Digital Shift, a quarterly service from Econsultancy exclusively for Enterprise subscribers, is intended as a guide to support strategic thinking.
Focused tightly on digital technologies, marketing and ecommerce, it’s about delivering actionable insight on trends that will be significant in the short to mid-term, and which can be used to generate new ideas, improve business performance and stay ahead of the competition.
The latest report in this series, also available as a presentation and webinar recording (see below), looks at topics including automation at scale, CGI influencers, people watching other people play video games, new brand storytelling and psychopathic algorithms. We will be covering:
- The digital video juggernaut: A look at how digital video is expanding into multiple genres, how viewing behaviour is changing and how brands are using the growing Stories format on social channels to connect with consumers in new ways.
- Influencer marketing grows up: As Facebook creates new tools to connect brands with influencers, we look at the latest developments in the space, including the growth in virtual (computer-generated) influencers and new ways of interacting with avatars.
- Ever-changing retail: The retail market is changing rapidly as technology becomes ever more integrated into consumer experience. What are the latest trends in mixing digital with physical retail? How are strategic partnerships with technology power players likely to have an impact on the market? And what is automation’s role in bringing efficiency for retail? How can we best combine machine automation with human smarts?
- AI application and ethics: There is more hype than ever before around AI in marketing, so how do we understand the its real impact on society and how can we optimise its use? What are the ethical implications of when algorithms go bad? How can we use data to ensure a foundation for success, while bringing in working principles and human intervention to apply AI in ethical ways?
- The state of marketing technology: Finally, we take our annual look at Scott Brinker’s survey into the marketing technology landscape and assess whether it really is possible that the market has grown again from last year’s high of more than 5,000 technology vendors. What is the best way for marketers to navigate this complexity?