Tres Miah, Creative StrategistThe customer requirement for valuable content is affecting behavior. Brands that do not build a better customer experience will stagnate and unavoidably lose market share. This was the takeaway from the recent Econsultancy's webinar “The New Marketing Reality: How To Capitalize On Opportunities To Build A Better Customer Experience.” IBM's Marketing Evangelist Jeremy Waite reported on their recent findings and their relationship to nascent A.I. and intelligent algorithms over at Google.They noted the following major trends that will invariably effect your brand's competitiveness and growth. This is information that executive management should be discussing at the brand operations and communications levels this year. They are...Major technology shift: A.I. and intelligent algorithms, with their nascent capabilities to help brand marketers better understand the consumer's journeys from online to offline, are developing rapidly to empower the creation of better marketing content.Two major rising behavioral trends: The rising backlash of customers (across all age groups) willing to impart their personal information to brands. And, the use of mobile apps – which do not require giving a battery of personal information – are exponentially increasing along with the rise in mobile consumption.The reason for this major shift is the new Google algorithms. They are now better at sorting customer value versus customer need. Great content is now the essential tool in building value and trust, not SEO ranking which focused on needs. Companies that continue marketing efforts focused on SEO ranking, at the expense of creating content that builds value, will become the losers in this new virtual economy.It is quite clear that these new algorithms are ushering in a new communication paradigm. One where what matters most in building customer trust is content that delivers value. AKA: Relevancy.What this now means for your brand communications: “ Your Customer is Now Your Algorithm.”Brands that understand content that target their audience values will be the ones that strengthen their customer service engagement across all touch points of the customer's journey, the true driver of brand relevancy and company profits. It is no coincidence that these Google algorithm developments parallel the rise of content marketing, the new driver of brand relevancy in the virtual economy.In the second part of this article, I relay how progressive brands have diminished this threat to ensure their competitive advantage during this radical shift into the “new normal” of a rapidly emerging virtual economy. The strategic and tactical use of video content has proven to be the most effective format for a brand's customer attention; the “new currency” in the virtual economy.[author]About the Author: Tres Miah is a Creative Strategist focused on strategic planning, creative strategy and brand messaging for strategic communications and integrated marketing campaigns. His clients are global brands: VH1, Broadridge Financial and The New York Choral Society. Tres is an MTV award-winning producer for “Creative Excellence” and an expert on video content strategy. In his alternative life, Tres is a reped screenwriter. He has developed work for HBO, Showtime and his former haunt, VH1.[/author]