Balancing CRM Tech With Human Engagement Remains A Challenge, Marketers Say

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Automation may be the way of the CRM future, but marketers—and consumers—still value human interaction. Maintaining a balance between the two in a digital world is proving difficult, a new study found, as marketers struggle to use tools efficiently.

“Scaling Human Interaction in Customer Experiences” is a study conducted by Harvard Business Review (HBR) Analytic Services and sponsored by live marketing experience provider ON24. A total of 282 readers of HBR completed a survey in November that explores the relationship between automated CRM and in-person customer service.

Maintaining a human element in a customer experience is highly valued by marketers, with 80 percent claiming that this approach gives their organization a distinct competitive edge. As brands invest in data and technology to keep up with consumer demands, however, 60 percent of marketers surveyed admitted that it’s difficult to replicate face-to-face experiences with customers by using digital technologies.

While 58 percent of respondents named CRM as one of the top three technology investments for their organizations, only 36 percent report significant returns. Similarly, social media monitoring and communication management topped the list in terms of investment but only 27 percent reported any significant ROI.

It’s not that technology ruins the customer experience, but you have to know what you’re going for, suggests Christine Jacobs Pribilski, vice president of worldwide marketing for IBM Cloud in the report.

“Often companies tend to buy point solutions or tools in the absence of an overall customer experience strategy,” said Pribilski. “That can potentially limit the impact on the ROI that a company sees.”

About half of respondents say their organizations are trying to create personalized experiences but are still struggling. The top reasons for this include siloed organizational structure, a lack of interoperability between technology systems and a lack of resources.

It’s not surprising that CRM technology providers have conducted many surveys like this one that illustrates a need for brands to seek help for reaching customers. When it comes to a desire for human interaction, however, the customers have spoken. A recent report by Invoca found that around half of consumers across generations would rather speak to a human being than an automated system, especially when it comes to making stressful purchase decisions.

Standard Media Index Makes Deal With Nielsen To Extend TV Data Offerings

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Standard Media Index (SMI) has joined forces with Nielsen to provide additional insight into the national television market. The new business relationship will increase SMI’s network reach by nearly two-thirds, combining Nielsen’s TV ratings and occurrence data with SMI’s cost analysis.

James Fennessy, CEO of Standard Media Index told AList that the two companies have been in talks for a few years now and that Nielsen’s data is simply “more accurate.”

“We’ve always believed that the ability to cooperate between our organizations holds great potential for major television networks, agencies and for brands,” said Fennessy in an interview. “It allows us to look at different kinds of TV in terms of syndication and it allows us to look at some of the new and emerging ad formats that Nielsen is uniquely qualified to pick up.”

SMI is able to provide accurate cost data around TV marketing because it sources the information from five out of the seven major media holding groups, as well as several independents. Beginning on October 23, SMI will have access to Nielsen AD Intel that measures occurrence level data, increasing the firm’s reach to 130 channels.

The data relationship between SMI and Nielsen is an answer to the current TV advertising market, Fennessy explained, where digital raises many questions.

“We see major networks building advanced data products,” he said. “Clearly what they’re looking to do is bring in datasets—ratings, advanced audiences, etc. Those models are being used to target brands and advertisers and to prove return on investment. That has always been quite difficult to do in national television.”

Advertising on national TV works, Fennessy observed, adding that the high cost is a trade-off for large engaged audiences, a safe brand environment and quality programming. Ironically, he said, digital networks like Amazon and Google have tapped out their own reach and are now using traditional TV to advertise.

“It talks to the power of the medium,” he said.

SMI’s data relationship with Neilsen is part of an ongoing effort to work on data partnerships and combine different datasets. Fennessy told AList that SMI will continue to improve TV measurement across digital and traditional channels and that the company will release a new syndication tool in early 2019.

Emotional Spikes In Branded Films Create Long-Term Memories, Study Finds

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Understanding how the human brain forms long-term memories could hold the key to branded content recall, according to a study by BBC StoryWorks. Creating “emotional spikes,” maximizing “color memory” and riding memory moments are three ways that marketers can use science and creativity, researchers observed.

“Science of Memory” is a study commissioned by the content marketing division of BBC Global News and Storyworks and Neuro-Insight designed to measure the relationship between branded content and human memories.

A total of 2,179 respondents from the USA, Germany, Australia and Singapore were shown six BBC brand films, during which their facial expressions and electrical brain activity were measured. The test was followed up with a questionnaire to capture brand metrics, and results were compared to an unexposed control sample.

BBC StoryWorks found that emotion is key to creating a lasting impact when producing brand content. The bigger an emotional spike, the more likely it is to trigger long-term memory in the brain, researchers observed. These emotions don’t necessarily have to be positive, either—it just has to be intense and a memory will be formed.

The study fused facial coding data with the neuroscience technique, steady state topography, which captures electrical activity in your brain and was able to track second by second, the emotional state, degree of emotional intensity, and level of long-term memory encoding of the respondents.

“The emotions experienced when consuming content are encoded into long-term memory,” wrote BBC StoryWorks alongside the findings, “so stimulating and engaging audiences with storytelling that delivers truly emotional engagement leads to really powerful outcomes for brands.”

All brands want to leave consumers with a positive view of their company, so BBC StoryWorks offered advice on how to fine-tune the process.

Brand films should be structured like a good movie in that they set the emotional stakes early. The films that triggered their highest emotional intensity in the first third of their duration ultimately delivered stronger memory of the content overall.

Crafting emotional peaks in the story are important, and should be paced frequently, the study suggests. Research suggests that provoking multiple peaks of emotional intensity, rather than slow building to a singular event, delivered a higher impact on memory.

“Emotion often precedes memory,” the company says. “A sudden spike in emotional intensity causes memory encoding to rise shortly afterwards. Seamlessly integrating a brand in the memory window after moments of high emotional intensity allows the brand to ride the wave of the narrative into memory.”

Consumers Welcome AI But Still Want Emotional Support, Study Says

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Implementing AI like chatbots has allowed brands to meet the impulsive needs of today’s young consumers. A new report by Invoca found that while these consumers find chatbots less frustrating than human interaction, a strong emotional quotient (EQ) is still needed, especially during stressful purchase decisions.

“Emotions Win: What Customers Expect in the Age of AI” compiles responses from 1,000 US adults to examine the importance of EQ on customer experience.

Nearly all respondents (90 percent) named problem-solving as an important or very important characteristic of brand interactions. Having an even temper and empathy were also valued at 84 and 77 percent, respectively.

That being said, 80 percent of all respondents said that in-person human representatives provide the best EQ, compared to chatbots at 22 percent. Consumers under the age of 35 have stronger faith in the future of AI emotions, with a little more than half believing AI will gain EQ within the next five years.

Expectations that a brand should provide personal service increase with age, the study found, with 64 percent of Gen Z respondents believing this, compared to 86 percent of those aged 65+. Personal service doesn’t necessarily mean interacting with a human being, however. Around half of every age group preferred to interact with a machine over a person. In addition, only 43 percent of consumers under the age of 35 said they would find AI experiences less frustrating.

Women are more hesitant to hand their emotional decisions over to a machine, with 65 percent believing AI would make experiences less personal compared to 56 percent of men.

“While AI plays an important role in the customer journey, consumers don’t want AI to replace human interactions—they want human connection,” said Julia Stead, VP of marketing at Invoca in the report. “The future should involve a combination of automation, AI, and humans working together to deliver emotionally intelligent customer experiences.”

When asked about the EQ of specific industries, respondents named “travel” as the best in terms of efficient interaction and personalization, but lowest in terms of empathy and having an even temper. This may have a correlation between emotions and travel decisions. A little over half—53 percent—said that travel purchases are somewhat or extremely stressful.

Healthcare companies meet consumers’ emotional needs most of the time, respondents claim, especially during in-person interactions. In fact, all industries named in the study—healthcare, home services, finance, insurance, telecoms and travel—scored better with in-person than chat.

The study confirms what many brands already know—that Gen Z and millennials often prefer automated services to human interaction. Invoca points out that young consumers aren’t necessarily opposed to speaking on the phone, but may be unsatisfied with the experience when they do.

“There’s a huge opportunity for all brands to deliver not only the right information over the phone but also the appropriate level of empathy,” wrote Julia Seed, vice president of marketing at Invoca.

Advertising Week: Anheuser Busch InBev Shares Its Blockchain Experience

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During Advertising Week New York, blockchain was one of many hot topics that attracted marketers to panels. One panel called “Blockchain and Advertising: How the Revolution Begins” featured Anheuser Busch InBev speaking about a recent campaign and its results.

Anheuser Busch InBev director of programmatic marketing, Laurel Van Tassel told the audience that the brand has taken a recent interest in blockchain, “dipping its toe” into the tech waters with a campaign that ran this summer.

Partnering with Kiip, a blockchain platform known for its rewarded ads inside mobile games, Van Tassel and her team launched a series of personalized ads that were triggered during key moments throughout a consumer’s time on mobile such as interacting with a particular kind of app.

Moment-based targeting, Van Tassel explained, can be broken out into different buckets.

When someone had a fitness moment, they were served an ad from Michelob Ultra. Bud Light ads were served to mobile users on social and sports, while Budweiser catered to both sports and food. Stella Artois targeted those exploring cultural content on their phones such as art, while Ritas was designed to tap into moments of music and activity on the weekend. Finally, Estrella Jalisco ads were timed with food and music activity.

The campaign resulted in 78 percent visibility—in terms of 50 percent of the ad visible—which exceeded all benchmarks. In addition, measurement was very close to existing DSPs like Adobe.

To gauge the success of the campaign, Anheuser Busch InBev compared measurement with other DSPs like Adobe. Blockchain also helped save ad dollars, as writing the ledger only cost two percent of the budget.

“I see blockchain as a place for more transparency,” said Van Tassel. “It might actually increase the  workload initially [as we’re figuring things out] but I think it will create a robust environment where everyone can see what’s going on in terms of media buys.”

Advertising Week: Adtech and Martech Are Coming Together At Last

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Merging adtech and martech is a hot topic at Advertising Week New York 2018 as brands hope to eliminate silos and find a way to streamline the process. During a panel called “Adtech Meets Martech,” Nielsen, Microsoft and Outfront Media shared their hopes and concerns for an industry with plenty of data but not enough intercommunication.

CX begins at the first step of the customer journey, which is gained through adtech. Martech, on the other hand, covers retention through analytics and communication tools. The panel cited a statistic in which marketers use an average of 13 different systems to communicate with customers. Needless to say, marketers are looking for a way to consolidate data for better results.

The biggest hurdle marketers face in this task is siloed information, according to the Neilsen’s EVP Damian Garbaccio.

“We’re trying to say that it isn’t one or the other anymore,” said Garbaccio. “The silo is still an after effect of education in the organizations that use them—not coming together to use them properly. That takes time, but I do believe that’s coming together faster than it did say, two or three years ago.”

Chandra Stevens, Microsoft’s global director of cross-industry marketing solutions, added that silos occur because of a fear associated with the cost of bringing adtech and martech together. Doing so would solve a lot of personalization problems, however. Stevens added that with around 6,800 niche marketing technologies out there, her priority becomes scaling everything down to finding the right vendors for the right solutions. More companies, she noticed, are putting the consumer at the center of these efforts.

If adtech and martech do come together in harmony, the panelists imagined, marketers will be able to better understand customers on every step of the journey.

“A lot of folks in the media world have to bring their technologies up to par with where Google, Facebook and others are so we can start to compare media across a level playing field,” said Andy Sriubas, chief commercial officer of Outfront Media. “Then toolsets can be made that allow us to see across all those different value chains.”

As brand giants like Procter and Gamble demand more transparency, the need for adtech and martech convergence will become more urgent. If these two elements are brought together, everyone benefits, said Garbaccio. Today’s brands want to be more informed and are taking more services in-house to gain more control.

“Ultimately,” he said, “[bringing adtech and martech together] will lead to relevant advertising.”

It all comes down to customer experience and curating that will become easier when marketers are able to streamline their data resources.

“When the data sets allow us to bring the customer journey and the customer’s physical location journey, I think we’ll be able to bring a much bigger value chain down to a certain number of players and consolidation will help,” said Sriubas.

Sony Partnership Lets Viewers Shop Directly From Smart TVs

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Sony smart TV viewers can now use their remote control, mobile device or voice commands to interact and purchase directly from the television.

Sony has partnered with Connekt to add t-commerce to its smart TVs and Blu-ray disc players. Viewers can shop products from “hundreds” of brands and retailers that include Macy’s, Best Buy and Fanatics, directly from the ShopTV app located in their smart TV’s app store. In the future, this partnership will expand to allow purchasing directly from a show broadcast and enable voice commands.

Unlike traditional commercials or banner ads, t-commerce (shopping through a smart TV) allows brands to reach audiences while they are already engaged.

According to Nielsen, a third of homes in the US own at least one internet-enabled TV. Homes with connected-TV devices skew younger (more than half are under the age of 45), more affluent and are more likely to have children. Adding T-Commerce to a smart TV would grant advertisers access to millions of homes without having to pick up a second device.

A recently published report by Connekt states that over 75 percent of consumers would buy products directly from their TV if given the opportunity. Of those, over 70 percent were interested in using their voice to purchase products through the television.

Since the launch of its ShopTV app, Connekt has partnered with LG, Sony, Hisense, Verizon and Roku, with plans to compile its own consumer data research. The brand partnered with Verance earlier this year to develop enhanced ads.

Other tech brands are investing in the idea of shopping directly from a TV screen. Samsung, for example, has been testing the t-commerce waters since October with its Checkout shopping portal. In Portugal, smart TV viewers can order sushi, pizza and wine through their screens, thanks to a partnership with local cloud-based platform yubuy.

Nielsen: OTT Subscriptions Driven By Familiar Content, Specific Shows

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Nielsen has released its quarterly MediaTech Trender survey that tracks consumer perceptions of emerging devices and services. Among the findings, Nielsen reveals a close relationship between smart speakers and smartphones, as well as common motivations for streaming content.

The survey included Q1 responses from 2,000 US consumers aged 13 and above. Participants were asked about their relationship with technology in terms of preferences, motivations and habits.

Nielsen delivered some good news for social networks like Facebook and Twitter that have invested heavily in video. Over half of adult smartphone users said they viewed video from inside a social network site or app at least once a day, while just under half of tablet users said the same. These numbers jumped among younger adults between the ages of 18-34—72 percent said they watched video in this way on a smartphone and 57 percent on a tablet.

Streaming content is more readily viewed by all age groups if it hosts existing shows they’ve watched or listened to before. This is especially true among consumers between the ages of 18-34 (64 percent) and 35-49 (62 percent). Among persons aged 50-64, this behavior was only slightly less common at 59 percent.

That’s not to say that adults aren’t willing to explore new content. Just under half of all adults said they subscribing to video streaming services to gain access to video content they like and 42 percent said that they sign up for a specific program.

When it comes to smart speakers, non-white consumers are leading the way. Compared to the national average of 43 percent, Asian American, Black and Hispanic consumers have displayed more interest in using or subscribing to a streaming service at 55, 52 and 45 percent, respectively.

Consumers aren’t just buying one smart speaker, either. In fact, four out of 10 respondents own more than one, with the living room being the most popular location. These devices get put to work, with 90 percent of users saying they use smart speakers to listen to music at least once a week.

Just over half of consumers sync their smart speakers to a smartphone, with audio streaming and shopping apps being the most popular.

“Consumers are not only incredibly tech savvy—they’re voraciously plugged in,” says Peter Katsingris, SVP of audience insights at Nielsen. “With so many choices of media to consume and innovative products being introduced into the marketplace, gauging consumer sentiment towards them is crucial in understanding not only what’s ‘now’ but also what’s ‘next.’”

Report: PlayStation Tops Online/Offline Sentiment For Consumer Electronics

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Engagement Labs has released its TotalSocial ranking of consumer electronics brands for 2018, revealing that PlayStation climbed to the number one spot for positive consumer conversations. Parent company Sony also made the top ten, rising five spots over last year.

Social conversations about a brand are vital for awareness and gauging sentiment. Engagement Labs found that nearly 30 percent of electronics purchases are explained by consumer conversations, and more than half of the impact comes from face-to-face and voice-to-voice conversation.

“It’s counter-intuitive but also true that offline conversation is extremely important to technology brands,” said Ed Keller, CEO of Engagement Labs.

In addition to a number of exclusive video game titles, PlayStation has benefited from conversations both online and off about Fortnite. Further buzz was generated by a PS4/Fortnite bundle kit released in August.

“In consumer electronics, social performance sometimes is driven by having the hottest or newest toy, as we are seeing with Playstation’s Fortnite game,” observed Keller. “But it also helps to have widespread adoption and use, which are key to the social success of Kindle, Samsung, and Bose.”

Kindle rose one spot from last year to take second place, followed by Samsung, which also rose one position. Bose rose five spots in the last six months and is now sitting pretty at number five, just under Apple. Following the release of its new noise-canceling headphones, Bose experienced a rise in both online and offline sentiment, along with online brand sharing on social media.

Apple tumbled out of the top spot to land at number four. Engagement Labs admits, however, that the company’s brands collectively dominate consumer conversation.

“If all of Apple’s brands were combined into a single score, the parent brand—which recently became the first publicly traded company to reach $1 trillion in value—would easily dominate the number one position,” says the report.

Nintendo didn’t fare as well in the last six months, dropping three spots to number 10 on the TotalSocial ranking. Engagement Labs attributed this to a lackluster E3 performance that took its toll on online and offline influence.

The biggest drop was experienced by Asus, however, plummeting 17 spots to number 22.

The top 10 TotalSocial Consumer Electronic Brands Are:

  • PlayStation
  • Kindle
  • Samsung
  • Apple
  • Bose
  • Xbox
  • Sony
  • Roku
  • Nintendo
  • LG

Soulmates.AI Releases Latest a.EMVI Monthly Report

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Soulmates.AI proudly announces its latest a.EMVI (Earned Media Value Index) Monthly Report to help brands, agencies and others in the marketing industry see the latest trends in earned media value.

The a.EMVI takes on one of the most elusive questions of modern-day marketing: How valuable are my efforts on social media? Our Index is the industry standard for judging the earned media value of the likes, comments and shares from on social media platforms. The Index provides actual dollar values for interactions and engagements on social media, providing baselines value for the industry to use for comparison and reporting.

While these baseline values (based on our full cross-section of research) are available for each social media network, this month we are highlighting the financial industry and using our Vertical values, which are available as a premium. These values are based on isolated, industry-specific research to offer the most precise reporting available.

The monthly report spotlights the industry’s earned media frontrunners in total Earned Media Value. This invaluable tool gives a monetary value to the monthly efforts of earned media from these brands:

  • Prudential Financial leads by a far margin with $28,390.98
  • Citigroup comes next with their total value being at $12,680.99
  • JP Morgan follows up with $7,971.27
  • State Farm Insurance comes in closely behind with its value at $7187.56
  • The Travelers Companies completes the leaderboard with $4,581.22
  • The total earned media value of just the leaders $60,812.22

The report also provides a breakdown of which brands are the most influential on each major social platform.

  • Instagram has a for JP Morgan, which brings in $2,371.98
  • Facebook creates huge value for Prudential Financial, earning $9832.03
  • Twitter also shows how influential Prudential Financial is, reaching $18,547.51
  • YouTube provides a small but impactful platform for State Farm Insurance which is earning $524.08

The a.EMVI Monthly Report offers just a glimpse at the utility of the a.EMVI. For more details on using the a.EMVI to help track your social media and gain the exceptional insight it brings, sign up for our monthly newsletter so you won’t miss our trend reports.

To learn more about our methodology, check out our complimentary white paper here.

If you would like to bring the power of a.EMVI to your company or platform, contact us at: info@soulmates.ai to get a list of our dashboard and API options.

About Soulmates.AI:
A part of a.network, Soulmates.AI helps companies gain a deep and actionable understanding of social speech and expression so they can build relationships between creators, companies and consumers. We are scientists, technologists and marketers who want to fix advertising and make it truly beneficial for all. Learn more at: soulmates.ai.