Microsoft and Google are two very big companies, each have very different ways of conducting business and marketing their products. However, when it comes to marketing strategies and advertising, they are quite similar, but have some differences. Firstly, Microsoft.

Microsoft mainly uses demographic & behavioural segmentation strategies to target its customers. As Microsoft are one of the biggest companies in the world, you would expect them to be smart about the way they approach their marketing. Most of the Microsoft products and software, is based on online technology. Such as Office 365, and services such as Skype and Bing. For example, more than 1 billion people worldwide use Microsoft Office, which approximately 1 in 7 people (according to Microsoft) Microsoft also has a huge competitive advantage with its products such as Xbox which is one of the most popular and widely recognised game consoles in the world. Aside from the products, there has also been lots of company buyouts from Microsoft, such as Hotmail, Skype, and Nokia. These are now seen as essentials in the company because they are used worldwide and by almost everyone. These kinds of services provide great accessibility and efficiency for it is users, which is why Microsoft is regarded as one of the best if not the best technology related company in this day and age.

Microsoft is also famous for Windows OS, the most widely used OS in the world. Almost everyone recognises and uses windows computers. This is because they are so distinctive from their functionality and design. Microsoft continues to become more innovative with their technology, the work computers and laptops are almost becoming a standard in most companies because of this. This is another very big selling point for Microsoft. Selling and renting out it is services. Many other companies making their way into different respective businesses, will be using the services that Microsoft offer, such as OneDrive, Microsoft teams and Skype, and that is just the software. What about how much money they make from hardware? Laptops, computers, phones, Xbox series consoles and more. The Microsoft store online is always jampacked full of products.

Now we will talk about Google. Google has a similar method of advertising, but more of their advertisements and marketing happens online because Google most commonly is used for its search engine. Google has become one of the most popular and well-known companies ever to exist. The company now even has a mention in the dictionary when people “google” something. Not many companies can boast about that. Since the company was only a search engine, they have had a lot more products. These products include a new range of smartphones, speakers, earphones, and tablets. The company has grown a lot since it first started. One of googles own marketing strategies which is known as the “word of mouth model” targets customers who can afford the latest. These customers or “tech geeks” will buy the latest products and tell their friends and family about it spreading awareness. This is why Google has a big selling point when it comes to their new products. Another good thing about Google and its marketing is its advertising. We all know Google is based online and started from a search engine, but when you sell other products such as phones and tablets, and mainly advertise online, it will be a lot easier. The company mainly puts advertisements on its search engine and can sponsor companies to include paid links on their website. This is one simple method that Google use to advertise. This is very effective too, because so many people use this search engine, which means lots of people will see it. The company also lets users create Gmail and google accounts so they will receive promotional deals.

Here are four trends in digital marketing that should be kept in mind in 2020: From Terminator to the marketing managers' toolbox Artificial intelligence has come a long way since Skynets and John Connor's match in Terminator, and today AI is used, for example, to drive self-driving cars, simplify login to our iPhones through face recognition and to detect bank fraud. What is less accepted is that AI is also a rare effective tool for creating value from digital marketing. As the third-party cookie is leached more and more, AI can advantageously be used to identify patterns (for example, the time of day, which domain the ads appear on or what weather it is most likely to positively affect the conversion rate) that do not relies on cookies in the same way. Using AI and algorithms effectively requires new types of skills, such as data science and mathematics, which work together with more traditional strategic skills. Reasonably and hopefully 2020 will be the year when AI can seriously take a seat in all marketing executives' toolbox to maximize the impact of their media investment. Creative messages and tech marry In our industry, we are often very good at using granular target groups and establishing fantastically intricate purchasing strategies. Where there is often a discrepancy, however, is creative, where data is rarely used to adapt the messages. According to Nielsen studies, the creative elements can affect as much as 47 percent of the purchase decision, so not applying the same degree of data-driven approach here can potentially be devastating to our results. It is possible to customise all digital ads and landing pages with any kind of data point, such as weather, geographical position or last viewed product, so make 2020 the year where we create value and impact for advertisers all the way from skilfully set strategies and target groups to data-driven advertising message at scale. From outdated to customised KPIs One of the absolute greatest advantages we have in digital is that we can measure outcomes and effects more profoundly than in more analogue media types. Therefore, it is high time that we go from talking about and optimising against outdated CPIs such as CPM, CPC or CTR. I am convinced that customised CPIs based on advertisers' actual business goals will be increasingly adopted. For example, a customised CPI can be several sub-goals on the advertiser's site (for example, 60 seconds spent in Article X and then click on for information on the nearest reseller), knowing that these largely correlate with a business goal that bought or booked a test run. It is important here that we work very closely and together with our customers to translate these conditions into digital KPIs. Blockchain becomes more than just buzz The industry's latest buzzword is blockchain, the same technology that underlies cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Blockchain is something that we should be curious about as the technology itself can create great benefits for us as advertisers and media buyers. Some examples of applications are that it can be applied to promote and increase transparency in the digital ecosystems, or that users themselves can sell their data as a currency to access content from publishers through micro-transactions. Blockchain will probably not be rolled out on a broad front already next year - the technology is not quite there yet. However, my only hope is that we have some local players who dare to experiment with blockchain to drive our industry forward and to use transformative technologies to create advertiser value.