Blog Posts

Rise Of The Intelligence Economy

1/8/2017

2015 was the year of the Customer Journey, 2016 was the year of Design Thinking....so what's does 2017 have in store for businesses and marketers across the globe?

To find an answer I decided to do some research on how the economy has changed over the last 50 years. It was evident that consumers are willing to pay a premium for a product or service based on it's perceived value; such as does it save me time? does it create a memorable experience? does it have long lasting qualities?

Thanks to Joseph Pine II and James H Gilmore they made it quite simple to understand with an article on HBR called 'Welcome To The Experience Economy.' They simplify the entire history of economic progress across the four stages of evolution using a birthday cake as the example:

The Commodities Economy: As the agrarian economy advanced, mothers made birthday cakes from scratch, mixing farm commodities such as flour, sugar, butter and eggs. That together it would cost a dollar - however it took time to buy the ingredients and make the cake.
The Goods Economy: As the goods-based industrial economy boomed, mothers paid a few dollars to Betty Crocker for premixed ingredients, where all you had to do was follow the recipe and bake the cake - you saved time and ingredients by buying it all in one box.
The Services Economy: When the service economy took hold, busy parents ordered quality made cakes from the bakery or grocery store. It would cost $10-$15, far more then packaged ingredients however it was convenient, desirable and saved you time in the kitchen.
The Experiences Economy: In the time starved late 90's, parents neither make the birthday cake nor even throw the party. Instead, they spend $100 or more to outsource the entire birthday event to Mc'Donald's so they can stage a memorable event for the kids - and the cake is thrown in for free.

An experience occurs when a company intentionally uses services as the stage, and goods as props, to engage individual customers in a way that creates memorable events. Experiences have always been at the heart of the entertainment business - think Walt Disney. However if you could charge admission for consumers to interact and engage with your brand, what would you do differently? - thats a good place to start brainstorming.

Today the concept of selling experiences is spreading beyond theatres and theme parks

Customer experience today has become one of the key pillars for organisations around the world - irrelevant of industry. Consumers desire experiences, whether it be buying a laptop at the Apple store, staying at the Hilton for a few nights on a business trip or going into an ANZ bank branch to take out a mortgage on a new home.

The Digital Evolution = The Intelligence Economy

Over the last 10 years we have seen amazing advancements in digital technology - from cloud computing, mobile smartphones, virtual & augmented reality and now the explosion of machine learning. This has made a significant change to customer behaviour as now not only do we expect a personlised service from all brands but it has created a need for us to have access to that information and knowledge on demand.

Good businesses today meet customer expectations through seamless, invisible service that predicts their needs and wants. Welcome to the intelligence economy where experiences are driven by customer data, underpinned by artificial intelligence and personalised to the individual through the channel of their choice. Let's simplify it by bringing it back to the birthday cake.

The Intelligence Economy: In the digital evolution during the internet boom, parent's want to be able to order the cake or book the event while on the go from their mobile phone, they would also like personalised recommendations based on there searches, inspiration from social sources and access to the information (recipes) and tools (applications) so they can recreate the experience themselves if needed. Delivery to the front door will be included in the cost of the cake.

The businesses that utilise their data and serve it in meaningful powerful ways to help there customers will charge ahead in 2017. Creating intelligent and smart tools that allow consumers from their homes to have meaningful interactions with your brand are the next battleground.

How about a bank that provides you the tools to scenario plan and budget for your future using your real-life data, such as transactional history i.e where am I spending my money? what investments can I make? How about a gym that tracks your activities on the treadmill, then through a Fit-bit to provide tailored food plans to help you reach your desired weight? How about a real-estate agency that guides you through a lifestyle application online and then can recommend a suburb for you to live in based on it's demographic profile? The list of possibilities goes on when you combine data, technology and creativity...

2017 is the year of Artificial Intelligence

The goal is to turn data into information, information into insight and insight into actions

We are going to see some amazing advancements in this space - IBM Watson and Salesforce Einstein are just the beginning. If you are interested in this space pick up a book called "The Master Algorithm" by Pedro Domingos.

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What is success?

8/30/2016

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A LITTLE BIT OF PERSPECTIVE

8/22/2016

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We cannot change anything if we cannot change our thinking!

8/19/2016

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In today's fast paced world a lot of us get caught up in the noise of the day to day grind and forget about the big picture. We start to think that the company we work for and a job title defines who we are. From time to time we all need a bit of perspective, so last weekend I felt like I needed to recalibrate my thoughts and I decided to jump into a sensory deprivation tank for an hour (I can’t recommend this enough, if you are into mindfulness meditation then give it a shot.) What came out of this experience were these 12 life lessons that I thought I would share with you.

I know what you are thinking….."You are just over 30 years old, what do you know about life lessons." I completely agree with you, I'm not Steve Jobs, Bill Gates or Richard Branson; however the last 10 years for me have been quite the adventure and I feel the need to share.

We are so focused on making money, we forget about humanity. What I mean by this is we get so caught up in generating sales and flogging product that we forget we are talking to real people.
Technology should be used to help humans, not to replace them. Think drones, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, 3D printing - these are solutions that will enhance our world, provide more opportunity, automate repetitive tasks and remove high risk jobs.
Learn to listen to that quiet voice in the back of your mind, its called intuition.
Your personal brand is just as important as the brand you work for. It’s time to start investing in yourself.
Listening is important, you have two ears and one mouth for a reason.
Collaboration is key, start by building on the ideas of others. As humans we always feel the need to trump other peoples ideas or stories.
Stay hungry & stay foolish, never be satisfied and always push your self to be better. Just because someone has told you it can’t be done doesn’t mean they are right. This world was built by people no smarter then you.
A good mentor can be more effective then an MBA. The moment I found a mentor my career accelerated - find great mentors through the inspiring people you’re already interacting and working with now. They need to be people to whom you have already demonstrated your potential – who know how you think, act, communicate and contribute.
You don’t buy things with money, you buy it with your time....the time you used to create that money. This concept alone changed my life.
Giving back is more rewarding than receiving. Numerous studies have shown that happier people are those who are selfless.
The disparity between the rich and the poor is not always because of work ethic. It comes down to opportunity - be grateful.
Most of the time you need to fail in order to succeed.

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The top 15 skills every marketer needs by 2017

8/16/2016

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Marketing is always in evolution. It has to adapt to the sub-conscience of the generations in order to stay present and reach its targets. Gone is the Don Draper golden era of marketing, no longer do you only have to worry about TV, Radio, Print & Display. Thanks to the explosion of technology, marketers now need to manage and communicate to customers across hundreds of potential touch points. See the Marketing Revolution illustration below (ExactTarget.)

A few other factors to be mindful of is that the population has grown, media has expanded, customer expectations have increased and today's competition is fierce.

The job of a marketer today is no longer just about creating brand awareness, it's about growing a database, driving sales and most important of all creating remarkable customer experiences.

What are the skills a marketing professional needs to be successful?

1. Empathy
The ability to understand and share the feelings of another. In the advertising and marketing world find the 'human story' and understand the perspective of your customers.

"I ask myself things like, What would a 5 year old think of this? What would a 70 year old think? Empathy is king!"

2. Customer Journey Management
Enabling organisations to effectively segment customers and build behaviour-driven journeys through the creation of automated activities prompted by real-time events. These activities send the right message, through the right channel, at the right time, to the right individual, based on their behaviour. The key to doing this successfully is researching and understanding the journeys your customers go through when interacting with your company; whether it be for a product, service, issue, delivery etc.

3. Marketing Automation
There are plenty of technologies designed for marketing departments and organisations to more effectively communicate on multiple channels (such as email, social media, print, websites, etc.) Marketing automation technologies also create operational efficiencies as they can automate repetitive tasks such as data imports.

Here are few marketing automation tools:

- Salesforce Marketing Cloud
- Adobe Marketing Cloud
- Marketo
- Silverpop
- Autopilot

4. Technology Understanding
A marketer’s job is no longer about just managing the advertising agency. They now need to understand the functionality of multiple cloud based platforms and systems. I like to call it understanding your businesses 'Marketecture'; which includes everything from CRM, e-commerce, social listening, marketing automation, business intelligence and analytics.

5. SEO & SEM
Thanks to smart phones and the quick accessibility we have to the internet, according to Google it has forever changed the way we live - It has fractured the customer journey into hundreds of real-time, intent-driven micro-moments. SEO and SEM has never been more important as you fight to identify search terms that will give your website higher ranking. Optimise your content, website, and blog for organic earned search.

6. Data Analysis
Yes...unfortunately you need to understand data, but you don't have to be a Data Scientist. Data holds you accountable, it highlights where you are successful and where there are areas for improvement. Basic data visualisation tools can help you read the data and benchmark it against previous campaigns or even industry statistics. For example Google Analytics is a great tool to analyse:

- Where leads are coming from
- Average time on site
- Bounce rate
- Average transaction value
- Most viewed products etc.

See below for an overview of how data and creativity intersect:

7. Collaborative Consumption
Marketers need to understand and recognise the new business models which are disrupting industries. Collaborative consumption describes the shift in consumer values from ownership to access. Together, entire communities and cities around the world are using network technologies to do more with less by renting, lending, swapping, bartering, gifting and sharing products on a scale never before possible.

From Airbnb to Uber to Taskrabbit, collaborative consumption is transforming business, consumerism and the way we live for a more fulfilling and sustainable quality of life.

8. Targeted Online Advertising
A recent study from Salesforce & Facebook showed that sending an email and a social ad about the same campaign to the same group resulted in 22 per cent uplift in conversion and 77 per cent uplift in reach. Salesforce's new Advertising Studio allows businesses to send targeted ads to a customers based on their CRM data.

9. Email Marketing
For every $1 invested, email marketing generates an average return of $38. Email still generates on average around a 21% open rate and 3.5% click through rate. Consumers today receive more emails than ever before and claim to have inbox fatigue - however marketers have to become better at mastering the art of timely and targeted emails.

10. Mobile Marketing
With over 50% of emails now being opened on mobiles and the boom of the app world - we now need to think mobile first. Many brands still have a website that is not mobile responsive and have no apps to make it easy for customers to engage with you. Think about the potential of geo-location push messages from a service perspective; for example you have entered the airport ready for your flight interstate and receive a real-time alert about the flight delay, followed by an offer to head into the Qantas lounge for free.

11. Social Listening & Engagement
A brand is the sum of the conversations being had about them. Since the launch of social media, customers have found it easier to praise or call out brands about their experiences. A smart marketer would have their finger on the pulse and be listening to online behaviour to identify areas of concern or competitive advantage. Take a look at Salesforce's new Social Studio product for an overview.

12. User Experience
Pixel perfection and eye for detail is important. Design isn't just how something looks and feels, it's also about how it works. It's important to understand the different devices that consumers use like a desktop, tablet and mobile; but also how they use them.

13. Content Creation
Content is the foundation for all marketing according to Joe Pulizzi. You need to start blogging, creating engaging images, infographics, free eBooks, and much more. Content is the main driver to generating leads.

14. Business Savvy
While I don't expect all marketers to have an MBA - they need to understand some simple metrics such as average transaction value (ATV), customer lifetime value (CLV), net promoter score (NPS) and return on investment (ROI). The list could go one but I thought I would keep it short. The line between service, sales and marketing is blending and every campaign you send needs to have a clear measurable goal. If there is no goal, then ask yourself why are you sending it in the first place?

15. Prototyping Mindset
With the adoption of Design Thinking it has allowed employees to take their ideas and make them reality in a cost effective way that doesn't impact the business. Anyone can have an idea - it's the critical process of making that idea a tangible prototype that drives innovation. A prototype can be interacted with and reveal to the creator some valuable learnings to refine over time. We need to embrace that everything in life needs continuous improvement.

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Why Customer Experience Is Confusing Your Business

6/23/2016

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“60% of IT workers now identify improving the customer experience as their top digital goal, while the majority of marketers chose ‘integrating all platforms and channels’ as their main focus.”

The number one goal for most businesses all around the world is to become more customer-centric. According to McKinsey&Company over 50% of customer interactions now happen during a multi-event, multi-channel journey. Over the last hundred companies I have consulted with it seems they all have a different terminology of what they are after; so I wanted to take some time a put together a library of terminology. It depends on the view you are taking whether it be a macro or micro. Are we looking at the whole end-to-end customer lifespan with our business or just the micro moments which are being influenced by today's constant connectivity.

What is the difference between the customer lifespan, customer lifecycle, customer journey and customer moment? Let me explain going from a macro to micro perspective:

1. Customer Lifespan
> Usually measured in decades

Phases in the customer's lifespan where they may find value in a brand and it's offering.

For example setting up a savings account typically happens at the age of 7 through your primary school and family's support. Then by the age of 18 you apply for a credit card - then by late 20's early 30's apply for a home loan.

2. Customer Lifecycle
> Usually measured in years

A brand-centric view to map customer loyalty through acquisition, on boarding, engagement, conversion & retention overtime. May also be mapped to a sales funnel.

For example a potential customer may be acquired through a sign up form to receive email offers from your company, however doesn't make their first purchase for over 6 months.

3. Customer Journey
> Usually measured in hours or days

A useful view for process and experience design showing a contained series of brand interactions and customer experiences.
For example a traveler’s journey on an airline, a customer applying for a home loan or a patient visit to a hospital.

4. Customer Moment
> Usually measured in seconds

A view for designing individual interactions, services or touch points.

For example, a customer service interaction at an airport check-in or a purchase page on an Ecommerce site

[Source] Here is a great infographic illustrated by Lenati explaining the concepts in more detail: http://www.lenati.com/blog/2016/02/how-to-view-your-customers-experience-customer-journey-mapping-vs-customer-lifecycle-infographic/

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Bridging The Gap Between Data & Creativity

6/7/2016

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In the last year or so I have been hearing and reading a lot about the death of advertising, the death of email, the death of creativity...the death of blah blah. I think it's important to understand that just like a healthy diet everything has a purpose and is recommended in moderation. The biggest clash recently has been the battle between 'Creativity VS. Data.' What I don't understand is why does it have to be one or the other....why can't it be both?

Some say when big data and creativity meet you get pure sex? I agree and personally think you need a balance of both....some of us are even lucky enough to be able to do and understand both, they call us unicorns.

The questions we should be asking; Is creative marketing or advertising more effective in inspiring people to buy products? Numerous experiments have found that creative messages get more attention and lead to positive attitudes about the products being marketed, but there’s no firm evidence that shows how those messages influence purchase behaviour. Similarly, there is remarkably little empirical research that ties creative messaging to actual sales revenues. Reason being product and brand managers—and the agencies pitching to them—have lacked a systematic way to assess the effectiveness of their ads or marketing campaigns, it has been a crapshoot.

The Formula:
DATA (Insights + Analytics) * CREATIVE (Design Thinking + Experience) = Business and Marketing Brilliance

Top quality analytics still require a creative mind to interpret, position and act upon the data; these judgments demand more than just technical skills. The tactical know-how must be augmented by a strategic sense that involves intuition, business acumen, excellent communication skills and the courage to try new approaches in search of the game changing insights that create value from data. The best Data Scientists (I prefer the term Data Artists) in the business tend to have a great blend of business, creativity and story telling ability to communicate back their findings.

Companies all across the world have an enormous amount of data, however data doesn't add value unless it is used correctly.

Think about the game of soccer for a second, hundreds of players around the world go through the same level of training and preparation before a game - however most fans idolise Lionel Messi because of the flare he brings to game. Athletes may have similar training, but there are additional layers of creativity and improvisation that go beyond just connecting the dots.

Fundamentals are important, however bringing your own perspective and creativity to life is the only way we can differentiate ourselves and our brand.

These days companies must adapt faster then ever to compete. They need a creative culture to generate new ideas, refine them and then go to market. Business leaders need to understand their companies specific strengths and blind spots when it comes to adapting to an ever changing market. The data will help you identify the pain points/opportunities and the creative culture will drive change and innovate. Both compliment each other and are vital elements to generate success.

Businesses tend to label the agencies they work with and categorise them into buckets. For example:

Creative agency
Data & analytics agency
Technology agency
Marketing agency

How about we create a hybrid agency that pure focus is on solving business problems and improving customer satisfaction? Let's call it a 'Customer Experience Agency'? A company that is focused on understanding your business, understanding your customer and helping you create innovative solutions using technology. That to me is the true art and science of bridging the gap between data and creativity.

Would love to here your thoughts - leave a comment below.

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Voice of the customer

4/21/2016

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Every customer has a voice...yet not every company listens. Successful companies use their customer as their secret weapon. Accessing that secret weapon isn't difficult; create customer focus groups, conduct market research, invest in social listening or merely send out timely customer surveys across the customer journey via digital channels like email, web and sms. Sounds simple doesn't it, but why do most companies take a blind eye? Is it because it's too difficult, too expensive, too confronting? Most of the time it is just easier to keep doing what you have always been doing because it has worked in the past.

It is fair to say that most large Australian companies have a monopoly on the market so their is no real need to change. Until the competition sneaks up behind you and is starring you in the face i.e the taxi industry vs. Uber, hotels vs Airbnb and retailers vs Alibaba. All three companies don't carry any inventory, yet drastically improve customer service and provide new revenue opportunities for those willing to leverage their technology. Companies need to go from being brand centric to becoming customer centric.

Heinz are a perfect example of a brand who listened to their customer and implemented their recommendations. The sauce that they produce is of great quality, however the user experience of trying to get the sauce out of the glass bottle is extremely clumsy. If you make some subtle design changes like flip the bottle upside down and change the material (glass to plastic), the experience changes dramatically.

“People want what’s best for them, and they can switch on a dime, because there’s always a new disruptor disrupting the last disruptor. So companies should just strive to keep changing and adapting to their customers’ needs.”

Hearing the voice of the customer is essential for effective marketing, but also improving service. If companies are to be relevant to the consumer of tomorrow, they will need much more than an email blast engine and a call centre. They must develop a broad contextual understanding of the customer.

Voice Of The Customer Programs:
Many companies have embarked in creating seamless customer journeys across product, marketing, stores, call centres and sales. How do you now capture feedback to see if what you are doing is providing a positive or negative experience? Answer: set up a Voice of the Customer (VoC) program. Effective voice of the customer programs allow you to connect and engage with customers at key points in the customer journey.

The Voice of the Customer is a term used in business to describe the process of capturing customers’ requirements. It is a product development technique that produces a detailed set of customer wants and needs which are organised into a hierarchical structure, and then prioritised in terms of relative importance and satisfaction with current alternatives.

To enhance customer experience and increase business growth, many firms are developing voice of the customer programs. Successful VoC programs should support a cycle of five activities that make up a closed-loop process:

Identify: What is it that you want to learn?
Devise: What is the best way to collect the data?
Collect: Capture the data through the right channels
Analyse: Gather insights in real-time
Draw: Monitor results and take action

The most successful VoC programs help companies connect multiple types of feedback across data channels, provide collaboration across functional departments, incorporate voice of the employee and leverage dashboards and reports that allow you to visualise the information regardless of the source. The key objective is to help deliver clear ROI, business results and prioritise issues.

There are plenty of platforms now that allow you to implement VoC programs. Here is a quick snapshot of market leader Qualtrics' platform; capturing the customers voice & realtime reporting dashboard:

"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning."

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Blockbuster VS. NETFLIX

3/22/2016

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Blockbuster in 2004 ended negotiations in buying 49% share of Netflix for $50 million. One of these businesses is now bankrupt...the other one has a market valuation of over $30 billion. Companies need to not lose sight of the bottom line, however innovation and a change in customer behaviour can have you scratching your head only ten years later.

Former Blockbuster workers all over the world must cringe every time they hear the words “online streaming” and “on-demand.”

That’s because back in 2000, Reed Hastings approached former Blockbuster CEO John Antioco and asked for $US50 million to give away the company he founded — Netflix.

Antioco, thinking that it was a “very small niche business,” ended the negotiations and didn’t buy Netflix, which at the time was a DVD mailing service, according to Variety.

Now Netflix — just short of being worth the same as CBS last year — soared past the television network owner with a $US32.9 billion market valuation. Netflix also reached the 50 million mark in subscribers of its paid service and became available in 40 countries, CNN Money reported last year.

“Management and vision are two separate things. [Netflix was] losing money,” a former Blockbuster exec told Variety back in 2013, explaining Antioco’s decision.
This isn’t the first time that a company missed out on an opportunity that could have shifted continents of the business world. There have been other bitter “what ifs” including: Verizon shunning Apple for the first model of the iPhone, Comcast foregoing Disney, Friendster refusing Google, and AOL merging with Time Warner instead of AT&T.

Perhaps the company that made the biggest blunder in tech history is Yahoo, which had chances to buy both Google and Facebook.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com.au/

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2016 Digital Trends (Part 1 of 2)

2/26/2016

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"If I had asked the people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse - Henry Ford"

Henry Ford in the late 1800’s was a pioneer in the automobile industry. Consider this: By the end of 2017 driverless cars will no longer just be an idea, they could very likely become reality. How does that change our lives and how much more potential time does that unlock between our day-to-day activities. These big ideas and innovations are why I go to work everyday - growth, sustainability, evolution and pushing the boundaries of customer experience.

Creativity is thinking up new things, innovation is doing new things. To simplify, businesses today have two key areas they need to accelerate in, and that's marketing and innovation. Innovation is change that unlocks new value and marketing is demonstrating and selling that value. Amidst the rapid pace of innovation, changing consumer expectations, and the plummeting cost of advanced technology, there is immense opportunity for organisations, governments and society.

Digital is disrupting traditional business models and changing consumer behaviours. The mobile phone is no longer a device to make a phone call, it is an omni-channel computer in our pockets that allows us to control our finances, track our health, make purchases and communicate with the world. Here’s a closer look at the first 5 digital trends expected to influence the next generation of experiences:

1. Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality will become mainstream and debut in 2016 with the first consumer versions of Sony, Oculus, and the HTC Vive hitting the market. Companies and designers will now start thinking about how they can go beyond the gaming experience and bring VR into everyday lives for things like tourism or watching live sports. For example it’s the 2016 AFL Grand Final and you can buy a virtual ticket, sit amongst the cheer squad behind the goals, hear the crowd roar and at any stage - change your perspective and angle.

Google have created a great cheap alternative to educate and get consumers familiar with Virtual Reality, they call it Google Cardboard. For $20 you can buy a cardboard headset and use your smartphone as the screen. See the example below:

Here is a great example on how Virtual Reality will change the real-estate world: http://www.billyloizou.com/thoughts/how-virtual-reality-will-change-the-world-we-live-in

2. Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality is the integration of digital information with the user's environment in real time. Unlike virtual reality, which creates a totally artificial environment, augmented reality uses the existing environment and overlays new information on top of it.

Some amazing apps have been released which can enhance your experience and give an almost real life perspective. Companies like IKEA, L’Oreal and Glasses.com allow you to interact with their products without having to visit their physical store. For example, L’Oreal have released an app that allows you to try on make up from the comfort of your own home. The app is called ‘Make Up Genius’ and the concept and execution is remarkable.

The investment in this line of work is becoming larger every year and industry leaders Magic Leap have just raised $793.5 million dollars in funding from the Alibaba Group. Their mission is creating a new world where digital and physical realities seamlessly blend together to enable amazing new experiences. Here is an example of some their work:

3. Virtual Assistant. Help me.
Not everyone is fortunate enough to have assistants that can take care of some of their day-to-day tasks. In today’s fast paced world, increasing productivity is up there as one of the top 5 requirements for most CEO’s. Welcome Facebook M, a personal digital assistant inside of Messenger that completes tasks and finds information on your behalf. It’s powered by artificial intelligence that’s trained and supervised by actual people. Thanks to Facebook, everyday people will be able to get simple tasks done for them like making a restaurant reservation, ordering takeaway, buying flowers for loved ones, finding local dog friendly beaches and much more.

One of M’s most popular requests from its Facebook employee testers, was that the service can call your telco company and endure the endless hold times and automated messages to help you set up home wifi or cancel your Foxtel. The main differentiator between Facebook M and Siri is that their is an actual person on hold for you called a Facebook M trainer. Facebook’s M trainers have customer service backgrounds. They make the trickier judgment calls, and perform other tasks that software can’t. If you ask M to plan a birthday dinner for your friend, the software might book the Uber and the restaurant, but a person might surprise your friend at the end of the night by sending over birthday cupcakes from her favourite bakery. Over time Facebook will use complex AI with their history of data to predict these outcomes to reduce the burden on their trainers.

4. Voice Activation. Listen to me.
In the latest release of Wi-Fi gadgets, Amazon have launched a speaker that listens. The Amazon Echo is a cylindrical bluetooth speaker that listens when you talk to it. For those who enjoy making noise or bossing around inanimate objects then this a great device for you.

The most obvious use case for Echo is to play music or podcasts. However the future use would be to connect it to your other smart devices. Right now Echo works with SmartThings, Insteon, WeMo, Hue and Wink devices, which covers most of your bases. Commands are mostly limited to turning things on or off, or brightening or dimming lights. These might be basic triggers but the future is quite exciting if all you have to do is yell out from bed for a coffee or to turn on the air-conditioning.

5. Machine Learning
Machine learning is a type of artificial intelligence that provides computers with the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed. Machine learning focuses on the development of computer programs that can teach themselves to grow and change when exposed to new data. The process of machine learning is similar to that of data mining. Both systems search through data to look for patterns.

Marketers can leverage this technology in multiple ways when creating customer journeys. The journeys themselves will adapt, restructure and remodel themselves to become more successful overtime by understanding the moments when customers are most likely to engage. Machine learning will allow you to optimise in real-time based on the history of data available. Companies like Salesforce are leading the race by acquiring PredicitionIO, a start up based out of Palo Alto that have developed an open source-based machine learning server.

2016 Digital Trends part two will be available shortly. Subscribe to stay tuned!

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LEND ME YOUR EYES

Rise Of The Intelligence Economy

The Digital Evolution = The Intelligence Economy

What is success?

A LITTLE BIT OF PERSPECTIVE

We cannot change anything if we cannot change our thinking!

The top 15 skills every marketer needs by 2017

What are the skills a marketing professional needs to be successful?

Why Customer Experience Is Confusing Your Business

Bridging The Gap Between Data & Creativity

Voice of the customer

Blockbuster VS. NETFLIX

2016 Digital Trends (Part 1 of 2)

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LEND ME YOUR EYES

​The Digital Evolution = The Intelligence Economy

What are the skills a marketing professional needs to be successful?

Archives

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Let's Connect ON SOCIAL

The Digital Evolution = The Intelligence Economy