Industry Leader Insights
We recently caught up with James Keady to hear his views on the marketing trends shaking up the industry today. James is Marketing Director at EQONEX, a cryptocurrency trading platform and ecosystem focused on disrupting the established financial industry.
1. AI & ML – Game Changer for Marketing
There is no question that there is an enormous opportunity within the marketing community regarding AI & ML. There are considerable gains to be made by the ability of computing power to make tactical decisions more efficiently, accurately, and consistently than humans. AI & ML ultimately support the marketing raison d'etre - delivering personalised, relevant experiences and communications to the right audience, right channel, right time.
AI & ML will also facilitate better allocation of marketing resources to creative and strategic development and decision making.
Whether we're talking about creative optimisation, media planning, or budget allocation, traditionally, there's been a lot of manual handling required in marketing which today can be executed more efficiently via machine learning capabilities. For example, online creative execution has completely changed with the ability to optimise and deliver formats and placements dynamically, performance-driven algorithms far exceeding the capacity of the traditional marketer. That is a real game-changer. Not only does this make marketing more effective, but it's changing the way teams are being resourced and how campaigns are planned.
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2. A Mind Shift in Consumer Marketing
COVID has driven more adoption of online commerce than ever before, and we have seen huge jumps in eCommerce penetration, especially from those resistant to making the shift through inertia to change ingrained behaviours.
This change has also allowed marketers to know more about their customers and their journey than ever before.
Marketers are increasingly focused on working backwards from the customer need and experience and then delivering the product fit and commercial outcomes that result from this. Companies like Amazon have primarily led this shift in consumer marketing. They have raised the standard in understanding the customer problem and working backwards to define the product and marketing solution to meet the customer need.
3. The Rise of First-Party Data
There is a lot of policy change driving the direction of the digital industry toward a more heavily regulated, privacy-led, anonymous use of the internet. These changes mean marketers need to be more astute with their data and develop better internal infrastructure around managing it.
First-party data will become a more valuable asset within the marketing toolkit. Knowing your customers, translating data to insights, and communicating personally with customer segments is critical to success. The old days where you could rely on third parties to target and find people across the internet will become more limited.
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4. Social Media Disruption
We will see more social media disruption. Influencer Marketing is still a relatively nascent and high growth media experience, especially in industries such as Cryptocurrency, but if you want to grow your brand online, influencers are a critical piece of your strategy. Before, influencers may have lacked authenticity and structure, but this industry is rapidly becoming a much more polished proposition. Brands are realising the value that authentic influencers can have in reaching and retaining their customers.
5. Succeeding in Asia
The Asian market is a lot more fragmented across different countries, resulting in a higher level of complexity than what you might see in North America, for example. You've got different cultures, languages, channels, online behaviours, eCommerce adoption and differing levels of digital maturity within each of these markets.
Indonesia is very different to India, which is very different to Taiwan, which is very different to Hong Kong, all with their digital ecosystems, social platforms, shopping platforms and growth opportunities with over 1.5Bilion people in India and Indonesia alone.
To succeed in Asia as a marketer, you need to get under the layers of the individual cultures and understand what works for them. The key to Asia is unlocking the opportunity in each market.
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6. The Future of Work
There's no denying we live and work in a more virtual and globally connected world than ever before. Video calls are the norm, and people have become comfortable with virtual relationship management. I am optimistic about the future of offices/workspaces as a place for human collaboration and creativity; however, hybrid working is here to stay.
About James Keady
James is Marketing Director at EQONEX, a cryptocurrency trading platform and ecosystem focused on disrupting the established financial industry.
James has leadership experience across Asia, having held global, regional and country roles at brands including, Citi, Samsung, GSK and McLaren. He has built multi-function teams across digital media, online retail, social, customer experience, CRM, analytics and data-driven marketing (performance & brand). Industry experience across Consumer Electronics, Technology, FMCG, Finance, Automotive and Luxury.
He is also the Digital lead/Mentor to Singapore & UK charity organisations, contributor to editorial board of US Journal of Digital Marketing and a speaker at global events across; innovation, data-driven thinking, luxury marketing, retail and customer experience.
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