The continued advances in technology and its weave into our daily live through increasingly intuitive devices and applications are reshaping the brand communications industry. Advertising and brand communications companies are always on the lookout for new ways of interacting and engaging the consumer and are keen to be the first to market with innovative ways to communicate a message. The multitude of available and ever evolving apps, new technologies and social media channels, however, causes more and more disparate communication platforms. What does this mean for the communications industry? It means adopting an increased social media and technology intelligence is a must and it means it is continually transforming this industry in how it operates.
The key transformative elements that are currently influencing the landscape of the communications industry are:
Mobile innovation
As greater mobile penetration hits the market and the introduction of increasingly sophisticated technologies assist in more refined targeting, we see a huge demand for technologies that provide a more tailored communications approach. What effect has this? Consumers often have a better experience on their phones or portable devices than their desktop counterparts. Brands get to know every individual consumer with unprecedented direct insight to its audience and have the ability to provide totally bespoke messaging.
The Internet TV
The birth of the Internet TV is sparking the creation of new applications that extend and use the capabilities of the Internet TV. A growing number of new companies are forming that are specializing in advertising and content on internet-connected TVs. Brands are looking to launch and make available their own channels on Internet connected TVs. TV is changing as we know it— now it’s personal.
NFC
Consumers take to new services and technologies seamlessly especially when it makes their lives easier, faster and more convenient. NFC enabled services are one of them and the mass uptake of it is inherent.
Leading phone manufactures LG, RIM, Nokia, Google, and Samsung all have launched NFC-enabled phones this year, Apple’s iPhone 5 is rumored to be NFC enabled also; and Europe’s leading five mobile operators (Telefonica O2, Vodafone, Deutsche Telecom, Telecom Italia and France Telecom Orange) realize the great possibilities for this technology.
Consumer brands such as Starbucks are via the Starbucks Card Mobile app pathing the way to the mobile wallet and in the UK earlier this year Orange and Barclaycard have got together to be the first to offer a NFC enabled service—Quicktap. The global billboard company Clear Channel Outdoor is gearing up for the age of the interactive billboard that will allow consumers to buy directly from the advertising space.
Social Media Marketing
Social media is powerfully marching on. When the recent riots happened in London, people took to Twitter to get information in real-time and specific to their location. As people are integrating social media more into their lives location-based media is increasing in its appeal and usage. The surge of location- based marketing, including Recommendation Engines (e.g. Bizzy and Foursquare) is on the rise. Businesses are using variety of apps and portals to reach out to customers that are literally within walking distance. This is especially significant for smaller businesses that are now able to use cost-effective and targeted methods.
New technologies and the ever-evolving apps market are requiring advertising and brand industry to act with greater agility and attention to detail. It has to adapt and adopt to respond to the changing communications landscape, which in turn has a continuous transformative effect on the industry itself.
About the Author
Alexandra Sanders is a brand strategist who is currently heading up the global creative team at Kyp, an international marketing communications agency, with clients such as Sony, BP, American Express, Novartis, O2, BBC, Shell and the list goes on.