2024 Informed: Martech predictions

1: AI will augment skills and enhance marketing strategy (and don’t forget chatbots)

“AI will not replace marketers but instead will amplify their abilities, enabling them to be more dynamic, targeted and expedient with their efforts to market in the digital era.

“Generative AI will enable a new era of dynamic digital ads that adjust each viewer’s copy, style, and content in real time. This hyper personalised approach will lead to higher engagement as the ad resonates better with the individual’s needs and interests. Companies that implement AI into their marketing strategy will drive a 30% increase in pipeline because of their ability to interact with customers with more personalised, targeted marketing materials.

“With AI becoming more accurate, digital marketers will also rely more on chatbots to drive consumers to their products, answer questions and guide consumers with information they need about particular products.”

Einat Weiss, CMO, NICE 

“Businesses must prioritise customer engagement through personalisation. Understanding an audience is the crucial first step to this, as businesses risk missing opportunities without a deep grasp of their customer base. The next step is to use AI-powered tools to scale up customer communications and establish themselves in a competitive marketplace. AI will massively augment the existing capabilities of businesses to communicate and engage at scale, thereby driving down the cost of marketing processes and improving ROI.

“From our recent Holiday Report, we know that 73% of customers feel more valued when they receive personalised emails, and 87% are more likely to engage with tailored content. But personalisation must be balanced with privacy, and trust and transparency will become even more important in 2024.

“The synergy of message timing, personalised communications, technology integration, and adaptive strategies will directly influence the success of businesses of all sizes.”

Jim Rudall, GM, EMEA, Intuit Mailchimp 

2: 2024 will be a make-or-break year for CMOs and their digital tools

“CMOs across the board are eager to find ways to add value and create loyalty with smaller teams and fewer resources. Vendors who can provide digital tools that help them achieve that, at the right price and with a proven rapid ROI, will win the day.

“One of the primary battlegrounds will be customer data and deciding who owns it. Some businesses will attempt to own the entirety of the customer journey and all their touchpoints. These companies will undoubtedly benefit from first-hand access to all their customer data and the ability to finely control the customer journey. However, they risk over-extending their internal resources, providing a sub-par experience, and alienating their customers.

“Other businesses will lean heavily on third-party platforms to interact with customers and facilitate purchases. These businesses will benefit from a wider reach across a variety of platforms and pre-built commerce tools to streamline the purchase process. On the flipside, they face a significant risk in removing themselves from the decision-making process and losing access to their customer data.”

3: The shift to video commerce is no longer if, but when 

“Video will continue to grow as the primary platform for engaging consumers, making up 65% of all consumer traffic last year. Brands that aren’t constantly focused on creating interactive, customer-centric content will undoubtedly fall behind.

“As consumers grow more digitally savvy, they’re becoming less patient, and have even higher expectations. When it comes to video, they no longer have patience for content that doesn’t suit their needs. In 2024, businesses will either succeed in creating content that meets their customers’ online and omnichannel experience standards, or lose market share to those that do.”

Sophie Abrahamsson, head of Americas, Bambuser

4: Big Tech splits from adtech

Big Tech’s relationship with adtech could see a real shake-up in 2024 following tectonic shifts in the regulatory landscape and other macroeconomic conditions.

“Amazon has already announced its decision to withdraw from the third-party ad serving market, and some level of ad tech divestment looks to be a likely outcome from Google’s anti-trust issues in the US. Meanwhile, Meta is adjusting EU services following a ruling over data collection policies, and the Digital Markets Act poses additional threats to the way Big Tech companies operate in the region.

“In the big picture, this is win for marketers who will be less reliant on walled gardens to perform the critical functions of ad serving and optimisation across channels. A rising tide of independent ad tech platforms that can offer a more comprehensive and transparent approach to advertising will lift all boats in 2024.”

Aaron Goldman, chief marketing officer, Mediaocean

…but grapples with regulations will continue

“As we move into 2024, the ad industry will continue to grapple with regulations relating to personal data such as GDPR and PECR, while the UK is updating its privacy laws and the EU’s Digital Markets Act will place restrictions on the biggest online platforms. While the writing’s been on the wall for some time, the advertising industry needs to take action now to select identity solutions with reach and scale. But it’s a fragmented market with multiple identifier replacements, which means we can expect to see a battle for supremacy over the next 12 months.”

Daniel Landsman, global director of Ad Tech Solutions, Aerospike

5: Web3 loyalty systems will replace outdated points-based programs

“This could be a truly meaningful and exciting deployment of Web3. The technology can be used as the backbone for these new loyalty systems. Loyalty ‘points’ would be ditched in favour of loyalty tokens. Loyalty tokens are more versatile, they can offer users specific product discounts, ways to display their top shopper status online, or unlock early access to new products, just as easily as they can be a store of points to be exchanged for money off a purchase.

“But as well as improving the reward value, loyalty tokens can be exchanged between customers, incentivising referral, creating clear maps of how and where users interact, and providing real value for loyal customers that makes them more likely to return.

“Such a system will also help secure revenue for businesses by building a clearer image of who their customers are and where they interact with the brand. Potential sponsors can be reassured by the immutable, transparent nature of blockchain-backed loyalty programs that the audience size they intend to reach, and the level of engagement they wish to see, are real and not the result of double-counting across platforms.”

Lars Rensing, CEO, Protokol

6: Replacing cookies: identity resolution

“The challenge of replacing cookies with other behavioural targeting mechanisms has been growing for the past three years, and it will come to a head in 2024. We’ve seen heavy use of consent management platforms, but how can these help tie identity across all the channels? The only way through is by becoming identity agnostic, and that means using several identity providers. If advertising organisations are to be effective moving forward, they will need to make identity resolution part of their data strategy, and the first step is to build a first-party identity graph. Once the success parameters are in place, it can be expanded. This doesn’t remove the difficulties of identity resolution, but it will certainly make them less unwieldy to manage and help companies prepare for the future.”

Daniel Landsman, global director of Ad Tech Solutions, Aerospike

To read next year’s healthtech predictions click here