Mobility to be fuel for profitable expansion in the new normal: WPP

WPP’s ‘The Future of Brands in Motion’ study has found that mobility will become prevalent across every sector and it will increasingly provide a platform for companies to grow. 

In partnership with Ogilvy Consulting, WPP interviewed 16 global leaders in innovation, marketing, growth and UX across four industries – entertainment, retail, transportation and telecom. To understand how their current mobility strategies and ambitions for the future compared with consumer expectations, a survey of 300+ US citizens was carried out in parallel. 

Key findings 

• The pandemic has accelerated consumer expectations of new experiences
• Like digital before it, mobility is evolving into a platform that will radically change how we move people and goods around the world.
• The survey revealed that consumers are in a state of evolution – trialling, trained and ready to adopt all kinds of new products and services, such as contactless delivery, tele-medicine and shopping at mobile retail stores, with the pandemic serving as an accelerant.
• Companies vary in readiness
• Many business leaders now consider mobility an imperative, but the study found that readiness and investment vary dramatically.
• Brand partnerships between traditional mobility providers and other companies are key.
• As the competitive landscape widens and threats appear from every sector, so do opportunities for non-traditional brand partnerships. For example, healthcare or drug companies partnering with convenience stores to offer medication delivery by drone, or autonomous vehicle makers collaborating with entertainment brands to take advantage of passengers’ new-found down-time to offer new kinds of experiences to pass the time.
• Business leaders are eager to react to consumer demand, though some companies have opted to press pause on innovation, while others depend on it to survive the pandemic. And when it comes to mobility experiences, we see a large spectrum of readiness – several companies are already thinking this way while many (both in and outside of transportation) are just now awakening to these changes.
• A post-pandemic opening of the economy will accelerate opportunities for forward-looking businesses and brands to leverage mobility as a platform to create new and different experiences that set them apart from their competition.