26th International Conference on Corporate and Marketing Communications
Digital Technologies in Light of COVID-19: A Changing Landscape for Corporate and Marketing Communications
Traditional marketing communications is still around us. It has been tried and tested ever since the early days of Marketing. Moving on to a digital era, new technologies are being introduced promising more effectiveness, more efficiency, more interactivity, and more transparency.
While 5G, Artificial Intelligence (AI), viral and augmented reality (AR), and gaming are evolutions of technologies that have existed for more than 50 years in some cases, Blockchain is a new technology. People in marketing have surely heard of Blockchain, but what it does exactly and how it can improve marketing communications, is yet to be understood. Among other things, Blockchain can make things like personal information economy (PIE) become a reality. Because Blockchain can allow verification of personal identity, this can be extended for consumers to keep their data as they travel around the digital landscape, and they can make the decision about who can use their data, when and how. But although this seems quite beneficial for consumers, how will this affect a marketer’s now far more complex route to communicating with its audience? 5G is far more powerful, faster, and smarter than the current standard. This new generation is promising to unleash the possibilities of augmented reality since it will now be cheaper and more energy-efficient. Voice assistants will become the norm as we become truly immersed, which is what AR is all about, but are mobile advertisers ready to work voice conversations and voice-based advertising? Finally, the global gaming market was valued at €151 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach a value of €250 billion by 2026. Social influencers, the current hype in Marketing Communications, can make thousands with a single post and this is especially true with gaming influencers on YouTube. With a world going mobile mad, with males and females of all ages being social and gaming, with vast opportunities for inclusivity at all levels and video content richness, this too poses an important question to advertisers:
Are we ready?
COVID-19 has hit the world in an unprecedented way and has impacted among others both locally and internationally the society, the economy, education, travel and the business sector. It certainly has stretched the overall physical and emotional requirements for most of us. For many if not all organisational members, the workload at least doubled because of the transition to remote learning, adjustments to constantly changing learning environments, planning for contingencies and a heightened struggle to balance work, life and family responsibilities.
The pandemic has already forced the whole world to rethink long-standing social values and life orientations. People and businesses have been forced to change their patterns of human interactions and utilize technology and new communication tools to remain connected, work and do their shopping. Consumer behaviour has changed. Some behaviours have changed for good such as the growth of e-grocery shopping and remote learning. The pandemic changed a generation of students. During the peak of lockdown nearly 1.6 billion children were out of classroom. Digital learning and the enhanced use of technology were utilised during the coronavirus transmission. The pandemic has also forced business leaders to re-assess and even change organizational constructs, structures, strategies and business orientations. Several companies shifted rapidly to online channels and utilised technologies to respond to the increased pressure and constant challenges posed by the constant developments related to the pandemic.
How has the pandemic impacted marketing and corporate communications? How have businesses managed challenges?
The topic of CMC 2022 looks into understanding how new technologies are challenging companies today, how new technologies have helped businesses to cope with the challenges created by the pandemic, how the pandemic has shaped the marketing and corporate communications fields, and how these new technologies could be used to offer businesses and customers a more direct and interactive way to communicate with audiences, and especially those new generation consumers who are intertwined with digital technologies.
But will new technologies have sustaining or disruptive effects on organizations?
How must new technologies be strategically approached and adequately embedded in the organizational structure in ways that will strengthen rather than damage their competitive advantage?
What barriers might companies be faced with when adopting new technologies?
And what are the ethical, social and long-term consequences that need to be addressed?