How Digital Marketing

Will Change in 2017

What Marketers Need to Know Now
Introduction

In 2017, the effects of technology disruption will be felt in full force across the marketing organization.
Not only do CMOs need to adapt, they must lead the way in utilizing data and new tools to drive deeper
customer insights and create impactful brand experiences. Marketers will succeed or fail based on their
ability to become customer-obsessed.

The new year is coming into focus as a pivotal one in the race to turn customer data into action and competitive
advantage. To help you chart your path forward, Signal asked our distinguished panel of in-house digital experts and
thought leaders to weigh in with their predictions and insights for 2017.

Heres what they told us: The focus is rapidly shifting from acquiring customers to keeping them. This requires a new
customer-centric mindset and an end to the siloed, factory-model approach to marketing. In todays fast-moving, always-
on environment, the revolution begins with a centralized customer knowledge base that can power journey insights and
relevancy. Engagement must be continuous. Experiences arent defined by device, channel or campaign, but by who the
customer is, their preferences and past behavior, and what they need at critical moments.

This is the new requirement for creating memorable, end-to-end experiences that foster loyalty, enhance
consumers lives and bring customers back again and again.

To learn more, read on. We hope you enjoy Signals top predictions and trend perspectives for 2017.

Mike Sands, CEO Marc Kiven, Founder, CRO Eric Lunt, CTO
Table of Contents
4 Customer identity becomes the engine for all omnichannel engagement.

6 Consumers demand experiences that enhance their lives.

8 Customer data powers next-generation touchpoints.

10 Customer retention becomes a top priority.

12 Brands take charge of their data and their future.

14 Marketers turn to second-party data to drive scale and performance.

16 The future of identity is persistence and portability.

18 Customer-obsessed CMOs rise to the top of the enterprise.

Customer identity becomes the engine
for all omnichannel engagement.

Never before have brands had access to so much data. Yet never before has there been so much duplicate, disconnected
and inaccurate information collected about their customers.

Marketers, it appears, are suffering from an identity crisis.

And their pain is being felt all the way down to a brands bottom line.

In the race for consumer attention and loyalty, brands must be able to recognize and relate to customers
with immediate, consistent and contextually relevant brand experiences or lose to competitors
who can. This is why Amazon, which has mastered the use of first-party data for mass
personalization, consistently outpaces both online and offline retailers in every aspect
of the consumer journey from consideration to research to purchase to delivery.
Last year, Amazon captured over 41% of the online marketplace, with the next two
competitors combined comprising less than 3% of market share. Brands that fail to
have an identity resolution strategy in place are getting left behind in the dust.

Its critical for the C-suite to understand that building brand affinity doesnt reside
only with the CMO, and that customer data is a brands most valuable asset. These
factors are converging to make identity resolution a strategic imperative for
marketers in 2017.

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Identity means much more than just knowing a customers name. It means knowing what a customer
wants, needs and where she is in her buyer journey. It means realizing the opportunities to improve
the relationship by solving her problems, anticipating her needs or purely delighting. Simply put,
identity is the connecting point between all consumer interactions, online and off, past and
present. As such, its the foundation for all consumer engagements across the web, mobile
apps, stores, email, digital ads, call centers and beyond.
Action Steps
Keep control of your data.
Brands that stand to win this year will organize around identity, working with an always- Your customer identities and profiles are
on identity solution that serves as the central nervous system for all customer dialogue. a valuable corporate asset and source of
Integrating streaming behavioral data and simultaneously syncing these insights with offline competitive advantage. Keep control of
this data, so you can use it freely with any
historical data, marketers can respond and engage with contextual relevance at the speed marketing partner to drive stronger
of the customer. The starting point and quickest payback starts with improving current customer relationships.
media initiatives to achieve more targeted ads, reduce waste and, ultimately, drive more
positive customer experiences and increased loyalty over time. Prioritize certainty and continuity.
Customers are constantly in motion,
changing devices and conducting new
transactions with your business. So, your
identity solution must be continuously
self-updating, so you can recognize each
customer with certainty across all
brand touchpoints.
Brands that stand to win this year will organize around identity,
working with an always-on identity solution that serves as the Clarify the customer journey.
The customer journey is becoming both
central nervous system for all customer dialogue. faster and more fragmented. You need a
Neil Joyce customer identity solution that will give you a
Senior Vice President, Americas, UK & EMEA clear, comprehensive view of cross-channel
customer activity and empower you to
rapidly respond with relevant marketing.

Signal | How Digital Marketing Will Change in 2017 | 5

Consumers demand experiences that
enhance their lives.

Consumers dont think about brand interactions in terms of channels, journeys and lifecycles. All that really matters to them is
that they find what they want, their needs are met and their goals are achieved at the exact right moment, of course.

Thats a tall order for brands to fill. If they succeed, the returns are many: Highly engaged consumers spend 300% more with a
brand each year. If they dont, customers simply wont return: 82% of consumers worldwide have stopped doing business with
a company following a bad customer experience.

Marketing requires a new mindset that thinks customer first. No longer is marketing just about getting a sale.
Today, marketing is about creating engaging, frictionless and complete experiences that dont just
meet customer needs but anticipate them.

Consider the airline that finds out a customers flight has been delayed and immediately sends her thank
a text thanking her for her patience and offering her free Wi-Fi. Or the accessories brand that asks you...
social followers to suggest ideas for its next jewelry line. Or the online retailer that sends a customer
flowers and upgrades her to VIP membership after learning she is returning her shoe purchases due
to medical issues. While no financial transaction is at stake, the benefits of being helpful, inclusive
and compassionate are priceless.

Nearly 90% of executives in the Forbes Global top 500 companies

believe improved customer experiences will be the key battleground
over the coming years. And marketers certainly have their work cut
out for them: While 81% of brands believe they truly understand their
customers, only 37% of customers believe thats true.

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To succeed in the year ahead, marketers will make the most of their first-party data to identify
and relate to customers with immediacy and relevancy in any given context. They will think
beyond campaigns and strategize customer-centric programs that align marketing, product
and service. Most importantly, they will lead a data-driven culture change across the entire
organization that puts the customer at the heart of business decisions.
Action Steps
Define a cross-functional vision.
Document where and how each business
function intersects with the buyer journey.
Define ways each function could contribute
to an improved customer experience.

Be empathetic.
Marketing is no longer just about getting a sale. Its about Innovative experiences that arent really
helpful or relevant may actually push buyers
creating engaging, frictionless and complete experiences that away. Look for ways to make each brand-
dont just meet customer needs but anticipate them. customer interaction more friction-free
and gratifying.
Blane Sims
Chief Innovation Officer
Deliver value.
New engagement strategies must improve
the customer experience without being
overwhelming. Draw customers in with a
value exchange that is substantive,
intuitive and timely.

Signal | How Digital Marketing Will Change in 2017 | 7

Customer data powers
next-generation touchpoints.

The Internet of Things. Artificial intelligence. Virtual reality. These rising technologies will both create and be improved
by customer data. So the identity infrastructure a marketer creates today must be able to support these technologies and
corresponding customer experiences tomorrow.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has created a whole new channel for building customer relationships. Many everyday consumer
objects, with the addition of electronic sensors and Internet connectivity, are joining the IoT. Everything from coffee makers to
basketballs will report on how consumers use them. Marketers will respond to these signals with relevant marketing messages.
Time to reorder or upgrade! Try this new variety! Earn rewards!

Persistent identity data will be necessary to engage with consumers in a timely manner and across a
variety of communication channels beyond the IoT device itself or its corresponding app.

Artificial intelligence technology already underlies many popular services, like Amazon
recommendations and personal assistant apps like the Amazon Echos Alexa. These AI apps rely
on accurate identity data to fuel their engines, and they can also collect a lot of new data. Chatbots
are one of the hottest AI apps: They interact with humans in natural language and will soon be
sophisticated enough to replace live customer service and advisory agents.

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As AI marketing applications become more complex, they will benefit from deeper data that
enables them to recognize an individual customer, evaluate the customers history of interactions
with the brand and make appropriate recommendations in an instant. In addition, marketers
will want to use data captured by AI apps for follow-up messages and offers delivered via
addressable media and other communication channels as may emerge. Action Steps
Marketers are excited about virtual reality for multiple reasons. For one, it literally immerses Prioritize flexibility
a consumer in the content, eliminating distractions and focusing attention on the marketing and scalability.
message. Second, consumers tend to have strong emotional reactions, which help drive Your identity platform must be able to
them to act on what theyve seen and heard. Finally, the intensity of the experience can process and connect the massive new data
create lasting memories, helping to impact future purchase decisions. As with the other streams that will be created by technologies
technologies, known customer data will be both a valuable input to personalize VR like the IoT, AI and VR.
experiences and an output to optimize subsequent marketing efforts to each customer.
Ensure support for emerging tools.
Emerging customer-experience technologies
Marketers will see rapidly expanding use of these technologies across all industries in will both utilize and enrich your identity
the coming year. Remember: Disruptive marketing drives disruptive growth. database. Be proactive in defining a data
strategy for these new tools.

Seek opportunities to leverage

second-party data.
Consider partnerships with companies
Rising technologies like AI and VR will both create and be whose IoT devices are gathering data that could
improved by customer data. A brands identity infrastructure enrich your customer profiles, such as data from
smart thermostats or Amazon Dash buttons.
must be ready to support new technologies and corresponding
customer experiences.
Kelly Davis
Senior VIce President, Global Client Services

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Customer retention becomes
a top priority.

Finding new customers is hard. But losing them is easy. Which is why nearly 60% of U.S. marketers plan to expand their
focus on customer retention and loyalty in the year ahead.

Brands that dont engage customers in the right way, at the right moment, in the right context are quickly replaced by
competitors who can. And marketers who fail to personalize brand experiences not only jeopardize brand loyalty, they
risk losing brand revenues: Each year, $41 billion is lost by U.S. companies following a bad customer experience.8

Customer experience is overtaking product and price as a brands key differentiator. People want rewarding
experiences, not rewards. This is why successful retailers are expanding their retention and loyalty strategies beyond
traditional programs and delivering emotional value. They are taking note of a customers browsing history, past
purchases, even the local weather, to learn how to make her life better thats how you build brand loyalty.

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Of course, fostering loyalty and retention is a much more complicated undertaking than even a
couple of years ago. While direct marketing has traditionally been the go-to tactic for engaging
customers on a more personal level, today, much of the consumer experience happens outside
of the inbox, on brand websites, mobile apps and social media. Now technologies exist that
allow marketers to leverage their vast stores of first-party data, both offline and online, to
recognize and engage with customers in real-time across human, physical and digital Action Steps
touchpoints.
Craft engagements that
To win the hearts and wallets of todays consumers, marketers will look way beyond the reflect the relationship.
first transaction. They will focus their efforts on creating emotional connections that Understand how customer needs and
lead to long-lasting, loyal relationships. expectations differ based on depth of
relationship (i.e., new customer, loyalty
member, brand advocate). Customize
interactions accordingly.

Wow customers with relevancy.

Recognize where customers are in their buyer
journey, so you can offer more relevant
and timely content, rather than
Retailers are expanding their retention and loyalty strategies one-size-fits-all messages.
beyond traditional programs and delivering emotional value.
They are taking note of browsing history, past purchases, even Make loyalty worth it.
the local weather, to learn how to make customer lives better. If customers take the time to sign up, log in
and give their personal data, they expect more
Michael Twomey than transactional perks. Use a continuous
Senior Vice President and Managing Director of People-Based Marketing identity solution to recognize and treat frequent
customers differently than casual and
lapsed customers.

Signal | How Digital Marketing Will Change in 2017 | 11

Brands take charge of their data
and their future.

As businesses move away from spray and pray marketing tactics and toward immersive

</
brand experiences, customer relationships have overtaken brand power as a companys most
important asset.

>
Where it was once enough that a brand have a strong identity in to order to engage consumers,
today it is more important to know customers individually and tailor communications to them.
Customer relationships perhaps above all else drive business revenue. Building and
maintaining customer trust fosters brand loyalty, establishes a positive reputation and leads to
increased sales.

However, to be in control of customer experiences, brands need to be in control of all their customer
data. Every interaction with a brand generates a key to customer identity. If these keys are not portable
between systems or if they are trapped within a vendors silo, marketers cant connect disparate data
sets and unlock true identity. Personalizing experiences, then, becomes a crapshoot.

Over 80% of marketers believe proprietary ownership of their campaign data is important or very
important, and 95% feel the same about user-level data transparency.9 This is why marketers are
increasingly taking back ownership of their data and looking outside of vendor-controlled identity
solutions and closed media environments: Over one-third of marketers are actively seeking
alternatives.10

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To keep full command of their customer data, brands must work with an open platform that allows
them to use any partners, tools and technologies they wish. They must be able to continuously
collect and integrate all of their customer information from digital activity to offline behavioral
and attribute data into a centralized data asset that they own.

Only then will marketers get a true single view of each customer and their complete digital Action Steps
identity. Over 40% of North American marketers believe integration of their marketing
technology will improve cross-channel identity resolution and nearly half think it will boost Review vendor and
omnichannel marketing performance.11 platform strategy.
Make sure you can deliver on your cross-
An integrated data asset encompasses more than a couple of channels. It unifies the channel marketing goals: Work with open-
entire buyer journey, so marketing can engage customers at critical moments, with platform vendors that give you ownership of
just the right message, at any touchpoint: in a store, on the web, on an app, viewing your identity data and transparent
control over its use.
a digital ad, reading an email or text, or interacting with a call center. A deeper
understanding of customers can even inspire new product offerings, inform internal
Strive for continuous, immediate
systems and processes for better fulfillment, and make the case for marketing
investments. By keeping control of its data, a brand keeps in control of its data processing.
Ask identity vendors if they can instantly
customer relationships and, ultimately, its destiny. process all customer signals and enable
continuous customer recognition at
all touchpoints.

An integrated data asset empowers marketers to unify the Protect both quality and privacy.
buyer journey, enabling them to engage each customer with Verify data sources and quality. Confirm
adherence to all privacy and
just the right message at any juncture: website, app, digital ad, security requirements.
email, text, call center or physical store.
Todd Schoenherr
Vice President, Product Strategy

Signal | How Digital Marketing Will Change in 2017 | 13

Marketers turn to second-party data to
drive scale and performance.

With identity resolution taking center stage in marketing strategies, second-party data is stepping into the spotlight.
As brands seek to recognize and relate to real customers at every point along the path to purchase, sharing first-party
data is becoming a strategic necessity for marketers to achieve scale without forfeiting control of their data.

While data sharing has been around for decades, todays technologies take second-party data to the next level while
addressing the safety and security concerns that were initially holding marketers back. Using hashed identifiers,
companies can share first-party data without divulging any personally identifiable information (PII). At all
times, each data-sharing participant maintains control over their data, ensuring adherence to
consumer privacy best practices.

Brands are increasingly looking to second-party data as a transparent,

trusted and scalable way to amplify their first-party data. In Signal
research, nearly 80% of marketers reporting high returns on their data-
related investments are leveraging second-party data, and 60% say
they will increase their use moving forward.12

Essentially, second-party data allows marketers to see the consumer

journey through a much larger lens. Marketers who have an identity
resolution strategy in place can supplement their data asset with
a trusted partners relevant and deterministic data and build
deep, durable customer profiles at scale. In turn, marketers have
a more robust data set from which to glean greater insights

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and inform unique, personalized brand engagements a must in todays competitive race for
consumer attention. Plus, sharing anonymized data with trusted partners offers brands a way
to monetize their data and gain a new revenue stream.

By sharing first-party data in private, secure networks through established

partnerships, marketers avoid the risks involved in turning their hard-earned data Action Steps
over to large-scale vendor ecosystems that prohibit marketers from connecting all
the dots and gaining a unified customer view. Ultimately, second-party data allows Review potential data partners.
marketers to unify cross-channel identities, drive meaningful 1:1 brand interactions Consider the possibilities of sharing data
and foster loyalty among a greater group of customers. with trusted vendors, clients or media
partners. Initiate discussions around how
all partners may benefit.

Identify your blind spots.

Look for gaps in your understanding of the
customer journey. Seek partnerships to fill
in the gaps.

Second-party data allows marketers to see the consumer Explore cooperative identification.
Consider third-party platforms that provide a safe,
journey through a much larger lens. secure environment for data sharing. Look for
Warren Billington neutral, open platforms that let you keep
Managing Director, Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia control of your own data and
fully protect PII.

Signal | How Digital Marketing Will Change in 2017 | 15

The future of identity is persistence
and portability.

Identity resolution is not a one-and-done. Rather, it is best viewed as an ongoing process.

To optimize this process, marketers must think holistically about all of their customer data collection and application
needs. The process must recognize that the customer journey can move rapidly across devices and channels. It must
account for the growing array of connected devices used by todays always-on consumers, such as smartphones, smart
TVs, in-car screens, in-store beacons, check-out/payment systems, wearables and voice-activated personal assistants
like the Amazon Echo. And it must adapt to an ever-changing ecosystem of marketing activation vendors.

For marketers to correctly recognize each customer in real-time across all of these touchpoints, their identity solutions,
too, must be always-on. Most importantly, in the coming year, marketers will be focused on making their customer
identities both persistent and portable.

Lets look at the issue of persistence first. A customer is not a single

transaction, but a long-term relationship. Therefore, marketers are
turning away from short-lived web cookies and moving toward an
enterprise-level customer ID that will persist across time.

A persistent ID enables instant customer recognition at all

touchpoints, a complete view of historical as well as current customer
activity, and the ability to activate marketing accordingly. Persistent
identities take marketing beyond a single interaction or campaign,
enabling a longer-term approach to customer engagement, a more
consistent customer experience across channels, and potentially
transformative results.

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And what about the issue of portability? Consumer attention spans are short. No matter how
great ones current marketing tactics are, boredom eventually sets in, forcing the marketer to
find new ways to engage consumers.

Identity data, therefore, needs to be portable: exportable to other vendors, usable on any
marketing activation platform and actionable for any type of marketing from CRM emails Action Steps
and personalized website interactions to in-store and call center applications. An open
platform ensures that existing customer data can be carried forward when new and better Prioritize flexibility
technologies and vendors beckon. and scalability.
The customer journey crosses a growing
When identity data is always on, persistent and portable, marketers will have a solid number of devices and communication
foundation to support individually-addressable marketing strategies and ultimately to channels. Make your data platform ready
build each customers lifetime value. to absorb more data types and more
frequent updates.

Evaluate the persistence of your

To deliver a cross-channel customer experience that is both
consistent and fulfilling, marketers need identity data that is
customer identity data.
The ability to preserve customer data for only
a few weeks or months, as with most cookie-
based solutions, is no longer enough. Strive
for identities that will persist over years, even
an entire customer lifetime.

always-on, persistent and portable.

Choose a future-proof
Nick McCarthy identity solution.
Managing Director, UK and EMEA Look for new opportunities to use your identity
assets to improve customer engagement and
ROMI. Make sure your identities are portable,
so you can use them for any application on
any platform.

Signal | How Digital Marketing Will Change in 2017 | 17

Customer-obsessed CMOs rise to
the top of the enterprise.

No one is closer to a customers path to purchase than the data-driven CMO. And that, in turn, has set the
chief marketer on the path to the CEOs office.

It would be hard to find an industry that has not felt the disruption of digital. Consumers and business
customers alike expect more immediate, relevant and personalized experiences. As gatekeepers to the
consumer data that fuels strategic insights, CMOs, in essence, serve as their voice.

In a recent poll, 35% of CMOs have set their sights on the top general management role,13
a dream thats increasingly becoming a reality. Last years appointment of CMO
Paul J. Hennessey to CEO of Priceline.com and McDonalds promotion of Chief
Brand Officer Steve Easterbrook to the top spot are two recent examples of
marketers-turned-CEOs, following similar moves at Mercedes-Benz, Citigroup
and Campbell Soup.

The responsibilities of todays marketers have grown from building brand

awareness to creating transformative brand engagements and that
goes way beyond delivering marketing messages. Successful CMOs
are breaking down organizational barriers, fostering collaboration and
building an integrated customer data asset that can be used across
the enterprise to deliver on a brands promise and drive profitable
business growth.

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CMOs are partnering with CFOs to account for marketing investments. They are collaborating with
CIOs to inform the technology, systems and processes needed to win, serve and retain customers.
They are working with the heads of sales to increase the quality and speed of information. And
they are reaching out to R&D leaders to innovate new offerings to meet ever-evolving customer
needs and desires.
Action Steps
The versatility and influence of this next generation of CMOs brings a diversified skillset to
the C-suite table: strategic vision, advanced analytical capabilities, operational skills and Own the customer experience.
technology savvy, in addition to the superior communication skills that are the mainstay CMOs must take ownership of the customer
of marketing. By building stronger ties across the entire organization, CMOs have experience, including marketing technology
positioned themselves to be at the center of business transformation and this is their decisions. They should build customer
empathy across the organization.
stepping stone to the CEO chair.
Improve technology and
data skills.
To lead a transformation of the customer
experience, CMOs need to become proficient
in big data analytics, CX tools and techniques,
and marketing technology.

Make identity an
CMOs are breaking down organizational barriers, fostering
enterprise-wide asset.
collaboration and building an integrated customer data asset CMOs should promulgate the use of customer
that can be used across the enterprise to deliver on a brands identity data throughout their companies,
showing how it can benefit functions from
promise and drive profitable business growth. product development to customer service.
Kathy Menis
Senior Vice President, Marketing

Signal | How Digital Marketing Will Change in 2017 | 19

 Get started with
people-based marketing.
Talk to our people.

Request a demo Global Sales North America Sales

www.signal.co sales@signal.co 312.566.4300

Sources:
1. http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenkam/2016/05/27/the-market-is-underestimating-amazon/#7b7d6c857995
2. Customer Engagement from the Consumer's Perspective, Rosetta Consulting 2014
3. Bad Experiences Are Worth Avoiding, eMarketer, Sept. 27, 2016
4. Two Years Warning: The Customer Centricity Crisis, The Storytellers, March 15, 2016
5. The Consumer Conversation: The Experience Void Between Brands and Their Customers, IBM, 2015
6. 10 Best Uses of Virtual Reality in Marketing (Updated), Mbryonic, April 2016
7. The Loyalty Evolution: Growing Investment and the Multichannel Promise, CrowdTwist & Brand Innovators, May 2016
8. http://www.newvoicemedia.com/blog/the-multibillion-dollar-cost-of-poor-customer-service-infographic/
9. Confined by the Garden Walls, September 2016
10. Confined by the Garden Walls, September 2016
1 1. From Theory to Practice: A Roadmap to Omnichannel Activation, Winterberry Group, November 17, 2016
1 2. The Promise of First-Party Data, Econsultancy in association with Signal, 2015
1 3. The Evolved CMO in 2016, Forrester and Heidrick & Struggles, 2016