The digital marketing world is changing so quickly that it can be difficult to keep up. But if we focus on the macro-level forces that are shaping the industry, we are much better prepared for the technological and economic disruptions that come our way. In this keynote speech, Clark Boyd starts with the broader forces at play, then sets three key digital marketing trends against this backdrop.

2. Hi! I’m Clark Boyd
- Subject Matter Expert at the Digital Marketing
Institute
- Chief Strategy Officer at Cadeera
- Course Leader at Cambridge University and
Columbia University business schools
- Former digital strategy lead for American Express,
adidas, and General Motors
- Sign up for my newsletter, if you like:
https://hitech.substack.com/

3. Today
● The State of the Industry
● Trend 1: The Great Aggregation
● Trend 2: The Responsible Marketer
● Trend 3: The Human/Machine Team

4. Digital Marketing Trends
PEST control

6. The Great Aggregation
The Life of the (First) Party

7. Google
Google
MySpace
No, it’s
Google
really

8. Google: “The more observable data, the better the model quality”
https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/preparing-for-the-cookie-free-future-in-digital-marketing

9. Enhanced
Conversions
Offline Conversion
Import
Local Inventory Ads

10. Google: “We sent more traffic to the open web than
ever before this year.”
Multimodal search (text + images + video) will
engage users within Google search results.
Everything, from initial inspiration to purchase, can
happen within the SERP.
Google will ask users for more detail to disambiguate
searches. It’s valuable data, but will retailers see it?
MUM’s the Word. And the Image, and the Video

11. Expect the Expansion of Interest-Based Targeting

13. Google: Search, With A Dash of TikTok, Instagram, and Amazon
https://hitech.substack.com/p/no-95-search-on

14. “Shoppertainment”:
Bad Name, Big Trend
TikTok and Instagram will
unveil new marketing
opportunities for the holiday
season.
Sales figures are impressive for
livestream shopping, but will
drop as the market reaches
saturation point.
Watch out for YouTube
Shopping and Amazon will
certainly get more involved
soon, too.

15. The Responsible Marketer
With great power, etc.

16. “Digital transformation is no
longer a question of ‘if’ or ‘when’,
but ‘how fast?’”
Professor David Rogers
Columbia University

17. Responsible for Results
80%
of CEOs are looking to
marketing to drive
revenue growth.
9%
of brands say they can
accurately forecast the
impact on ROI of a 10%
shift in marketing spend.
Source: McKinsey; Deloitte
Marketers are responsible for performance, but they do not work in isolation.

19. “The Messy Middle”
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/navigating-purchase-behavior-and-decision-making/

20. Moving Towards True, Impact-Based Attribution
A question for marketers to consider:
If Google, Facebook, and Amazon all use their own, proprietary attribution models, how will you
compare performance across these platforms?

21. ● 80% of consumers say they’d be more likely to purchase a product from an online store if its website had photos and
videos from real customers
● Product returns are a $700bn problem for the retail industry
Responsible for The Full Customer Journey
Source: Stackla study

22. Responsible for Ethical Data Use
Accenture: “Enterprises are recognizing that overly prescribed customization leaves the customer feeling out of control.”
Personalization must be transparent, thoughtful, and delivered on the customer’s terms.

23. Responsible for Respecting Customers’ Wellbeing

24. Today’s Marketer is Responsible for…
● Delivering results (and reporting on them accurately)
● Understanding the customer
● Managing the end-to-end customer journey, from awareness to sale
● Reducing returns by increasing customer satisfaction
● Ethical data use
But do marketers have access to levers they need to affect these outcomes?
We are no longer optimizing at the fringes. Digital marketing must be a central
business function to achieve its full potential.

25. Humans and Machines
Together at last

27. AI:
Highly Specialized
Humans:
Highly Specific

28. AI Can Predict Dementia From One Scan

29. But It Thinks This Bald Man’s Head is a Soccer Ball

30. AI Can Find Answers - If We Ask the Right Questions

31. And Capture The Right Data

32. In Summary: Three Key Trends Today
The Great
Aggregation
The Responsible
Marketer
AI + EI

33. Thank you!
What questions do you have?