• by Michael McLaren , Op-Ed Contributor, December 20, 2021

What’s in a brand? Marketers want to know. “Brand equity” has continued to grow in content consumption rankings since early November, as measured by Bombora Company Surge, as marketers contemplate where to prioritize their marketing dollars. Digital and commerce transformation has leveled the playing field, opening it up to new brand entrants in almost every category. Marketers are evaluating whether they should give more prominence to the brand and the way consumers experience the brand. Companies with higher brand equity benefit from higher demand and customer loyalty – and generally command a premium price – an enviable position for any growth-oriented organization. 

“Predictive lead scoring” was also on the rise among marketers in recent weeks, as shown by intent data. A function of machine learning, “predictive lead scoring” can help identify database leads with a high propensity to buy. It starts by creating an “ideal customer” profile based on past buying behavior and then identifies which current prospects best fit that profile -— eliminating the need for sales teams to spend endless hours vetting potential customers. While, like most things, it can be subjective in nature, this form of machine leaning only gets better with time. 

Meanwhile, agencies have been researching “dynamic creative” to help deliver high-performing combinations of their creative assets to audiences. Dynamic creative develops in real time to help marketers delivers on the promise of more relevant content at the right moment in the right context. This might sound simple, but the devil is always in the details — especially when you consider all the other factors at play, such as location, sequence, behavior and audience demographic. 

To enable the right user journey, it’s important to have the right data and technology in place – this means integrating your data management platform (DMP) into your dynamic creative or putting dynamic creative optimization (DCO) to work.