{"id":103332,"date":"2016-12-12T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-12-12T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/digital-predictions-2017-beyond-2\/"},"modified":"2024-12-19T16:41:41","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T21:41:41","slug":"digital-predictions-2017-beyond-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/en-gb\/insights\/blog\/strategy\/digital-predictions-2017-beyond-2\/","title":{"rendered":"AR, Social Commerce and Nostalgia Tech: Digital Predictions for 2017 and Beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Strategic Insights team at DAC spends all day each day digging into data, looking for insights and trends<\/a> that can teach us something about what is likely to happen in the digital landscape over the course of the coming weeks, months and years.<\/p>\n

On a grand scale, futurists from many disciplines have been predicting similar trends for quite some time now: self-driving cars, the increased importance of big data, and a proliferation of the Internet of Things into every aspect of our lives.<\/p>\n

(And of course, the ubiquitous human evolution into robots.)<\/p>\n

\"robot,<\/p>\n

These big-picture trends are all well and good \u2013 on a conceptual level. But they aren\u2019t all that useful for digital marketers in terms of what we do day to day: where to invest marketing dollars, how to optimise campaigns, which channels might grow or shrink and where the market will go next.<\/p>\n

So we asked the members of DAC\u2019s Strategic Insights Team to get a bit more grounded. Here\u2019s what they identified as the top five trends most likely to impact digital marketing in 2017 and beyond.<\/p>\n

1) Augmented reality will provide new opportunities for local marketers<\/strong><\/p>\n

2016 gave us Pok\u00e9mon Go, a game that became a global phenomenon almost overnight and was one of the hottest cultural touchpoints of the year.<\/p>\n

Pok\u00e9mon Go did a lot of things. It led seemingly sane adults to chase invisible creatures around town, connected families with their kids, got sedentary people walking, and led thousands of people to gather places or \u201cgyms\u201d inside local businesses.<\/p>\n

\"pokeman,<\/p>\n

Almost as quick as its rise came the realisation that this could be a whole new way to engage with customers locally. Suddenly, Local Presence Management mattered in a whole new way. Getting your name, address and phone number correctly listed in maps channels meant being able to either take advantage of the benefits of hundreds of Pok\u00e9mon-chasers showing up at your place of business.<\/p>\n

Savvy businesses took full advantage of the opportunity to capitalise on the sudden increase in foot traffic; McDonald\u2019s paid for 3,000 stores to become \u201cgyms\u201d overnight, groups used the game to boost attendance at social functions and community events, and an Australian chain of animal shelters used the game as a chance to promote adoption of real-life pets while collecting virtual creatures.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear we\u2019ve barely scratched the surface of what augmented reality can do. This is a marketing revolution for local businesses. I think that in 2017, we will see a lot more attempts \u2013 some successful, others clunky \u2013 to incorporate AR elements into the marketing mix.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Marina Azmy, Marketing Research Analyst<\/em><\/p>\n

2) Customer service via social media will become a true differentiator<\/strong><\/p>\n

After years of rapid increase in the number of customers who went to social media channels for customer service, 2016 saw a decline in this percentage. A study by NICE Systems and Boston Consulting Group<\/a> showed that two out of three customers did\u00a0not use social media for customer service.<\/p>\n

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\nPart of the reason could be frustration with the dissatisfactory responses businesses provide on channels like Facebook and Twitter, including non-responsive platitudes by marketing interns not empowered to solve their problems, long delays, or even no response at all. It seems that many businesses bit off more than they could chew in those early days, launching social channels without considering the time and effort it would take to properly monitor them.<\/p>\n

On the flip side, the companies who are doing a good job are getting even better. It’s also getting easier for smart businesses to differentiate themselves on service by doing this well, particularly if their direct competitors are stumbling. I think we\u2019ll see an increase in investment in smarter social customer service by businesses who view it as core to their brand.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Kate Maxwell, Operations Coordinator, Research<\/em><\/p>\n

3) Social commerce will grow<\/strong><\/p>\n

Have you clicked on a \u201cshop now\u201d button in social media? More and more people are responding “yes” to this question.<\/p>\n

The \u201cbuy now\u201d button has been around for a while, but it never really gained much traction. Some people declared it dead in the water just a couple of years ago, but it turns out that predictions of its demise may have been premature: this holiday season, we\u2019ve seen social commerce take off in a big way.<\/p>\n

A recent study by Paypal and Ipsos<\/a>\n

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