There’s more competition for consumer attention than ever before. As a brand, your aim is to drive visibility, capture consumer attention and improve your ad spend effectiveness in order to remain competitive. This is a complicated task at the best of times, but with 73% of consumers using multiple channels during their shopping journey, making sure you’re prominent at the moments that matter is a challenge.
In our recent The New Era of Digital Marketing virtual seminar, we delved into two major themes driving e-commerce today; the emergence of retail media and the growth of social media. For brands, these channels help you get closer to the consumer than ever before, allowing you to capture a larger share of the digital shelf and amplify your digital marketing strategies for 2022 and beyond.
Retail Media is Rising
Consumers are more open to new experiences; 34% of US consumers have bought items online that they hadn’t purchased pre-Covid, and 30% have bought from a new channel. For brands, this means listing strategies alone are no longer enough, you need to have visibility at the critical moments that matter in the consumer journey. More retailers and marketplaces are developing ad platforms to help expand advertising efforts and make it easier for brands to succeed on their sites.
In our seminar, our experts highlighted that dedicating advertising budget, implementing automated ad management and optimizing your product data to each channel are the solid foundations for any retail media strategy.
Retail media will likely continue to represent a significant part of brands overall digital ad campaigns in the years to come, so having a robust strategy in place will be essential to achieve visibility and a strong presence.
Amazon Leads the Way
Amazon is paving the way for advertising platforms and functionality. Bjoern M. Schaele, Agency Lead Sponsored Ads at Amazon, shared some of the new developments brands can expect to see and how to take advantage of them in his presentation. These included:
- Sponsored brand videos
- Display highlights
- Amazon attribution
Schaele explained how video continues to rise in popularity and impact, with 84% of consumers stating they’ve bought a product or service after watching a brand’s video. Ad placements that include video are one of Amazon’s new features; what’s more, video can be integrated into search results to help brands stand out from the crowd.
Social Presence Matters
2021 saw retail spending peak at its highest in almost four decades, hitting $4.4 trillion. The fast-paced market presents real opportunities and requires careful management to keep at the forefront of consumers’ minds.
YouTube has become increasingly used as another advertising channel for brands. Ryan Rikki, Head of Agency at Google, joined our seminar to share how brand discovery is now digital-first and YouTube can be a crucial factor in that.
The advantage YouTube holds is the understanding when a consumer visits its site, they are there specifically for video. He explained that 95% of people watch YouTube with the sound on and half-watch on full screen, which makes for a different consumer experience that brands can capitalize on. Brands need to be mindful of creating a helpful, compelling experience that inspires customers to take further action, perhaps by listing the products seen in the video underneath to create a seamless shopping experience.
Across the globe, the average time spent using social media platforms per day was 142 minutes in 2021. As more time is spent on these channels, more purchases are also being made. They’re vital channels to reach younger audiences and highlight the need to understand your audience so you can find the right channel for your advertising. If your strategy isn’t performing as well as you expected, then it might be worth reviewing the platforms you’re using and if they’re the most relevant platform to reach your target audience.
In our seminar, experts advised us to watch out for the Metaverse and what that could mean for advertising in virtual and augmented reality spaces. What’s clear is that channels, platforms and opportunities are shifting all the time, and brands need to stay vigilant about how that might impact their performance and reach.
Summing It Up
As a brand trying to cut through the noise and reach your target consumers, you understand precisely why an effective digital marketing strategy is essential to a brand’s success.
Watch the full The New Era of Digital Marketing: Must-Know Retail Media and Social Commerce Trends seminar on-demand now to learn how to adapt your digital marketing strategies to the ever-evolving landscape, so you don’t get left behind.
