Stronger Together: Creative Technology Promises Marketing Transformation

While one does not necessarily depend on the other to exist or stand out, it is also undeniable that, when technology and creativity are combined, the results can be exponentially increased, according to Juliano Tubino, director of Accenture Digital.

Combine design, arts, fashion, craftwork, creativity, and communications, and then add to this mix a set of technologies that can optimize, drive, and transform the capacity for creating and transforming ideas. This is what creative technology has to offer, according to Juliano Tubino, director of Accenture Digital.

São Paulo-based Tubino defines creative technology as a highly integrated multidisciplinary field that can be used anywhere, from the most heavily consolidated segments, such as computer graphics, to new ones, such as 3D printing, the internet of things (IoT), and wearables.

Unlimited access to computing power, data storage, and disruptive business models, such as the sharing economy, globalization and the provision of remote services, are bringing a major revolution in creative technology to our decade, Tubino said. “Unlike other periods, today the most relevant aspect is perhaps the clear interdependence between technology and creativity,” he added.

While one does not necessarily depend on the other to exist or stand out, it is also undeniable that, when technology and creativity are combined, the results can be exponentially increased–and this applies both to how scalable the created product’s reach is and to how the creative process is optimized, Tubino pointed out.

“If we take this principle as true, creative technology can not only help a brand, but failing to use it can be very detrimental,” he cautioned. This is because competitors, generic brands, and the entire ecosystem as a whole will use and dispute the limited attention span of consumers. “At the end of the day, the way a company creates, shares, evolves, and interacts with its content and brand often defines how much value it can create,” Tubino said.

That’s why he believes the most successful assets for any company are tools that help them better understand their customers, interactions, and ability to create relevant products and content with precision, speed, and consistency. That also serves companies well-known for excellence in their product design, such as Apple and BMW, as well as a huge range of companies that rely on creative technology to improve their services, such as Amazon and Whole Foods, understand and consecutively engage with customers, such as Netflix and Bank of Australia, or even make their content relevant in different segments and channels, including digital, such as Coca-Cola and L’Oréal.

New Challenges

This effervescent techno-creative scenario presents marketing professionals with many challenges, but also great opportunities.

“Overall, perhaps the challenge that brings the most change and room for improvement pertains to data management capacity, control, and affinity,” Tubino said. “With the shift in orbit of the power of choice from major industries, service providers, and governments to the hands of individuals, who have full access to whatever they want, whenever, and in whatever situation they need it, the traditional recruitment, engagement, and conversion funnel has been replaced by a continuous, nonlinear, mobile loop composed of micro-moments.”

As a result of this change, marketers–who once placed heavy emphasis on an understanding of media channels, their reach, and how to apply them to customer life stages–are now all about to understand their customers themselves.

And this understanding, according to Tubino, cannot be restricted to registration information or sales histories; it must also include preferences, career and life moments, political orientation, and even their favorite team.

“For a retailer, the best time for conversion is perhaps no longer a store shelf but the moment when each customer has their first experience with the brand,” he explained. “The best time for recruitment might not be an advertising piece with mass reach but an unexpected freebie during their first purchase.”

In other words, in this new age of innovation, exponential noise, and constant changes, understanding customers with actionable information is among the greatest weapons marketing professionals can use to ensure their success, Tubino concluded.