The increasing availability of digital technologies and data is changing the ways in which consumers and brands interact. The ability to engage consumers by creating more personalised brand experiences which drive relevance and value for the consumer is moving with that shift: from the nice-to-have to the expected.
Social media plays a key role in driving and enabling this shift. Brands are able to build more direct and personalised relationships with consumers, reaching them on the go and in familiar, social spaces where they choose to spend more and more of their online time.
In building these relationships, brands are challenged to earn the right to be present by delivering appropriate, relevant and valuable experiences. The rich dataset associated with social media presents an opportunity to meet that challenge – to deliver these experiences within social media marketing through hyper-targeted communication and beyond social platforms to fuel experiences for consumers on whatever channels or devices they are using. However, the volume of real-time data, its structure, ownership and associated privacy concerns make this a complex landscape for brands to navigate, and this has held back experimentation and the shared learning of best practices.