ZENITHOPTIMEDIA’S COMPILATION OF EMERGING TOP TEN TRENDS

1. 1
ZENITHOPTIMEDIA’S
COMPILATION
OF EMERGING
TOP TEN TRENDS
ENGAGING
THE “ALWAYS ON”
CONSUMER
2013

2. 3
FORCES SHAPING
EMERGING TOP
TEN TRENDS
How do the identified trends relate to the political, socio-
economic and technological developments which impact
consumers’lives? The PEST (Politics, Economy, Social and
Technology) analysis shows what influences consumers’
adoption of trends, helping us better understand the
evolution of these trends and shows how we might best
use this knowledge to engage with consumers. We have
identified three major global developments and their
impacts on consumers and businesses:
1. REMAPPING
THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
BOOSTING CONSUMER
CONFIDENCE
Global economic power is shifting. Once-powerful economic
superpowers are plagued with economic stagnation, with
unemployment numbers at an all time high. Most European
countries are implementing austerity drives, forcing consumers
to rethink their spending, even on basic necessities like food,
housing and healthcare. The USA is no better, with the debt
ceiling crisis continuing to cast a gloom.
However, the continued growth of the BRIC economies (Brazil,
Russia, India and China) carries a glimmer of hope. According to
theWorld Bank, China has now become a middle-income country,
based on per capita income. Increased discretionary income in
growing economies means we can expect aspirational trading up,
an appetite for global brands and for world experiences that are now
within grasp for these consumers. Global brands need to understand
how remapping the world economy affects demand for both their
product categories and brands, to give them an idea of how to best
project their brand identities and communicate brand relevance in
diverse economic landscapes.
Consumer confidence is a great way to shed light onto consumer
demand, since consumers who are confident of their position in
life are more likely to spend.
GLOBAL CONSUMER
CONFIDENCE SURVEY
58 Countries - 3 Month Trend
A
t this time of year, we’re bombarded with annual
trend reports by leading media companies,
consulting firms and advertising and digital
agencies alike. While such reports are valuable
in identifying trends in specific areas (like consumer,
marketing, digital and social media), a big picture view is
necessary. ZenithOptimedia’s Compilation of Emerging
Top 10 Trends Report, Engaging the“Always On”Consumer,
sums up the crucial trends for marketing communications
for the upcoming year. What are the driving forces behind
the trends that will shape 2013? How are these trends
related to one another? How do these trends impact how we
engage with consumers and what do they mean for brand
communications in 2013 and beyond?
COMPILING THE
TOP TEN TRENDS
OUR METHODOLOGY
How do we engage our customers moving forward? The Top
10 Trends have been sourced from leading trend companies,
according to a rigorous methodology:
1. Recurring themes and trends sourced and distilled from
leading reports
2. Investigation into how technological developments, socio-
cultural changes and economic developments provide
context for understanding the implications of these trends on
businesses and consumers
3. Trends grouped and macro trends distinguished from micro
trends
4. Where needed, trends have been redefined and re-named to
really capture their meaning
We have sourced our Top Ten Trends from the following:
Global Average 92
India 119
Indonesia 119
Philippines 118
United Arab Emirates 114
Saudi Arabia 113
Thailand 112
Brazil 110
China 106
Malaysia 105
Switzerland 104
Egypt 103
Norway 102
Canada 99
Australia 98
Singapore 98
Peru 97
New Zealand 95
Chile 94
Austria 93
Denmark 92
Pakistan 91
Colombia 91
United States 90
Turkey 90
Hong Kong 89
Belgium 88
Vietnam 87
Russia 87
Sweden 87
Germany 86
Israel 84
Mexico 84
Netherlands 83
Venezuela 82
South Africa 78
United Kingdom 77
Estonia 75
Finalnd 75
Argentina 75
Latvia 73
Lithuania 72
Czech Republic 70
Taiwan 70
Poland 69
Ukraine 69
Ireland 67
Bulgaria 64**
Slovakia 62**
France 61
Romania 60
Japan 59
Spain 48
Italy 46
Greece 46
Portugal 41
Croatia 41
South Korea 40
Hungary 37
+ or - change
from Q2 2012
101 higher
More
Optimism
100 lower
More
Pessimism
ASIA
PACIFIC
EUROPE
MIDDLE EAST/AFRICA
LATIN
AMERICA
NORTH
AMERICA
Source: Nielsen Global Survey of Consumer Confidence and Spending
Intentions, Q3 2013
*Survey is based on respondents with Internet access. Index levels
above and below 100 indiacate degrees of optimism/pessimism.
** Bulgaria and Slovakia are new markets in Q3 2012
2

3. 4 5
ZENITHOPTIMEDIA’S
COMPILATION OF
EMERGING TOP TEN TRENDSBased on recurring trends identified from reports sourced from a range of leading media companies, consulting firms, advertising and digital
agencies, our compilation of the Top Ten Trends lists the most relevant for ones for engaging with consumers in 2013:
Facing tough times, consumers in the least confident economies
will still spend, but their purchases will be carefully considered.
To maintain their quality of life, less confident consumers will be
chasing great deals on high performing products. Confident
consumers, especially those from growing economies, are
more willing to spend. Hungry to move up the social ladder,
they welcome aspirational brands that both act as a badge of
success and empower self-expression. As consumer cultures in
growing economies evolve, there is a hunger for brand stories,
as consumers are working out how associating with global
brands affects both their personal and social life. For global
brands, this means they need to maintain consistent brand values
while building emotional connections with these consumers,
with appropriate value exchange that is in line with market
sophistication and economic climate.
2. THE CONNECTED WORLD
ACCESSING CONTENT
REGARDLESS OF TIME,
PLACE OR DEVICE
In a review of the recent 2013 CES (Consumer Electronic Show), the
annual event for diehard tech fans, Advertising Age commented
that, based on the products shown, the event should be renamed
the“Connected Everything Show”. A huge proportion of new
gadgets at CES, including ultra high definitionTVs, washing
machines and assorted robots, were connected to smartphone
and tablet apps for display, control, and sharing and manipulation
purposes.Web-enabled screens dominate our present day lives,
which will only become more apparent as ownership of smart
phones and tablets reaches critical mass. By 2013, Gartner predicts
that mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most commonWeb
access device worldwide and that, by 2015, over 80 percent of the
handsets sold in mature markets will be smartphones.This trend is
global. For instance, mobile is fast becoming the PC of Africa. For the
first time, Nigerians accessing the Internet via mobile surpassed the
number of desktop users.
To match consumers’“always on”lifestyle, marketers need to
transform their mobile engagement strategies.Today’s society
expects us to make the most of life by cramming experiences in
every moment, which is what drives consumers’strong desire live in
a connected world. Brands need to consider how consumers’use of
various gadgets fulfills their need for instant gratification.
Smartphone-use is much more utilitarian than use of tablets or
televisions. Multi-tasking across different screens and staying
connected on social media platforms at all times is prevalent
today. For example, 51% of those who post on social media while
watching TV aim to connect with others watching TV.
As consumers no longer have a linear and static approach to
media consumption, brands building engagement eco-systems
will need to take into consideration the types and depth of
content, publication frequency and location-based content that
best matches different gadgets. Brands looking to be a natural
part of consumers’“always on”lifestyles will need to be prepared
to respond to their customers 24/7/365 and keep them engaged
by creating meaningful and fresh content.
3. BIG DATA
IT’S TIME TO GET PERSONAL
The booming role of big data in reshaping consumers’
relationships with brands is glaringly apparent in most trend
reports. The explosion of consumer-generated data in myriad
mobile and social media forms can be used to improve brand
relationships, as the data offers a deeper understanding of
consumers’lives. As the basis of personalized and helpful
suggestions, such data can have significant impact on customer
satisfaction and loyalty. Interpreted in the right context
and perspectives, data lets brands build a predictive model
to improve their ROI, thanks to behavioural targeting and
personalised customer needs. This, in turn, improves conversion
while optimising production and distribution efficiency. As
marketers embrace live marketing, sensitivity when managing
consumer interaction needs to stay on top of our minds. After all,
there is a fine line between being helpful and being a cause for
complaint for invasions of privacy or security breaches. Big data
is not just something brands should take advantage of: it is also
an opportunity for brands to work out how to use the data to
genuinely help meet consumers’needs.
Consumers leave footprints everywhere on the Internet, and
brands are following their movements closely. While many
consumers have been sharing their information without
realising it, this situation may be changing. According to
NielsenWire.com, 77% of smartphone users express concern
over personal data collection, with 55% wary of sharing
information about their location via smartphone apps.
However, while consumers are newly aware of data creeping
into their lives, they are also open to getting something out
of it. They continue to seek security, control, convenience
and enjoyment in their lives, and judge brands’ data based
endeavours on how well these needs are fulfilled. According
to Iconoculture, consumers will unconsciously evaluate their
brand relationships through a give-and-take lens. By focusing
on delivering relevant, contextually appropriate experiences
that address consumer needs, brands can make data work for
them, taking their consumer relationships to the next level.
Socio-economic and technological developments show that today’s
consumers’value both accumulating knowledge and instantaneous
experiences, which fulfil their need to be confident and in control.
Even though consumers’lives are changing fast, harvesting big data
can help us anticipate their behaviour and what this would mean
for products and brands. Instead of depending on historical data to
provide us with insights to help generate demand and consumer
engagements, live data will help us stay ahead of our consumers. It
is time we fully embrace live planning to drive the business forward.
EVERYWHERE
COMMERCE1Shop Anything, Anywhere, Anytime
GLOBAL
SHOPPING2Brands Becoming Global Citizens
CURATED
SELF3Presentation of Self Online
VISUAL INFO-
GRATIFICATION
4Discovery Through Engaging Images
5
FRIEND SOURCING
RECOMMENDATIONS
6In Friends We Trust
CHANNEL
KNITTING7Offering Integrated
Experience Across Devices
REMOTE
CONCIERGE8
SOCIAL
CARE9Customers Turn
To Social Media
For Customer Service
PLAY
VANTAGE10Experience Everyday Life
Through A Playful Lens
Discovery Through Engaging Images
RCING
gin
VIDEO
SHARINGStorytelling on YouTube
and Beyond
offf Seelf Onlinne
Shop Anyth
A Personal Assistant
For Mobile DevicesFor MobMobExperie
day Lifeyday
LensL
RECOMMEN
In Friends We Trust

4. 6 7
As the digital age brings the world closer together, it also
brings global brands to consumers all over the world. For
consumers from growing economies, eager to catch up with
rest of the world, this opportunity is particularly welcome. As
we become part of the emerging world community, we want
to find ways to connect with each other. Social media has
enabled us to enjoy new experiences, appreciate different
cultures, discover and support international values and even
be part of a brand’s global community. Fans will enjoy richer
brand experiences when brands highlight shared values and
celebrate the diversity among their fan bases. By tapping
into this base, brands can expects fans to help co-create
products that combine global appeal with relevance to local
needs.
STATS:
• Top 100 global brands have more than 299 million fans on
Facebook
• Facebook reached 55% of the world’s global audience,
accounting for roughly 75% of time spent on social networking
sites and one in every seven minutes spent online globally
Source: thesocialskinny.com (2012)
BRAND ACTIONS:
• Keep consistent positioning and identity when building a global
brand
• Consider leveraging on brand assets that have universal appeal
when looking to optimise content distribution and activation
program
• At the local level, global brands need to identify the most
relevant value exchange to deliver brand experience in line with
consumer sophistication and economic landscapes
EXAMPLE: DOVE GLOBAL
FACEBOOK PAGE
Truly global brands can now reap the benefits of both global and
regional online content with Facebook’s single, Global Page-
structure. With this new structure, Facebook users will be directed
to the best version of a Page, depending on the country those
users are in. This will allow them to see localized cover photos,
profile photos, Page apps, milestones,“about”information, and
news feed stories from Pages — all while remaining part of the
global brand community.
The benefits of the Global Facebook Page include having control
over the content from around the world, a centralised set of
statistics and“talking abouts”combined with the relevance for
consumers that stems from having a local element. However, this
functionality may not yet be available to all brands. Additionally,
there is also a need for community managers to be attuned to
differences in language, culture and relevance when providing
content for the Global Page, as well as practical considerations
such as not including time of day, or mentions of the weather
when updating the Page.
Smartphone or tablet users are embracing a world where
consumers can search for anything and buy (almost!)
anything, at any time. Purchase behaviour and experiences
have been transformed. Along their shopping journeys,
consumers move back and forth between various in-store,
online and mobile channels. For instance, consumers
increasingly use connected devices to shop around in their
own time, before heading into a physical store for the final
purchase. They expect seamless interactions with retailers
across all channels, value instant access to necessary
information, and are looking to secure the best deals
according to their geographic locations. Marketers need
to optimise their mobile platforms to facilitate consumer
purchase decisions and e-commerce, with tailored content
based on how each touch point is used.
STATS:
• 67% of us start shopping on one device and continue to
another
• 59% of smartphone shopping is done at home, while 41% done
out of home
• 81% of smartphone shopping is spur of the moment
Source: Google’s The New Multi-screen World: Understanding Cross-
Platform Consumer Behaviour (2012)
BRAND ACTIONS:
• Today’s“always on”lifestyle means that brands need to be
responsive to consumers by implementing real-time marketing
to meet consumers who are in a shopping mood
• E-commerce infrastructure needs to be up and running across
all mobile platforms
• A mobile-optimised site providing simple, useful and engaging
experiences will encourage customer engagement
• The best mobile commerce apps casually and non-intrusively
allow consumers to discover things they might want to buy
without realizing it
• Linking mobile customers to big data via mobile apps will let
brands understand consumers’search, purchase behaviour and
user feedback. Harvesting such data offers great opportunities in
behavioural and contextual targeting as well as personalisation
EXAMPLE: AMAZON.COM
During the 2011 holiday shopping season, Amazon came out
on top in terms of mobile consumer satisfaction, according to
research conducted by Foresee. Amazon understood all aspects
of the mobile shopping experience, compared to traditional retail
stores, important to new users. Offering the Wal-Mart (WMT)
experience – total selection, low prices, and rapid delivery – for
mobile users, Amazon combined a strong front-of-house offering
(like website design, recommendations, one-click shopping and
reviews) with back-of-house competence (such as logistics and
distribution). Though not identical, Amazon’s mobile platforms
have a similar look to its main site, making users comfortable. The
basket and search functions are positioned in similar places, both
displaying recommended products on the homepage, and past
purchases are synchronised across platforms. Relevant results and
easy searches that correct misspellings are key.
Amazon’s one-click payment method is a big part of its online
success: making purchases incredibly simple encourages
shoppers to return. By saving customers’card details and delivery
addresses, they only have to enter a username and password to
make a purchase. Making the checkout as simple as possible, to
encourage impulse purchases and save consumers from wasting
time entering credit card numbers, is very valuable on mobile.
Similarly, a barcode scanner helps Amazon app users to find
deals on the Amazon site when they’re out shopping on the
high street. Finally, while many retailers only have iPhone apps
(despite Android having half of the global market share), Amazon
shoppers can use either their iPhones, Androids, Blackberrys or
Windows Phones.
EVERYWHERE
COMMERCE1Shop Anything, Anywhere, Anytime
GLOBAL
SHOPPING2Brands Becoming Global Citizens

5. 8 9
Sure, consumers are accustomed to googling for instant access
to information, but in 2013, search goes beyond text alone.
Visual-info gratification is the next frontier, as is creating brand
engagement through compelling images. In 2012, thanks to
the likes of Instagram and Pinterest, visual social web took off
as consumers embraced visual sharing. Brands can leverage
consumers’search and shopping experiences by enticing them
with creative and engaging visuals.
STATS:
• 44% of online users are more likely to engage with brands that
they post pictures of in their online newsrooms, compared to
other media
Source: ROI Research (2013)
• 70% of Pinterest users use the site for shopping inspiration
• There is a high correlation between pinning and subsequent
purchasing
Source: Harvard Business Review (2012)
BRAND ACTIONS:
• To take advantage of this trend, brands can be both content
creators and curators, sharing visuals of their brand world and,
better still, providing brand entertainment
•Attractive and relevant photos overlaid with text are a simple
way to tell a story, even serving as teaser for in-depth content
• Brands can start building visual social communities on
Instagram and Pinterest and host user-generated art. It is not
just about the products, but also about interesting themes
related to the brand
• Put the spotlight on the fans while serving as a listening tool for
brands to find out more about what interests their consumers
• Brands can nudge consumers who pin their photos by serving
them“call to action”messages
EXAMPLE: KATE SPADE
NEW YORK
Rather than pin products that Kate Spade sells, the brand’s
marketing department has been trying to operate the same way
other Pinterest users do — by pinning inspiring or pretty pictures
that happen to fit well with the brand. Pinterest has essentially
become a public mood board for Kate Spade. (A mood board
is a collage of related images that marketers often use while
preparing campaigns or new designs so to give staff an idea of
the“feel”of the new product.)
In the recent“Pin It to Win It”contests, Kate Spade offered
substantial prizes to four respective pinners who captured the
spirit of each contest. The“Ride Colourfully”contest gave away
four custom-designed Vespa lx-50’s to the Pinterest users who
created the best boards inspired by the vibrant scooters. To enter
the contest, Pinterest-users added hashtags like #RideColourfully
and #Vespa to their pins. This allowed effective search of the
contest boards and increased virility of the pins. Kate Spade also
promoted the contests across various social platforms including
Facebook, Twitter, email campaigns and blogging. This contest
showed an overwhelming affinity for vintage-inspired fashion
and zippy pastels: all potential inspiration for upcoming fashion
lines.
Kanye West recently declared on Twitter that,‘If I had to be
defined at this point I’ll take the title of an inventor or maybe
curator’. However, the title‘curator’no longer belongs to
the people running museums, art galleries … or even Kanye
West. The web has democratised the ability to spot things
and given us all the opportunity to reinvent ourselves with
our social media posts. Embracing curated consumption, we
are“always on”and socially connected, feeling compelled to
source the latest and ideally differentiated content to share.
Excelling at putting together varied content helps define
who we are in digital terms, makes people pay attention
to us and boosts our power to influence others. Brands
will need to learn how to use the web to give consumers a
valuable curated experience.
STATS:
Among marketers who curate content:
• 76% share curated content via social media channels
• 57% share content via personal email messages
• 54% share content via blogging
Source: Curata (2012)
• 3.5 billion pieces of content (web, new stories, blog posts)
shared each week on Facebook
Source: econsultancy (2012)
BRAND ACTIONS:
• Just like people, brands need to be curators, adding value
and relevance to their fans and followers, making them go-to-
resources for fun and timely content
• Consumers’interest graphs can help brands identify varied
interests that make up someone’s personal identity and connect
them with like-minded people
• ZenithOptimedia’s Socialtools can provide brands with insights
into the content themes most liked, commented and shared by
their fans or followers
EXAMPLE: PEPSI PULSE
Pepsi’s“Live for Now”is both a rallying cry and the spirit the
beverage giant hopes to embody with its new pop-culture-
focused campaign. Based on extensive global research with
thousands of fans,“Live for Now”centres around a major new
social and content curation platform, Pepsi Pulse, which marks
an ambitious foray into social media. It also marks a brand-wide
re-emphasis on pop culture and entertainment, which have long
been Pepsi staples. In the spirit of what Pepsi dubs“Now Culture”,
the HTML5-powered Pepsi Pulse provides engaging, immediate
and interactive, aggregated content for users. Pictures, tweets,
and news items are pulled from premium content sources,
filtered by social ranking, and gathered to form the top 10 stories
at any given moment. Users will also be able to organise content
around categories such as music, design, and sports. Aside from
producing pop-culture cheat sheets, the site offers live-streamed
concerts and feature an interactive component, with challenges
from musicians and celebrities, who have endorsement deals
with Pepsi, such as Nicki Minaj.
CURATED
SELF3Presentation of Self Online
VISUAL INFO-
GRATIFICATION
4Discovery Through Engaging Images

6. 10 11
Never before has the consumer played such an important
role in marketing, thanks to photo sharing, recommending
services and products, and exchanging experiences.
Shoppers are influenced by advice and recommendations
from friends and people they follow on social sites.
Recommendation engines are a perfect example of how
brands can use big data to their great advantage. Content
distribution and activation platforms are becoming more
commonplace, and enable consumers to share brand
content with their friends and followers.
STATS:
• 57 % have asked their friends on Facebook for advice before
purchasing a product
Source: Luxury daily (2012)
• 53 % of people on Twitter recommend companies or their
products in their tweets
• Brand advocates are at least 5x more valuable than average
customers because they spend and recommend more than
average customers
Source: Zuberance (2012)
BRAND ACTIONS:
• Discovering their brand advocates and what makes these
influential customers tick is important for brands
• Once we understand what motivates brand advocates to
recommend brands and products, reward them by giving them
what they crave most
• Build and grow advocate communities on online, social and
mobile channels and mobilize them to recommend the brands
• By applying social listening, we can learn why and how these
advocates are recommending brands and products. These
insights help us serve them with relevant content for them to
recommend
EXAMPLE: ALDI
Supermarket chain Aldi shows how brands can play to their
strengths to drive positive recommendations on social media
platforms. On the recently launched campaign called Britain’s
Biggest Savers, fans of the brand’s UK Facebook page have
the chance to win £100 worth of vouchers, by sharing the
savings that they make by shopping at Aldi, rather than rival
supermarkets. The campaign has received a strong response,
effectively driving positive advocacy by encouraging consumers
to discuss the brand’s key strengths over rivals. Consumers say
they“saved”by switching to Aldi from rival supermarket chains,
call it the“best”supermarket and say they“wouldn’t shop”
elsewhere. The campaign also successfully drove brand love: even
comments that were not strictly“advocacy”statements were
positive about the brand, with some saying they“love”shopping
at Aldi. Aldi’s success suggests brands can effectively promote
online advocacy by highlighting their strengths over competitors.
While online video is not new, it is going to take off in a
big way in 2013. The rollout of 4G has led to data speeds
fast enough to cope with increased video sharing. Online
businesses and product demo videos will become more
popular with ever-improving internet speeds, and product
demonstration videos will be used more frequently to
address even the needs of apprehensive customers.
Beyond YouTube and Vimeo, new video sharing sites are gaining
traction. For example, Qwiki allows users to quickly create
amazing interactive stories. The next big thing in video social
sharing is Vine, an iPhone app acquired by Twitter and released at
the end of January 2013, which allows users to share a maximum
of six seconds of video at a time. Cisco predicts that 90% of
consumer IP traffic (the majority of total IP traffic) will be video in
2013. Tapping into video sharing’s potential, brands need to both
create videos that consumers really want to be part of and find
ways to reach as many viewers as possible.
STATS:
• 500 years worth of time is spent on watching YouTube every day
• 700 YouTube videos are shared on Twitter every minute
Source: MindJumpers (2013)
• Although YouTube links are posted about 8 times more than
Facebook videos, both these options generate a similar number
of Likes, Comments and Shares
Source: Socialbakers (2013)
BRAND ACTIONS:
• Brands can get inspiration from video sharing sites, such as Viral
Video Chart, to help identify currently trending popular culture
as a guide for both content curation and creation
• In order to create videos that consumers want to be part of,
goviral, a leading video distribution network, found that fortune
favours the brave. The top brands on the first Top 100 Social
Equity Brands, like Red Bull, Old Spice and Nike, repeatedly
disrupt the expected, sparking agenda-setting conversations
• To increase viewership and sharing, brands can consider cross-
promoting across different touch points, embedding videos in
relevant interest-related content and encouraging calls to action
for sharing
EXAMPLE: RED BULL
According to goviral’s social equity study, Red Bull boasts the
greatest amount of“social video equity”, thanks to having both
genuinely embraced the medium and successfully engaged web
users. Red Bull has expanded its reach to sponsorship, hosting of
a variety of events and spectacles designed to draw attention on
the web and in real life. These include their Air Race series, the
Flugtag air competition and the record-breaking Space Jump.
The Space Jump, organised by Red Bull Stratos, was a world
record attempt by daredevil Felix Baumgartner to break 4 world
records, including highest free fall, fastest free fall, longest free
fall, and highest manned balloon flight. The event also managed
to set a new record for the“live stream with the most concurrent
views ever on YouTube.”At its peak, there were more than 8
million concurrent live streams. The jump was broadcast on Red
Bull’s YouTube channel, as well as cable television. In the months
leading up to the event, Red Bull managed a complete social
media and digital marketing campaign that is still going strong in
distributing the content.
5VIDEO
SHARINGStorytelling on YouTube
and Beyond
FRIEND SOURCING
RECOMMENDATIONS
6In Friends We Trust

7. 12 13
Today’s technology enables us to have a personal assistant
in our mobile devices. For example, we can use our voices
to have Siri send messages, schedule meetings, make phone
calls and recommend restaurants nearby, while the Nike+
app tracks our workout record. There is a growing demand
for apps, which can be used as a replacement interface with
companies and brands in the future. Brands need to be
prepared to serve consumers with relevant services on their
apps, creating meaningful and engaging interactions to
encourage continuous access.
According to Iconoculture, there are 4 ways for brands to use big
data to create meaningful user experiences.“Facilitating Flow”, or
using data to transform traditional appliances like thermostats to
“smart”ones that are linked to a Wi-Fi system, automatically adjust
to their environment and operate remotely by smartphones.
A far cry from tacky, profile-based promoted tweets,“Pertinent
Personalization”gives consumers useful information on the fly,
such as monitoring the food and nitrate levels in their food or
using Domino’s of Japan’s GPS-based delivery service.“In-the-
Moment Magic”rewards actual product involvement over rote
check-ins, helping build community in seamless and appropriate
ways. No longer the domain of die-hard lifehackers,“Reinventing
Routines”shows how an increasing number of consumers are
improving their habits via apps and devices that can help them
track things like their health and spending.
STATS:
• 45 billion apps download as at end of 2012 generates revenue
of $15 billion
• By 2016, the figures will rise to 305 billion apps and generating
revenue of $74 billion
Source: Gartner (2012)
•From 2010 to 2011, the number of mobile retail apps increased
by 350%
• In 2011, the average number of apps installed on each
smartphone was 32. In 2012, that number grew to 41
Source: www.trainfusion.com/mobile (2012)
BRAND ACTIONS:
• What does the consumer want? Mobile apps are where
consumers go to interact with their favourite brands. Brands can
encourage repeat usage and get the most out of the interaction
by focusing on the user-experience
• Apps can be used as a jumping-off point for getting consumers
interested in other advertising channels
• Apps are expensive: continuously track their performance
and consumer responses to justify the costs of resources and
infrastructure
• Data generation can help brands anticipate the type of services
and content welcomed by consumers and deliver the value
exchange needed. Brands should see apps as customer service –
an icon-click away
EXAMPLE: THE NEW NIKE+
RUNNING EXPERIENCE
With an app for iPhone, Android and Facebook friend tagging
capabilities, the redesigned Nike+ Running App seeks to
empower its over 7 million worldwide users to track, measure and
share their runs. Making great use of smartphone technology,
the app lets runners track their progress even during the run,
check their stats, or change the song they’re playing. Knowing
that motivation is the key to keeping up a training programme,
several features encourage runners to pick new goals, summarise
factors such as the weather and compare their results with other
members of the community.
Consumers multi-tasking across different touch points calls
for a brand engagement eco-system that serves different
content, brand experience and calls to action suited for each
touch point. The more touch points and channels a brand
uses, the more likely consumers are to see brand updates,
engage in conversation, and build rapport with the brand.
Nevertheless, consumers can only cram in so much content
within the snack time allocated for each touch point.
Marketers must understand that for consumers, brand experience
migrates across different platforms and devices. Consumers will
expect marketers to know them, remembering their interactions
with the brand in the past – regardless of platform, device or
environment. Therefore, when we think of weaving together
content, different touch points should tie up all the loose ends,
help consumers understand the complete brand story and
provide them with an integrated user experience.
STATS:
• 90% use multi-screens sequentially to complete a task
Source: Google’s The New Multi-screen World: Understanding Cross-
Platform Consumer Behaviour (2012)
• 80% of smartphone owners, 81% of tablet owners and 73% of
laptop owners use their devices in front of the TV
• 41% of people have used one of these devices to browse for a
product after seeing it in a show or advert
Source: EDigital Research/ IMRG (UK, 2012)
• 62% of people use social media while watching TV – 18
percentage points more than 2011’s finding
• 40% of them are discussing what they’re currently watching on
social networks
Source: Ericsson (2012)
BRAND ACTIONS:
• Big data will help track how consumers move between and
engage with various online channels
• Yesterday’s siloed planning no longer cuts it. Today’s connected
world requires campaigns to be conceived, developed
and produced along a multi-screen strategy with content
that optimises devices’capabilities and taking context and
environment into consideration
• Marketers can use smartphones or tablets as a second screen to
supplement television watching as a good option for cross-platform
advertising, reusing content but varying the call to action
EXAMPLE: COORS LIGHT DRINKS IN
SUCCESS ON XBOX LIVE
Coors Light launched a very popular brand campaign across
digital and TV platforms called“Closer to Cold”featuring action
hero, Jean-Claude Van Damme and positioning Coors Light as the
world’s most refreshing beer. They turned to Xbox LIVE to build
on the success of that effort driving salient campaign reach and
creating opportunities to sustain engagement with their video
content. Additionally, they wanted to further develop social
provenance and drive bonding scores among 18-34 year olds -
primarily males - who fit the“Social Explorer”persona, and enjoy
being at the heart of any party.
Coors Light partnered with Xbox LIVE to offer a Branded
Destination Experience (BDE) where gamers could watch videos,
play a game and win prizes, download themes and pics, purchase
the product with their mobile device, and connect with the
brand on Facebook. Ads for Coors Light BDE, which was the
first alcohol BDE on Xbox LIVE, ran on the following Xbox LIVE
channels in the United Kingdom: Home, Video, Game, Music and
Apps Twist.
Xbox LIVE integrations produced ad recall of fifty-percent - well
above the norm, given the campaign only ran during the 8pm -
6am time slot. While all features were used by at least one-quarter
of gamers who visited the site, the Watch and Win video was the
most popular.
Nearly half of gamers who recalled the campaign said they had a
“much more positive“ or“more positive”opinion of Coors Light.
The most frequently cited reasons for their positive opinion
change were:
• The ads made them“more interested in Coors Light”.
• “They think that Coors Light is forward-thinking.
• They“feel that Coors Light is relevant to me”
Positive impressions of the brand translated into action. True to
their social nature, these Social Explorers generated buzz around
Coors Light, purchased it and went online to investigate.
CHANNEL
KNITTING7Offering Integrated
Experience Across Devices
REMOTE
CONCIERGE8A Personal Assistant
For Mobile Devices

8. 14 15
In our busy, connected lives, crammed full of experiences,
consumers are likely to welcome play as escapism and a
way to de-stress. When children play, they lose track of
time, unleash their creativity, and open themselves up to
new ways of doing things. Most importantly, playing is
fun. Unfortunately, as our society becomes increasingly
automated and stressful, most adults have forgotten how
to play. Brands should consider adding play as part of the
brand experience. This can help consumers see brands in a
new light and become active participants in the journey of
discovery.
STATS:
• 53% American and British adults feel they do not do things‘just
for fun’anymore
• 68% of these adults also feel over the years, their day-to-day life
has become structured and less creative
Source: jwt (2012)
BRAND ACTIONS:
• Have fun!
• This is an opportunity for great creative work – but stay true to
brand voice and identity
• Play is a break from real life for consumers. Helping them
experience everyday life through a playful lens will draw them
into the present moment, potentially transforming their mood,
and is a straightforward way that brands can be useful for
consumers
• Including their friends in play will encourage consumers to share
moments and be part of their conversations, so tie back in with
other media platforms
EXAMPLE: CADBURY SPOTS
VERSUS STRIPES CAMPAIGN
Cadbury’s“Spots versus Stripes”campaign is built around the
“play”concept. Beginning around the London 2012 Olympic
Games, people are encouraged to get together to play games,
siding with“Spots”or“Stripes”teams, whose results are then
updated in real time. Regardless of if the game played is
hopscotch, football, or and online game, participants then
earn points for their team and can claim prizes. Built around
a website hosting over 207,000 users, the Cadbury Spots v
Stripes Community Programme, in association with the charity
Groundwork, brings people together and builds stronger
communities, based on a spirit of participation and inclusivity. A
great success, over 898,000 points have been claimed, with more
than 275,000 fans for the campaign-specific Facebook page.
Social care is a way for brands to provide regular service
through social media platforms. Customers are turning to
social media for customer service, as part of social media’s
dramatic impact on how people interact with each other
and brands. The nature of social platforms means consumers
expect brands’responses to customer queries to be quick,
pro-active and of high quality – all crucial in generating
earned media and brand loyalty. Research from McKinsey
shows that a single negative post on social media has, on
average, as much influence on customer decisions as five
positive posts. Given consumers’24/7/365,“always on”,
lifestyle brands need to really get customer service right.
STATS:
• Nearly 1 in 3 social media users prefer to reach out to a brand for
customer service through a social channel compared to the phone
• 71% of those who experience positive social care are likely to
recommend the brand to others compared with 19% who did
not receive any response
Source: NM Incite (2012)
• More than 50% of Twitter responses are within two hours, a lot
shorter than most companies’response windows
Source: Harvard Business Review
BRAND ACTIONS:
• Set up a specific customer service account so that customers
know they are going to the right place to voice their issues,
boost brand recognition, garner trust and improve customer
satisfaction. Customers who feel like they are being heard come
to trust the brand
• Speed is everything in responding to consumer’s queries.
Managing consumer expectations about the time required to
resolve their query is essential
• Step back to look at underlying reasons for customer issues.
Identify the root of the problem. If there is a need to fix the
company’s process or infrastructure, resolve this problem once
and for all
• Track social care responses and tie it back to customer
satisfaction, as social care has a crucial impact on earned media
and loyalty
EXAMPLE: BEST BUY
How do you manage the surge in Twitter content? Best Buy
developed a new, innovative approach by leveraging the
power and content available in the community by launching
“Twelpforce”. Accompanied by a national advertising campaign,
the Best Buy Community added a TwelpForce board and
Twitter feed. Unlike traditional Twitter feeds, that field incoming
questions or comments from specific hashtags, this allows
the community team (and any other user with permission)
to respond to questions directly from Twitter. Should a tweet
contain useful information, a community team member can
automatically create a new thread directly on the board, adding
to the community’s knowledge base.
Users know that if they go to @Twelpforce, they are going to
get assistance. Twelpforce tweets really helped continue the
conversation with the community, beyond the original poster.
Best Buy’s community is thriving. During an average quarter,
around 600,000 customers visit the community, with 20,000
messages (in total over 77,000 messages and counting) and
looking at over 22 million pages of content.
SOCIAL
CARE9Customers Turn
To Social Media
For Customer Service
PLAY
VANTAGE10Experience Everyday Life
Through A Playful Lens

9. 16
CONCLUSION
“Always on”, today’s consumers want to be engaged with
brands – but on their own terms. Using the increasingly
available and specific data, brands need to deep-dive
into consumers’needs and motivations, if they are to fully
understand how consumer appetites and expectations
of brands are influenced by the remapping of the global
economy and the connected world.
Embracing the Top 10 Trends to give consumers the confidence
to navigate different pathways, we do consumers a favour by
simplifying rather than overwhelming them with content.
WE CAN SERVE THESE
CONSUMERS BY:
1. Directing them to sources they trust
2. Provide relevant content at each stage of the pathways
3. Offer simple guides to help consumers weigh their options
4. Have call to action messages to speed up transactions
With social influence playing a huge role in almost all aspects of
consumers’lives, they want to be confident that their choices of
brands reflect what they stand for and who they are. Branded
content helps consumers shape their own, curated, online
presence about how brands are part of their lives, which is
particularly important among the confident consumers in
emerging markets.
The Emerging Top 10 Trends go a long way toward fulfilling
consumer appetite for content that is“always on”, personalised,
visually engaging and share-able. Live planning will change how
we engage with consumers in 2013 and beyond. By anticipating
their needs, based on data captured, we can offer relevant,
engaging streamlined content across the different devices and
pathways that are characteristic of today’s consumer. These need
to be consistent and accessible across multiple platforms and
geographies. Matching consistent brand identities with easy-to-
use checkouts and efficient deliveries, mobile technology can be
a great way to encourage spontaneous shopping, as shown by
Amazon’s success.
Strong brand relationships start with serving consumers at their
own terms and engaging our consumers in a time where visual
search and video sharing is booming means marketers have to
not only produce work that is visually compelling, but they also
have think outside the box, embracing a“lifestyle”approach to
building brands. Kate Spade’s Pinterest competition is a great
example of a brand that not only understands how a new
social network works, but who really got into the spirit of it by
encouraging real creativity, rewarding excellence and staying
true to its brand identity. In 2013, brands will have to think like
the content curators they’re targeting. Setting the right mood
and really honing in on and rewarding real advocates with what
matters to them, and consistently acting as a“remote concierge”
might be a good option for some brands. Apps are increasingly
popular and a great interface for brands, but are also expensive to
keep up; make sure that the figures add up.
Part of the excitement of social media is that it allows us to
share the good, the bad and the ugly with friends and followers.
We trust our friends to give us recommendations, and we also
take heed when we see a negative review of a product or
service online. Great customer service is key for the“always on”
consumers, who increasingly use social media to address service
complaints. Rapid and accurate responses to queries need to
become par for the course for brands. However, this is also an
opportunity for brands to build their online communities, both
by proving that they care, and by offering a platform for users to
meet and share experiences.
Finally, brands need to remember that relevance and fun should
stay a part of the picture. Fans enjoy apps that help them in
their daily lives, but they also enjoy having a good time – an
increasingly important consideration given the stresses and
information overload of today. Despite the major technological
changes, consumer’s needs and motivations do not change that
much. To build long lasting relationships with the“always on”
consumers, we have to create emotional connections and show
them we care what they care about.
If you have any questions or require
further information about this report,
please contact:
Linda Tan
Consumer Insights Director
24 Percy Street, London, W1T 2BS
+44 (0) 207 961 3301
linda.tan@zenithoptimedia.com