The evolution from 4G to 5G may seem like a simple but logical step towards greater mobile interconnectivity, but it may represent a giant leap for digital marketing capabilities. This age of improved data has the potential to change the volume of information at the disposal of marketers and how they can use it.
5G is set to become the cornerstone of the ‘smart world’, which will take internet of things (IoT) technology to the next level in introducing 5G connected vehicles and devices which have already been incorporated into Huawei’s Smart Hotel–which will bring welcome robots, cloud-connected gym equipment, computing terminals, and 4K streaming.
One area that 5G is set to transform is digital marketing. These changes will be driven by faster connectivity speeds, and the emergence of more powerful interactive elements. Increased connectivity will pave the way for faster download times, more effective live streaming capabilities, and seamless location-based advertising via the ability to process data at a faster pace.
Put simply, 5G connected marketing will empower more consumers to engage in more content that’s likely to be better personalized and more relevant to their needs at the time. The whole process can be optimized through GPS location-based advertising which can place new discounts and offers under the noses of the right targets on behalf of brands in accessible areas.
Let’s explore how marketers can use these qualities to deliver impactful digital campaigns driven by 5G:
Advertising in an Alternate Reality
The ways in which brands can grow their presence is expanding at an exponential rate. Today, it’s possible to experience marketing on smartphones, websites, and digital screens at shopping centers and airports.
5G will make internet connectivity faster and more accessible nationwide, opening the door for more intuitive marketing campaigns in more rural areas. This will pave the way for digital advertising to become more comprehensive. These faster network speeds can also make digital content more advanced and immersive.
In the coming years, we’re also likely to see marketers get to grips with reality technology ads where users can access immersive experiences through augmented reality glasses or smart glasses interact with location-based ads that can pop up in their field of view.
This would represent a logical evolution of the technology that’s prevalent in previewing sales like IKEA Place. The implementation of augmented reality in advertising is also being used by Burger King to promote products in locations where rival fast food chains had ads. In practice, this meant that users could scan a McDonalds ad via their smartphones, set it on fire, and replace it with a Burger King ad–all equipped with a discount coupon.
The Internet Becomes Handheld
The biggest change that 5G will bring for marketers is the transformation of the internet into a handheld entity. In the age of superfast connectivity, ‘mobile’ will become synonymous with the internet, and the way most people access information and communicate.
This will invariably lead to more video-based campaigns as the format becomes more functional for mobile audiences and 5G leverages better accessibility for the more data-consuming aspect of video.
Video is already a strong avenue for communication among brands. This is because they can be fun, appealing, and surprising while conveying different levels of complex messages. There’s also an ever-expanding range of options when it comes to video campaigns, with social networks like TikTok and Instagram emerging as multimedia-heavy platforms that are widely used for video content.
We’re already seeing 5G handsets built with the capabilities of processing significant volumes of data, and Apple’s latest release, the iPhone 14 Pro Max comes equipped with an A6 Bionic chip and 6GB of RAM, making the handset more powerful than many mid-range laptops and PCs today.
For marketers, the freedom of creating more complex video content can be great for social proofing as influencers can upload and stream positive experiences with products and services, while brands have more freedom to create more bandwidth-consuming content and experiences.
Delivering Greater Personalization
With the potential of 5G, powerful processes like edge computing, data collection and processing can be powerful enough to deliver far more fine-tuned analytical insights. This paves the way for far more focused real-time analysis, decision making, and response automation.
This data collection can also help marketers to better understand their audience behavior, and discover more specific information in order to segment them in a more efficient manner.
Thanks to these more insightful analytics and data collection processes, 5G can also empower marketers to generate more data and insights that can be utilized for better personalization.
Here, hyper-personalization can also help brands to more accurately appeal to their audience by tailoring ads directly to the specific user, tapping into GDPR compliant data that can be more intelligently processed to understand who each individual target is and what areas of a company they’d be more interested in.
For marketers, 5G will be a transformative innovation for the industry that’s likely to alter how practitioners analyze their ROI and how to achieve conversions. For many brands, this transformation is already underway, and with 5G expected to accelerate its rollout in 2023, we’re likely to see digital marketing campaigns reach their targets in more impactful and innovative ways than ever before.