Every area of selling, from platforms to tools, is buzzing with technological change. We're seeing the profound shifting of businesses, processes and models through the use of multiple digital technologies, enhancing brand visibility, speed and sales.

1. "Effectiveness wins the battle over efficiency." — Sarah Vizard

Effectiveness is "the degree to which something is successful in producing a desired result." The meaning of efficiency is "the ratio of the useful work performed in a process to the total energy expended”.

In other words, brands prioritising long term success over a shorter sighted ROI looked strong in 2019.

2. "Digital transformation can orchestrate and personalise the entire end-to-end customer experience." — CMO by Adobe

Artificial Intelligence is fittingly poised on the brink of a marketing landscape truly worthy of science fiction. These new technologies within AI and the Internet of Things have pushed marketing into frontiers, which are taking personalisation into the area of customer knowledge, which was previously known to only family and friends.

This means having, as Todd Dipaola says, "an understanding at of AI at broader and deeper levels, delivering more personalised and contextually relevant advertising. Customer experience management is top of mind for companies."

3. "Mastering Marketing Mix Modelling allows marketers to create magic moments." — Techcrunch

Marketing mix modelling is being more broadly used to enhance advertising offerings and promotions improving ROI. TechCrunch says, "The explosion of data and identity management, combined with technical advancements in real-time signal detection and machine learning, present new opportunities to respond to consumers."

"Mastering this ability enables marketers to create 'magic moments' — instances of hyper-relevant content, delivered at the perfect time and place," adds TechCrunch.

4. Measure what matters — smart data over big data

According to Marcel Deer, 2020 can expect to have 20 billion IoT devices collecting data for analysis, and in large tech corporations business leaders are now synergising assistive technology to run more intelligent data analytics.

From 2019 onwards, prioritising how we quantify data will be 'make or break'. It is no longer an option for marketers to rely on big data with no quality metrics because these give out key audience assumptions, which may not always be true.

5. "Brand messages reached 561% further when shared by employees." — MSL Group

The average survival rate of businesses is quite a sobering one. The percentage was that 79% last for one year, 50% for five and 33% for over 10 years. If the stats from 2019 tell us anything about holistic marketing, it is to treat internal marketing as seriously as external marketing.

While we are so caught up in technology and data management, we can't lose sight of the fact that that much of customer experience is still in the hands of humans. Attracting and retaining the best people is still one of the key ways to win big points in the marketing battleground.

6. "Eliminating the CMO position sets the brand free from the confines of marketing, reuniting it with the business." — Forrester

According to a report done by Forrester, chief marketing officers are facing a 'final desperate fight for survival', and what we saw in 2019 seems to support this as McDonald's, Uber and Johnson & Johnson no longer have chief marketing officers.

The trend in 2020 will be to have "One designated C-suite leader will be responsible for all that surrounds the customer, clarifying the role of marketing in a business environment obsessed with growth."

Statistics indicating what years to come have in store include:
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