• by John Nardone , Op-Ed Contributor, October 4, 2011

Media is advancing to the state where trends are both developing on individual tracks and are converging simultaneously creating a melding of opportunities. Smart marketers know that for their brand story to be relevant with consumers they need to leverage these trends and be part of the recipe for this rapid change.

From our vantage point as a digital marketing technology company, there are four major forces shaping the future of media. But these four trends are not independent, they are also converging, and tapping into this media-meld holds value for advertisers:

Media personalization is expected by consumers: Consumers interact with brands across devices in and out of home, and as portable devices increase web mobility, marketers have a significant opportunity not only to reach consumers at different interaction points but also to localize offers, embedding personalization strategies to an even greater degree. But it might not just be about local, it might be about weather or tie in to a local event that heightens the relevancy of a brand message.

Personalization is leading to a new age of "useful marketing." Instead of marketers simply touting a product or features, they will offer something truly useful to consumers, such as ground transportation alternatives tied to air travel, or advances like ShopText that engage consumers with text-based marketing.

Personalization is also social: Innovative marketers aren't waiting for the story of social to be written; they're writing it themselves. Some are finding pure advertising to be effective because of targeting opportunities and the sheer size of the social audience; a few are being accepted as "brand publishers."

In our view, marketers should be doing three things:

Listen - keep an ear to the ground as your growing cohort of followers share their 140-character missives; you can bring on an expert to help develop a social listening program * Engage - you have the opportunity to interact and influence the conversation. Personify your brand; consider social causes you can get behind. * Personify - Brands should act like real people and add value by providing relevant and useful content. This can have a positive network effect on your brand.

 

Fueled by "Big Data": The ability to store and process big data will force changes in testing and research approaches. To date the need for panels and sampling techniques were based on the practical constraint of not being able to look at all data and all results. Now the means and methods of research, testing, validation and other metrics will change from sampling to full dataset analysis.

Digital payment systems are unleashed: Companies like CLOVR Media that enable offers linked to digital payments are disruptors that marketers need to pay attention to. It's all about connecting online promotions to actual offline purchases. Digital payment systems reduce the amount of "breakage" between offers, promotions and incentives and their redemption. No longer do consumers need to clip coupons, put them in their wallet and remember to redeem them for promotions to be counted and tracked.

John Nardone, Chairman and CEO, [x+1]