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Emerging Trends Open Growth Opportunities
To capture the attention of consumers and stay relevant in the long term, brands need to detect, observe and understand the growing cultural trends that matter to their audiences. Here are three dynamics we believe will open new growth opportunities for brands in the future and that we invite marketers to examine closer. Fuelling fandoms Technology has made connecting those with likeminded interests much easier, turning fandoms into a more involved pastime. Previously niche interests like gaming have given way to behemoths like esports, successful new gaming sub-genres, or even fandoms for game developers themselves. Digital platforms continue to enable fandoms to develop further, with platforms such as Reddit where communities can define their own governance rules or Patreon and Kickstarter that allow communities to finance projects they support. Brands need to understand how these fandoms function, what services or platforms they need to thrive, and ultimately how to communicate to them in a nurturing way. Rise of the digital self As connectivity and digital capabilities increase, there has been a growing convergence in people's physical and digital selves. From areas to socialise and interact online to the idea of Metaverses within games, online personas are becoming just as valid as real-world counterparts. This has significant ramifications to advertising and e-commerce, creating whole new spaces that allow for greater interactivity and closer replication of brick-and-mortar stores with added flexibility and without significant overhead. The digital content and products mimic their real-life counterparts such as digital fashion collections, VR storefronts, in-game concerts, and entertainment releases. Multi-sense interfacing The integration of virtual assistants in people’s daily environment foretells the emergence of ambient computing, where devices sit more discretely in the background, and of natural user interfaces, which can be used intuitively through multi-sensory inputs. As these trends become more commonplace, consumers will expect technology to react efficiently and naturally to their instructions regardless of how they give them, via sound, gestures, sight, touch or even thought. This means brands will have to adapt and be readily recognisable even if there's not a visual component to the transaction, for instance, through sonic identities. This article is excerpted from the report Future Focus 2021: Brands Accelerated. Download it now for key insights on how brands can make the most of brand and performance to accelerate their growth. 02 min read
Shoppable AR Transforms eCommerce
This article has been written by David Roter, VP Global Agency and Brand Partnerships, Snap Inc. and Heather O'Shea, Marketing Science Lead, Snap Inc. Augmented reality (AR) is redefining the future of shopping and brand experiences. It empowers people to experience brands and products up close without needing to go to a store, enabling the ability to comfortably “try before you buy” and comparison shop with ease. For brands, AR is an incredibly powerful tool and helps solve business challenges — from reducing return rates to increasing loyalty with immersive experiences — AR unlocks avenues to reach potential customers far beyond traditional eCommerce offerings. The ongoing rise of smartphone ownership and camera usage enhances the impact of augmented reality for brands. Helen Papagiannis, the author of Augmented Human, details these trends in an article published in Harvard Business Review [1] . Her conclusion is that “AR has proven that it can add enormous value for consumers in the shopping journey”. Over the past year, Snapchat has been experimenting with Shoppable AR formats and evaluating the role of augmented reality as a performance channel, going beyond entertainment and fun to a true utility that drives business results. Our findings outline the immense opportunity for brands to amplify their eCommerce strategy and equip their business for these consumer habits of the future. Augmented reality is truly a full-funnel format. Brands leverage AR on Snapchat to enable conversation about their brand, invite people into an immersive experience, facilitate product try-on and in-home-visualization, and activate useful formats for education. As such, we’ve found that augmented reality delivers full funnel performance. Through a global meta-analysis with research firm Kantar, we identified that when Snapchat CPG campaigns include an AR Lens, they drive 2.5x growth in ad awareness and 1.1x lift in action intent compared to Kantar's global CPG market norms benchmarks[2]. This trend holds true for the retail category as well - when Snapchat retail campaigns include an AR Lens, they drive 2x growth in ad awareness and 2x lift in action intent compared to Kantar's global retail market norms benchmarks [3]. Beyond brand lift, augmented reality campaigns also deliver significant ROI. In the US, Snap partnered with NCSolutions to analyze over 2 years of Snapchat CPG campaigns. We learned that campaigns that include AR Lenses demonstrated a 46% higher lift in penetration on average compared to campaigns without Lenses and drove 14% more incremental sales [4]. This inflated growth of incremental sales indicates that highly engaging branded AR experiences can convert users more quickly than traditional media formats. Augmented reality is also gaining ground as the future of product trial and try-on. Nearly 200 million Snapchatters engage with AR every day [5], and 46% have used AR or VR as a virtual shopping tool. And interest continues to climb - nearly 8 in 10 are interested in visualizing products in the space around them as a way to enhance their shopping experiences [6]. We’ve built a behavior of daily AR use in the Snapchat camera, and consumers are ready to fully embrace this technology as a part of how they shop and compare products. In 2020, we began deeper testing of Shoppable AR formats as we recognized a desire for our audience to interact with brands while safely staying home during the COVID-19 pandemic. We partnered with select advertisers, including dentsu clients, to test these formats over Q3 and Q4 of 2020. We developed tools like SnapML that offer users the ability to try on products such as shoes, sunglasses and makeup directly within Snapchat’s camera and seamlessly make a transaction if they like what they see. These immersive experiences have delivered outsized results for participating advertisers. 9 out of 10 of these campaigns drove an increase in ad awareness [7], and because of the immersive experiences the camera allows for, we’ve seen these Product Experience Lens campaigns were 2x as likely to drive Intent lift than Snapchat Q3-Q4 Norms [8]. Notably, dentsu partnered with Snapchat for two recent best-in-class shoppable AR campaigns. Gucci embarked on their first-ever global AR shoe “try-on” campaign, using SnapML technology to let Snapchatters virtually try on Gucci shoes. After seeing how they looked in the brand’s latest sneakers, Snapchatters were able to purchase the shoes directly from the Lens via a “Shop Now” button, generating positive ROAS as a result [9]. Using their Business Profile as their virtual storefront, Dior (LVMH) launched several new Lenses for their B27 sneaker launch that delivered 3.8X ROAS for their overall campaign [10]. Augmented reality is no longer simply an experiment. For many marketers, it’s becoming a core element of their eCommerce strategy. The wide variety of AR formats can be activated to achieve marketing objectives throughout the funnel, and as more consumers seek out AR shopping experiences, brands have an opportunity to own shoppable innovation within their category with a high rate of proven success. Platforms like Snapchat are best positioned to help retailers tap into this powerful new format. We have a highly engaged audience of 265 million daily active users [11], nearly 200 million of which engage with AR on a daily basis [12]. We’ve evolved our AR products to address utility and commerce in response to consumer needs and we make it easy for advertisers to build creative through our best-in-class creative strategy team and free turnkey products like Lens web builder. This brings newfound opportunities for brands to cut-through the clutter and achieve growth while future-proofing their approach to eCommerce. [1] Source: Helen Papagiannis, “How AR is redefining retail in the pandemic”, Harvard Business Review, October 2020 [2] Source: Kantar Snapchat CPG campaign brand lift meta-analysis commissioned by Snap, Inc., February 2021 [3] Source: Kantar Snapchat Retail campaign brand lift meta-analysis commissioned by Snap, Inc., February 2021 [4] Source: NCSolutions CPG Reaction studies Q1 2017 - Q4 2019 [5] Source: Snap Inc. Internal data Q1 2020. See Snap Inc. public filings with the SEC. [6] Source: Alter Agents study commissioned by Snap, Inc.; May 2020 [7] Source: Snap Inc. internal data as of February 2021 [8] Source: Snap Inc. internal data as of February 2021 [9] Snap Inc. internal data June 28-August 17, 2020 [10] Source: Data from Snap Ads Manager as of October 29 - December 20, 2020. Lookback window: 28 days post-swipe, 1 day post-view. [11] Source: Snap Inc. internal data Q4 2020 vs. Q4 2019. See Snap Inc. public filings with the SEC. [12] Source: Snap Inc. Internal data Q1 2020. See Snap Inc. public filings with the SEC. 06 min read
Future Focus 2021: Brands Accelerated
The new iProspect Future Focus report explores the intersection of consumer attention, commerce and data. Today, we officially launch Future Focus 2021: Brands Accelerated as the essential read for conscientious marketers seeking to explore and exploit the latest consumer and industry advancements for brand growth. The 75+ page report addresses some of the most pressing aspects of modern marketing including; the battle for attention, wholesale changes in data privacy, and the emergence of assisted commerce. Combining evidence-based research with interviews and responses from over 200 brand marketers in 29 countries, the Future Focus 2021: Brands Accelerated report delves deep into the challenges and opportunities faced in the current global climate and within the immediate media landscape. And, convenience and relevancy of media to the consumer is key, as 61% of marketers, polled for the report, considered ‘building a highly convenient experience for the consumer’ as the most powerful lever to generate business growth.i The content of this sixth edition of the Future Focus series typifies the intricacies of bringing brand and performance together to achieve growth. “Despite the challenging times we live in, I believe there have never been so many opportunities in media. With our new and unique approach of performance-driven brand building, we are firmly optimistic about the future and resolved to make it happen, today. With Future Focus 2021: Brands Accelerated as their guidebook, I hope all marketers will be able to leverage the growth potential afforded at these significant intersections of media, data, commerce and culture.” Amanda Morrissey, Global President of iProspect The findings showed that around 2 in 5 marketers (42%) still think the linear path to purchase is as relevant today as it was decades ago, despite the rise of digital. While at the same time 32% of marketers feel that expanding commerce capabilities is important for the 2021 roadmap, however 26% see this as one of the most difficult challenges this year.ii Practical advice to marketers. In addition to discussing and dissecting the impact of major global industry trends and innovations, the report spotlights the relevancy and opportunity for brands, regardless of sector, to capitalise on these seismic shifts in the media landscape. Examples of the report’s advice and guidance for marketers worldwide include: #1: Commerce is Everywhere Organisations should strive to build and maintain an accurate picture of their commerce capabilities across five key dimensions: desirability, availability, findability, buyability, and repeatability. This will help them define the most profitable commerce model for their brand, better integrate their e-commerce and stores into an actionable omnichannel strategy, explore new growth channels, and turn media opportunities into transaction opportunities. #2 The Battle for Attention Brands should consider factoring attention into their media optimisation and measurement efforts to elevate the impact and efficiency of their investment. To maximise audience attention, they should ensure the content and experiences they design truly align with consumer intent, and that the campaigns they develop do not relegate diversity and inclusivity as afterthoughts. #3 The New Data Playbook On the data front, organisations should embrace the new privacy-conscious world by re-evaluating the value exchange they offer to their audiences and anticipate technological changes to minimise business disruption. This is the occasion to explore opportunities for automation, evaluate the quality of the data they collect and process, and more broadly reflect upon how data is effectively used to inform decisions. The last point is of particular significance as the report found in some circumstances there are huge disparities between what the consumer and brand marketer think, when it comes to assessing data value. Only 9% of marketers believe helping a company improve products or services is an incentive for consumers to share their data, while 44% of consumers believe it is a good enough reason to release personal identifiable information (PII) to the brand.iii Download your copy of Future Focus 2021: Brands Accelerated now. ----------------------------------------- [i] Proprietary omnibus survey: iProspect, 2020 Global Client Survey, 12 Oct–11 Nov 2020, 202 respondents. [ii] Proprietary omnibus survey: iProspect, 2020 Global Client Survey, 12 Oct–11 Nov 2020, 202 respondents. [iii] iProspect 2020 Global Client Survey (Oct 2020) and iProspect and Microsoft Advertising, Consumer Privacy and Data Survey (Mar 2020) 04 min read