The ‘Beyond’ of Advertising: Digital technologies that can redefine the A&M industry

Authored by Sudeshna Singh, Head Marketing, ToneTag.

‘Nothing except the mint can make money without advertising.’ This quote by famous British historian Thomas Macaulay, is, for all puns intended, right on the money. It is one of the most integral parts of business, and the essential bridge between a brand and its customers. And it is continuously evolving. From street-corner shout-outs to newspaper snippets and 30-second commercials, the advertising world has seen it all. But as the world undergoes a digital revolution with people spending more and more time on their mobile phones and smart devices, how has the advertising industry taken to the digital world today? More importantly, where is it headed towards?

Advertising has adapted to the digital play-field like a fish out of water, it seems. As consumer touchpoints increase rapidly, opportunities for advertisers to meet consumers have also grown proportionately. But with the hordes of opportunities come certain challenges. New brands are emerging every other day, the target audiences are getting divided and defined into further segments, and their demands and expectations from brands are at an all-time high. In such a scenario of ever-increasing demands and hyper-competition, it has become imperative for a brand to develop an omni-present identity. 

To get an edge over their competitors amidst this landscape, brands have to come up with solutions to connect with their target audiences in real time. To help brands achieve the same, players in the A&M industry have been leveraging technologies that help to create ads that are not only customized according to the user, but is also tailor-made  for the specific touchpoint. Advertisers today need to optimize how they handle this twin-dynamic. 

Certain technological advancements have emerged as an effective solution for these challenges. Data analytics, for instance, has been enabling brands to map consumer behavior across hundreds of parameters, equipping them with rich actionable insights to deliver engaging and personalized content for better end-consumer experience. Conversational AI has also been driving engagement among customers while empowering brands with lead generation and richer data to deploy content on. Further, AR/VR devices, IoT sensors, interactive software applications, and social media platforms have been steadily redefining brand interaction and experience among users. 

While all of this indicates how mobile phones are playing an increasingly significant role for the entire consumer journey to be mapped, more needs to be done to ensure that ads become all the more dynamic and personalized. Newer mobile marketing strategies need to be developed and implemented upon for a more seamless integration across all channels and touchpoints. This is where emerging technologies step in. 

The good news is, there are a lot more untapped innovative solutions which continue enhancing this effectiveness. Soundwave technology, for instance, is an alternative with great monetary benefits and a host of additional advantages which few enterprises have looked at till now. 

Soundwave technology’s capabilities have been witnessed in the digital payments domain, but its applications are not limited to that. When it comes to consumer communication, this technology has the potential to facilitate a far more secure, fast and convenient form of engagement than what has been offered till now. For instance, soundwave technology can address the prime concerns of the advertising domain today, namely-enabling greater number of transactions with limited data availability and enhancing security without compromising on the spontaneity of transactions. 

Sound-based advertisement technologies consume lesser data to convey greater information, and are highly secure as they are conducted through unique frequencies. Moreover, it enables brands to leverage new channels, such as radio or podcasts, which are gaining popularity from a content consumption point of view but not so much from an advertising perspective. Lastly, sound-based advertising efforts do not interfere with the content consumption experience of users, thereby proving their suitability for the constantly ‘multi-tasking’ generation. 

Moreover, by leveraging soundwave-based gamification tools, brands will also be able to reach to their customers and engage them in real-time, thereby establishing an offline communication with them. This will not only be a cost-effective way for brands to reach a larger audience but will also help assert a real impact on the customers through incentivization of the engagement. Therefore, through such tools, soundwave technology is bringing forth a highly impactful platform for brands to leverage for a real-time engagement of target groups. 

Implementing these emerging technologies does not come as an added burden for the marketers. In fact, for the first time, advertisers have struck upon tools that enhance their advertisement strategies while cutting down on costs. Through an innovative and viable approach by leveraging these technological advancements, businesses can significantly save costs while reaching larger audiences. 

It is an undisputed fact that emerging technologies are going to define the future of communications. They have the potential to make advertising highly personalized, immediate, engaging and suitable for both man-machine and machine-machine interactions. In essence, technologies like these are set to redefine the very realm of marketing and advertising, leading the charge for a closely-connected, highly engaging, and convenience-focused future! 

About the Author

Sudeshna Singh is a goal-oriented, self-starter marketing professional with experience of over one decade in Banking, Life & Insurance, Credit rating & Fintech industries. At ToneTag, she is spearheading company’s growth since inception by developing and co-ordinating integrated marketing programs to build awareness, generate demand and retain customers. She believes in telling great product stories and delivering experiences as innovative as the technology. She has also been recognised as Top 100 Marketing, Sales, & CX Growth Hackers from fast-growing, mid-market organizations by #letstalkcx FAST100 (Oracle). On a personal front, Sudeshna is an avid reader, a constant learner, history & foreign language buff.