Top Consumer Trends &
the New Brand Engagement Rules
in DIGITAL
Top Digital Consumer Trends &
the New Brand Engagement Rules

Once
upon a
time...

There
Was No
Internet

The world and the world of
marketing are changing with a faster
pace than ever. The consumer no
longer has patience & time for
ordinary ads, commercial
non-engagement and…well, too much
offline brand related work.

Here are 5 Top Consumer
Trends are making Digital
Vital for the marketing mix
& changing the Brand
Engagement Rules.

1. “Virtual Reality is best than
my reality”
Virtual reality (VR) is currently the fastest growing form of video traffic,
with Cisco predicting that it will grow 61-fold between 2015 and 2020.2
When video literally means the world, computing power will be directed
at our visual cortex rather than our fingertips.
More than 40 percent of advanced internet users we have surveyed
would like a computer with VR/AR as its main interface.
This “new” reality means it’s time for 5G networks.

2. “The Rise of Artificial
Intelligence”
The idea that a man-made creature could gain awareness has been around for a very long time
– it can be seen in folklore about anthropomorphic golems, and AI sci-fi stories, for example. In
modern science, the idea of creating a digital brain was already around in the 1940s.
Today, AI research and development is booming all over the world. In Bots that make customer
care cost-efficient & practical, in complex machine learning and robots. Behind the
recommendations that streamed media services make based on consumption habits, in the
assistants in our phones. However, half of online active people interviewed by Ericsson
ConsumerLab this year say that they are preoccupied by the AI takeover.

3. “My Body is out of sync”
When trains started to appear in the late 1820s in England, prospective passengers
worried that the human body was simply not built to withstand movement at such
incredible speeds.
Even with 200 years of motorized transportation, we still get car sick; in fact one in
five feels nausea in cars or buses every week, even today.
Consumers believe car sickness will become even worse with autonomous cars.
Moreover, the digital inflation, social media crowded landscape and rise of digital
interfaces makes the brain a lot more exposed to efforts. Medical studies,
innovations, prevention platforms have a great growth space here to come and help.

4. “Social media, social media
everywhere”
In an increasingly globalized world, it feels good to know that there are many like-minded
people around us and that we can have our dear ones close no matter the distances.
These are the two main psychological wins of social media and why it is most certainly
here to stay.
Social media is creating so-called echo chambers where groups repeat and amplify similar
ideas - the niche communities. You’ll want that for your brand so get attached to ones or
build your own now.
More than a quarter of people interviewed by Ericsson ConsumerLab in 2017 say that they
are likely to count on their contacts’ opinion and advice rather than politicians,
spokespeople or authorities.

5. “The smart device safety
paradox ”
Nowadays, we take our phones everywhere we go. If we get lost we can call, text,
look up information on the internet or navigate using Maps or Waze.
More than half of smartphone users already use emergency alarms, tracking or
notifications on their smartphones. Another three in five have emergency contacts
stored in their phone.
But here’s the paradox: three in five of those who say so take more risks because
they rely on their phone to keep them safe. So digital wearables are now one of the
most reliable and intimate source of information and live planning. Thus, your most
valuable brand content must reach these devices.

By 2020, customer experience will be the
deciding factor over price and product
across all industries. Unique customer
experiences are popping up all over. And
our out of five users believe that in 5 years
VR and AI will be hardly distinguishable from
actual reality.
And all marketing experiences are more and
more digitally powered. No digital, no data,
no growth.

We are growing towards
virtual reality economy.

THANK YOU.
IOANA BARBU