18 expert quotes from ClickZ’s Digital Trends 2016 Report

Our sister site ClickZ has launched its first Intelligence report of 2016 and it’s a firecracker.

The Digital Trends 2016 report is a comprehensive guide to all the digital-related trends you need to know about in 2016.

Sure every digitally-focused publisher has its own trends report, but what makes ours stand out from the rest is the sheer weight of expert opinion throughout its 46 pages, with more than 40 specialist contributors giving their insight on the most pressing topics, including: ecommerce, content marketing, customer experience and, of course, search.

And if all that wasn’t enough, it’s completely free! You just need to fill in a quick registration form.

To whet your appetite further, I’ve compiled a few of the reports most insightful quotes covering all of the topics…

Advertising

Paul Rouke, Founder and Director of Optimisation, PRWD:

“Data scientist will become one of the hottest and in-demand roles – although the vast majority of people relabelling themselves as one will be years away from having the experience and knowledge to warrant such a title.”

Jonathan Beeston, Managing Director, Croud UK:

“It could be a transformative year for brand advertising as YouTube and Facebook go up a gear with video. If Snapchat can find the right model, it could be explosive.”

Content Marketing

Andy Betts, chief marketer and consultant:

“Producing content for content’s sake is a 2015 tactic that will become more redundant in 2016. Last year’s comfort metrics, such as shares and likes, will be re- placed in 2016 with more meaningful measures such as engagement, reach and audience.”

Kevin Lee, Executive Chariman, Didit:

“The rise of ad blockers combined with the ‘banner blindness’ caused by 20 years of mind-numbingly off-target banners are forcing a doubling down on true native advertising.”

Customer Experience

Helen Colclough, Ecommerce Development Manager, River Island:

“It doesn’t have to be an ‘either/or’ situation. The mobile website has its purpose, but apps can help retailers to provide a great experience for the most engaged customers.”

Paul Rouke, Founder and Director of Optimisation, PRWD:

“[A key trend will be] the slow, quite painful move of brands starting to ‘walk the walk’ when it comes to truly understanding their visitors and customers, and harnessing these in- sights to improve their customer experience through data-driven optimisation.”

Data and Analytics

Andrew Hood, Managing Director, Lynchpin:

“People will become increasingly philosophical about ‘big data’ as technologies mature, the hype starts to subside, and it becomes more a case of ‘cheaper and faster data’. Faster will quickly become the most important factor as demand for data feeds for (up-to-date) personalisation become the critical norm.”

Benjamin Spiegel, CEO, MMI Agency:

“The ingestion of streaming data will become a key requirement for digital leaders. With rising competition in the digital advertising space the ability to ingest, analyse and act on data within a minimal time window is a crucial requirement for digital leadership. I expect to see a lot of disruptive technology solutions emerge in the next months in both the open source as well as the VC space.”

Ecommerce

James Gurd, Owner, Digital Juggler:

“Speed and flexibility are both important. The time to consumer is constantly reducing with the introduction of services like Amazon Prime Now. Multichannel retailers like House of Fraser and Argos have ramped up their Buy & Collect offer with later cut off times for next day delivery, and local collection services like Collect+, Amazon Lockers and Doddle have given consumers more choice.”

Tessa Wegert, Media Strategist and Content Developer:

“2015 was the experimentation stage, and a time for gathering insight into consumer preferences and behaviour. Now, social sites will get to the business of tweaking their tools, and brands will be better equipped to know what social commerce strategy is most likely to pay off.”

Email marketing

Parry Malm, CEO, Phrasee:

“Email in 2016 is going to be much like email was in 2015, and 2014, and 2013 – insofar as it’s still going to be the highest performing online channel out there. 2015 was the year of ‘email automation’ and most brands either have programmes in place, or are planning them.”

Tim Watson, Founder, Zettasphere:

“The idea in some circles that triggered emails replace broadcast is wrong… The future is integrating broadcast and triggered emails. We can expect to see the best email marketing programmes in 2016 use the same type of intelligence for sending triggered email in broadcast email marketing.”

Mobile

Greg Stuart, CEO, Mobile Marketing Association:

“Brands will drastically shift to mobile video, realising that it is hugely underpriced by more than 50 per cent compared to its effectiveness. Mobile audio and ‘sound’ as a strategy is a huge opportunity and mobile brings this to life.”

Andy Favell, Digital and Mobile Consultant:

“The majority of mobile development today is still focused on consumer applications and services that are at best nice-to-have and at worst pointless. This is changing because such initiatives often don’t deliver return on investment for businesses – measured either in terms of financial rewards, customer loyalty or brand perception.”

Search

Jon Earnshaw, CTO, Pi Datametrics:

“The kids out there are leading the way – asking questions and refining further questions based on the answers they receive as they engage in something best described as a dialogue that in the not too distant future will see Google exhibiting behaviour capable of passing the Turing test.”

Mags Sikora, Co-Founder, PeriodBox:

“Can your customer service affect SEO? Absolutely! A large number of negative complaints may lead to negative reviews and non-flattering mentions across blogs! We really have to delight the customer across the entire brand experience and that doesn’t finish with the moment of purchase. That delight should be the driver behind all our actives.”

Social Media

Bob Cargill, Director Of Social Media, Overdrive Communications:

“Scheduling a series of messages, posts and updates on a regular basis may put you in the game, but the only way to win is to show that you’re alive and kicking, not some robot. Real time is big time on social media.”

Maggie Malek, Head Of Social And PR, MMI Agency:

“Brands will only matter if consumers’ needs and desires are central to everything they do. Listening to the consumer— with our data brains as well as our hearts — can help us discover the stories worth telling.”

Download the full 46-page Digital Trends 2016 report now. 

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