DIGITAS PERSPECTIVE

Whats Next: Digitas Predictions for 2013

What's on the horizon for 2013? We surveyed Digitas leaders worldwide to get their predictions for brands and marketers everywhere. Read on to see whats next in social, mobile, brand content, design, B2B, CRM, and more.

Social
Community Management stops being a dirty word. The concept of Community Management has been something of a dirty word ever since social marketing became a legitimate business. But Community Management is critical to the success of a brand, and in 2013, itll finally enjoy the focus and attention it deserves. In an age where customer service issues filed on Twitter are typically addressed within two hours, brands cannot rely entirely on campaign-based marketing efforts scheduled seasonally. Relevance has a deadline. The gap between the time-to-serve in marketing and promotion versus customer service must be closed and we will witness good strides against this goal in 2013. Social and content: the ties that bind. In 2013, well see an increased investment in content, because brands that want a winning social strategy first need a winning content strategy. A news feed is no place for the constant drum beat of selling. To be a part of a community, brands must play a valued role. That value often takes the form of content - from premium video and interactive images to blog posts and user participation. As the definition of content continues to broaden, brands will find their sweet spot and invest for success. The most important part of mobile is social (again). While Mobile advertising is growing at a rapid pace - eMarketer projects a 69% increase from 2012 - it is originating off a small base. Even with large expectations, there are pressures limiting even stronger growth: lack of creative standardization, unproven measurement capabilities, and questions of efficacy (although those questions will dissipate moving forward). But all that said, increased ad spend on the mobile offerings of social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube will catalyze spending in the mobile category overall. All three of these brands are trusted receptacles for ad dollars that provide a good testing ground while simultaneously contributing to results. - Jordan Bitterman, SVP, Social Lead, Digitas North America

Mobile
Mobile Thursday replaces Cyber Monday. The investment placed behind Mobile Thursday showed in many cases the ability to pull sales forward. Consumers are replacing the behavior of holding off on buying online to Monday to the comforts of their own home while the Turkey is cooking. The predominant use of tablets reinforces this comfort behavior. With offline stores opening earlier and earlier on Thanksgiving, the entire behavior of holiday shopping is being pulled forward. - Dave Marsey, SVP, Media Lead, Digitas North America The context dream comes true. The great promise of mobile marketing was always that a better understanding of a consumers context would be able to give brands the ability to identify key moments and connect with them in hyper-relevant ways. For example, brands could target special offer messages to people who are close to a big box retailer. Unfortunately, the reality has been that mobile device users generate a ton of data that take an enormous amount of processing to turn into targetable segments.

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That said, were seeing companies like PlaceIQ, Jiwire, Qualcomm, the wireless carriers, and the social networks starting to map the raw data into actionable triggers and attributes. And they are using more than just location and location-based meta-data to determine context. We refer to it as the mobile graph, a mapping of all of the mobile-generated consumer data to targetable intent. 2013 will see mobile graphs being generated and used at scale. A mobile-triggered CPM crisis. Mobile is adding hundreds billions of impressions to digital media inventory. Demand, however, is not keeping up with supply. For many media companies, the proportion of visitors coming from mobile devices is growing very quicklyin September, for example, about 49% of visitors to ESPN sites came from mobile devicesand outstripping their ability to monetize the impressions from those visitors. Consistently lower CPMs from mobile impressions will cause blended CPMs to decline significantly for multi-channel media companies. Lower mobile CPMs will also contribute to consolidation in the mobile media networks in 2013. The end of the mobile web. In working with our clients to develop their web experiences, we are seeing data that indicates mobile users are increasingly frustrated by mobile-optimized websites that dont have all of the functionality or content of the desktop version. Users want to access all of the brand's content and functionality from any device. We will see many more brands turn to responsive web design to implement the one website, multiple devices philosophy. Native advertising wins at mobile. On mobile devices, where the two most popular activities are playing games and connecting to social networks, were seeing significant gains in efficacy for driving brand metrics when a mobile ad feels like an integral part of the content. In 2013, well see mobile publishers create more native advertising opportunities while lowering the production effort threshold. Brands and agencies will make native advertising the media and creative focus for brand-building campaigns. - Chia Chen, SVP, Mobile Lead, Digitas North America Better UI for the second screen. 2012 saw rapid growth for second screen behaviors. Currently 80% of UK smartphones owners use their device while watching TVand so do 88% in the U.S. In 2013, well see major development in UI to control or complement the TV experience. Sports viewing in particular shows a lot of promise for complementary second screen UI, through the display of statistics or an alternative view of the action. If youre an Xbox user (and a Game of Thrones fan), SmartGlass is one company to look out for. - Warren Midgley, Head of User Experience, Kitcatt Nohr Digitas

Brand Content
"Rhythm of the week" content curation. Content properties will begin to proactively serve-up content based on our mood and mindset throughout the day and week. External factors like weather, traffic, news, and known consumer habits (such as checking finances in the morning, entertainment news at night, etc.) will combine to serve up just what we want. On top of that proactive content, well also see more marketers reactively serve-up content based on what consumers are saying real-time, including response videos. - Dave Marsey, SVP, Media Lead, Digitas North America Say hello to appointment TVfor digital. Native digital content has generally been an archived experience. Digital properties rarely release content episodically with the intention of having an audience watch at a specific moment in time. But as we move in 2013, well start to see more content creators experiment with the idea of appointment viewing, turning web series

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into TV-like mini-series events, la Roots and Rich Man Poor Man. The goal behind this type of strategy will be to create large amounts of pop culture buzz and relevance behind native digital contentthe kind that you see with movies and TV content. - Eric Korsh, VP, Brand Content, Digitas North America Connected TV gets its moment in the sun. In 2013 well see the emergence of the first real connectedtelevision advertising campaigns. Beyond a few beautiful dual-device campaigns in 2012 (think Coke and Red Bull), many ad agencies havent acted on, or dont seem to have realized, how much TV consumption is changing. According to the GFK office, more than 23% of TV sets bought in France during the first part 2012 have been connected. In the U.S., by the years end, an estimated 38% of US households will have at least one connected TV. Bonus: as more people make the switch, and we see the launch of connected TV campaigns, more TV channels and cable networks will also be incentivized to finally start selling media for TV and digital as an integrated package. - Jean-Philippe Martzel, Director of Strategic Planning, Digitas France Brands become credible publishers. Weve said for some time now that brands are becoming, or have the potential to become, publishers in their own right. But its taken a while for the content produced to truly be of value and worth sharing with audiences. The trap that brands and agencies often fall into is creating the content that focuses the most on getting the brand message out there. In 2013, well see more marketers lead with the content that audiences most want to see, which is where the greatest value lies for a brand. For instance, take the Red Bull Stratos program. It was one of the best brand content pieces of 2012, not because it focused on the energy drink but on an extraordinary adventure. The upcoming year will see more brands creating fantastic content in the same vein. Smarter content, better distribution. Marketers spend a lot of time and energy trying to create the perfect piece of brand contentthe script, the talent, the video length, etc. But 2013 will and should also be about not just crafting the programming, but perfecting the way in which it is: 1) Distributed (which platforms, what time of day, via which methods, etc.), 2) Optimized (for what platforms? Mobile? Broadcast? Online? What of SEO?), and 3) Continually Managed (measuring, listening, reacting and iterating). - Olivia Yabsley, VP, Head of Social and Content, Kitcatt Nohr Digitas The Micro movie trend goes mainstream. In 2012, Micro movie TV ads (2-3 minute videos) were a hit for select Chinese brands. Micro movies have been embraced by consumers because they tell a richer creative story, are the perfect length to be shared via social media channels, and can often star Chinese celebrities or are created by grassroots, much-hyped, up-and-coming artists. In 2013 well see more Micro movies being used by marketers as video-enabled cell phones become a communications stable across Asia. - Veronica Law, Art Director, and Venus Tse, Multimedia Designer, Digitas Hong Kong Asian cultural and social trends play a bigger role in mainstream western pop culture. Following the social media phenomena of Psy and Chinas Grandfather-turned-fashion-muse, Asian pop culture and social media trends will begin to drive more aspects of western pop culture. This is a trend that were already seeing in art galleries and catwalks across the west in 2012, particularly in Europe. - Rebecca Simpson, Content Manager, Digitas Hong Kong
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Design
Web design develops psychic powers. Facebook ads are selected specifically for each user. Google tailors search results to the individual performing the search. Automotive company websites automatically bring up dealers in your area. In 2013, well see design pick up on these same kinds of clues. The result will be personalized content that provides an enhanced and optimized design experience for each individual. Were already starting to see this with websites like the new JennAir.com, which has a predictive search function. Scrolling becomes dynamic. Websites have traditionally scrolled either horizontally or vertically in a flat and linear fashion, but theres a new generation of designers who are truly pushing to make the most of the possibilities available with the web. In 2013, well see them transforming the rote scrolling experience into something that is intuitive, expressive, illustrative of the narrative, and a joy to scroll through again and again. Its a small touch that delivers high impact. A couple recent cover stories on Pitchfork.com (Bats for Lashes and Ty Segall) take advantage of this, creating multi-layered graphic journeys that are rich and unexpected. - Matthew Jacobson, Design Lead, Digitas Chicago and San Francisco Responsive design really takes off. Smart designers will move beyond the idea of working on a main PC site and then on a functionally crippled mobile one (frustrations with the latter are also touched on here). In todays post-PC digital world, responsive design is king. Were going to see more websites reformatting content according to the users viewing device, along with providing adaptive functionality for instance, someone on mobile being given location-based options. And this wont just benefit consumers: brands will find that responsive design allows for easier content control on the back-end, and that its a faster and a cheaper solution than building multiple sites for different devices. Modern UI for Windows 8. With the launch of Windows 8, user experience practitioners will learn how to design for Modern UI and its radical new interface. Itll be interesting to see how much of this design style, which is clean, typographic, and content-led (with largely hidden controls) will bleed into UX design on other platforms. The mouse takes a back seat to touchpads. Multi-touch controls (such as pinch and zoom) arent just for mobile devices anymore. For one, theyre becoming increasingly popular with Mac users. And as Windows 8 devices become more popular, we may find the mouse taking a back seat to touchpads. While the mouse is still the best input device for precision work, a touchpad is easier and more versatile on the Windows 8 start screen. On top of that, well see increased usage of other input devices, such as Kinect. - Warren Midgley, Head of User Experience, Kitcatt Nohr Digitas Wireframes are dead. Long live rapid UX prototyping. For better or worse, wireframes have been a big part of the design process for the last 10 years. But while wireframes can be a big help in documenting a project, they tend to focus more on the process than the product itself. In contrast, rapid UX prototyping pushes design two steps further into an iterative design process: first encouraging UX designers to beta test and fail fast, and second, letting them focus on what really mattersinteractions with the product. UX storytelling. In a fragmented world, where information is becoming a flow of 140-character chunks, distributed across multiple devices and channels, we need to remember the fundamentals of human communication: telling stories. Designers are the magicians of the modern times; they have the ability to create exciting products and
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experiences for the world. But for that to happen, its important to go beyond just the simple addition of functionalities or front-end interactions. In 2013, well see more designers connecting the dots with stories that give products true meaning for people. - Matthieu Mingasson, Creative Director, Experience Design, Digitas France

B2B and CRM

B2B content moves from experiment to imperative. At the onset of 2012, b2b marketers were just beginning to experiment with content-based marketing, repurposing existing assets and beta testing distribution strategies. As we move into 2013, we see marketers going from beta test to full-on roll-out. Theyre already starting to allocate more of their budget to content development and distribution. The proof is in the audience behavior: c-level executives now spend close to 40 hours per week online, almost 20% upload videos at least once a week, and tablet ownership (where much of the content is consumed) has increased from 18% to 36%. An explosion of publishing partnerships. While most B2B brands have a wealth of intellectual capital and raw content to publish, theyre not publishersnot yet. The act of publishing requires a vastly different paradigm of marketing talent and operating model than what these marketing teams have. Instead of attempting a complete overhaul of their marketing departments, 2013 will see more B2B brands ease into the transformation by leveraging their expertise with established publishers who can supplement their content, and help distribute it. For example, partners like The Economists Intelligence Group and Skyword are helping HSBC and IBM respectively get, produce, and distribute content in owned, earned, and paid channels. 2013 will see an explosion of these partnerships. Social leads the way for lead generation. In 2012, social started playing a larger role in lead generation and management. In 2013, itll become one of the biggest lead gen tools for marketers everywhere. Offerings from the likes of Salesforce.com, Marketo, Eloqua, and more will enable more B2B marketers to scrape data from the social activities of leads that theyre pursuing and incorporate it into CRM systems. This will result in a more colorful prospect profile and triggers for Sales to follow up with relevant content. - Dennis Reilly, SVP, B2B Practice Lead, Digitas North America The year of marketing convergence. 2012 has presented an explosion of choices in mobile apps/wallets, social CRM and turn-key SaaS marketing automation tools. 2013 will be the year that it all comes togetherthe year of marketing convergence. More brands will break down the silos in their marketing departments to align strategies and technologies across capabilities and tools, and make their investments work harder. Digital CRM generalists will be in high demand to integrate programs across disciplines. DMPs as the CRM backbone: A lot of Data Management Platform solutions are not quite up to par yet. That said, theres still a lot of real opportunity in the DMP space. 2013 will see a real evolution in DMPs, where theyre able to better link data in ways that provide insights you couldnt get before. These insights will enable marketers to better understand their customers' evolving brand preferences, purchase intents, and interests. And then that will support better segmentation, better content, and offers behind acquisition and cross-sell up-sell efforts. Overall, DMPs will become increasingly important to CRM. -Mark Miller, SVP, CRM Practice Lead, Digitas North America

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Bonus: Big Industry Moves
Apple launches an iWatch. Everyone is focused on Apple getting into the big screen with special Apple TV sets in 2013. But our pick for Apples next device category has a much smaller screen. We dont have any special insight from Cupertino, but we think that they couldnt have missed: a) the success of the Pebble watch Kickstarter project (it links to the iPhone and can run apps); b) the success of the Nike Fuel band; and c) an opportunity to redefine and own a new category of devices. And, its curious that they recently redesigned their iPod Nano so that it can no longer be used as a watch. It's like they are purposely leaving themselves a spot in their product line-up... - Chia Chen, SVP, Mobile Lead, Digitas North America Facebook acquires a content player. Facebook at the core is a social platform - what flows through is content. BuzzFeed has shown the ability to create content for brands that are among the most engaging on Facebook. Just like the major broadcast networks have linked up with content producers (i.e. ABC and Disney, CBS and Viacom, NBC and Universal) for the benefit of owning content, so should Facebook. Natural partners would be travel related (i.e. TripAdvisor), video (i.e. Hulu), and entertainment (i.e. Gawker.com). An even bigger fish would be to buy AOL. - Dave Marsey, SVP, Media Lead, Digitas North America China's lower tier cities become the new battleground for marketers. Recent reports show that shoppers in lower tier cities have a rapidly increasing, very high disposable income and a higher propensity to spend online than their counterparts in first and second tier cities. These shoppers are curiously researching online about brands, with a high desire to define themselves as trendy and modern. These changing and favorable conditions are ripe for new and established brands, making the lower tier cities a new battleground for marketers and e-commerce merchants. Local luster will lead in the Asian luxury sector. Most global luxury brands now have a base in China, with some head designers even curating collections on the groundthis is how important the Chinese market has become. With so much first-hand exposure to local culture, 2013 will see a significant drop in the volume of western celebrity endorsements in China and a rise in Chinese celebrity endorsements for European and U.S. luxury brands. This shift will also be reflected with fashion designers and creative talent across the region. - Rebecca Simpson, Content Manager, Digitas Hong Kong

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