Media360: The future of advertising in a new world of hybrid living – and the opportunities that personal shopping at work presents for marketeers’

Microsoft Advertising was delighted to recently attend Media360, which took place on the sunny Brighton seafront. The event brought together key executives and senior leaders from global brands, agencies, and media owners to discuss the future of advertising and looked at new strategies and investments that brands must make, to find success in the new hybrid world.

Microsoft Advertising were thrilled to host a roundtable, bringing together key industry insiders to discuss the themes and trends around hybrid living – and how the rise of personal shopping at work presents new opportunities for marketeers.

I was able to highlight how the blending of our work and personal lives has led to the emergence of a new customer persona – the Workday Consumer – a person who unapologetically switches between employee, personal and consumer modes throughout their working day.

Gone are the days of people completing work tasks and then commuting home, where they would complete personal tasks and in fact, all attendees at the roundtable identified themselves as a Workday Consumer. This means many of us are now taking short breaks or ‘time bites’ during our working day to tick off our to-do lists – whether that’s researching a holiday, shopping online or even tracking our investments.

We discussed how, after the shift to working from home triggered a permanent change in consumer behaviour, brands must now act fast to understand where and how consumers are working and living online and what mindset they are in during the day, or risk being stuck on digital marketing autopilot. With this huge shift in consumer behaviour, purchasing times and habits, marketing tactics must follow suit, to allow brands to unlock vital revenue growth.

Elsewhere at the conference, creating a media ecosystem that is fit for the future across a number of different points of focus was high on the agenda. From diversity and inclusion, climate and sustainability considerations and privacy, to retaining talent and inter-generational differences – what the future looks like for advertisers and consumers alike in a post-pandemic, hybrid working world was a key theme across several sessions.

We heard how first-party data will be king, as the elimination of cookies begins and third-party data is removed from the marketer’s toolbox. Especially within the context of diverse audiences within households using multiple screens and devices for cross-channel purchasing journeys, the onus is on advertisers to set themselves up for success, by seeking out the highest possible quality of data and applying the most valuable standards to measure it.  

In an industry where creativity is core to creating memorable brand moments and thus success, creativity of thought is crucial, and – amid the spectre of so-called ‘cancel culture’, we learned how the industry must balance creative freedom with creative risk, as authenticity is used to inspire positive belief in your brand. These themes continued, as speakers advocated for braver media thinking as we move past the last few tumultuous years. Creativity can also be encouraged through the application of a diverse workforce – and we learned about how embedding diversity, equity and inclusion can boost creative thought.  

Finally, the climate crisis was tackled head on, as we were challenged to do better when offsetting the industry’s carbon footprint. In a nod to the greenwashing that many brands have previously been accused of enacting in place of real tangible action, we learned about how brands must communicate sustainability messaging authentically, as well as managing their supply chains effectively to reduce emissions, and the impact this could have on their brand success across the long-term. 

To find out more about the insights from our recent research with Forrester, click here to download the Workday Consumer report.