Jessica Juckes
In September, Hotwire was on the ground at Technology for Marketing. We, along with the Ad Tech community, descended on the Excel centre in London to hear about a range of topics from the power of email, to the efficiency AI is set to bring.
Industry leaders such as MailChimp, Hubspot and Shopify had a significant presence on the ground, and the Excel was packed with interactive booth stations, and innovative thinkers ready to tell you about the latest trends.
Shopify’s Head of Customer Acceleration Renata Rocha, Hubspot’s EMEA North Leader Flavia Colombo and Adobe’s Sales Director Alexander Shepherd delivered engaging sessions on ‘How to leverage the latest eCommerce solutions’, ‘How to supercharge your Martech’ and ‘Why email is not dead’.
Amongst the sea of talent and discussion, our team saw the following themes stand out and really grab our attention.
#1 Investment is the key to innovation and recovery
The state of the macro-market was on everyone’s minds and discussions acknowledged that businesses are looking to cut costs at this time of economic uncertainty. This awareness led to a unanimous warning to protect marketing investment, as withdrawing investment in R&D could have a longer term effect on innovation and recovery. Statistics have shown those who made the bold decision to invest in marketing during the pandemic, came out of the downturn stronger and more resilient. So, leaders of the adtech space, ask corporations to heed this warning, and be brave.
#2 Email means so much more, post pandemic
It was agreed that email, is more than a communications tool. Since the pandemic, email carries greater weight in marketing and innovation for companies. Email can now be leveraged to engage customers in a cost-effective manner, add additional revenue channels and build strong relationships through its personal targeting capabilities. Email is far from dead, it’s flourishing and corporations need to consider how they leverage it best to underpin the customer journey.
#3 We are in a “test and learn” stage with AI
AI was of course the buzz-word on everyone’s lips and a showcase followed throughout the event of companies embracing the technology, investing heavily and seeing it as a tool to drive remarkable efficiency and impact. A theme arose of considering AI as part of the customer journey, stopping friction points and acting as a north star metric. As companys test and learn this technology the call was for AI to be seen as a capability to future proof your business.
#4 Transparency is key during the customer journey
The notion of telling an authentic story, to drive loyalty and genuine commitment from customers, has never been more important. Transparent communication with your customer is essential and can be achieved by truly understanding the first party data you have access to. Use customer data to have intelligent conversations and listen to what your customer wants, and where they want to be met on the journey.
We hope this summary shines a light on some of the key trends we saw from the ground. What did you take away from the event? If you agree/disagree with any of the above – reach out. We’d love to have a conversation and hear how trends in the tech space are affecting your business right now.