Simon Kahn’s (Google APAC CMO) keynote presentation focussed on how customer expectations of companies and products have heightened in an increasingly digitised world and how marketers can meet and even exceed these expectations. He divided the solutions into three areas: be relevant, be seamless and be fast.

  1. Relevancy focussed on harnessing data online to target the right user at the right time with the most effective message. Using the example of Google’s Dynamic Search Ads, he demonstrated how a user’s browsing behaviour will personalise the text ad copy, tying in with our trend Hyper-Personalisation.
  2. Seamlessness was related to brands using new technologies to enhance the customer experience, like our trend Three’s a Crowd. He used the example of eBay using Google Home to cut out the need for users to search eBay themselves. A user can ask Google Home for a specific product and price on eBay and Google Home will tell the user what items are available.

Being fast related to the fact users now expect to receive information instantaneously. This means it is imperative to improve the UX and speed of company websites and paths to purchase.