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OLIVER Ireland delivers excellent work for some of the biggest brands in Ireland and beyond, and we firmly believe in the importance of digital transformation for marketing success, writes CEO Mark McCann.

If the last year has proven anything, it is how important digital has become for everyone, whether it is for retail purposes, keeping in touch with friends and family, or working remotely. These changes also mean that marketers now have to adjust their strategies to create ideas and campaigns that can be expanded across multiple touchpoints and marketing channels.

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed how we as customers behave across every aspect of our lives. People are now absorbing content at different times and in several different ways. The crisis has, and will, continue to change people’s routines at unprecedented speed, and some of those changes will outlast the pandemic. The way we use digital now is something that has evolved over the last year and continues to grow in importance.

E-commerce Transition

You only have to look at what happened to the retail sector last year as an example. It is estimated that worldwide retail e-commerce sales posted a 27.6% growth rate in 2020, demonstrating the incredible extent to which consumers transitioned to e-commerce in 2020. It is forecast that worldwide growth this year will be 14.3%, which represents $611 billion in additional e-commerce sales.

Today, audiences are more open to change. By choice and necessity, brands are being creatively brave. Pandemic restrictions have freed the brand experience from physical-first thinking to accelerating creative digital solutions that are open to everyone.

In Association with

At OLIVER we believe this is an opportunity to challenge the old restrictive methods and assumptions that we all became used to. Deciding on the right content, format and quality, while emphasising interactivity and user-friendly execution, is essential in today’s market.

Shifting behaviours in 2020 has meant that the ‘experienced by few, shared with many’ approach is more important than ever. Audiences now embrace kinship as a shared sense of place, identity, practice and role in society – wherever they are in the world. Lots of targeted ‘small’ quickly scales up to a whole lot of ‘big’.

Collaborative Marketing

However, it’s important that marketers don’t make assumptions about their audience. We can only create strategies and campaigns that are successful if we have a two-way approach with our audience and recognise them as our collaborators rather than ‘targets’. Always check in with them first.

Brand experience has always been effective in a world that craves interaction. More than ever, people want and need that break from the mundane. They want entertainment and escapism. They want to learn and feel inspired. They want to participate in life.

The pandemic is accelerating changes that are long overdue in the world of brand experience, pushing creativity, innovation and integration more than ever before. The focus on digital and how the pandemic has transformed our behaviour means that a campaign’s success relies on an audience that’s engaged and participating, and that means understanding their journey and listening to their current priorities.

Marketing success depends on this today more than ever.

Talk to OLIVER Ireland. Visit ie.oliver.agency to see how we can help you achieve your 2021 ambitions today.

Photo: Mark McCann, CEO of OLIVER Ireland