Reimagining the Marketing Landscape: Driving Mass Personalization and Reinventing Content Delivery in the Era of Business 4.0

Abha Bajaj

July 18, 2019

Today, the number one success driver for CMOs is the effective use of data – how we create meaningful insights from data, how we harness predictive data to drive conversions. Specifically, using data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to drive mass Personalization and reinvent Content Delivery will visibly move the needle for marketers and drive Digital Transformation or “Business 4.0.” Advanced usages of data will be further propelled as fifth-generation wireless (5G) goes from lofty goal to reality, using its high-speed, low-latency and uninterrupted connectivity, bringing about a new realm of connectivity that’s crucial for advancing data flow, content delivery, and predictive capabilities.

Let’s dive into a few ways marketers can use Data-driven Insights and Analytics to achieve effective measurement – a pain point the industry is still struggling with.

Hyper-Personalization

Today, Marketing professionals’ most important task is figuring out how to use data to drive a Hyper-Personalized experience for each individual customer and end-user. Providing this advanced level of targeting is no longer optional – studies have shown nearly three-fourths (71 percent) of consumers prefer ads that are personalized to them as individuals. Furthermore, almost half of consumers claim that better Personalization would entice them to switch brand loyalty.

To adapt to the changing consumer landscape, third-party Hi-tech solutions are continuing to be experimented with and implemented to find new and innovative ways to make massive amounts of data accessible and actionable. Hyper-Personalization doesn’t simply mean using a customer’s first name in a mass-marketing email. It’s about compliantly using data to provide a truly tailored experience that keeps the end-user returning. Whether it’s triggered behavioral emails (that are timed correctly and aren’t perceived as spam), accurate product recommendations, reminders when it might be time to replenish an item or the occasional loyalty perk – the modern customer’s expectations are heightened because they’re aware of the benefits real-time data can provide.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Hyper-Personalization is largely powered through Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning capabilities. Marketers use a mixture of automated tools to obtain a deeper understanding of their end-users—in-turn providing an accurately Personalized experience. Whether through analyzing key data, dissecting and forecasting Sales trends, predictive customer service or implementing an AI-powered Chatbot to alleviate humans’ involvement in mundane tasks and free them up to focus on more thought-intensive, creative work, automation has digitally-transformed the industry. We’ll continue to see the development and investment of even more intelligent and agile Cloud-based solutions that are highly-customizable to organizations’ needs to create exponential value.

Content Delivery

Today’s end-user, especially Generation Z, wants to engage with concise, actionable, and convenient content, such as social media stories, streamed video, AR and VR. These tactics have become increasingly prevalent forms of enhanced storytelling, facilitated by IoT-connected mobile devices. They provide the unique, personalized, “create your own journey” methods that today’s end-users crave. Brands are exploring this demand, tapping into previously unimaginable forms of engagement—all delivered on a massive, hyper-targeted scale. Take Vespa, for example, which released an AR magazine ad where a 3D model of a scooter appeared if you scanned the page with your smartphone.

5G will further support these evolving content preferences. While current 4G networks are certainly yielding some of these insights already, with 5G the results will be amplified, more easily analyzed, and faster. Service providers will also be able to offer on-demand, high-upload bandwidth and streaming on various devices, as well as pre-attached metadata for repurposing the content for varying requirements, such as second screens and interactive games. The delivery of said content will be more targeted toward individuals than ever before—thanks to advancements in AI and ML capabilities. Couple these factors together, and the need for high-speed connectivity is no longer a luxury – it’s a requirement to up the customer experience game in the era of “Business 4.0.”

What’s Ahead

Going forward, we’ll continue to see more cost-effective marketing solutions pop up, with a focus on a measurable, disruptive, personalized, hyper-targeted customer experience. AI and Machine Learning will reshape how enterprises think about marketing and real-time data, and tools will have the speed and computational power to provide an even deeper level of Personalization that’s become an absolute requirement. The slow but steady rollout of 5G will underpin these Marketing innovations, with marketers and Marketing Software Developers beginning to become familiar with what faster connectivity can offer and how they can build Digital Marketing solutions that leverage this power.

Abha Bajaj

Abha Bajaj is Head of Marketing & Communication of TCS’ HiTech Business Unit and Alliances & Technology Unit. She has more than 18 years of experience in the IT industry, with specific focus on Strategy & Planning, Industry Marketing, Partner Marketing, Customer Experience and Digital Marketing. Abha has driven the High Tech Marketing to new heights in which she has significantly increased both the profile of the unit externally as well as the quality and content of HiTech's collateral. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur and has done her Management Development Program from IIM Kozhikode.