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5 emerging trends in digital disruption

Woman talking in her phone in a store

The face of digital disruption

The word ‘disruption’ has had a makeover. It used to mean something unpleasant. But in the age of AI, disruption means new technology making life easier and more fun for consumers. For marketers, disruption still brings challenges. Don’t panic. It also sparks opportunity, and Bing is here to help.
 
Check out 5 emerging trends reshaping consumer engagement, so you can evolve your marketing strategy to stay ahead of the curve.

 
Voice

 
40% of respondents under 35 say “I’ll expect every company with an app to have a voice skill”1
 Voice-enabled tools – including Personal Digital Assistants (DAs) like Cortana – are changing the face of every industry. Quickly replacing touch as the new UI, they bring search into every aspect of life, deeply impacting search patterns. DAs offer new ways to interact with search and technology, allowing consumers to find what they need anytime, anywhere.
 

Conversational AI 

 
It is projected that 80% of brands will use chatbots for customer interactions by 20202
Chat and Chatbots are also driving big changes in marketing. Consumers prefer reaching brands through chat or messaging. Chatbots are on the rise, giving customers instant connection with a brand and enabling personalised problem-solving 24/7 via voice or text – without searching a site.

Internet of Things (IoT)

IoT is the new frontier for customer experience, with an explosion of devices that recognise and personalise customer engagement. As search technology interacts more with IoT, opportunities will grow. To differentiate your brand’s market position, you must be able to improve service experiences, create frictionless engagements and deliver value beyond your product.
 

Automatic and assisted buying

 
85% of people under 55 say they would find it useful for their personal digital assistant to order and repurchase items automatically1
Soon purchase decisions won’t require a human. Automatic buying, like Amazon Fresh, is already here. As DAs learn user preferences, this will accelerate. So will assisted purchasing, where DAs are curators – determining relevant advertising and helping to narrow buying decisions. The good news? Brands have an opportunity to reimagine service delivery.
 

Machine-to-machine (M2M) marketing 

Need a birthday present for your spouse/partner? Your DA will order it based on their stored preferences and your recent order history. That’s M2M marketing. The upside? DAs and Chatbots can learn from individuals and communicate their context to brands, so marketers will know people better than ever before.
 

Go Do’s

4 things you can do to give your business the necessary makeover to prepare for these trends:
 
  • Promote and develop voice skills
  • Develop chatbots to facilitate conversations with DAs
  • Add conversation and intelligence to your chatbot
  • Optimise your site for voice search to reach more consumers
Building these skills is simplified with the Microsoft Bot Framework, empowering your brand to engage with consumers through Cortana. And of course, Bing is here to help you develop a search strategy to tap into these profound new opportunities, strengthen your brand and grow your business.
 
For more information, download the whitepapers we co-created with eConsultancy (Digital Assistants – The Next Revolution in Marketing) and iProspect (Differentiating Your Brand with EQ).
 
Resources
1eConsultancy and Microsoft. ‘Digital Assistants – The Next Revolution in Marketing’, 2018, (https://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-au/insights/Era-of-Digital-Assistants).
2iProspect and Microsoft. ‘Differentiating Your Brand with EQ’, 2018, (https://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-au/insights/Differentiate-your-brand-with-EQ).