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Chief marketing officers say they expect trends like personalization, data privacy, and ... [+] environmental sustainability to continue to play key roles in marketing in 2020.

What trends will be more prominent in 2020? It depends whom you ask.

According to a recent report from Global Web Index, next year will bring heightened consumer scrutiny around data privacy, new opportunities for fashion brands to embrace retail with smart mirrors or cafes, and increased excitement about in-car technology such as contactless payments. Meanwhile at Morgan Stanley, analysts expect accelerated investment in OTT advertising, new opportunities around 5G and advancements for internet-connected devices.

But if you take the predictions of chief marketing officers, 2020 will bring much of the same. More personalization. More environmental awareness. More experiential marketing. More awareness of the possibilitiesand responsibilitiesthat come with collecting and using data.

And itll be an election year, so of course that means more politics.

To better understand what will be on top marketers minds across a range of industries in 2020, Forbes spoke with more than a dozen CMOs from a range of industries to have them share trends, goals, challenges and opportunities that they think will be key in the year ahead.

Stephanie Buscemi, CMO, Salesforce

According to Buscemi, many of the CMOs shes talked with in 2019 have tried to simplify the marketing stack. Thatll continue to be relevant next year as brands try to grapple with data privacy compliance when Californias new data privacy law, the California Consumer Privacy Act, goes into effect in January. She says that requires balancing personalized marketing with increased transparency about how data is collected and used.

Ive been a little bit surprised that despite there being penalties in place (for CCPA), maybe there isnt a level of urgency or understanding yet, she says. And maybe its because we dont have a federal privacy law. It is a bit ambiguousand people are in a wait-and-see mode.

Buscemi also says brands need to be sure and collaborate more when it comes to creating content.

If you look at the different tactics, theres always been a channel hype cycle, she says. Its email its social. But the reality is we are in a data-sharing world, and I believe that with all of the content thats being created out there, you have to focus on co-creation of content as a marketer. If all the content for your brand is created by your brand, its not going to be successful.

Josh Dean, CMO, Swell

Dean, who joined the reusable water bottle brand earlier in 2019, thinks consumers will start to realize what he calls the crisis of consumption. He says marketers can use a brands value to push for sustainability both internally and externally while making meaningful differences in their business. That way the value of a brand is not just about revenue growth.

Consumers are being much more mindful of what theyre consuming and how much theyre consuming, Dean says. And thats going to continue into 2020 especially with everything were hearing about the climate crisis.

Hanneke Willenborg, CMO, Seventh Generation

According to Willenborg, environment-friendly segments of CPG companies and others will continue to grow in the next year as consumers become increasingly worried about the climate crisis. And since its an election year, she says brands should lend a microphone to help younger generations that are leading the charge to curb global warming. For example, Seventh Generation, a Unilever-owned brand based in Berlington, Vermont, donated advertising time in September to 350.org ahead of the United Nations Climate Action Summit.

Next year,Willenborg says Seventh Generations marketing efforts will continue to focus on what she calls mindful progressivespeople that she says arent defined by any age group but rather who have a positive outlook on life and who are aware of the decisions that they make.

One of the things were very worried about is climate becomes so usually politicized, she says. At the end of the day it doesnt matter if youre a red or a bluehousehold. This is something that affects all of us. California fires are not selective. Extreme weather is not selective.

Lee Applbaum, CMO, Parallel

Applbaum, who became CMO of the cannabis company Parallel earlier this year, says the cannabis industry in the U.S. is transforming rapidly. The evolution of state laws and national perception have led to what he calls a volatile environment that will require marketing partners to become more nimble and adaptable to policy changes within both traditional and social media. That has big implications for staffing at places like advertising agencies. For example, he says creatives that want to work with cannabis brands need to be able to balance direct-to-consumer marketing tactics to reach existing audiences but also pivot to out-of-home and other mediums like print and TV as laws change in each state. That requires agencies to accept a level of ambiguity that some not used to.

If you've got companies trying to convince an agency that its going to be as predictive as auto or CPGs, thats just not going to happen, Applbaum says.

Despite the increased ambiguity, Applbaumwho previously spent years as CMO of brands such as Patrn and Grey Goosesays there will continue to be big opportunities for CMOs to make names for themselves within the cannabis industry.

If you were a CMO in 1933 or 1934 in [the alcohol beverage industry], you had an opportunity to define a category for generations, he says. With all the chaos comes a healthy dose of ego build to literally create a category for generations.

Melissa Hobley,CMO, OKCupid

As single people on dating apps increasingly use political affiliation or engagement a way of filtering potential partners, Hobley says theres room for marketers to help them out in 2020. In the past two years on OKCupid, the IAC-owned dating service has seen a 2,000% increase in political mentions on dating profiles.

There are thousands and thousands of [environmental activist] Greta Thunberg mentions on profiles, which is fascinating, Hobley says. So whats happening on dating apps and especially OKCupid is theyre signaling what matters out there. We harness that and reflect it back. We have to be very respectful about purpose and brands. It cant be about Instagram and donate money. It has to be more than that.

Kenny Mitchell, CMO, Snap Inc.

Mitchell joined Snap Inc. earlier this year after pioneering the use of various Snapchat marketing products like augmented reality and branded storytelling at brands like McDonalds and Gatorade. He says he thinks marketers will focus on celebrating the good in humanity in 2020 to bring people together during a tense election year.

Smart marketers are going to lean hard into the Olympics and other cultural moments to celebrate unity with other countries around the world, he says. And itll probably be a good counterpoint to some not-as-positive stories were going to be hearing about.

Erin Clift, Director of Marketing and Partnerships, Waze

Next year, the Google-owned navigational app plans to focus on how users plan their trips. That means focusing more on how to connect the dots before they get into a car along with adding new character voices for navigating and finding more ways to gamify usage of the app. Much of this is focused on a key trend at Waze and elsewhere in marketing and customer relation management: personalization.

We are about the destination, she says. Going back to the way that brands are trying to connect consumers with experiences and not just messaging. And the way we can guide people to a physical location, youll see brands start creating more relevant experiences for those customers coming through the door.

David Dancer, CMO, Inspire

Dancerwho joined the renewable energy startup this fall after working as CMO of the cannabis giant MedMen (where he crafted its breakout campaign, The New Normal)is also among the marketers that will be focused on personalization. But to him, that doesnt mean just one-to-one marketing. Rather, he says marketers will need to think about hyper-local campaigns that help people both understand the role energy consumption plays in climate change and also how individual households can make changes to their own consumption.

I think here at Inspire, within this clean tech energy space, Dancer says, Im building out: How do we drive brand awareness? I think very methodically. I dont see us going with a national, broad-scale campaign given where we are, but how do we ensure that were giving the brand story. People are very interested in buying into the movement.

Raja Rajamannar, CMO and Chief Communications Officer, Mastercard

Rajamannar spent much of 2019 focused on building out experiential marketing programs ranging from building out exclusive new restaurants around the world to creating custom macaroons. That will likely continue into 2020 (along with other trends like the use of artificial intelligence).

This coming year we will see brands advance their experiential strategies to bring value back to the business, he says. Experiences should be driven by focusing on the consumers wants and needs and how your brand can meet a challenge or bring in a new opportunity for them. Start with people if you want to resonate. Consumer loyalty is no longer earned by the quality of product or services; consumers want a brand to understand their likes, dislikes and the things they are most passionate about.

Lauren Sallata, CMO, Panasonic North America

After spending the past five to eight years focused on evolving from a consumer brand to one thats more business-to-business, Sallata says the company plans to spend 2020 trying to catch the brand up to what the business is doing.

For me, there are two sides of that, she says. Tech is super important, but Im not losing sight of how important the brand is to tell that story and to maintain the human aspect of that. For 2020 its about finding that right balance.

Ralph Santana, CMO, Harman

Santana says 2020 will yet again see connected cars as valuable to marketers and consumers alike. The audio manufacturer has been increasingly focused on Gen Z and Millennials to understand how they interact with audio including while driving. As a result, he says brands need to think not only about how to market to younger generations, but how to build products specifically for them. Thats a question for both the auto manufacturers and for companies like Harman that put audio tech into cars.

At the same time, its a real challenge for the CMO because youre no longer marketing RPMs and MPG, Santana says. Its going to be what were calling at Harman experience-per-mile, so its going from RPM to EPM.

Minjae Ormes, CMO, Visible

While Visible, a Verizon-owned digital wireless carrier, might not be a company focused first and foremost on audio, Ormes says shell looking in 2020 to see which companies will break the mold when it comes to audioeven within a crowded field of podcasting and music-streaming platforms.

We all knew the cues around jingles and mnemonics and ASMR, Ormes says. All of those things have a psychological trigger to how people remember things and feelings and drive them to get them to do whatever we want them to do.

JuneSauvaget, Global Head of Consumer and Product Marketing, Spotify

While Spotify has begun experimenting with new mediums such as TikTok and augmented reality in addition to expanding the streaming platforms end-of-year Wrapped playlists,Sauvaget says next year might see an increased diversification of ad spend.

Many of us rely on a few social platforms to drive a lot of business KPIs, she says. And I predict we might start to see a proliferation of spend on that area. Im being ambiguous, but I think this notion of spend on two or three players may change in the next two or three yearswhich is probably a good thing.

Jeff Charney, CMO, Progressive

According to the insurance marketing veteran, nostalgia will become something that resonates more with consumers than usual next year, and whats old will be new again.

Everything in today's marketing environment is somewhat cyclical, Charney says. And weve been working on this for a long time and so much that weve coined our own phrase called memory lane marketing. Its a different climate today, a somewhat polarized environment, that people want to walk down memory lane.

Read more from the original source:
What CMOs Predict Will HappenOr Keep HappeningIn 2020 - Forbes