The results of Adobe’s 2016 Digital Marketing Survey give insights into how data is being used to create targeted online experiences

Tech Trends was recently invited to the Adobe customer experience conference. At the rather swanky event at the Ham Yard Hotel in Soho, they announced the results of a 2016 survey conducted among 735 digital marketers from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France and Germany.

Adobe's survey provided insight into digital marketing strategies
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The survey provided insight into the priorities, strategies, and future direction of digital marketing in a variety of sectors such as media and entertainment, retail and commerce, travel and hospitality, among others, and uncovered some interesting trends:

Almost 90 percent of survey respondents rank creating a connected experience and campaign orchestration as a top priority. And 88 percent say they’re focusing on having the right tools to help them meet customers where they are at any given moment.

It is a fascinating report that shows how big businesses are mobilising resources like never before to stay as close as possible to the bleeding edge of technology. Although acknowledging that many businesses have so far lagged behind in terms of leveraging technology, they are now rapidly adopting the use of AI, machine learning, predictive data analytics and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools.

Leading companies are realizing the importance of using algorithmic attribution based on advanced statistics and machine learning to measure the precise impact of each marketing touch point along a customer’s path to conversion—from display ads, to social media, blog posts and videos.

Companies are now tapping into the potential of big data to not only personalize their offering, but to understand and predict their customers’ next moves so they can reach them at the right time, with the right message.

The data that makes up your online presence improves our interactions with the world and others but it also changes how companies, brands and businesses perceive us, and has evolved the relationship between brands and consumers beyond recognition. In our recent article about analysing your quantified self we in fact discussed how the increasing quantity of personal data we produce will effectively produce a digital version of ourselves.

Data has changed the relationship between brands and consumers
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What emerges from the report is that the biggest brands out there are pouring money into staying a step ahead of the competition by not only meeting, but anticipating consumer needs through analysing our online behaviour. The graph below quantifies this and shows that the 10 most valuable data sources for marketers include our online activity on desktop, mobile, social media and search engines.

This data is used in two ways; to draw a complete picture of the consumer, and to design predictive marketing personalized to match each person’s profile.

Data by itself isn’t all that powerful. The key is to combine data from multiple sources so you can determine the complete sequence of events that leads a customer to buy products—not just the first or last click.

This of course raises questions and presents challenges around privacy and use of personal data; Does having that much information about consumers give companies an unfair advantage? While on the one hand consumers should retain freedom of choice, on the other these technologies do offer us better, faster, easier services much more suited to our individual needs. The trick is in finding the right balance.

The most successful companies are tending towards using a single platform such as Adobe’s Marketing Cloud – which incorporates services like Adobe Analytics, Adobe Target, Adobe Social, Adobe Experience Manager and Adobe Audience Manager, as well as real-time dashboards and a collaborative interface – to integrate all of the processes, technologies, and tools necessary combining advanced analytics, personalization, and campaign management.

Services like this enable marketers to combine data, insights, and digital content to deliver the ideal brand experience to customers, and it gives companies everything they need to get deep insight into your purchasing habits and build personalized and unified customer experiences.

The key benefit of these platforms is unifying content and UX across desktop and mobile
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The key benefit that these platforms bring is in unifying content and UX across desktop and mobile. Consumers want – and demand – a seamless user experience, so that whatever platform they choose to access a service from, they can access the same content and services.

Companies are taking a holistic approach with a common digital foundation and centralized marketing platform that gives them the data, agility, and the resources they need to create and deliver relevant and personalized content across all their channels and touch points.

As companies become even more digitally advanced they are studying the consumer’s digital self – i.e. their behaviours, spending habits, preferences, opinions, passions, locations and interactions – to better target and predict their future tastes and behaviour, and this trend will only become more pronounced in future as mobile technologies continue to advance.

Tom Atkinson is a Digital Producer & Photographer at R3Digital and Reviews & Dept. Editor at Tech Trends. Connect on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @R3Digital

The post Digital Marketing is all About UXperience appeared first on Tech Trends.

Let’s for a moment set aside war, celebrity deaths, terrorism and the impeding political Armageddon, and focus on what was good about 2016: VR.

2016 was a great year for VR, if little else
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This was the year when Virtual Reality became a buzzword and we started talking about “experiences,” and how immersive they all were. But as exciting as these have undoubtedly been, it’s just the tip of the iceberg. The really good stuff is yet to come, but 2016 gave some good hints about what’s in in store.

As the real world becomes an increasingly uncertain and unwelcoming place, perhaps it’s no coincidence that we’re so keen to make virtual worlds work out. Maybe we’re indeed headed for a Ready Player One Oasis-type scenario, but if the range and depth of VR I’ve come across over the past few months is anything to go by, it might not turn out to be such a grim fate after all…

VR let us get that Superman(or woman) feeling by flying around in VR using Google Earth and witness Andy Murray’s Wimbledon Victory from the middle of Centre Court, or the Olympics in Rio. With VR people can already experience different places such as West Hollywood, but the technology can also help you fight phobias, and even reunite an elderly war hero with the community he helped save during World War II.

You can get that Superman(or woman) feeling by flying around in VR using Google Earth
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We’ve also seen some beautiful and powerful examples of how VR is being used in storytelling and I talked to creators about the shaping the language and conventions of this new medium. When leveraged properly, VR has also shown great potential as a tool for tackling difficult issues and engendering empathy. From the BBC project showing the plight of a refugee family fleeing Syria to making us care about the demise of coral reefs.

From virtual books to sports coaching many companies are exploring the potential of VR for education
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From virtual books to sports coaching many companies are exploring the potential of VR for education, as the opportunities for engaging students with content quickly become apparent and tools like Google cardboard made the technology easily accessible to teachers and students around the world.

In April I went to Linden Lab’s Headquarters in San Francisco and discussed the potential of VR for education with their CEO Ebbe Altberg, who explained how their virtual platform Second Life had already been used by Universities and that while the creative SL community did use the legacy platform, they were now investing in a brand new platform to allow users to generate and share their own VR content, Sansar.

We also discussed how the platform would inevitably be used for less “Safe for Work” purposes and how Virtual Reality Porn might help to drive the technology towards mass-market adoption much as it did for the Internet itself. While in the beautiful City by the Bay I also geeked out at their amazing arcade museum and mused about how we can see the evolution of VR from those early machines.

Tools like Google cardboard made VR accessible to teachers and students
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Sansar is not the only player emerging in the social VR space, however. Earlier in the year I saw some interesting developments from Improbable in London and AltspaceVR is pushing ahead with initiatives like allowing punters to watch live events such as comedy shows in VR. One of the challenges of making social interaction in such platforms, work, however, is to create a sense of presence – which requires creating more realistic personalized avatars – and making people comfortable in VR for longer periods of time, which means tackling issues such as simulator sickness.

One challenge of Social VR work is to create a sense of presence, and that means better avatars
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And let’s not forget games of course, VR is a whole lot of fun and although I definitely don’t have as much time as I’d like for playing them, I came across some interesting titles, such as HOVR by independent Lebanese studio Game Cooks, and popular Swedish game SVRVIVE, not to mention my own personal, longstanding obsession: Resident Evil

Even without the expensive headsets, people have been doing amazing things with AR
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When I finally got my hands on the HoloLens for the first time I was rather blown away, and while Magic Leap came under intense fire for allegedly misleading people about its demo videos, causing some to question whether they can deliver on their promise of fully immersive, untethered mixed reality – there were plenty of signs that AR and MR have a bright future indeed.

I was blown away by my HoloLens Demo
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Even without the expensive headsets, people have been doing amazing things with AR such as supporting surgeons in war zones and teaching children digital and creative skills. Many of the interesting projects I came across were from relatively small companies exploring specific niches; One start-up in Russia was crowdfunding development of Mixed Reality lessons to bring subjects like Chemistry and Physics to life, and even the Adult industry got in on the action, producing a low-budget workaround to project live holograms of a much naughtier kind to users around the world using just their mobile phones and a cheap adaptor. And with players like Apple giving out strong signals that they are about to enter this “ARena” (sorry, couldn’t resist) things are bound to get very interesting in 2017.

Watch this space.

Tech Trends’  Virtual Reality Consultancy services offers support for companies looking to enhance brand strategy with immersive technologies such as Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Best VR 2016 – Tech Trends Virtual Reality Yearly Recap appeared first on Tech Trends.