Most recently, with the convergence of marketing and communications into a single area, the distinction between the capability of a marketing expert and a corporate communications expert has become blurred.

Due to confusion because ‘communications’ is part of the MarComms handle, talented, smart and trusted marketing communications leaders are being expected to flex a rarely or never-used crisis communications muscle. During a global pandemic and a tidal wave of ‘issues’ hitting companies hard, high performing traditional marketing communications teams are finding themselves out-of-their-depth facing mounting pressure from executive teams to be responsible for crisis management, a skill that takes literally years to develop.

If you don’t have years to retrain and need to tackle a menacing issue or emerging crisis, here’s how to start: Think through what it is you want to say about the issue, the one sentence that defines what you want or need people to know about your company’s position. Is there something the public needs to know? Is there a commitment your willing to make? Do you need to reinforce a key point (data point)?

Is there a significant change to your business model that will address the issue head on?

Next, write down your key audiences — all of them, when an issue arises you do not have the luxury of giving one audience all of your attention you have to

think about have every interested audience will view your response: employees (always employees first), customers, shareholders, partners, government officials, your local community etc.

Once you have defined your top line message and the audience who needs to hear it, go through your audience list and consider how each will receive your key message.

While some audiences will love it, others may be opposed, upset, understanding and so on. Now that you understand the possible reactions you can start to either reshape the message to address vulnerabilities or customize the message to better address each reaction.

You will then want to spend time, using that same audience list, to determine the possible questions each group may ask and preparing the possible responses. Be candid and realistic when pulling together this list of questions, this is not an opportunity to choose the questions you want to deliver a slick marketing-type answer. These questions and responses are the grunt work of managing an issue by overturning every rock and attempting to address everything that could possibly come up, the good and the bad. You may never be asked one of these questions, but if you are you need to be prepared.

Further to the above exercise, let’s spend a minute defining a response versus and answer. Often spokespeople feel compelled to ‘answer’ everything that is asked though sometimes their eagerness to answer means they over share confidential information or speak to an area of the business they aren’t qualified to do. No qualified public relations practitioner will support or advise anyone to be dishonest; however, we will coach spokespeople to respond to

© VECTEEZY.COM

BY CRYSTAL HYDE

difficult questions not necessarily answer them. Let me give you an example: Reporter: Do you think you will have to lay off employees if the quarter end results miss the mark?

Answer: We might need to reduce our headcount; we are hopeful results will be strong, but we just do not know yet.

Possible media headline: CEO doesn’t rule out layoffs if earnings miss Response: I am not going to speculate about results that are not yet released. What I can tell you is that our employees are vital to our business success and we want to perform well and keep everyone working.

Possible media headline: CEO hopeful for strong earnings this quarter What is my best advice for a Mar/ Comms leader to handle a crisis?

Take off your marketing hat for a moment because promoting an issue or selling its good side won’t get you anywhere, instead issues need to be met with candor and authenticity in order to convey effective and thoughtful management. Your audience needs to feel that you understand the issue and are actively addressing it in order to move on.

CRYSTAL HYDE, Principal & Certified Executive

Coach at Scout Communications Scout Communications Inc., uses the power of communication to solve business problems, train leaders, coach emerging leaders and teams to deliver effective messages and proven results.

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TACTICS

Will Marketers Finally Give Up on Personalization?

BY STEPHEN SHAW

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hen the era of Big Data dawned in the early 2000s with the explosive growth in web traffic, marketers swooned at the potential for personalized messaging: at long last, the dream of one-to-one marketing seemed within reach.

Yet as the years rolled by personalization remained a buzzword: the practice never caught up with the rhetoric. In a McKinsey survey last year, just 15% of CMOs claimed they were “on the right track with personalization”, stymied by a chronic lack of resources.

Meanwhile, customers have come to view personalization as promotional gimmickry, urging them to add one more item to their online shopping cart.

In recent years, however, a new generation of AI-powered technologies has made it easier than ever for marketers to personalize the customer experience. Which is why in 2019 the Association of National Advertisers named personalization its “Marketing Word of the Year”.

But then at the end of last year the research firm Gartner came out with the glum prediction that five years from now 80% of marketers will have abandoned their personalization efforts due to a lack of ROI or the “perils of customer data management”.

Personalization is hard to get right — even with the latest technology. But the reasons go far beyond the technical complexities of mastering personalization. It has more to do with marketers treating personalization as an afterthought. Viewed as a basic customer expectation, ❱ DMN.CA

personalization becomes too important for marketers to give up on.

Being Better Look over the shoulder of any digital native absorbed in their phone these days and it is easy to see why marketers are struggling to connect with them. Headphones on, eyes glued to their screen, they live in their own personal media bubble, frenetically scrolling, tapping, texting and swiping, messaging their friends, checking their newsfeeds, sharing their pictures, maybe even watching a video or playing a game.

Jamming sponsored posts in between their social feeds or stuffing e-mail in-boxes with “best guess” offers or blitzing them with push notifications just forces them behind a privacy wall. The same is true of every other invasive tactic — web site pop-ups, infobars, digital ads, video pre-rolls, the list goes on. So people have learned to screen out the street noise — skip and block ads — “cut the chord” — insulate themselves from blatant commercial pitches — and seek sanctuary on ad-free media platforms.

As long as marketers persist in making campaigns the basis of their planning, their brand messaging will never be able to compete against the constant barrage of media distractions.

Instead, they should find ways to be useful in the moment, whenever personalized assistance is needed, based on individual need and circumstances. And that means shifting the marketing mindset from “What can I sell you today?” to “How can I help you?”. As Seth Godin says, “Marketing is driven by better. Better service, better community, better outcomes”.

Personalization should never be considered synonymous with targeting. It should not be limited to “you may also like” recommendations. Instead, it should be woven into the fabric of the total customer experience, helping to make it “better”. Better

at delivering advice. Better at answering questions. Better at making the experience seamless across devices and touchpoints.

Better at delivering timely service and support. Better at anticipating customer needs.

the customer experience. Most are still organized around product and channel silos. And while customer journey design can make it easier for people to interact online, a different planning approach is needed to individualize the

Personalization should never be considered synonymous with targeting.

Take the example of the caloriecounting mobile app LoseIt!. It stands out from the galaxy of weight watching brands by offering real-time analytical reporting such as pattern detection. For example, the app will figure out how specific food items influence the amount of weight gain or loss: “We’ve noticed that on days you incorporate muffins, you tend to keep your total calories lower”. The reason LoseIt has grown to 30 million members is its commitment to being “better”. Every new feature is born out of a singular crusade: to fight the obesity epidemic by making people more conscious of their food choices.

The biggest barrier to personalization is that so few companies take a holistic view of

experience, making it more relevant and useful. Marketers have to give up transactional thinking (“How do we get a user to click and convert?”) in favour of asking, “How do we make the experience better for the user?”.

A Unified Experience The first step in the process is to map out a “value matrix” which defines how the company will apply personalization in the service of customers. That matrix can then be used to prioritize the opportunities based on expected outcomes (such as higher satisfaction and retention).

For example, different treatment strategies can be applied to first-time versus repeat customers; frequent versus occasional users;

PERSONALIZATION TECHNOLOGIES ❯❯

CUSTOMER DATA PLATFORM A central data store used to assemble unified customer profiles from disparate sources for on-demand use by realtime interaction management platforms.

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IDENTITY RESOLUTION SYSTEM Used to create a single, persistent customer identifier by linking multiple online and offline identities through record matching.

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PERSONALIZATION ENGINE Used to create more personalized messaging and offers based on heuristic rules or machine-learning.

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INTERACTION MANAGEMENT PLATFORMS Used to support contextually relevant customer experiences across multiple channels.

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COURTESY KENNA

Mastering the practice of personalization can seem overwhelming for marketers, leaving them to wonder whether the cost and effort is worth the trouble. But giving up on the dream of one-to-one marketing would be a shame.

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habits, e-mail content can be fully personalized, informing subscribers of their loyalty status and privileges; introducing ancillary products related to a recent purchase; providing advance notice of local sales events; announcing new merchandise in their preferred categories; or letting them know how soon to expect a resolution to their service ticket submission. Similarly, a mobile app can use location data to deliver geofenced notifications; support in-store navigation; or use bar code scanning to provide on-the-spot product comparisons and ratings.

Zero Latency None of this is easy to do without a single unified customer profile — one central place to store all of the data — plus the ability to act on it in real-time. But as Gartner observed, customer data management is usually a black hole for most companies due to systems fragmentation. To make personalization something customers truly value, the individual-level data must be instantly accessible, otherwise the appropriateness and timing of the real-time response is compromised.

Too often, when a customer visits a brand web site, opens a follow-up e-mail, uses the mobile app, reaches out to the call centre, subscribes to a newsletter, or clicks through to a landing page, each interaction is captured in a separate database, often without an identifier flagging that individual as the same person. In that all-too-common scenario, personalization is limited to each channel, failing to take into account all of the other interactions, even though one may have led directly to the other. The exact stage of the buying journey is unknown (are they researching, evaluating, ready to decide?) — multiple buying signals get lost — true intentions go unnoticed. This failure to piece together the full picture also causes unnecessary redundancy and frustration (“You’re asking me to give you that information again?”).

Identity resolution addresses this blind spot by linking an individual with both their terrestrial and digital identities,

COURTESY KENNA

single versus cross-category buyers; passive members versus brand advocates; as well as to different loyalty segments, lifestyle cohorts, demographic groups, and so on. The tricky part is coming up with the right set of nested segments (e.g. high value + long tenure + highly engaged + brand loyalist) deserving of their own personas. Rules can then be created to customize the experience for each segment, knowing their shared attitudes, beliefs, interests and habits.

At an individual level, the strategy should revolve around specific moments in time, when a timely intervention — say, a recommendation, an alert, a status update, a reminder, a newsfeed — can make the customer journey friction free.

This is where personalization technology can play a huge timesaving role, relieving marketers of the heavy analytical load involved in generating the conditional rules (e.g., “if-then-else” statements, “and/or” logic). The toughest part, of course, is to ensure a unified experience, applying a consistent set of rules, regardless of the device or touchpoint.

Once the personalization strategy is set, marketers can move on to cross-channel planning, figuring out how to deliver the best possible experience based on everything they know about customers — their observed behaviour, stated preferences and implicit intentions derived from their web sessions (“How much time did they spend looking at that product page?”).

The website is usually the best place to start by showcasing the most relevant products or solutions according to the browsing history of repeat visitors and customers.

That can be done by setting up dynamic blocks of content offering individualized product recommendations; swapping out generic text and images in the “hero carousel” to suit each persona type; streamlining the navigation to accommodate a particular segment; promoting relevant content based on reading history; and finetuning search results according to known interests.

By factoring in both shopping behaviour and historical buying

associating, for example, a household address with an e-mail, IP address, and one or more device IDs. An identity graph stores all of the possible identifiers in a single database. That way, a persistent customer identifier can be used to link interactions across channels, helping to connect, for example, a web site visit to a recent call centre inquiry. The graph is constructed with the help of a speciality vendor (like LiveRamp) which uses matching formulas — both deterministic (absolutely positive)

and probabilistic (highly likely) — to come up with a universal master key.

The other massive barrier to overcome is designing a data architecture which supports zero latency (go back to that digital native with their manic thumbing).

It requires converting the “big data” running through the digital bloodstream of the company into actionable prompts like instant call-outs, auto-notifications and triggered alerts. But the response cycle time of most companies DMN.CA ❰

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TACTICS today is still measured in hours, never mind milliseconds, a relic of an earlier era when daily or weekly batch updating was the usual practice.

different “systems of record”.

A CDP is a “master data store” which assembles unified customer profiles by pulling together every bit of available data from

is typically controlled by a standalone personalization engine where the engagement rules are stored and activated in real-time. Based on the customer

Companies at the leading edge of personalization have developed “Fast-Twitch” data management ecosystems.

“Fast-twitch” Ecosystems Today companies at the leading edge of personalization have developed “fast-twitch” data management ecosystems which ingest streaming data in real-time at the moment of interaction.

Rather than rely on traditional relational data stores, data warehouses, data lakes or CRM systems, they have opted for Customer Data Platforms to skirt the delays and bottlenecks that can occur pulling data from

❱ DMN.CA

multiple sources using a single API, including active web session events like “checkout in progress” or “order paid for”, and makes all of it available on demand to “systems of engagement”. For example, a web site visit by an addressable customer, tracked using a JavaScript plug-in, will set off a sub-second chain of commands that lead to a contextualized response as the web session is in progress.

The job of message generation

data passed through by the CDP (e.g., CID, segment code, event flag, last order, etc), the associated personalization rules are invoked, instructing the web content management system to serve up a specific page or block of content. To make rule development scalable, machine-learning algorithms are used, which comb the data to find groups of people similar in their choices and behaviour; select offers with the best chance of converting based on known affinities; and

recommend content based on viewing history. The data can be as granular as time spent looking at a specific page or longer- than-usual hovers over content, actions which might reveal possible preferences or interests.

As companies grapple with the growing customer demand for more individualized attention, marketers will have no choice but to master the practice of personalization. Some marketers may find it too hard and give up, as Gartner says. But now that one-toone marketing is finally technically feasible, that would mean giving up on the opportunity to “be better” at meeting the expectations of customers.

STEPHEN SHAW is the chief strategy officer

of Kenna, a marketing solutions provider specializing in delivering more unified customer experiences. He is also the host of a monthly podcast called Customer First Thinking. Stephen can be reached via e-mail at sshaw@kenna.ca.

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COVID-19 REPORT

© VECTEEZY.COM

Understanding Canadians’ Behaviour in a Pandemic Age

BY RUPEN SEONI

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t’s no understatement to say that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on Canadians’ movements in their daily lives.

We are all living with business closures, stay-home advisories and physical-distancing orders.

And these efforts are critical to the public health response to contain transmission of the virus and flatten the curve.

But has everyone been complying with the stay-home requests? Not surprisingly, across our diverse country, we see different rates of compliance.

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Environics Analytics (EA) conducted an analysis of who was Out-and-About across the country as published in the Globe & Mail, Toronto Star, Winnipeg Free Press and covered on CTV. More important than simply understanding the movement patterns of Canadians is truly understanding who these citizens are –their demographic profiles, socio-economic situations, behaviour patterns, and critically, their attitudes and values. It is this aggregation of privacy compliant data at the small geographic level that allows us to draw insights about the population that can then

be used to inform public outreach, program development and communications. [Details on how we used mobile movement data and EA’s authoritative databases are provided at the end of this piece.]

So what did our analysis find about different population groups as it relates to being Out-and-About during the COVID-19 pandemic? Here is a snapshot based on EA’s PRIZM segmentation system where we compared segments that share some common characteristics but differ in their Out-and-About compliance:

1. Higher Out-and-About rates as you move away from downtown cores.

Let’s look at two PRIZM segments that contain empty nesters: one that is quite urban; the other rural. These are two older PRIZM segments (large population of 70+ years), 19 Grey Pride being a middle-class segment of retirees in urban apartments, while 54 Serenity Springs is a small-town segment of lower-middle-income retirees. Both segments are more likely to have the co-morbidities of concern for COVID-19 but the key difference between them is that 54 Serenity Springs is much DMN.CA ❰

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COVID-19 REPORT more likely to be Out-and-About (15 percent above the Canadian average while 19 Grey Pride indexes 11 percent below the Canadian average). And since both segments index well below average for using social media for health-based recommendations, community-based approaches for communication are likely to be more effective.

2. Lower-income residents are out and about more.

Our second example looks at two groups of downtown dwellers — living quite close together - a relatively affluent segment found in gentrifying central neighbourhoods compared with struggling apartment dwellers.

Found within urban centres, sometimes not far away from each other, these two population segments are both relatively young, but at different ends of the socio-economic spectrum.

Their Out-and-About rates are also different with 68 Low-Rise Renters showing rates 15 percent more than the Canadian average.

This same segment also indexes lower than 12 Street Scenes as well as the Canadian average on the psychographic “Effort Toward Health”*, which could mean that physical distancing is taken less seriously. A better understanding of their circumstances could help reach them to ensure they know how to take precautions. * The commitment to focus on diet, exercise and healthy living to feel better and have a healthy, wholesome lifestyle. A willingness to transform one’s lifestyle through exercise and radical changes to diet.

3. Age is not necessarily a key differentiator on Out-and-About rates.

We have recently seen news reports showing young people congregating in public spaces, putting themselves and others at risk of infection. Our data indicate that urbanity and socio-economic status (discussed above in the other examples) may matter more on Out-and-About rates than age.

As examples, in the two pairs of PRIZM segments above, each pair have similar urbanity and socioeconomic status but one segment in each pair is young, the other older. ❱ DMN.CA

Within the first pair (52 Striving Startups and 63 Lunch at Tim’s), despite the age differences, the Out-and-About rates are higher than the Canadian average (21 percent and 12 percent respectively).

In the second pair (11 Urban Digerati and 01 Cosmopolitan Elite), the segments tend to be well-educated and affluent, living in the downtowns of Canada’s largest cities. Again, despite their age differences they were both less likely to be Out-and-About than average (15 percent below average and 36 percent below average respectively).

Data-driven insights to inform COVID-19 recovery Governments have enacted a variety of orders, legislation, guidelines and enforcement to get large numbers of people to stay home. Further improving compliance will require more nuanced strategies targeted to specific populations who cannot, or will not, stay home.

But being able to provide rapid insight into populations of interest can inform a range of additional initiatives critical to the social and economic recovery process from this pandemic. With over 30,000 indicators of behaviour and demographics for neighbourhoods across Canada (available at the 6 digit postal code), we can support government departments at all levels with efforts such as economic impact analysis, program design, the identification of target populations and the definition of media strategies for communications.

Here are several immediate and relevant use cases for these insights: ❯❯ Stay-Home Compliance Messaging by Public Health: As identified in the analysis recently published in the Globe & Mail (referenced above), more targeted communication strategies are required to continue to improve compliance with stay-home regulations across the country and by population segment. ❯❯ Essential Worker Messaging: Local data on essential workers combined with demographics, psychographics and media preference information can help

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ensure these key workers are taking precautions by reaching them with the most effective messaging.

Identifying Top Congregation Points to Monitor Physical Distancing: Privacy-compliant mobile movement data can be used to identify where people continue to gather (per recent news item on CBC) and to understand their characteristics in order to intervene proactively (e.g. targeted public health messaging).

Exposure Risk Notifications: Consent-based, anonymized human movement data can identify more people who could have been exposed beyond those that COVID-19 apps can identify, thereby improving the effectiveness of notification efforts.

Understanding Frail, Socially Vulnerable and Financially Vulnerable Populations: Our health, demographics and financial databases were used to create purpose-built indexes for these three populations that need support. The indexes help target program communications to those who need support, improving their efficiency and relevance.

These are just a handful of examples that demonstrate how understanding where particular citizens live, what their socioeconomic situation looks like, how they behave and how they think can materially impact social and economic programs during this pandemic. And the analysis outlined above is available quickly and easily through our cloud-based ENVISION software platform, in reports, tables and charts that clearly describe catchment areas, municipalities and the characteristics of neighbourhoods.

Canadians are a diverse population, as diverse as the country is wide. We behave, think, consume and generally act differently based on thousands of attributes, including where we live. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown this to be true when it comes to compliance with movement restrictions and similar data-driven insight can be applied for additional use cases. We are proud to be using our data and

analytical capabilities to assist with addressing the COVID-19 outbreak and to help flatten the curve. We will continue to do so, including helping get Canada back on the road to recovery and beyond.

RUPEN SEONI is a Senior Vice President and

Practice Leader with Environics Analytics and has more than twenty years of experience in marketing analytics, working with organizations of all sizes to unlock the value of information in decision-making and business strategy.

Key Notes:

Methodology Statement: EA has a privacycompliant database called MobileScapes developed from aggregated mobile phone movement data from multiple sources. Using these data, we identified devices that were “out and about” during the daytime for weekends from early February to early April. The measure of Outand-About was devices that were observed more than 100 metres from their inferred home postal code at least three times for ten minutes each in a day. We chose weekend data because the largest percentage of the population would be free to choose their activities on typical non-workdays.

We aggregated the data to various geographic areas to understand the patterns at a national, provincial and market level. Next, we analyzed the results through the lens of our PRIZM segmentation system. PRIZM assigns every Canadian postal code to one of 68 lifestyle types based on demographics, socioeconomic status, diversity and psychographics. This analysis helps identify areas where the populations may not be taking the stay-home orders seriously enough and provides insights into who they are and how to motivate them.

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COVID-19 REPORT

Worldwide Share Now Half

Inside the Shift to Digital Advertising

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dvertisers pulled back spending sharply when the scale of the coronavirus crisis became clear. The steepest declines took place between March and May, with timing varying by country. These declines have now started to ease and are expected to gradually moderate over the rest of the year.

Zenith forecasts a 5.8 percent recovery in global ad spend in 2021, boosted by the rescheduled Summer Olympics and UEFA Euro 2020 football championship. The US has been relatively resilient, benefiting from record political spending in the run-up to the Presidential elections in November.

US ad spend is expected to decline by just 7 percent this year.

Asia Pacific is forecast to shrink by 8 percent, thanks to the success of some markets in keeping the virus under control. Advertisers in Western Europe cut spend aggressively in Q2, and ad spend is forecast to shrink by 15 percent here. Zenith forecasts 8 percent decline in Central and Eastern Europe, 13 percent in Latin America and 20 percent in MENA in 2020.

Ecommerce and retail change for the long-term Ecommerce has become a lifeline for consumers, providing the goods they need while unable or unwilling to visit bricks-andmortar stores. Many consumers have made permanent changes to their shopping habits. According to global research by Criteo, in recent months 53 percent of consumers have discovered at least one form of online shopping that they plan to continue. Retail footfall will be subdued for months, if not years, to come. This has forced brands to accelerate digital transformation efforts and made it critical to have a robust commerce strategy in place, either D2C or through retail partners.

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Personalisation at scale, driven by data comes to the forefront The crisis also raised the value of first-party data for brands. Firstparty data gives brands powerful insights into their customers’ behaviour and provides a real competitive edge. It will allow brands to navigate changes to consumers’ behaviours and attitudes as the crisis develops, and identify when it’s time to start investing for the upturn.

“Brands need to show consumers that they understand their rapidly evolving needs in this uncertain time,” said Christian Lee, Managing Director, Zenith Worldwide. “So we are helping our clients integrate their data, digital communications and ecommerce approaches, and leverage them more deeply, to deliver personalised experiences throughout the fastchanging customer journey.”

Digital acceleration spurred by social distancing and new behaviours One predictable trend was that consumption of digital media, along with television, spiked in the early weeks of the lockdowns.

Although both are now trending down again, they are not expected to retreat to pre-crisis levels any time soon. Together with the rise of ecommerce and data, this has driven a rapid shift in media budgets from traditional to digital media, accelerating the trend that was already taking place.

Zenith now forecasts that digital advertising will account for 51.0 percent of global ad spend this year, up from the 49.5 percent it forecast in December. Digital ad budgets were cut quickly in the crisis’ first phase, given generally easier to cut without penalty. As time progressed, brands allocated more budgets into digital channels to take advantage of their flexibility and

Over time brands allocated more budgets to the digital channel ability to optimize performance, particularly important qualities in an uncertain time. Digital ad spend is forecast to shrink by just 2 percent across 2020 as a whole.

Zenith does not expect any of this share to return to traditional media as the crisis eases — digital advertising’s market share is forecast to reach 54.6 percent in 2022.

The recovery of traditional media will be patchy and underpowered Among traditional media, television and radio suffered the least, expected to end the year only slightly below the market, with 11 percent and 12 percent respective declines. The crisis exacerbated the long-term decline of print advertising as newspaper ad spend is forecast to shrink by 21 percent globally this year and magazine ad spend drops 20 percent. Newspaper and magazine advertising here includes only the publishers’ advertising revenues from printed publications; their revenues from digital publications are included in digital advertising.

Unsurprisingly, out-of-home and cinema have suffered the most

from government restrictions on movement, and consumers’ avoidance of public places. Outof-home advertising is forecast to shrink by 25 percent in 2020 and cinema by 51 percent.

No recovery is forecast for newspapers or magazines, with ad spend in both continuing to decrease next year. Recovery for television and radio will be minimal, with 2 percent and 1 percent growth expected for 2021 respectively. Out-of-home and cinema growth will be stronger as they compensate for much greater declines this year: Zenith forecasts 16 percent growth for out-of-home and 65 percent growth for cinema, but neither will return to 2019 peaks by 2022.

“The coronavirus forced brands to embrace digital advertising even faster than expected and made digital transformation of businesses more urgent than ever,” said Jonathan Barnard, Zenith’s Head of Forecasting. “This year will be the first in which digital advertising will attract more than half of total global ad spending, a milestone we previously expected in 2021.”

DMN.CA ❰

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COVID-19 REPORT

C

OVID-19 has fundamentally changed business in Canada. While cities and provinces across the country transition in the next phase, many businesses still feel unprepared to open. ❯❯ When asked if ready to reopen their business next week, nearly a third (30 percent) of businesses say they would not feel prepared to do so ❯❯ The top three reasons for businesses not feeling prepared: 1. Almost half (44 percent) say they don’t have a health and safety work plan in place.

2. A quarter (24 percent) say they don’t know where to start when it comes to reopening their business.

3. Another 1 in 5 (20 percent) say they have been unable to adapt in today’s environment, due to not having the right technology in place.

Technology has been essential in helping Canadian businesses adapt and thrive, in order to stay competitive during these times, and continue serving their customers. ❯❯ 83 percent of businesses agree that technology has allowed their business to quickly pivot and adapt in today’s business environment; and

❱ DMN.CA

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Six in 10 businesses who were prepared to reopen felt ready to do so because they were able to use technology to quickly pivot.

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When asked about future shopping behaviours, if stores were to fully reopen tomorrow: ❯❯ A third (33 percent) of Canadians say they would shop in-store, no problem; ❯❯ 30 percent of Canadians say they would split their shopping between in-store and online; and ❯❯ 17 percent of Canadians say they would only shop in-store for necessary products and services that are not available online.

As businesses have been forced to adapt, consumer expectations and behaviours have changed, with a greater importance placed on an experience that is relevant, more convenient and aligns with their values.

When purchasing brands online, Canadian consumers say that a brand’s values and online experience is more important to them now, compared to before COVID-19: ❯❯ 34 percent say brand loyalty is most important now (compared to 43 percent before COVID-19); ❯❯ 34 percent say a seamless online shopping experience is most important now (compared to 29

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percent before COVID-19); 32 percent say brand values is most important now (compared to 28 percent before COVID-19); Half (48 percent) of Canadians want to be served relevant ads that provide product recommendations and brand updates they will care about; and A third (32 percent) are willing to share their personal data if it improves their online shopping experience.

Despite this, for some businesses, there remains a lack of understanding of how technology can help which they acknowledge is holding them back. ❯❯ A third (31 percent) of businesses still don’t understand how technology will help their business remain competitive. ❯❯ Over half (53 percent) of businesses say they know they need technology to help their business stay competitive and relevant in today’s business environment, but they don’t know where to start.

As we enter a ‘New Normal’, businesses will need to adopt technology to meet the consumer and employee expectations of today, in order to be more resilient for tomorrow. ❯❯ 85 percent of businesses can’t

© VECTEEZY.COM

Finding a Path to Marketing Growth After It’s Over see a future for their business without technology.

The top two areas where businesses see technology helping them succeed in the future: ❯❯ Personalized customer experiences (i.e. service, marketing, engagement) (46 percent); ❯❯ Workplace preparedness (29 percent); and ❯❯ Seven in 10 (75 percent) of businesses agree that to succeed in today’s business environment, they need to invest in reskilling their employees.

As the future of work has shifted due to COVID-19, Canadians have new expectations of their employers, that prioritize their wellbeing and prepare them for the future: ❯❯ Support those who want to work remotely (51 percent); ❯❯ Have a clear plan for any future crises (46 percent); ❯❯ Have a clear plan in place for person-to-person interactions (42 percent); and ❯❯ Have modern technology in place to create a better work experience (34 percent).

SOURCE: SALESFORCE CANADA and Maru/Blue

Omnibus Data — June, 2020.

JULY/AUGUST 2020

// 13

Resource Directory DATA ANALYTICS

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// 14

COVID-19 REPORT

Will COVID-19 Usher in Decade of the Home?

New research highlights how retail and consumer goods companies must adjust their product and service portfolios to meet consumers locally

A

s consumers refocus on their local community in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the change in attitudes will be long-term, bringing about the “decade of the home” according to new research by Accenture.

This trend will force retailers and consumer goods companies to tailor their products and services to drive a more local experience, the findings of the recent global survey reveals.

The continuing discomfort with public spaces and travel, coupled with growing financial fears amid widespread decline in household income, will continue to keep people mostly at home, according to the survey of more than 8,800 people in 20 countries. Findings of the survey are presented in two Accenture reports, one for the consumer goods industry and one for the retail industry.

Among the key findings: ❯❯ 70 percent of Canadian respondents expect to do most of their socializing over the next six months either in their home, a friend’s home or virtually; ❯❯ 52 percent of Canadians who never worked from home previously now plan to work from home more often in the future; ❯❯ 54 percent of Canadian consumers said that the pandemic has caused them to shop in closer neighborhood stores, with three-quarters of ❱ DMN.CA

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those respondents (75 percent) saying they plan to continue to do so long-term; 54 percent of Canadian consumers said they’re buying more locally sourced products, with 86 percent of those saying they plan to continue to do so long-term; Half of Canadian respondents (51 percent) cited financial security as one of their top three concerns over the next six months; and 44 percent of Canadians said they are shopping more costconsciously and are likely to continue doing so — with consumers overall far more likely to have increased purchases of mid-range and budget brands and reduced purchases of premium brands since the pandemic began.

At the same time, 11 percent of Canadian consumers said they have increased premium purchases, with 28 percent of those falling outside the highincome bracket.

“Home is now the new frontier — it’s become the workplace, the schoolroom, the place to try new hobbies, the place to socialize and a safe sanctuary — so companies must account for this reality,” said Robin Sahota, a managing director at Accenture who leads its Retail practice in Canada. “Companies in all industries will need to think beyond traditional tactics and be

more creative, providing premium or virtual experiences and tailoring their portfolios to engage consumers.”

The report notes that some brands are reaping the rewards of adjusting their services to meet the shift in consumer demands. Yet it cautions that taking advantage of these opportunities will require ongoing and careful analysis to anticipate which of these new consumer behaviours will stick and then adapting their portfolios and financial models accordingly.

“Companies must boost their analytics capabilities to understand the pandemic’s impact on their businesses at a local level — tracking its effect on local businesses and employment and people’s level of comfort in returning to pre-COVID activities,” said Kelly Askew, a managing director with Accenture Strategy.

“In addition to making consumers comfortable re-engaging outside the home through strict health and safety measures, retailers should carefully assess their physical assets — i.e., which stores to keep open and what inventory to stock, taking into account, for example, if they should leverage some of their store footprint for micro-fulfilment to support e-commerce growth. They might also experiment with temporary spaces, such as pop-ups in local communities.”

The latest research supports Accenture’s previous findings

that the changes in consumer behaviour, such as the dramatic rise in e-commerce since the start of the pandemic, are likely to remain or accelerate further.

For instance, the proportion of online purchases by infrequent e-commerce users in Canada — i.e., those who used online channels for less than 25 percent of purchases prior to the outbreak — has increased 176 percent since the outbreak.

Further, the survey found that consumers who have increased usage of digitally enabled services (e.g., contactless payment, in-app ordering and curbside pickup) and have turned to digital customer service channels (e.g., website or mobile app, mobile messaging with virtual agent, or online chat with a chatbot) expect to sustain an increased level of usage.

Accenture’s COVID-19 Consumer Research is monitoring the changing attitudes, behaviours and habits of consumers worldwide as they adapt to a new reality during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The latest waves of this survey were conducted June 2-8 and June 16-22 with 8,839 and 8,852 consumers respectively in 20 countries across five continents: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States.

JULY/AUGUST 2020