A new study from Juniper Research found that global spending on digital commerce will fall by 14% in 2020 as lockdowns and reductions in consumer spend are felt. Spending will fall from $11.2 trillion in 2019 to $9.7 trillion.

For marketers and brands attempting to engage their audience at a time like this, there is no one answer to how consumer behavior has changed since the COVID-19 outbreak. Different people react in different ways, and general observations are no longer actionable.

Following Social Media Day this 30 June, ADA explores how usage and consumption of social media have gone through the roof to reach a ‘new normal’.

Through a deep analysis of social media trends across nine countries in South and Southeast Asia, we have identified four key findings around the uptake of social media and what this means for brands.

In times of increasing digitization and a steadily growing threat from cyberattacks, stable IT security is an important prerequisite for a functioning and growing business. Unfortunately, studies show that this insight has not yet reached all managing directors and board members, instead their concern is:

People living in South East Asia are highly concerned with caring for the planet, yet most people prioritize convenience over the environment, according to Visual GPS, new landmark research unveiled by Getty Images, a world leader in visual communications and pioneer in the field of visual trend methodology.

The corona pandemic radically changed the world as we knew it within a few weeks and the consequences of the crisis are so far still unpredictable. But gradually we are moving into a new normal, in which a lot is different than before, and even a few positive things happened.

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are promising technologies that manage to provide marketers with new opportunities of delivering good content to their target groups.

Until 2018, TikTok was known as Musical.ly, a Chinese video portal for lip synchronization of music videos. With TikTok, users can watch, record, and edit videos from 12 seconds to 5 minutes. Special effects or filters can also be added, which should make the clip stand out from the others.

All kind of industries generate and collect an unimaginable quantity of data nowadays. According to an IDC report, the amount of data will grow globally from 33 zettabytes (33 trillion gigabytes) in 2018 to 175 zettabytes in 2025. Unfortunately, even large companies with huge budgets and big teams are already facing many unresolved challenges regarding the processing, evaluation, and efficient use of these huge amounts of data. The US analysis and consulting company Gartner, well- known for its in-depth studies such as the "Magic Quadrant" or technology forecasts like the "Hype Cycles", provides some seminal solutions for these challenges and ‘Natural Language Processing’ (NLP) and ‘Conversational Analytics’, our topics of the month, play an important part here.

How brands can create relevant and authentic content in no time

Brands can - and must - get in touch with their target groups through a wide variety of channels. In addition to the traditional advertising and communication options, marketing managers need constantly new, relevant content for social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest to perform well. It goes without saying that customers expect interesting storytelling across all different channels. Hence, each communication channel should always be filled with tailored content, raising production needs immensely.

Today’s online buyer expects a direct approach, an authentic dialogue and excellent service anytime and anywhere, according to iAdvize.

“Consumers don't want to get a product sold, they want advice so that they can buy the product that best suits them”, says the International Marketing Manager of iAdvize.

According to neuroscientists up to 70%-95% of all people make decisions unconsciously and give themselves then a “logical explanation” for their choice within fractions of a second. That’s why very often we get wrong explanations when we ask about it.

Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis, Global Future Risks—Future-proofing Your Strategies, 2030, provides a compelling analysis that will help stakeholders understand the impact of future risks through the short, medium and long terms, and equip them to act on clear growth opportunities.

Whilst the global pandemic has influenced new ways of work in Singapore, as well as contributed to the changing dynamics in customer experience, it has also set the stage for customers’ and employees’ future expectations in the new normal setting, post Covid-19. Qualtrics CoreXM updates can empower businesses to listen and act on the needs of their customers and employees, identify key business drivers via its predictive AI analytics engine, and fix experience breakdowns as they happen with the launch of a workflow automation solution. New capabilities help organizations better serve customers and employees by going beyond simply measuring experiences, to taking intentional action on closing experience gaps.