Digital marketing is evolving rapidly, presenting both challenges and opportunities for brands. In the face of new technologies and platforms, brands are gearing up to navigate this dynamic landscape and drive growth.

In November, leaders from Unilever, J.P. Morgan Chase, JCPenney, PGIM, and more gathered at Reuters Events: Strategic Marketing East 2023 in New York. As we say goodbye to 2023, we reflect on lessons learned from North America’s influential marketers in our latest report: ‘Transformative, Optimized, Future-focused.’

Read on to unlock highlights across four key lessons:

1. Lessons from Legacy in Purpose and Creativity
2. Cultural Fluency, Captivating Content, and the Right Risks
3. Customer-Centricity and Data-Driven Creativity
4. Artificial Intelligence Unleashed: Navigating a New Era

Lessons from Legacy in Purpose and Creativity

Today, 80% of consumers say they “make an effort” to buy from companies that support causes important to them (Kantar 2023). Creating customer value has proven to be a goal for purpose-driven brands.

Dove at multinational consumer goods company, Unilever, is one of these brands and has found its purpose in becoming a champion for self-esteem and real beauty. “The key is to have that consistent brand idea that you build over time, no matter what channel you’re building brand in” said Global CMO of Beauty and Wellbeing at Unilever, Priya Nair. From popular culture to influencers to social media, all channels must work towards that common purpose to really drive value for your customers.

Cultural Fluency, Captivating Content, and the Right Risks

Leveraging internet culture is a winning factor in captivating consumers through your content. It’s all about capitalizing on cultural moments to drive organic engagement around your brand.

Inspired by marketing leaders’ strategies at the summit, we came up with 5 Ways to Crack Culture on Social Media:

1. Empower social teams to participate at relevant moments in real time.
2. Leverage social listening and alerts to signal when your brand is trending.
3. Be willing to take risks and do something different.
4. Be intentional, educational, and authentic.
5. Read the room. Not all cultural moments can be right for your brand.

Access the full report for a deeper dive into these strategies.

Customer-Centricity and Data-Driven Creativity

Creativity is still the hallmark of a great campaign, but “data-driven creativity represents a fundamental transformation in how we understand and engage with our audiences” said Josh London, Chief Marketing Officer at Reuters, in a panel discussion.

Some believe good creative is only as good as the numbers that back it up. Winning the c-suite over and proving marketing investments drive business value, is largely tied to metrics. Not all metrics are on equal footing and identifying the right ones from impressions, likes, and followers to conversions, awareness, and customer value is half the challenge. Interpreting them to understand customer need is where the real benefit lies.

Artificial Intelligence Unleashed: Navigating a New Era

Arguably, the hottest topic of conversation at the Strategic Marketing East summit was GenAI: the limitations and benefits, the ethics and compliance, and the resourcing needed behind it.

While most companies are still in the experimentation stage, some have already started using this technology to address various business challenges. Some are using it to detect fraud, while others are leveraging its scalability for content creation and for analyzing toxicity bias in emails.

Srini Nallasivan, Chief AI and Analytics Officer at U.S. Bank, believes it is no longer a question of whether businesses should be using GenAI but rather how to scale it. Marketers have been leveraging AI and automation for years, but the fundamental shift, according to Nallasivan, is the ability “to understand the sequence, the consequence, the emotions of what is written in the document.”

What’s next?

With new advancements in GenAI and the continual need for marketers to prove the ROI of these investments, marketing is at tipping point. The brands that come out on top are the ones that will invest in skilled talent, quantify creative, establish a robust data management strategy, and harness cutting-edge technology to its fullest potential.

Access the full report to benchmark against those leading these strategies and set yourself up for success in the year ahead.