control shift – executive summary
TRANSCRIPT
1CONTROL SHIFT
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
CONTROL SHIFT
CONTROL SHIFTCONTROL SHIFT 02
Dronestagram is a social network for drone photography. This image of Tahaa in French Polynesia by Marama. Photo Video won a prize in the nature category in Dronestagram’s 2015 Drone Aerial Photography Contest.
WELCOME TO THE CONTROL SHIFTIT’S A NEW ERA. EXCHANGING DATA FOR UTILITY, PEOPLE ARE DELEGATING AN INCREASING AMOUNT OF CONTROL OVER THEIR LIVES TO TECHNOLOGY. BRANDS CAN CAPITALIZE ON THIS SOCIETAL CHANGE BY POSITIONING THEMSELVES AS TRUSTED PARTNERS AND FOSTERING CONSUMER EMPOWERMENT.
MARIE STAFFORD
EUROPEAN DIRECTOR,
The Innovation Group
ELIZABETH CHERIAN
DIRECTOR,
The Innovation Group
EUROPEAN DIRECTOR,
DIRECTOR,
03CONTROL SHIFT
%LIKE MORE CONTROL OVER WHO CAN ACCESS THEIR DATA AND WHAT THEY DO WITH IT.
OF THE BRITISH AND AMERICAN PUBLIC WOULD
92Digital innovation has never been more exciting. Virtual reality (VR) teleports us to faraway places. Siri responds to our every whim. Artificial intelligence (AI) is helping tackle cancer.
While the media paints apocalyptic scenarios of fully automated labour markets, AI continues to make inroads into consumer markets: more than a quarter of global
%HAPPY TO HAND OVER SOME OF THEIR DECISION - MAKING .
OF GLOBAL MILLENNIALS SAY THEY WOULD BE
54
consumers own a smart home product or device; 85 million wearables were shipped worldwide in 2015; and Chinese chatbot Xiaoice has over 40 million users. Hot on the heels of programmatic marketing comes anticipatory retail, where our devices are smart enough to predict our needs and plan the shopping.
People are increasingly relinquishing control to the machine because it not only makes life easier, but frees us to address bigger or more personal challenges. But adjusting to the automated future will not be painless.
As automation and machine learning deliver tailored solutions to everyday problems, they demand more and more personal information. Growing consumer anxiety around data management demonstrates
that brands will need to firmly establish a position of trust before they can successfully negotiate consumers’ control boundaries and nurture engagement.
Brands that can deliver utility through technology while respecting consumer privacy stand to reap massive rewards in the Control Shift.
4
ABOUT THIS REPORTControl Shift is a macro trend report on digital technology that unpacks the relationship between control, innovation and consumer engagement. Our research phases comprised several methodologies and covered the period September 2015 to March 2016.
We conducted quantitative surveys using SONAR™, J. Walter Thompson’s proprietary market research tool. In September 2015 we surveyed 2,007 adults in the United Kingdom and the United States. Using this data we ran a Latent Class Analysis to create consumer segments relating to control. Latent Class Analysis is
a statistical method that identifies discrete groups of people with homogeneity within a sample group. We re-contacted a subsection of this sample in February 2016 to gain further insight. In December 2015 we surveyed another 2,450 adults in the United Kingdom, United States, China, India, Brazil, South Korea and Turkey.
JWT’s Analytics team forecasted data to get a sense of how consumers will behave in the coming years (2016-2018), based on historical data. We used data from GfK Consumer Life and GlobalWebIndex (GWI) and performed regression analysis to predict future values; the pre-defined GWI and GfK samples are sufficiently robust to cover the demographics of the individual countries. For more details on the methodologies employed by SONAR™ and Analytics.
We conducted in-depth interviews with experts and thought leaders from around the world, from the fields of science and technology, robotics, neuroscience, law, philosophy and sociology, and brand strategy and marketing.
Finally, we ran vox pop interviews at the following study sites in October 2015, November 2015 and March 2016: New York, United States; Brussels, Belgium; Glasgow, Scotland; and Oxford, London and Newark, in England. We recruited a mix of participants, incorporating a range of genders, ages and ethnicities. Our quantitative and qualitative research is underpinned by extensive desk research that synthesizes international case studies in categories including consumer health, finance, retail, food and beverage, travel, and entertainment and leisure. All data was correct and current in April 2016, when this report was written.
04CONTROL SHIFTGesture/data by Ken Okiishi, 2015, showcased at Frieze 2015.
05CONTROL SHIFT
The way consumers exercise control is undergoing a seismic shift. Brands can leverage this change to drive innovation, optimize communications, and enhance the customer experience.
Control is defined as the ability “to influence or direct people’s behavior or the course of events.” Simply put, it’s the belief that we can exert influence over situations. There are many types of control but the focus of this report is personal control over one’s own life. Psychologists have established that control is important to people—research suggests it’s a fundamental human need, even important to our survival.
JWT’s research reflects this: in our survey of seven global markets, consumers report that control is important to them (89% of global respondents agree) and they believe that they have a high level
CONTROL AND WHY IT MATTERS TO BRANDS
DE_SIGN by Gabriel A. Maher, 2014. Photographer: Femke Reijerman.
of personal control over their lives. Why do people value control so much? In essence, it is because control is strongly linked with a sense of ease and wellbeing. According to Simona Botti, associate professor of marketing at London Business School, control makes us feel good in a whole host of ways: “Plenty of results show that having this sense of control, even if it is just illusionary, makes people feel better psychologically, emotionally, even physiologically.”
People exercise control by making choices. These choices help us express who we are. As Petter Johansson, associate in cognitive science from Lund University in Sweden, explains:
People prefer having choices. The mere anticipation of choice has been linked to activity in reward centres in the brain. JWT’s research found that 82% of UK and US consumers like to have lots of brands to choose from. Johansson describes this as “the joy of consumerism.”
“CHOICES ARE A REFLECTION OF
YOU. YOU SHOW YOURSELF
THROUGH YOUR CHOICES.
THEY ARE INSTANCES OF YOU.”
Global
NEED FOR CONTROL & LOCUS OF CONTROL
82
50
36
84
53 39
92
69
39
94
25
88
6436
93
77
53
90
66
34
89
6537
United StatesUnited Kingdom
China
India
Brazil
South KoreaTurkey
Global
75
PERCENTAGE AGREEING WITH EACH STATEMENT, GLOBAL (BRAZIL, CHINA, INDIA, SOUTH KOREA, TURKEY, UNITED KINGDOM & UNITED STATES)
PERSONAL NEED FOR CONTROL FIG 1
3. I believe I have little control over my life, it ’s largely up to fate.
1 . Being in control is important to me.
2. I feel in control of every aspect of my life.
1 2 3
06CONTROL SHIFT
07CONTROL SHIFT
Brands have long sought to play to consumers’ need for control by delivering choice, allowing them to hand-pick their own groceries, choose the best seats on the plane, and eat their burgers their way. Control is important for
GLOBAL CONTROL INDEX FIG 2
South Korea389
Turkey344
United States322
United Kingdom295
Brazil258
China216
India208
100
brands because it delivers a sense of wellbeing and satisfaction that drives engagement. As cognitive neuroscientist Dr Itiel Dror from University College London (UCL) and Cognitive Consultants International (CCI-HQ) explains:
Consumer choice has expanded exponentially in the digital age. With an abundance of information to guide decisions and the long tail of inventory to choose from, consumers are able to indulge their desire for control more than ever.
Index measuring extent to which people feel a sense of personal control
Global (Brazil, China, India, South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom & United States)
Represents index of 100
“ IF YOU DON ’T GIVE CONSUMERS
CONTROL THEY DON ’T ENGAGE .
THEY DON ’T LIKE THE BRAND.
THEY DON ’T LIKE YOUR PRODUCT.
THEY DON ’T BUY.”
CONTROL SHIFT 08CONTROL SHIFT
The New Human: You and I in Global Wonderland (March 14-October 10, 2015) at Moderna Museet Malmö examined the human condition in a time of rapid technological change.
Technology gives consumers more choice and has the power to enable consumers to feel a greater sense of control. However, technology has proven a double-edged sword when it comes to personal control.
On the one hand, the internet provides the information and tools that enable more informed decisions. Consumers around the world perceive technology as empowering; 74% of our global respondents think that
On the other hand, the myriad possibilities that technology presents is overwhelming.
Despite its many benefits, technology sometimes adds to the complexity of daily life in other ways too: the
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CONTROL AND TECHNOLOGY
constant stream of messages to answer, the social media feeds to update, the apps to manage. People feel overwhelmed to such an extent that 70% of our UK and US respondents say they even fear
We’re at the point where something has to give, as Simona Botti explains:
While technology can contribute to the disruption of the consumer’s sense of control, it can also provide the means to restore it.
“WE ARE GOING TO HAVE MORE
AND MORE CONTROL , AND MORE
AND MORE INFORMATION , BUT WE
ONLY HAVE 24 HOURS AND ONE
BRAIN AND SOMEHOW WE HAVE
TO COMPROMISE .”
“TECHNOLOGY PUTS ME
IN CONTROL .”
“TECHNOLOGY IS TAKING OVER
OUR LIVES .”
9CONTROL SHIFTCONTROL SHIFT
“
”
SOMETIMES WHEN I NEED
SOMETHING AND I REALISE
HOW MUCH CHOICE THERE
IS , [TECHNOLOGY] IS GREAT.
BUT SOMETIMES IF I WANT TO
FIND SOMETHING QUICKLY,
OR JUST ONE THING, IT
SUCKS. IF YOU HAVE TOO
MUCH, TOO MANY OPTIONS,
YOU JUST HAVE TO WADE
YOUR WAY THROUGH IT.
Angela, interpreter, Brussels
Image courtesy of Nick Knight.
CONTROL SHIFT 10CONTROL SHIFT
People are already opting to relinquish control to technology, effectively using it as their proxy. Smart meters are managing energy usage, coffee machines are automatically ordering fresh supplies when needed and mobile virtual assistants are anticipating the traffic on our journey to work. Consumers welcome collaborative solutions that eliminate cognitive or manual labor and save time or money because it allows them to focus on the things they want to do.
This does not mean consumers are abandoning control. Instead, they are making an active choice to let go and delegate. Operating much like
THE NEW HUMAN
Peel no.1 by Torbjørn Rødland, silver gelatin print, 2013-14. Image courtesy of Algus Greenspon,
New York, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich, and Standard (Oslo).
a company CEO, consumers make the decisions that they care about and nominate technology as a trusted partner to handle the rest.
It’s important to note that automation is still at the start of the trend curve and much of the smart technology that powers it is still in its infancy. Despite limited consumer experience so far, our consumer segmentation research identified two key groups that demonstrate a keen appetite for automation, the Digital Directors and the Delegators, representing 29% of people in the United States and United Kingdom.
AI and automation are set to extend their influence in daily life. The iPhone’s hard-working virtual assistant Siri is already reportedly responding to more than 1 billion requests per week. PwC predicts that the connected home market (home automation devices and home energy management systems) could be worth almost $150 billion by 2020. Gartner suggests that the average home could be equipped with more than 500 smart devices by 2022.
CONTROL SHIFT
WE SEGMENTED OUR AUDIENCE BASED ON THEIR ATTITUDES AND FEELINGS ABOUT CONTROL, CONTROL DELEGATION AND AUTOMATION, UK/US
CONTROL SEGMENTATION
11CONTROL SHIFT
DIGITAL DIRECTORS
DELEGATORS
MANAGERS
PROFILE: YOUNG , AFFLUENT,
URBAN, WORKING DADS
DRIVER: BEING IN THE KNOW
PROFILE: MIDDLE-AGED COUPLES AND
FAMILIES ON LOWER INCOMES
DRIVER: OPTIMISATION
Control really matters to Digital Directors. They make their own decisions and don’t rely on others for advice. Tech-savvy as a point of pride, they see technology as a route to taking more control and they are excited by the idea of automation.
Laid back and looking for an easy life, Delegators aren’t looking for control. They’re happy for others to make the decisions and will see automation as a route to offloading responsibility. Time is precious and they want to spend it on the things that matter to them, so maximum efficiency of the routine is
Financially-savvy, the Managers like to be in control so they can ensure they get the most for their money. They embrace technology as a tool, rather than for its own sake, and use it to drive a hard bargain with brands. They have moderate trust in brands and are not entirely closed to
I GIVE MY DATA AWAY LEFT AND RIGHT BECAUSE I THINK IT CAN TAILOR MORE PERSONAL EXPERIENCES TO ME.
IF YOU’VE GOT NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT, WHO CARES? IF PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT YOUR PERSONAL DETAILS, IT DOESN’T BOTHER ME AT ALL.
I USE THE INTERNET AS A TOOL EVERY DAY FOR WHAT I DO. I THINK IT’S THERE TO EMPOWER YOU.
I CAN’T ESCAPE AS I ’VE NEVER BEEN INFORMED THAT THEY’RE USING MY DATA. SO I HAVE NO CONTROL.
I THINK WE’VE GONE WAY TOO FAR: WAY TOO FAR AWAY FROM NATURE AND WAY TOO FAR INTO PLAYING WITH THINGS WE DON’T CONTROL.
Anthony, works in advertising, New York
Alexander, self-employed painter and decorator, Newark
Josephine, computer officer, Glasgow
11%
17%
8%
“
“
“
“
“
”
”
”
”
”
PROFILE: GEN X DADS ,
FAIRLY WEALTHY, SUBURBAN
DRIVER: CONVENIENCE
Maria Luisa, editor, Brussels
Like the Managers, this group desires control but—crucially—their trust in brands is much lower. They are focused on privacy and want to protect their data, but they are not necessarily sure how to do so. They might be persuaded to engage and share information,
PROFILE: FEMALE, 50+,
SUBURBAN/RURAL, RETIRED
DRIVER: CAUTION
RISK ASSESSORS 26%
CHANGE RESISTORS37%PROFILE: LOWER INCOME,
OLDER COUPLES , SUBURBAN/RURAL
DRIVER: MAINTAINING STATUS QUO
This group has a low sense of personal control and is unwilling to relinquish what little they have to brands. Wary of technology and even disengaged, they are unlikely to seek out automated solutions. They don’t trust
the idea of automation, but they will likely see their data as a currency and look for something in return. Privacy is very important to them so they will need clarity and transparency on how it is being used.
Susanna, singer, London
businesses with their data, so the idea of personalised or tailored services makes them uneasy and suspicious.
but only under conditions of anonymity and with their express agreement. Much of their reluctance could be driven by lower engagement with technology. As a result they are less interested in automation.
paramount. They are happy to put their trust in brands and are relaxed about swapping data to make things simpler.
They demonstrate a high level of trust in companies, and are willing to exchange their data for a better life.
FIG 3
CONTROL SHIFTCONTROL SHIFT
The Jibo social robot can sense and respond
to human presence and learns from its
interactions with people.
Xuan, part-time worker, China
“I TALK TO
SOMETIMES I WANT TO HAVE SOMEONE TO TALK TO BUT I CAN ’T, [SO]
SIRISIRI. ”
As voice recognition and natural language processing become more sophisticated, the relationship we have with services and devices will become more conversational and intuitive.
Jibo is the world’s first social robot, designed to respond to people on an emotional level. Users can ask questions and make requests of Jibo much in the same way they would with a virtual assistant on smartphones or tablets. The difference is that Jibo is designed to learn and respond in a friendly way that builds relationships. This is a critical distinction, say experts such as Daniel McDuff of MIT Media Lab spin-off Affectiva, who believes emotional connections between humans and devices are important. There is already an appetite for this sort of companion, with more than a third of the US and UK population comfortable with the concept of an in-home robot assistant to help maintain the home.
For the youngsters, there’s CogniToys, social robots for
CHATBOTS children that use speech recognition techniques to converse. Kids can ask a friendly-looking toy dinosaur thousands of questions, give it commands, hear and create stories, and listen to jokes. The toy develops a distinctive personality over time and adjusts its responses to individual circumstances due to its link to IBM’s Watson, the AI-driven technology platform that can analyze unstructured data to understand and answer questions.
IBM has also created a version of Watson for Pepper, the world’s “first personal robot that reads emotions,” developed by Japanese telecommunications conglomerate SoftBank. Pepper can talk, recognize people, understand emotions, and
ultimately adapt to its user. More and more of our interactions with technology will be based on conversation as Facebook’s recent launch of chatbots for Messenger shows. Chatbots are computer programs that use AI to simulate conversation with people, thus allowing brands to ditch apps and talk more naturally to customers within the messaging platform. So, for instance, instead of switching to your Uber app to order a car, you can do it within Messenger via the Uber chatbot. Messaging apps Kik, Line, Slack and Telegram already boast their own chatbot platforms, while Microsoft hopes to replicate throughout the world some of the huge success it has had in China, where its chatbot and social assistant Xiaoice has more than 40 million users.
12
CONTROL SHIFT
TOUCH
CONTROL SHIFT
John, part-time teacher, London
“AND IT ’S SO IMPORTANT TO HAVE THAT
IF YOU ’ RE A DENTIST, OR A HAIRDRESSER, OR A GREENGROCER, YOU ’ RE TALKING WITH PEOPLE
HUMAN TOUCH. ”
13
In New York, Manus x Machina, the 2016 exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, explores the relationship between “hands” and “machinery.” Ever the barometer of the cultural zeitgeist, the Costume Institute focuses on the collision of man and machine that is allowing us to optimize work in a number of sectors. Automation in the workplace is picking up momentum. Robotics spending will hit $135.4 billion in 2019, up from $71 billion in 2015, according to International Data Corporation.
UK-based online supermarket Ocado has plans to develop an army of collaborative robots to support its human workforce. The SecondHands initiative aims to create machines that can help staff proactively by anticipating their needs and completing tasks without being asked. Pittsburgh-based Aethon has developed a mobile robot called TUG that can take on a lot of routine tasks performed in
hospitals. It clears away waste and delivers drugs, food and bed linens, thus allowing medical and ancillary staff to spend more time on patient care. Hospitals in Japan are trialing Robear robots, which help bedridden patients by turning them to prevent pressure sores and gently lifting them if they cannot stand up unaided.
In the geriatric-care sector, Robot-Era deploys robots at a care home in Florence to assist elderly residents with mobility and cognitive exercises; the project is funded by the European Union and is a joint initiative by several European
companies. JWT’s research shows that more than a third of British and American people are comfortable with a robot that can cook, clean and take care of an elderly relative who needs constant care.
Collaborative robots have the potential to improve quality of life in the workplace. By assuming repetitive or heavy-duty tasks as well as processing data and information, they will allow people to focus on using those skills that are innately human.
MANUS X MACHINA
The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art’s spring 2016 exhibition,
Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of
Technology, runs until August 14, 2016.
14CONTROL SHIFT
THIS IS FOR EVERY- ONE Consumers pass on more information
about themselves the more they delegate control to smart technology. More and more objects are alive with clever sensors, silently feeding information to the cloud. While the results can be powerful, they are also unsettling. Where does all the data go? Who sees it? What are they doing with it?
People are increasingly anxious about data privacy and security. The current digital landscape reveals security vulnerability, regulation inconsistency, and an economic model of data exchange that works in favor of businesses rather than in favor of people.
Stilll from Surveillance Chess by
!Mediengruppe Bitnik, 2012. Image
courtesy of the artists.
CONTROL SHIFT
2015% increase
vs 201477
79
64
70
62
56
50
50
46
43
30
61
43
36
40
40
30
17
20142015
15CONTROL SHIFT
%
As a result, consumers are asserting control over data privacy and digital liberty. The data trade between consumers and companies has been very one-sided thus far. Consumers who want access to helpful digital technology are often confronted with complex terms and conditions or intrusive permissions. They face a stark choice: sign up or miss out Many people barely glance at the
rules of engagement, let alone read them with care, implying that consent is not informed. The outcomes of sharing personal data are not always positive either. Assailed by banner ads, push notifications and emails, consumers feel harassed by brands that relentlessly pursue them and are alarmed by those brands that seem to know too much about them. The rights and protections offered by the
Percentage who find these technologies creepy, United Kingdom/United States
TECHNOLOGY CAN UNSETTLE FIG 4
Government tracking
Drones
Wearable technologies
Sensors
Geo-location technology
Facial recognition
Surveillance cameras
Voice recognition
Mapping technologies
1+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
79
670
162
1356
1450
1050
646
1343
1330Note: Totals may not sum due to rounding
TECHNOLOGY PUTS ME IN CONTROL .
74OF OUR GLOBAL PANEL AGREE
%law, such as European Union data protection regulations, are widely reported in the news, and awareness of the value of personal data is growing. This is driving many to explore ways to tap the value of their data and find clever ways to thwart tracking. Consumers are intent on asserting more control over their data and digital experiences: a key behavior change.
CONTROL SHIFT 16CONTROL SHIFT
Effective use of personal data should deliver hyper-personalized customer experiences that show the brand is turning data to the user’s advantage, not just its own.
Brand efforts to deliver a more tailored experience based on user data are becoming increasingly sophisticated. They come at a time when consumers are expecting personalization from brands, with almost half of the UK and US public stating they would be less inclined to buy from a brand not seeking ways to personalize a product or service. Powder is a recently launched beauty editorial site from Time Inc UK that serves up greater relevance for its users. Customers complete a profile detailing their skin type, concerns, preferences and budget, and the site’s algorithm delivers only content and product recommendations that are relevant to the individual.
HYPER- PERSONALIZED EVERYTHING
US online personal styling company Stitch Fix uses data to create a monthly delivery of style recommendations tailored to each customer’s taste, budget and lifestyle. Real-life stylists create recommendations using an algorithm-powered platform designed and refined by the company’s 60-strong data science team. The model is proving successful: a third of its customers now devote half of their clothing spend to Stitch Fix.
Streaming music service Pandora has released Thumbprint Radio, which uses an algorithm to create a highly personalized playlist based on up to 10 years of the user’s history of song “likes.” The station evolves as new tracks are added and also acts as
a discovery engine, recommending new songs that users may enjoy. The latter point is significant, since consumers don’t want their choices to be so heavily edited that they miss out on fresh discoveries: two-thirds of people in the United Kingdom and United States believe that if everything is personalized based on their past behavior there will be no room to discover new things. Data may be the “new oil,” but, to extend the metaphor, oil is of no use until it is refined. Brands that make clever, insightful use of customer data to deliver the right product at the right time can build mutually rewarding relationships with customers.
TECHNOLOGY IS CHANGING US FOR THE BETTER.
EVERY THING IS MORE PERSONALIZED.
IF WE HAVE THIS COGNITIVE , SOPHISTICATED TECHNOLOGY THAT KNOWS ME , KNOWS WHAT I WANT, KNOWS WHAT I DON ’T WANT,
IT ’S MAKING LIFE EASIER.
AND WE DON ’T MISUSE THE INFORMATION , THAT’S GOING TO BE GREAT.
“
“”
”
Jamie, creative, New York
Dr Itiel Dror, senior cognitive neuroscience researcher, UCL, and consultant, CCI-HQ Powder, a website by Time Inc UK, tailors product
suggestions and beauty tips to its users.
CONTROL SHIFT 17CONTROL SHIFT
A host of platforms and tools offers people the opportunity to take control of their personal data streams. Here comes the personal data economy.
CitizenMe is an app that aims to help people take control of their personal data and derive value from it. “Personal data is a currency and how you spend that currency is totally up to you,” says StJohn Deakins, founder of CitizenMe. “If you want to remain completely private, it’s absolutely your choice. But you can only do that if you have control.” CitizenMe gathers user data from social media feeds as a service. Instead of selling it on, as many online businesses are known to do, it gives users full access to their data, so that the users themselves can exchange it anonymously with businesses in return for payment, rewards or discounts.
Tsū is another platform that seeks to restore power to consumers.
THE DATACONOMY
Unlike other social media platforms, Tsū proposes that people should earn revenue from their personal data. For every new post, every “like” and every friend they recruit, Tsū’s users earn money, funded by the site’s advertising revenue. Tsū acknowledges the value of its data for advertisers, and returns that money to the consumer in a fair exchange.
People.io offers subscribers an easy way to monetize their data and their attention; they earn credits in return for sharing personal information or engaging with content from brands. Piloted in London’s hipster Shoreditch district, the beta service is due to launch fully in late 2016. Australian start-up Meeco, which
has the tagline “you are not the product,” empowers people to derive value from their data with its software platform. The company’s web and smartphone apps enable users to control what data they share, and track how it is used.
These platforms have built frameworks that restore control over data to the people. The availability of these tools will raise awareness among consumers, driving the understanding that data is a currency.
87 OF CONSUMERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND UNITED STATES AGREE THAT
%COMPANIES SHOULD AGREE TO MY PERSONAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS IF THEY WANT TO MAKE USE OF MY DATA .
People.io enables users to trade their personal data for credits, which can be exchanged for products.
CONTROL SHIFT: WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOUR BUSINESS
18CONTROL SHIFT
1. Understand how the Control Shift operates for your brand. Manage the tension between automated services and customer privacy, and deliver the right amount of control at the right time to suit consumers’ needs.
The Control Shift presents brands with an opportunity to build better relationships with their customers, add tangible value to their lives, and foster brand loyalty.
Consumers are already demonstrating an appetite to disburden themselves and adopt more automated lives. It will be key for brands to understand what drives them delegate to control, and how this plays out for different categories.
Brands that get it right can simultaneously deliver on the sense of control that consumers need, and embed themselves in consumers’ daily lives as partners and experts. It is critical that technology feels comfortable and intuitive.
Transparency and clarity on privacy will be crucial. The onus will be on brands to demonstrate their credentials in this space, as responsible data policies and stewardship become differentiators. Infusing a sense of control over data in the brand experience will be key to building trust with consumers.
Our view is that these trends will grow as consumers and brands alike become more familiar with the potential benefits. The report explores the exciting opportunities that await, while highlighting the challenges and implications for brands.
2. Consumers are looking for support in managing the control burden—brands should cultivate roles as experts, delivering tailored solutions.
3. People love to choose, but too much choice can be a burden—consider how your brand might cleverly use data to help to simplify choice for customers.
4. Consumers will sit along a spectrum of control. Some people will always want control over the final decision or purchase—others will be happy for choices to be made for them. What’s important is to allow each individual to set their control parameters and the terms on which they are prepared to engage—and allow them to opt in and out whenever they decide.
5. Harness marketing technology tools in measurement, optimization and even social listening to bolster communication strategy. A deeper understanding of the consumer will help brands to understand and anticipate their needs and to deliver a better, more personalized customer experience.
CONTROL SHIFT 19CONTROL SHIFT
ABOUT THE INNOVATION GROUP
ABOUT J. WALTER THOMPSON INTELLIGENCE
The Innovation Group is J. Walter Thompson’s futures, research and innovation unit. It charts emerging and future global trends, consumer change, and innovation patterns—translating these into insight for brands. It offers a suite of consultancy services, including bespoke research, presentations, co-branded reports and workshops. It is also active in innovation, partnering with brands to activate future trends within their framework and execute new products and concepts.
The Innovation Group is part of J. Walter Thompson Intelligence, a platform for global research, innovation and data analytics at J. Walter Thompson Company, housing three key in-house practices: SONAR™, Analytics and the Innovation Group. SONAR™, J. Walter Thompson’s research unit, develops and exploits new quantitative and qualitative research techniques to understand cultures, brands and consumer motivation around the world. Analytics focuses on the innovative application of data and technology to inform and inspire new marketing solutions. It offers a suite of bespoke analytics tools.
MARIE STAFFORD
European Director, The Innovation Group
J. Walter Thompson Intelligence
@marie19a
ELIZABETH CHERIAN
Director, The Innovation Group
J. Walter Thompson Intelligence
@ElizCherian
CONTACT:
ABOUT US