The document discusses major digital trends predicted for 2015, according to consultants. These include: - Omni-channel communication, with marketing happening across all channels from one central location. - Intelligent automation of marketing efforts through triggers, follow-ups, and personalization. - Increased use of semantic web technologies and semantic search enabling new ways of searching and understanding user intent. - Growing use of mobile devices for eLearning through more digestible on-the-go content. - Data visualization and its importance in interpreting the growing volume of available data. - Electronic payments shifting to use of mobile wallets and near field communication technology.

1. DIGITAL TRENDS 2015

2. We stand at the doorstep of a brand new
year, ready to enter and see what 2015 has
to offer. Looking back at the previous years
and the speed of digital development, it is
fair to assume that 2015 has a lot in store for
us. I asked some of our consultants what
they see as the major trends that are going
to hit us this year.

3. OMNI-CHANNEL COMMUNICATION
Omni-channel will continue to dominate the conversation in
2015. We have already moved from multi-channel to omni-
channel and we see this “movement” in the many faces of
technology. The latest Sitecore release will show a magnitude
of possibilities to control, manage and maintain all your active
marketing channels in one place: websites, microsites, data,
retargeting, social, CRM, email marketing, sales and so on.
2015 will not only be about conversions, but also about focusing
on the experience you deliver, which is what drives your
conversions.

4. INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION
Derives from the previous trend and even though it may not be
a new thing, it is very much relevant for marketers. To be able
to set up your marketing efforts through automated
mechanisms like trigger-based responses, proactive follow-ups,
programmatic personalisation, sales cycles, recommendation
engines and more. The (technical) ability to automate you
marketing is key in 2015 and will prove to be a huge
competitive advantage. Building the right strategy around your
marketing automation platforms (MAP) is what makes the
difference between failure and success.

5. SEMANTIC WEB AND SEMANTIC SEARCH
2015 will be the year where big companies finally understand that search engines are the
“great equalizer”, allowing small businesses to successfully compete with big ones in
organic search. Concepts like Semantic Web and Semantic Search will become trendy,
but still stay vague for most digital and marketing companies. However, Semantic Web
will grow rapidly using more technologies for querying across many types of related
information. Search engines will become the knowledge base fed and curated through the
Social Knowledge Graphs and big knowledge databases such as DBpedia, Freebase,
YAGO and many others. Terms like triples, entities and nodes will start becoming more
and more popular.
On the other side will be the Semantic Search. A new era of how search engines parse
our queries in search. Modern search technologies (NLP, statistical modeling, information
retrieval, etc.) will allow these game changers to understand the user intent, the context
around it and rank the results based on many new and different factors than today (e.g.
brand sentiments, topical breadth and depth, etc.)

6. MOBILE ELEARNING
With the ubiquity of mobile devices, mobile eLearning will
become increasingly used for accessing learning
material. Although desktop eLearning applications will not be
completely replaced, more and more learning/support materials
will be available through mobile devices, which makes the
content more digestible and contextual for the user.

7. STORYTELLING
Probably the oldest trick in the book, but only recently have we seen this being utilised
and amplified across organisations, in the way they brand themselves, their products and
services. With the increasing control and judgement of the consumers, brands and
companies have to adapt to these changes. It is no longer enough just to sell a product by
specifications — you have to convince the buyers that your intentions are good too and
that you will engage in a long-lasting relationship with your customers. The “stuff” around
the products and services becomes just as important to users (initially), as they buy into
the story of the product as well.
So start showing, that you are real people with real values, that you believe in your
products and that they will integrate seamlessly and add value to the daily lives of
millions. Then you move from story-telling to story-selling.

8. CUSTOMER JOURNEY
The Customer journey is still a hot topic. For designers it has been
around for a while, but it still holds huge potential for most
companies who still have not realized the value and opportunities
of creating customer journeys to understand how their customers
shop. We believe that more companies will understand how much
customer journeys can benefit them in 2015.

9. DATA OPENNESS, TRANSPARENCY & ETHICS
The increasing consumer knowledge about companies harvesting
their behavioural data also raises increased concerns about the
usage of this data. According to an Opera Software study,
Americans are more worried about violations of their online privacy
than losing their job or bankruptcy. A study from Orange shows that
77% would like to know how their data is being used to generate
digital trust. Creating transparency on how collected data is used
and making it modifiable for the consumers will create a higher
level of trust between your digital presence and your digital
audience. Apple and Google have already announced that in 2015,
they will offer tracking opt-out on mobile devices.

10. DIGITAL SERVICE DESIGN
The current biggest trend in Digital is the use of digital media in areas outside of
marketing or sales. Digital service design is the fastest growing area within
digital agencies and it will continue to grow for the years to come. This trend has
stemmed from the fact that for a long time, companies (no matter the industry),
were faced with an almost frozen competitive situation where price reductions
have been the best tool to win over new clients. For years, this was achieved by
i.e. moving production to cheaper countries. Now we have reached a turning
point as cheap countries become more expensive and consumers become more
aware of the environmental costs for keeping production costs low. Supporting
local businesses has never been more hot. The trend is now to support local
companies that keep your own local area vibrant and interesting.

11. DATA VISUALIZATION
Every day there is more data available that can be interpreted and
visualized. Understanding the available data and finding the best
visualization methods for it, recognizing the difference between
good and bad data visualization, is the next “Big data” step in
sorting usable data.

12. SMART HEALTHCARE
It is a question of who comes first and how governments will
regulate and adapt to this inevitable need for increased awareness
and information on your own current health status. By using digital
and of course wearable IoT, the people will be highly and properly
informed about their health, they will be proactive in self-diagnosis
and disease awareness, they will manage and control their own
health profile online across connected devices, corporations and
divisions

13. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
AI will be big in 2015 and a catalyst for disruption in many markets,
including the market for content management systems. The CMS
market is divided between lots of different players, with the key
players only making up a very small part of the market. The rest
are small fish, some of which are trying to disrupt the market, while
the big players are buying anyone with innovative technology to try
to avoid disruption.
Players like https://thegrid.io/ are using AI to automatically generate
websites based on the structure and performance of other websites
in the same vertical/industry. I think that kind of AI innovation will be
a big digital trend in 2015.

14. ELECTRONIC PAYMENTS
Near Field Communication Payments will take off in 2015,
changing consumer behaviour forever. With NFC chips placed in
more and more devices (Android, Windows and Apple phones), the
day where we are all using our mobile phone instead of our credit
card to buy things seems a lot closer than ever.

15. MULTI-DEVICE INTERACTIONS
The multitude of sensors, 3D and virtual reality can be woven into
entirely new applications that the web has not seen yet. Using
multi-device interactions and innovative technologies like WebGL
(Web Graphics Library) and WebVR, we can create experiences
that allow completely new interactions with content and our
audiences.

16. ROBOTICS ENGINEERING
One of the most exciting changes is the possibility to search and find
information through semantic connections. Technologies such as Google
Now and Siri are only two successful examples of that. I am utterly
convinced that in 2015, we are going to learn more about how search
engines and big databases will become favourable to robots. By diving
into pools of knowledge databases, robots can now understand more and
more entities and nodes. In other words, in the future, robots will rely on
structured data created and used by search engines. This will allow them
to answer questions more accurately and take certain actions. Just
imagine: “A robot that could query online ’how-to’ videos could then learn
how to perform a wide variety of household tasks.” MIT Technology
Review

17. SHARE ECONOMY
Airbnb cemented this phenomenon in 2014 and I think we will see
an explosion of related sub-digital services in 2015, which will
enable “ordinary” people to share anything online/offline. Sharing of
houses, cars, apartments, rides, lawnmowers, you name it. This is
of course both a huge challenge to traditional retailers, but can also
be a huge opportunity if they manage to adapt and respond to this
change in effect.

18. Are you prepared for the future?
Contact us if you need help with your future digital strategy.
valtech.dk
mari-ann@valtech.dk