The 2015 MBO Conference was filled with incredible insights on marketing and technology from the best that the industry has to offer. Kyle Lacy’s speech covered current technology trends and potential technology trends with the potential to disrupt consumer behavior. This post features notes and takeaways from Lacy’s speech. To learn more about the MBO Conference, download our MBO Conference Recap.

What’s next? What’s the difference between trends and reality?

As the head of consumer behavior at OpenView Ventures, Kyle Lacy attempts to answer that question every day. In his morning keynote, Kyle wanted to highlight the tech trends - and the trends - that will change the way consumers interact with your brand, website, and product.

“I think what’s next is changing much faster than we’ve ever experienced,” Kyle said.

The key to preparing for the future isn’t being a visionary, but rather being a good listener. Your strategy should be focused on what people are actually doing, not what you think they might do.

Moments Matter

Kyle opened his keynote by discussing moments. Becoming a great brand in the Internet age is about looking at every single consumer touchpoint and making it . Take advantage of a moment of time - sometimes a very ordinary moment of time - and make it matter to your customers. These same principles apply to the conventional buyer’s lifecycle. We as marketers and technologists have to build systems that allow people to interact with us in the moment, in the way they want to interact with us.

Mobility

Mobile is king, right? Not quite. Customer mobility reaches far beyond having a mobile-responsive site. Lacy pointed out some striking statistics, including the following:

• 1 in 5 searches on Google are related to location.
• 97% of websites fail at user experiences.
• 83% of US consumers research products while in-store on their phone.

The bottom line is that today, mobile is the smallest it will ever be. As cell phones get cheaper, more people will buy them and more people will be connected to the web.

The Audience Effect

“Whoever owns the audience owns the experience.”

Companies like Google, Amazon, and Apple have the audience, and therefore the cash flow, to enter any market they want. We’ve seen this come to fruition in every B2C marketplace, especially retail. In 2013, one third of all Christmas gifts in the US were shipped for free. In 2014, that number had doubled.

What you’re witnessing there is Amazon defining demand. Not only is Amazon capturing more of the retail market, but they’re forcing retailers to play by their rules.

“Most people think [Google]’s main competitors are Yahoo! and Bing, but it’s actually Amazon.”

Collaborative Consumption

Our entire economy is being rebuilt around the idea of sharing, and the most notable example of this, Uber, has positioned itself to thrive in competition with companies like Amazon.

In their last round, Uber raised $2.5 BILLION, meaning they have enough money to enter any market they want. Currently, their biggest investor is Google. Investors have valued Uber as if it’s larger than the entire taxi industry, but they don’t want to limit themselves to the taxi industry. They’re currently testing retail and food applications that could rival Amazon on price and deliver in mere hours.

Key Takeaways

• Americans spend 151 minutes/day on smartphones - More than TV or laptops.
• 30% of the total mobile market is smartphone, meaning there’s a 70% growth potential.