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6 key insights from the Forbes CMO Summit

EY leaders share insights into how technology is transforming the marketing landscape and explore what marketing leaders should focus on.


As technology and consumer expectations rapidly evolve, so must companies’ approach to marketing.

Technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) are empowering businesses to elevate customer relationships and the customer experience to new heights based on deeper-than-ever consumer insights.

At the 20th Annual Forbes CMO Summit, EY leaders met with influential marketing leaders to explore the changing marketing landscape, discussing the need to step up customer engagement, the importance of deepening connections, the ways AI and other technologies can enhance the brand experience and more.

1. New world, same humans

While technology has opened up a world of possibilities, consumers crave more human connections and gravitate toward brands that exude quality and trust. As automation and other technology increasingly drive the ways brands engage with consumers, how do marketers position their companies to remain authentic and build trust?

 

2. Brands reinventing themselves as lifestyle brands

Switching to a cheaper brand is relatively easy. So, for a company to charge premium pricing or drive stronger brand loyalty, it must connect with consumers on a deeper level. Consumers appreciate brands that they identify with, those that align with their lifestyles. How can marketers frame brands as extensions of consumers’ identity?

 

3. Proof of concept to proof of scale

As excitement over generative AI keeps reaching new heights, brands are experimenting with new ways of engaging with consumers. But given how rapidly technology evolves, companies will need to scale these methods of engagement. How can marketers develop holistic engagement strategies that enable timely ramp-ups of their tech-driven engagement actions?

 

4. What’s the ideal marketing spend?

Ideally, a company will split its spend 50/50 between brand marketing and performance marketing. The key isn’t to favor one approach — it’s to integrate both. While brand marketing creates awareness, performance marketing brings brand marketing to life. Together, they drive conversions and sustain growth. How do marketers develop holistic marketing strategies that draw upon the strengths of both approaches?

 

5. AI transforming the brand experience

Artificial intelligence (AI), voice and other technologies are powering an unprecedented level of agency for consumers in the brand experience. As AI evolves, more people will turn to AI assistants and answer engines to research products and services and get recommendations. How can marketers prepare now to prominently feature their offerings among these recommendations in the future?

 

6. GenAI is a new consumer revolution

Generative AI (GenAI) is revolutionizing customer engagement, a crucial factor for business success as personalization becomes a consumer expectation. By empowering companies to deliver highly relevant content, products and services, GenAI drives hyper-personalization, fostering stronger customer relationships and brand loyalty. Additionally, businesses that strategically harness GenAI’s transformative power can optimize internal processes while differentiating themselves in the market and gaining a competitive edge.

Unlocking GenAI’s transformative marketing potential

Nuno Leal, Principal at Ernst & Young LLP, explains large language models’ game-changing potential for both inbound and outbound strategies, predicting their integration into every digital transaction within the next few years.

Summary 

Technologies such as GenAI are transforming the marketing landscape and helping to revolutionize customer engagement. Strategically harnessing GenAI’s transformative power can help companies optimize internal processes, deepen customer engagement and differentiate themselves in the market. Companies, however, will need to be able to take any new methods of engagement from proof of concept to proof of scale.

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