• by Michael McLaren , Op-Ed Contributor, September 4, 2020

The first few months of the coronavirus pandemic struck fear and uncertainly into the plans of many marketers, resulting in decreased spend and an effort to increase control over customer acquisition channels. Back in May, we saw an increase in marketers’ intent around terms such as direct-to-consumer marketing and brand-safety. Since then, the dips and increases in intent around various communications channels, marketing tools, and industry topics have shown a marketing community moving back into “cautious experimentation” mode—one that oscillates between tried-and-true approaches and untested frontiers. 

“Magic Quadrant” soared to the top of the leaderboard this week following Gartner’s announcement of its annual report. The significant uptick in search around this term confirms marketers’ interests in identifying solutions and service providers that can help them enable intelligent, personalized buying experiences for customers. While brands are following these results closely, their agency partners can use this opportunity to lean into these pivots towards the digital age and embracing change.

The impact of digital technologies cannot be overstated. Pre-COVID, digital signage and video were beginning to show up everywhere. Now, we're seeing “Video Wall” rank high among brand search terms compared to previous weeks, as marketers and consumers alike warm up to the idea of video everywhere. After more and more consumers turned to online shopping during lockdown, the pressure on brick-and-mortar stores to find new ways to draw people back has only increased. Likewise, video walls can serve as a highly immersive and captivating experiential tool to get your message across in a creative way. With public-facing touchscreens now things of the past, facial recognition and AI functionality offer new purposes beyond advertising — such as mask detection and temperature checking. 

For the first time in some time, “Customer Behavior” was the most-searched term amongst marketers. By now, we know customers are shifting behavior and many of the anticipated long-lasting behavioral changes are still being formed. In the face of economic pressures, and changing priorities, marketers can’t go wrong with a value-based approach which effectively shifts marketing from a product-centric approach to a customer-centric one. While B2B organizations have been slower to move and catch up with the B2C sector with regards to delivering a customer centric digital experience, it’s clear that now is the time for B2B brands to step up.