Published on December 17, 2019

A new decade arrives with a lot of learnings, evolved technologies, and new consumer behaviors. 2020 is ready to kick off a new era where marketing basics are empowered by artificial intelligence and where mundane tasks are automated by algorithms. The latter will not only predict the next best interaction between a brand and a person but also test scenarios to spark more interest, improve relevancy and enhance performance for the brand.

These practices open new opportunities and allow new methods of marketing to emerge. These are the 8 trends we predict as game changers for 2020:


Customers claimed their right to be better served. And brands understood that customer experience (CX) can't be isolated. This is the year where CX and marketing collide, where brands will rise to meet consumer expectations along their journey and beyond. More than an integration of data and user profiles, it’s a matter of messaging, participation, transaction and support becoming one.


People look for meaning beyond thumb-stopping moments. When a person makes a decision to buy, they need to engage emotionally, and when consistently enabled, they will buy again. A brand that stands for something bigger than itself and delivers upon it, provides an authentic platform and a purpose that people want to follow.

Purpose creates loyalty.


The endless growth of multicultural communities, a strengthening inclusivity mindset, and the ability to individualize consumers through data, provide brands the opportunity to reshape their marketing efforts. They achieve this not only by recognizing culture, but by becoming more relevant and meaningful, and by bringing better experiences to consumers’ lives. Multicultural audiences in particular are more aware of their culture, past and the present. Therefore, the things they relate to provide stronger opportunities for brands to connect deeply with them.


The importance of data and the growing reliance for the insights it can gleam, has quickly become a dangerous factor due the constant threat of data breaches. Consumers are deeply concerned about how their data is collected, stored and used. Brands have to reframe their data management practices to continue to be safe and valuable for the people they serve. The trend of brands collecting first-party data (1PD) to redirect spending from their remarketing efforts has driven brands to partner up with marketing automation platforms. Brand data strategy should go beyond volume and acquire more focus on responsible use and what is done with each data point.  


The rise of direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands and the proliferation of new commerce platforms are reshaping the way products and services are found and purchased by consumers. Brands will have the opportunity to focus on massive content production and distribution effectiveness. By concentrating their trading on the most interacted-with platforms (Facebook, Google and Amazon), supported by a big brand-direct push, and fully leveraging licensed ecosystems such as Shopify Plus, they will be able to set themselves up for stronger sales and global expansion.


Consumer demand is driving technology to anticipate needs and create new ones based on data processing with the potential to inform decisions and experiences. This allows brands to design automated journeys that can learn by themselves. It allows them to advance people through an optimized process that will only involve another human being on the other side if and when it is needed.

This next level of service will hinge on combining the power of algorithms with real-person abilities.

Where artificial intelligence and automation actually drive a more personal, customized, relevant, useful human experience.


The idea of having products and services designed with your biodata is catching up to the cultural tide of hyper-personalization. This brings a scientific way to matchmaking and compatibility checks that sparks new uses of wearables, sensors and facial recognition that can be translated into taste and preference predictions.


Instagram is replacing its in-feed public content like count for statements like 'others', 'thousands of others', or 'millions of others' have liked. This changes the flow of marketing operations, requiring technology partners to come and manage campaigns, and brands to seek for and validate 'authenticated' influencers. We expect more accountability for influencer marketing and more challenges to prove legitimacy as a brand resource.

Sergio Barrientos

Sergio BarrientosChief Strategy Officer - M8

Get in Touch