Digital Shift, a quarterly service from Econsultancy, is intended as a guide to support strategic thinking. This quarter’s update explores the growth of DTC, a new suite of influencer tools coming to Instagram, the rise of Amazon’s advertising division, photorealistic human avatars courtesy of Unreal Engine and the latest explosion in real estate sales – located in the metaverse.
Focused tightly on digital technologies, marketing and ecommerce, Digital Shift delivers actionable insight on trends that will be significant in the short- to mid-term, and can be used to generate new ideas, improve business performance and stay ahead of the competition.
The latest instalment in this series, also available as a presentation and an on-demand webinar recording (see link to the right), covers:
- The future of DTC: Econsultancy’s new Direct-to-Consumer Best Practice Guide explores the growth and evolution of DTC, with legacy brands moving into a space traditionally dominated by native startups. What are three of the key trends to pay attention to in the DTC arena?
- Shoppable recipes: US grocery delivery company Instacart has announced ‘Shoppable Recipes’, a new feature that will allow TikTok creators to link shopping lists to their videos and users to purchase ingredients at the tap of a button. Will Instacart’s initiative succeed in delivering scalability and easy integration for media owners where others have failed?
- Augmented reality: Snap continues to invest in AR innovations. Having recently launched immersive AR storefronts for Black Friday, it has now launched AR overlays for landmarks around the world. Could the permanence of these installations herald a new opportunity for immersive, location-based marketing?
- NFT integrations: Meta has announced that NFTs will soon be coming to Instagram and is reportedly planning to build an NFT marketplace. What are some of the other ways in which brands are experimenting with blockchain technology, and what does this tell us about its adaptability and longevity?
-
Web 3.0 and Dapps: Decentralised apps, known as Dapps, have emerged with the growth and development of Web 3.0 technology. Hosted on decentralised platform Ethereum, Dapps use smart contracts and are immutably consistent in how they run. What are the benefits and drawbacks of this technology, and how is it being put to use in its early stages?
As ever with Digital Shift, plenty of challenge but also plenty of opportunity.