It’s a stressful time for marketers. Many believe that their lives will be disrupted to the nth degree without cookies. Meanwhile, consumers are more protective of their personal data than ever. In the Australian Community Attitudes to Privacy Survey 2020, 7 in 10 respondents nominated privacy as a major concern for them, while 87% wanted more control and choice over the collection and use of their personal information.

Experts like Lauren Solomon, CEO of Consumer Policy Research Centre, further notes how data processes are clunky and outdated.

According to research from the Consumer Policy Research Centre, 70 percent of consumers accept consent terms, even if they are not comfortable with them. When asked why, three quarters of consumers said it’s because it’s the only way to access the product.

Meanwhile, the research further revealed more than 90 percent of Australian consumers are uncomfortable with how their data is collected and shared – and they’re disempowered to do anything about it.

“They want the government to intervene and protect them,” Lauren says.

“There also isn’t actually any way for consumers to express the preferences that they have and to acquire products that meet those preferences – because it’s a take it or leave it proposition,” added Lauren.

What is the solution?

Companies need to stop ‘renting data’ and build their own database through direct-to-consumer relationships. The key to future success is building a loyalty initiative that offers mutual value exchange. Customers can willingly offer their personal details, in exchange for a better customer experience.

With the death of the cookies, the ‘value exchange’ between businesses and their customers’ willingness to share personal data has never been so important. Activating cookie-less data, using it to enhance customer experience and derive insights is a craft and skill that marketers need to invest in and develop.

Unlocking the value of loyalty in a cookieless future

The importance of loyalty programs should not be overlooked as a critical part of a marketer’s toolkit. Loyalty programs are the perfect replacement for connecting customers with brands in new and innovative ways now and beyond a cookie-less world. They give organizations a clear, zero-party data approach to unlock deeper insights into their customers, unlock fresh CX opportunities, and open powerful new ways to forge more long-lasting and meaningful customer relationships.

But what makes a great loyalty program? Adam Posner, CEO and Founder of The Point of Loyalty, shares the seven zones that make up the ‘wheel of loyalty fortune’. Organizations need to implement each one of these points to ensure they have a strong, steadfast loyalty program that will benefit both customers and brands.

1. Business: First and foremost a business must be profitable and sustainable.

2. Members: Organizations should understand their loyalty member’s behaviors, beliefs, and belongings.

3. Program: The loyalty program needs to be meaningful and desirable to consumers.

4. Team: The organization’s employees need to buy-in for the loyalty program and be willing to endorse it.

5. Technology: The technology should be fit-for-future rather than fit-for-now.

6. Data: Ensuring the loyalty program captures the data necessary for analysis and for relevant action.

7. Dialogue: Any company dialogue to the customer needs to be dynamic and personal at all times.

It’s time for a new marketing recipe

There is life after the death of the cookie. Zero-party data can help marketers connect with their customers. This preference data comes directly from the consumer. There are no intermediaries and no guesswork — it’s psychographic data that includes the customers’ values, attitudes, interests, and personality traits.

Marketers will need to survive, lead and stay relevant in a cookie-less society – a reality that is right around the corner. Leading with loyalty and adopting a Zero Party Data strategy will help marketers survive by creating long-lasting customer relationships with a clear and concise value exchange.

This article is written by Billy Loizou, VP for Go To Market for APAC at Cheetah Digital.

Cheetah Digital is a cross-channel customer engagement solution provider that enables marketers to create personalized experiences, cross-channel messaging, and loyalty strategies.

Why do marketers need digital experience platforms (DXP)? The answer is simple. Most people check out a brand online before they walk into the store, or check out its physical office, or if they even have one at all. And this touchpoint has become even more ingrained in a consumer’s journey in the new normal, where lockdowns have dampened the relevance of brick-and-mortar stores.

According to the latest E-conomy report by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company, the Southeast Asia region is charging ahead at full steam, having added 60 million new digital consumers to the internet economy since the pandemic started, with 20 million of them joining in H1 2021 alone. And this will further increase as e-commerce becomes the be-all-and-end-all of consumers’ shopping demands.

DXP as the vital baseline of consumer experiences

When we walk into a store, say Uniqlo – the entire experience matters – from the lighting, the smell, and the layout to the customer service and the checkout experience. Now imagine trying to replicate this online, purely digitally – you take away the physical elements like touch, smell, and feeling of being in the store; so what you have to do is to ensure the online experience is as powerful as possible to instill positive emotions in the customer.

In the case of digital experience, this will be the user interface, the simplicity of navigation, the speed of page loading, the personalization of the page itself, and micro components to make the experience enriching while being bespoke, along with the checkout process remaining seamless, the omnichannel engagement fulfilling, among many others. If the experience is positive across the customer journey and all the multiple touchpoints, then the customer’s experience towards the brand will naturally be uplifting, leading to more engagement, advocacy, sales, and loyalty.

Digital experience has been way underrated – brands spend many more times the budget on traditional campaigns, loud billboards, and posters, but all these are turning into spam and noise for the customer. Even if the advert catches their eyeballs, and they land on a website that is poorly designed, all that money spent will be in vain. However, a superbly executed website or app has the potential to go viral effortlessly simply because of human nature – we experience something good and we want to share it with others, and if the site is made to be shareable easily, then it will proliferate.

There are many ways to measure DXP ROI – but rather than using a template and then measuring that against variables which may not matter or are very intangible, using a composable DXP allows you to build a martech stack against a specific business objective. So, for example, with all things being equal, you want to measure increase in conversions – adding a shopping cart + marketing automation and then tracking the differences over a period of time, or against the same interval as compared to last year or years before – this will allow you to see the incremental gains which you can then use against the tech/resource investment to get the ROI.

Breaking ROI down into specific objectives will allow marketers to pinpoint what really works for them and what doesn’t, rather than get a digital transformation solution that costs millions and waiting for a couple of years for that to ‘transform’ the revenue. It simply doesn’t work that way; apart from the tech investment, there is also change management you need to take into account – the retraining of people and reshaping of processes in order to fit the new ‘solution’, not to mention the attrition as well.

Asia is one of the most creative and competitive markets in the world, and they are constantly leading the pack with innovative ways of engaging the customer. For some of the brands, there is a ‘family business’ approach where marketers work in silos, and for the others, they pay millions of dollars a year for solutions that they barely even use 10% of. 

As marketers get savvier digitally, and the role of digital leaders become more empowered, they will be able to focus their investments better and get better ROI from those investments, as well as use agile solutions to adapt rapidly to changes in the market in order to take advantage of these disruptions.

The new marketer is the one who sees change as an opportunity, not as a tragedy. And with this new normal, the future of DXP in Asia is really the only way to go – whoever can embrace digital first, will displace the competition first. And once you gain that foothold, the others can only play catchup. Our younger generations are digital natives, and digital is the future as the world becomes a giant online city.

This article is written by Don Lee, managing director for APAC of CMS provider Magnolia.

The article is published as part of MARKETECH APAC’s thought leadership series What’s NEXT. This features marketing leaders sharing their marketing insights and predictions for the upcoming year. The series aims to equip marketers with actionable insights to future-ready their marketing strategies.

If you are a marketing leader and have insights that you’d like to share with regards to the upcoming trends and practices in marketing, please reach out to [email protected] for an opportunity to have your thought-leadership published on the platform.

More marketers are recognizing the power of branded content in our rapidly evolving digital age. Consumers are constantly being bombarded with all sorts of adverts, so it is vital for brands to tell stories that resonate with their customers to ensure they stand out from the crowd. 

Content marketing also offers a range of other business benefits, including helping companies to build brand awareness, cultivate consumer loyalty, and generate organic growth through publicity.

Up to 80 percent of marketers regard content creation as one of the top priorities, according to a 2021 report by Hubspot. It also shows that content marketing makes up 26 percent of their business-to-business marketing budgets, while spending is on the rise.

Plan your next successful content marketing campaign

To better plan, manage and evaluate a successful content marketing campaign, it is important that companies put a clear structure in place. Here is our five-step guide to help you plan your next content marketing campaign.

1. Define your strategy with a framework for measurement

Brand equity modeling is a useful tool to assess the impact of measures of brand equity on long-term brand performance. Marketers should first include metrics such as ‘trust’, ‘quality’, and ‘reliability’ with a definitive monetary value and hierarchy, alongside other tangible indicators such as the audience engagement level or sales conversion.

With such a framework, marketers can constantly measure the effectiveness of each campaign and adjust their strategy to optimize the results.

2. Know your audience through data

Storytelling is a form of art, but tailoring your content to the right audience is a science. Making use of first-, second- or third-party data is instrumental in mapping out the key communications challenges of engaging your target audience.

By analyzing the data, which shows such things as who your audience is, what content they consume, and how they behave; marketers will have a better idea about how to strengthen the brand relevance to the target audiences in the right context.

3. Internal support for creative process 

Compelling content requires creativity, but the bureaucratic approval process sometimes kills imaginative thinking. As such, marketers should lobby internally and get the backing of C-suite, or senior executives, to ensure the least intervention in the creative process, while gatekeepers are in place for quality assurance and crisis prevention. Ideally, two to three sign-offs would be sufficient in keeping the right balance between gatekeeping and the creative process.

4. Tailor your distribution plan to match user journey

With a massive volume of content available, both online and offline, marketers need to work towards more than just clicks and eyeballs. Instead, they should curate a content journey – through the right distribution channels at the right time for the right audience – that allows people to discover your brand, generate interest and build brand loyalty.

5. Focus on long-term benefits

Most content marketers define the success of a content marketing campaign by the number of sales conversions. This overemphasis on short-term results prevents marketers from benefiting from the long-term returns – gained from: creating real bonds with your customers and cultivating customer loyalty.

This article is written by Darryl Choo, regional sales director for APAC at South China Morning Post.

The article is published as part of MARKETECH APAC’s thought leadership series What’s NEXT.

This features marketing leaders sharing their marketing insights and predictions for the upcoming year. The series aims to equip marketers with actionable insights to future-ready their marketing strategies.

If you are a marketing leader and have insights that you’d like to share with regards to the upcoming trends and practices in marketing, please reach out to [email protected] for an opportunity to have your thought leadership published on the platform.

Our lifestyle today revolves around platform businesses, and the need for such services has been further heightened with social restrictions over the course of the pandemic. From what we eat (food delivery), how we commute (ride-hailing), to how we consume entertainment (video-sharing websites), we use the services provided by platform players. In fact, the market size of the global platform economy has surpassed the US$7t mark and is still growing at a compounded annual rate of 15%.

In 2022, there will be more startups coming to the scene disrupting traditional markets, and even established companies shifting their business model, all adopting the platform-based approach.

With increasing competition coming next year, what does it take for a platform player to emerge as a winner? The answer is the ability to create an ecosystem that not just meets the needs of both the consumers (buyers) and suppliers (sellers), but also one where both sides of the platform are committed and engaged in interacting with each other.

This can be achieved via platform loyalty programs. Platform loyalty programs are different from traditional loyalty programs. The program design of the latter is geared only towards the consumers whereas in the former, both players have their own roles to play to drive sustainable growth of the platform.

Five Strategic Archetypes of Platform Loyalty Programs to consider in 2022

As we enter 2022 with service platforms now deeply ingrained in consumers’ day-to-day, today proves to be the best time to double down on their engagement and build loyalty programs that will make the stay and long for a brand’s product or service.

Here are five strategies platform players can adopt in building a winning engagement strategy as their growth engine.

1. Two-pronged programs

The most direct way is to create a separate reward system for both consumers and sellers as means to create growth loops i.e. consumers bringing in more consumers; while sellers bringing in more sellers to the platform – to create more activities. 

Example: foodpanda

Foodpanda is a great example of how they create a separate rewards program for both sides of the platform ecosystem. Consumers have access to challenges and rewards where you get to unlock badges and points and redeem them for vouchers. Meanwhile, foodpanda has Bamboo Rewards to recognize riders. Through Bamboo Rewards, riders get to earn rewards such as fuel incentives, vouchers, and free merchandise.

Source: Screengrabs from foodpanda app and website

2. Customized programs

A platform owner can allow sellers on their program to launch their own mini loyalty program, which offers and rewards customers based on their own business needs, but still within the overarching rewards design principle of the platform.

Example: Lieferando

Lieferando is a food delivery platform in Europe. While they have an overarching points program, they allow the participating restaurants to customize their own stampcard program where users will get to earn a stamp for every order they make and redeem it for vouchers – personalized from that very restaurant – after collecting x number of stamps.

Source: Screengrabs from Lieferando website

3. Coalition programs

Multiple brands join together in a partnership and offer a joint loyalty program, often having a single rewards currency in the ecosystem.

Example: PAYBACK

At the core of the coalition program, PAYBACK has market-leading brands in the everyday spend category. This helps to ensure sufficient scale to support the economics of the program and in turn attract other partners to the coalition. A highly liquid rewards currency is the main draw for the consumers where they can freely earn/ burn across the participating brands thus allowing them to stretch their dollars.

Source: Screengrabs from PAYBACK website

4. Alliance program

Similar to a coalition loyalty program except that participating brands do not have to forfeit their own loyalty program and consumers do not have to sign up for a new program to be part of the alliance ecosystem

Example: Star Alliance

Star Alliance is a two-tier rewards program that gives passengers more options to book their tickets from the participating airlines, simplified in-flight operations, and the ability to earn and redeem miles on other alliance members. To be a member, customers just have to be enrolled in any of the participating alliance members’ frequent flyer programs. For airlines, joining an alliance gives them access to more customers and by combining networks, member airlines can offer more flights to many more designations without having the need to operate these routes on their own.

Source: Screengrabs from Star Alliance website

5. Employer-Employee program

While this model is not quite a typical platform rewards program, the program is meant to solve the pain points of employers and employees while still driving the main activities to the platform itself.

Example: Grab for Business

The program helps employers and saves them from having to give and track transport allowance to staff, and staff (users) do not have to be bothered with manual expense reporting while still being able to earn rewards points on their business travels.

Source: Screengrabs from Grab website

Program design principles for a successful platform loyalty program

Whichever model a platform player chooses as their engagement strategy, they need to adhere to these principles to ensure their program is successful:

1. Platform owners must solve the pain points of both consumers and sellers; or at least give sufficient reasons for them to join the program

2. Program insights should be made available to sellers (e.g. real-time dashboards) to improve targeting and offerings

3. Personalization and segmentation are important ingredients for sellers

4. Loyalty economics (e.g. earn/burn, breakage, floats) are critical for platform growth.

5. Balanced earn and burn across all partners and program must be independently owned by 3rd party

Platform business is in abundance and the market will get even more crowded in 2022. Only those who can foster healthy relationships between consumers and sellers will be successful, therefore, it is imperative that platform players start investing in their engagement strategies today.

Platform loyalty programs are an important growth loop strategy for platform businesses to grow their players, both buyers and sellers. Introducing such a concept in the current market environment could prove to be a winning asset and a strong differentiator from the competition.

This article was written by Loyalty & Growth Leader Henry Christian. He is the former general manager of Singapore’s loyalty program NTUC Link, and previously the head of loyalty program of leading lifestyle retailer MAP in Indonesia.

The article is published as part of MARKETECH APAC’s thought leadership series What’s NEXT.

This features marketing leaders sharing their marketing insights and predictions for the upcoming year. The series aims to equip marketers with actionable insights to future-ready their marketing strategies.

If you are a marketing leader and have insights that you’d like to share with regards to the upcoming trends and practices in marketing, please reach out to [email protected] for an opportunity to have your thought leadership published on the platform.

With over 350 million digital consumers in Southeast Asia projected by the end of 2021, today’s brands have come to value the importance of digital marketing more than ever. Both in targeting and expanding consumer reach, as well as in getting to know consumers to ensure a smooth purchasing journey.

The importance of investing in digital ad buys is further emphasized by Magna’s Spring 2021 global advertising forecast, which sees the APAC market growing by 12.8% to reach $203b this year, fueled by a 19% rise in digital ad sales.

In parallel, the e-commerce market in Southeast Asia continues to expand at a rapid pace as according to Facebook and Bain & Company’s annual SYNC Southeast Asia report, the region’s overall retail share for e-commerce demonstrated an increase from 5% in 2020 to 9% in 2021, a growth faster than Brazil, China, and India.

With this rapid growth in e-commerce set to continue, brands are looking to balance both e-commerce and digital marketing objectives which often result in a fragmented digital consumer journey and frustrated consumers. One obvious example is using multiple ads to entice target consumers which land them on pages where they cannot proceed to purchase the product advertised, in other words, landing on a dead-end.

As frustrating as this is for the consumer, more so for brands as a valuable opportunity for conversion is missed. Identifying and aligning a common goal across the board will ensure a smoother digital consumer journey, which benefits brands and consumers.

Bridging the gap between commerce and digital assets

For many brands, the explosion in digital touchpoints and methods of purchasing online has led to a disconnect in the message, look, and feel of digital assets across the customer journey. This is typically the result of multiple parties looking after separate parts of the journey, often in isolation.

There are very different ads that communicate the brand story, the product benefits, and those that focus on ‘buy now’. Digital touchpoints include social, video, livestream, influencers, etc., and brands often do not provide consistency across each of these. Online purchase now covers e-commerce marketplaces, social commerce, and more recently quick commerce which again gives rise to very different approaches to the look and feel of these pages.

The challenge facing brands now is how to create this seamless consistency across all the touchpoints, ultimately drawing in the consumer, generating sales, and fostering loyalty.

Comprehensive approach to landing page utilization and optimization

An effective e-commerce landing page should focus on providing consumers with a memorable and effortless buying experience. It is important to have a landing page SEO strategy that focuses on key headlines, quality imagery, and a clear ability to purchase on that page.

Equally important to optimized e-commerce pages, is ensuring that all digital ads across the consumer journey, land directly on the relevant product purchase page. Having the consumer land on a page and being unable to finalize their purchase objective very much defeats the purpose of an e-commerce landing page. The same applies to landing consumers in a part of the store unrelated to the ad they clicked on which adds another step in the journey to purchase and could cause a consumer to abandon the purchase.

Embracing an outcome-driven approach by putting the consumer at the heart of the brand’s e-commerce digital marketing strategy can present multiple amazing opportunities: a seamless consumer experience which will lead to a significant improvement in return on ad spend.

In the mid of back to back Mega Sales campaigns, is it time to reconsider your brand’s approach to ensure you get the most out of the Golden Quarter of Retail?

This article is written by Pichitra Tachanirut, regional head of marketing solutions at Intrepid Group Asia.

As digital technologies dramatically reshape industries, customer expectations are also rapidly evolving in a hyper-connected environment. In fact, we see the same technologies which are changing customer behavior also enabling businesses to redefine customer journeys. This has led to customers increasingly seeking differentiated experiences built on convenience, speed, and accessibility.

While putting the customer first is not a new idea, many organizations are still trying to crack the code on how to integrate this effectively into the business model. An easy first place to start is cloud agreements. Businesses often focus on digitizing the upfront customer experience however often overlook the process of agreement and rely on paper-based processes that aren’t aligned to customer expectations. Digitizing the agreement process removes the potential friction introduced by needing to print, send, and sign paper documents.

With modern electronic signature tools available, it’s now up to leaders to leverage technology and reorient the business towards customer needs. Here are three ways cloud agreements help to strengthen business touchpoints.

Make customers part of your solution

Delays and miscommunication are the most common risks every business that is not digital-first is exposed to. This incurs unnecessary time and revenue costs to the company, resulting in decreased productivity. Today, where the expectation for convenience becomes the norm, make yourself as easy to do business with as possible which starts with digitizing contracts. 

It’s important to provide full transparency throughout your engagement with each customer from pre- to post-sales. By leveraging cloud agreements, businesses can better accommodate customer needs by tapping into the flexibility and convenience of the system.

This is evident in the financial and banking industry where online contracts and e-signatures have helped global banks bridge the broken customer experience with an end-to-end digitalization of offerings like home loans. As a result, customers now enjoy improved and faster services that are aligned to their expectations.

A frictionless agreement process

A great customer experience starts with a frictionless agreement. We’ve all experienced the pain and frustration of having to print, sign, and mail documents. And it’s not enjoyable, to say the least. So why impose this on your customers? With cloud agreements, you can assimilate your business to the anywhere economy by eliminating manual steps in your processes and focus on service quality.

A robust cloud system that is compliant and reliable is a key part of any business success. The strong technology infrastructure from AI to machine learning that supports cloud services helps to build trust and confidence among customers. Additionally, the greater visibility of agreement processes allows senders to see real-time signing status which removes any customer fears and worries. This makes the customer experience holistic and safe.

A renewed focus on corporate and social responsibility

Providing a superior customer experience doesn’t hinge only on the customer’s benefit—it’s a strategic business decision. Thus, having a modern digital agreement process is also a reflection of your brand and corporate social responsibility. Through automated processes, paper wastage is greatly reduced which minimizes the negative impact on the environment.

As the world is gearing up towards building a green environment, your digital-first mindset of cloud-based agreements will help reduce your carbon footprint. This is critical especially for socially responsible customers, shifting mindsets that the cloud system is purpose- and value-driven instead of focusing on profits.

To be truly customer-centric, technology alone isn’t enough. Organizations must provide customers with a connected and meaningful experience that is supported by cloud agreements. This would make the customer journey easy and memorable for all the right reasons.

This article was written by Andrea Dixon, senior marketing director of DocuSign for APJ.

While Singaporeans have lived through fluctuating restrictions – like Circuit Breaker and heightened alerts – one thing that has remained constant over the last 18 months is the lifeline to normality that applications and digital services have provided. Whether it’s staying connected to loved ones, ordering food and groceries, work, study, or rest, the role that apps play in our lives has never been more prominent.

Tellingly, in the latest report led by Business Observability platform AppDynamics, a significant 95% of Singaporeans reveal that digital services have helped them get through the pandemic in a positive way. It’s clear that as life threatened to grind to a halt with COVID-19 putting the brakes on travel, entertainment, and work as we knew it, apps have enabled us to get on and continue functioning.

For many people, this widespread transition to the online sphere opened their eyes to the many benefits that digital services promise. Be it virtual activities for leisure, or access to essential services, many consumers have found themselves trying something they would ordinarily have never considered before. According to the e-Conomy SEA 2020 report, more than 1 in 3 digital services that consumers started using last year were because of the pandemic.

Realizing that a viable and convenient digital alternative is readily available to the traditional ways of doing things, consumers in Singapore are now likely to continue relying on these options beyond the pandemic. In fact, 83% of people in Singapore have already expressed their intention to use these services even after the restrictions imposed because of COVID-19 have disappeared.

This change in mindset and behavior will no doubt have implications on both consumer expectations, and how businesses must respond – not only in the short run but also in the longer term as we transition to endemic living.

Customers recognize the investment efforts from brands

Even people who don’t work in technology have witnessed the extent to which organizations across many sectors have innovated over the last 18 months. Launching new services to meet the evolving needs of customers, we’ve seen work and learning go virtual, as have banking, shopping, entertaining, and more. But of course, simply ‘going digital’ isn’t always enough for brands to win the hearts of their customers.

All over the world, we’ve seen organizations that have instead, quickly kickstarted and implemented full-scale digital transformation programs to improve operational processes and deliver apps and digital experiences that meet the needs of their customers. And their efforts have not been for naught. The same study by AppDynamics has discovered that consumers actually recognize and are thankful for the efforts that brands have invested into delivering these apps.

As people sought control and normalcy amid a most uncertain and challenging period, apps have been critical to empowering consumers during the pandemic. Almost 80% of those in Singapore say they are grateful to the brands that have invested in digital so they could access the services that they love. Those that have gone above and beyond with the quality of their digital services have also enjoyed the fruits of their labor, with 75% of people in Singapore feeling more loyal towards these companies.

It appears that creating and maintaining lasting relationships with customers increasingly rests on the delivery of seamless and faultless digital experiences. Brands that can ensure they make a positive impact on the lives of their consumers will have massive opportunities to forge these deeper connections and stay competitive.

Perfection is non-negotiable

As people of all ages across the globe depend on their apps for almost every facet of life, expectations have naturally skyrocketed. In particular, consumers increasingly seek the ‘total application experience’, which in addition to being reliable, secure, and personalized, is also simple, helpful, and fun to use. The bar has been raised forever and brands must now meet these expectations of performance and functionality.

But while consumers are showing more love towards the brands that meet their sky-high expectations with first-class services, tolerance for sub-optimal experiences has hit rock bottom. Indeed, expectations have changed during the pandemic and almost 70% of those in Singapore now expect nothing less than the best and will no longer tolerate poor performance.

As with most tech, digital services are susceptible to disruptions originating from various sources. And while slow loading pages, poor response time, and security lapses are often due to the app itself, other factors like internet connectivity, or issues with third-party plug-ins remain beyond the app owner’s control.

Despite the multitude of possibilities behind an app’s failure or technical disruption, most consumers believe it’s the brand’s duty to ensure their digital service always performs at an optimal standard. To 78% of the consumers in Singapore, it doesn’t matter what causes the poor performance. While external factors like a poor internet connection or weak mobile signal may be to blame, consumers expect application owners and the brands to take responsibility.

Consumers leave at the first sign of trouble

Although encountering problems with digital services is not a new phenomenon – with a majority of people saying they have experienced an issue over the last 12 months, what is increasingly worrying is how unforgiving consumers have become. No longer happy to just ‘try again later’ or continue struggling with an app, consumer patience has waned, and quickly switching to alternatives is now a norm.

Additionally, beyond simply deleting a poor-performing app from their device, consumers are also more vocal, often sharing and amplifying their negative experiences to others. With only one chance to impress consumers, brands and app owners need to go big and do right, as they can no longer afford even the tiniest blips in the digital customer experience.

To ensure issues are discovered and resolved before customers are affected, the ability to conduct full-stack observability that provides real-time insights, for instance, will be critical in today’s digital age. Filtering through the complexity and noise to identify and prioritize fixing issues with the greatest business impact is the only way for brands to create and maintain the flawless digital experiences that their customers have grown accustomed to and will continue to demand.

This article was written by Gregg Ostrowski, Executive CTO at AppDynamics.

For generations, gaming has been a cherished pastime across cultures and geographies. It took on a new life with the advent of the console and the internet, becoming more accessible and affordable. We’re now experiencing the next surge in gaming with the industry nearly doubling over the last five years, largely due to a combination of increasing internet access and speed, the proliferation of 5G, and increasing sophistication in hardware and mobile devices. 

As the industry has grown, the technology underpinning gaming has become more powerful. The opportunity has evolved beyond the console, bringing many once fantasy science fiction stories to life, creating a flourishing gaming ecosystem. So as the pandemic forced everyone to stay indoors and find new ways to connect and stay entertained, the growth of gaming has accelerated exponentially beyond prediction.

Convergence of gaming and marketing

Fuelled by the maturity and innovation in marketing and advertising technology, coupled with advancements in machine learning, artificial intelligence, smart devices, and cloud computing, we are now witness to the convergence of gaming and marketing as an opportunity to the current market value of $175B USD this year. The landscape has changed and brands and marketers are looking for new and innovative ways to capitalize on the 3 billion global daily users. 

But the technology ecosystem hasn’t fully kept up with the exponential growth in gaming, nor has expertise evolved to provide clear, strategic entry points for brands to authentically connect in this new interactive universe. Leading MarTech and AdTech companies are now looking at the gaming universe, seeking to understand how they can capture and grow their piece of the virtual pie and get in on the next big wave of marketing and entertainment. 

The next generation of marketers and technologists are building a new landscape for gaming technology, so-called Gametech. New infographics reminiscent of the familiar Lumascape are now in circulation, highlighting the emergence of new businesses with relevant gaming technology dedicated to PC, console, or mobile devices. 

Overcoming gaming marketing hesitancy 

It has been referenced that brands and marketers are hesitant to invest their budgets in this arena. Claims range from tenuous means to measure campaign effectiveness, to not enough understanding about the medium, to let’s just throw some of my traditional media budget into a streaming platform and see what happens as a strategy. 

This stems from a knowledge gap for both marketers and their agencies, and that trusted advisors and genuine gaming specialists are a small group. Beyond the upskilling and education, there also remains a gap in the connection to audience and inventory marketplaces. 

Marketers, publishers, and their agencies must be able to access and activate through their DSP and/or SSP of choice. The challenge for some of these platforms is they currently lack the right integrations to support features unique to gaming behaviors and buying methods. The technology must adapt to the intricacies and adopt features like new buying types in order to tap into the market and scale with programmatic. 

Combined forces driving game technology 

Modern marketing and advertising are powered by machine learning and real-time access to audience segments, creative and inventory via private or public marketplaces. For gaming, the way to gain traction and scale is by leveraging the maturity and speed of these existing technologies combined with dedicated operational support for the new interactive ecosystem. 

What the industry needs are businesses that aren’t focused on building the game itself, but genuinely understand how audiences engage with interactive formats and create opportunities that are true to the playing field without disruption. That means campaigns suited to the universe – or metaverse – in which the players reside, as well as in the form of ad monetization, measurement, and analytics to market analysis with a deeply rooted understanding of creativity fuelled growth. 

Gametech providers must support marketers to understand how best to approach gaming, supported by research and insights. Data solutions must be available to activate through leading data marketplaces, DSPs, and SSPs. The right strategy and access are not complete without real-time measurement tools to inform in-flight performance and campaign effectiveness. 

Industry legends from programmatic to traditional sports are combining learnings and the best of breed technology built for the fourth industrial revolution into the digital age. Platforms that can provide some or all of these solutions will carry brands into the next phase of Gametech and gaming marketing. 

Double down on the future of Gametech

Brands, publishers, agencies, and platforms should be paying attention to the opportunity powered by Gametech. Gaming is ingrained in our modern-day culture, across geographies, demographics, economics, psychographics, etc. – all you need is internet access or a mobile phone.

But with great access and power comes responsibility – and children are a part of the gaming community. Innovation in Gametech has brought to light increased safety measures. In-game advertising enables marketers to choose what they define as brand-safe environments, empowering parents to feel secure in the activities their children engage with online. 

Leveraging the power of data and insights combined with programmatic media buying methodologies, Gametech solutions enable addressability and harness the benefits of an increasingly sophisticated use of machine learning, smart software, and technology. 

With the gaming market nearly doubling over the last five years and forecasted to grow to $217.9 billion by 2023, more of the marketing pie is going to shift into gaming. And the gaming universe is just getting ramped up, with more opportunity to be uncovered at the convergence of gaming and commerce. Fashion companies, sports icons, and music stars alike are bursting into the metaverse offering everything from live concerts, runway fashion shows, merchandise and apparel, and more. 

Together, this presents a greenfield for creative innovation to connect the right brands and services to the right metaverse, game, or stream, with the right strategy, at the right time. 

Only Gametech expertise can take you there. Are you ready? 

This article is written by Indy Khabra, Co-Founder and CEO of Livewire.

The gaming industry is going from strength to strength with continuous growth on a global scale. With investments of over $60 billion in the first half of 2021, it has already almost doubled the total amount in 2020. With innovation taking center stage, many will be looking towards further opportunities in commerce to secure future growth as the industry once again prepares to level up. 

Over the last 18 months, events quickly transformed how the global community communicated with friends, shopped, and interacted online. People of all ages were responsible for a spike in digital gaming activity in a world where we all became players. But global audiences are not just playing games; they are increasingly consuming more gaming-related content via live and recorded streams of games across multiple platforms.

As the world begins to open back up, interest in gaming and esports continues to dominate headlines. The arrival of 5G is creating more opportunities for esports companies to scale as mobile-first nations such as China and Southeast Asia continue to thrive with millions of new fans entering virtual arenas. But how can esports companies scale quickly enough to meet the demands of their audience? 

Have the right people

Gaming is one of the fastest-growing industries and market environments. But it’s people who drive the heart of every business in this space. The most successful esports companies attract the best talent and investors to help realize their vision. But, identifying and developing this talent and creating a working culture that empowers every individual to be the best version of themselves is the easy part. Then, just like in video games, it’s keeping the momentum going and grinding through tasks where many fail.

Every esports player knows that if you don’t selflessly help others, look out for your teammates, or work together, you won’t get very far. Video games have taught us that although you might move forward faster alone, you can achieve much more in a group. There is no room for egos in business either, and the right people by your side combined with a growth mindset will result in many successful joint missions where objectives and goals are achieved.

In our virtual, physical, and digital lives, everybody is faced with grinding through cumbersome work that at the time feels unrewarding. But you need to dig deep and pull together to unlock hypergrowth. There is a strong argument that convincing brave, driven, and entrepreneurial-minded people to join your winning tribe requires leadership, communication, teamwork, and negotiation skills learned through playing video games. Once again, it’s people and teams that learn from each other that create the magic, whether online or offline.

Pivoting until you find your path 

No start-up journey is clear-cut from the start, and nobody could have predicted that Zoom would be worth more than the world’s seven biggest airlines or that videogames would generate more revenue than movies and music combined. Elsewhere, many traditional companies are attempting to pivot to esports, which can be both a blessing and a curse. 

For example, large traditional sporting events realized that their global fanbase of millions could never fit inside a sporting arena. So how do they keep their fans engaged? NASCAR was one of the first to pivot to esports, with its iRacing series attracting one million viewers per event. As the lines between traditional sport and esports begin to get blurry, it can create tremendous opportunities and challenges in equal measure for the industry. 

It’s important to remember that YouTube would have become a video dating website without the pivot, and Instagram would have become a location-based game. In the same way that multiple lives in video games give you another chance to try a different approach, opportunities will always come your way on your mission to locate hypergrowth in your esports company

The universe will provide us with many opportunities to change and try something new. So, don’t waste these chances and always take advantage of the opportunities on the continuously evolving path that lies ahead. Most important of all, remember that the game is never over.

Explore the map

Don’t be afraid to go on side-missions if an exciting opportunity lands in front of you as long as you stay on track. By contrast, if you remain in the same place, you will quickly run low on resources or discover new ways to broaden your horizons.

By exploring one’s map, one can navigate unchartered digital waters to help design a plan. Blueprints involve finding esports teams with a strong community and solid foundation in each of the markets it operates in. With this foundation in place, they can be accelerated to become household names and compete among the region’s top teams. Additionally, partnering with brand ambassadors and content creators can take them to the next level with strategic partnerships, sponsorships, and content distribution across multiple channels. 

The gaming industry has come a long way since its days of being on the fringes of popular culture. However, both gaming and esports are right at the heart of mainstream entertainment. By bridging the gap between the gaming world and the brands challenged with creating awe-inspiring content, it is hoped that we can take engaging experiences for esports and gaming fans to the next level. 

One of the most significant growth opportunities in the industry is driving commerce by delivering physical and digital products. Having a clear game plan to navigate these challenging times has resulted in the hypergrowth of many industries, and gaming is no exception. But at the heart of everything is people. From every employee to every member of a gaming audience, it’s about how we all use technology to create powerful and authentic ways to connect with people. 

This article is written by Tim Roemer, COO of Ampverse.

For the past two weeks, sports fans around the world have been glued to their TVs cheering for their country at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. With the action continuing on 24 August with the Paralympic Games, the opportunity for businesses to remain connected with their customers on a topic that resonates with so many — sport — should remain front-of-mind.

Whichever industry you’re in, the feelings of celebration and togetherness the Olympics and Paralympics evoke are common themes which unite and engage communities and customers the world over, and this sentiment doesn’t end with the closing ceremony.

According to the latest iStock Visual GPS research, 75% of people in ANZ stated they want to develop daily wellness and exercise routines. Search data across iStock by Getty Images, a leading ecommerce platform providing premium visual content to SMBs, SMEs, creatives and students around the world, shows that terms such as ‘outdoor fitness’ and ‘exercise at home’ have increased by 1225% and 760% respectively over the past twelve months.

Based on the insights, here are the four things businesses can do to effectively use sport in their marketing campaigns to drive greater engagement among their customers.

  1. Ensure your visuals are relatable 

Not everyone can be Ariarne Titmus or Peter Bol. About 68% of people in ANZ want companies to celebrate diversity of all kinds, and yet 62% still do not feel represented in media and advertising. So remember to be inclusive in your visual choices and avoid relying on visuals of toned, young athletes. Ensure you are also including intersectional identities such as body shapes, types, sizes, abilities, age and gender. 

How to integrate sport into your marketing in an authentic and inclusive way
Photo: iStock.com/SelectStock

Around 18% of Aussies and 24% of Kiwis live with some form of disability, and 27% of the ANZ population are aged 55+, so think about the range of exercise and fitness on offer, from wheelchair basketball, to senior yoga and running buggy groups. Sport and exercise can be both an individual and group activity, so it’s important to consider visuals of both.

  1. Celebrate togetherness

Sporting events such as the Olympics, Paralympics, The Ashes and Australian Open bring people together – virtually or in person – to celebrate, enjoy each other’s company and cheer on their favourite athletes. The Visual GPS research shows that 84% of people in ANZ look for ways to celebrate the good things in their life. This could be as simple as showing how we are celebrating having a meal or drinks together at home with our family, partners or housemates.

How to integrate sport into your marketing in an authentic and inclusive way
Photo: iStock.com/FG Trade

Consider visualizing the ways in which people are connecting virtually and celebrating sporting successes with loved ones from afar. The same research highlights that this is incredibly important to people, with 82% of people across ANZ finding that technology helps them feel connected to others. 

  1. Consider fitness more holistically

In Australia, the priority most valued during the pandemic was personal health and wellbeing, followed closely by the health and wellbeing of family. Attitudes to ‘wellness’ have changed, with 94% of people in ANZ believing it is equally important to take care of themselves emotionally as well as physically. When thinking about fitness, consider it holistically and include the benefits it can have on people’s emotional wellbeing. Use visuals which show the emotional rewards people get from sport and exercise and encourage physical health in the making, rather than the results of exercise on physical appearance. 

How to integrate sport into your marketing in an authentic and inclusive way
Photo: iStock.com/RyanJLane

Connect authentically with supportive depictions of mental health, and include visuals which represent a broad spectrum of proactive self‑care moments, from a video yoga class at home, to a walk on the beach, to a Zoom call with friends, or sharing a healthy meal with family.

  1. Get back to nature

International travel bans and limits on time allowed outside the home have meant Aussies are exploring their own backyard. Searches on iStock for ‘outdoor living’ and ‘Australian nature’ have both increased by 144%, reflecting how people are reconnecting with nature and finding inspiration and restfulness in the outdoors.

How to integrate sport into your marketing in an authentic and inclusive way
Photo: iStock.com/Fly View Productions

When selecting your visual content, consider the different ways in which people are embracing the outdoors and moving freely through landscapes and uncrowded spaces. Visualizing the mindful ways in which people are engaging in outdoor activities will resonate well with your customers of all ages.

With the continued impact of the pandemic, sports present an opportunity for businesses, regardless of industry, to connect and celebrate with their customers. 

This article was written by Kate Rourke, head of creative insights for Asia Pacific at Getty Images and iStock.