Digital Twins in Marketing: Magical Minions

Published October 1-10, 2024

1

Overview

One of the early applications of Agentic AI is Digital Twins interacting with a Co-Marketer (or a human marketer). While digital twins have been used extensively in the industrial world for over a decade, their use in marketing remains largely untapped. In this series, I will explore how digital twins can play a role in marketing, discuss the type of interactions that marketers (AI or human) can have with them, and how they can businesses multi-maximise every customer lifetime value (LTV) in their Profipoly Quest in an increasingly AI-driven marketplace.

Let’s begin by reviewing some of my previous writings.

In AI-Powered Digital Twins: Marketing’s Marvel, I wrote: “Digital Twins will transform marketing. Powered by AI, Segment Twins and Singular Twins these twins will help marketers bridge the ga between adtech and martech, achieve the twin objectives of increasing customer LTV (lifetime value) lowering CAC (customer acquisition cost), and help with profitable growth. …By continuously refining strategies based on real-time insights, businesses can achieve N=1 hyper-personalisation, delivering tailored experiences that drive engagement and loyalty. In the words of Jack Carr quoting a quantum computer (almost an “artificial general intelligence”) named Alice in “Red Sky Mourning”, the Digital Twins can “in real-time, analyse the past and evaluate the present to predict the future.””

I added: “Segment Twins represent customer groups with shared behaviours and preferences, enabling marketers to craft targeted content and strategies for specific segments. Marketers can also have conversations with personas representing each of the segments. For example, a segment twin could be asked to rank email creatives in terms of likely performance. Singular Twins, on the other hand, are individual customer replicas that provide personalised recommendations and guide customer journeys. They become more powerful with accumulation of individual data (both first- and zero-party, and derived attributes) and the progression of journeys in the lifecycle. These twins continuously evolve, integrating new data and interactions to remain current and accurate.”

In The Crossing: When Digital Twins and Email Apps Meet, I wrote:

Digital Twins in marketing are AI-powered virtual representations of customers or customer segments. There are two types: Segment Twins, representing groups with similar behaviours and preferences, and Singular Twins, replicating individual customers. These twins provide comprehensive insights into customer behaviours, preferences, and interactions. They enable marketers to simulate scenarios, test strategies, and deliver highly personalised experiences. Digital Twins interact with Co-Marketers in a “mirror world” to identify optimal engagement strategies. By facilitating true 1:1 personalisation and enabling precise targeting of customer groups, Digital Twins transform marketing from broad approaches to highly tailored strategies.

… The Commerce Metaverse represents a new paradigm in digital marketing and customer engagement, inspired by the Industrial Metaverse but focused on commerce and marketing interactions. It’s a virtual environment (“mirror world”) where AI-powered entities like Co-Marketers and Digital Twins (both Segment and Singular) interact to create hyper-personalised customer experiences. Unlike the consumer-focused metaverse, the Commerce Metaverse emphasises business outcomes, enabling marketers to simulate customer interactions, test strategies, and optimise journeys in a risk-free environment. By leveraging technologies like Agentic AI and Large Customer Models, the Commerce Metaverse aims to revolutionise how brands understand, engage with, and serve their customers, ultimately driving higher conversion rates and customer lifetime value.

While Segment Twins and Singular Twins will be the first applications, Digital Twins will do much more in the coming world of AI-first Marketing.

2

Customer Twins

The dawn of digital twins in marketing marks a transformative era in customer engagement and value creation. The convergence of big data, advanced analytics, and artificial intelligence has created the perfect storm for this technology to thrive in the marketing landscape.

The time is ripe for digital twins in marketing for several compelling reasons. First, the proliferation of customer data from various touchpoints provides a rich foundation for creating detailed digital replicas. Every interaction, transaction, and engagement leaves a digital footprint, offering unprecedented insights into customer behaviour and preferences. Second, the maturation of AI-ML enables the creation of sophisticated, dynamic models that can accurately simulate customer behaviour in real-time. These models can process and analyse vast amounts of data, identifying patterns and trends that would be impossible for humans to discern. Third, the exponential growth in computing power allows for the real-time processing and analysis of this data, making it possible to create and update digital twins continuously. Lastly, there’s an increasing demand for hyper-personalised experiences from customers, a need that digital twins are uniquely positioned to fulfil.

Customer Twins take two primary forms: Segment Twins and Singular Twins. Segment Twins represent groups of customers with similar behaviours, preferences, and characteristics. These virtual cohorts allow marketers to simulate responses to campaigns across different customer segments, test messaging and offers on virtual groups before real-world deployment and identify trends and patterns within specific customer cohorts. On the other hand, Singular Twins are AI-powered replicas of individual customers, enabling hyper-personalised marketing at scale – true N=1 marketing. These individual twins facilitate predictive modelling of customer journeys and real-time optimisation of interactions across all touchpoints, ensuring each customer receives a tailored experience.

The adoption of digital twins represents a quantum leap in marketing practices. It shifts the paradigm from reactive to proactive strategies, allowing marketers to anticipate customer needs and behaviours before they occur. This predictive capability enables pre-emptive strategies that can significantly enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty, and reduce churn. Digital twins also offer precision at scale, allowing for unprecedented levels of personalisation without sacrificing reach or efficiency. Marketers can craft highly targeted campaigns and experiences for millions of customers simultaneously, each interaction as unique as the individual it’s designed for.

Furthermore, digital twins provide a risk-free environment for experimentation. Marketers can test strategies, messages, and campaigns in a virtual setting, reducing the cost and risk associated with real-world trials. This capability fosters innovation and allows for rapid iteration and optimisation of marketing efforts. The continuous learning and evolution of digital twins ensure that marketing strategies remain relevant and effective, adapting in real-time to changing customer preferences and market conditions.

Perhaps most importantly, digital twins offer a holistic understanding of the customer journey. By simulating entire customer lifecycles, they provide a comprehensive view of the customer experience, from initial awareness to long-term loyalty. This end-to-end visibility enables marketers to identify and address pain points, optimise touchpoints, and create seamless, satisfying customer experiences.

3

More Twins – 1

There are many other scenarios where Digital Twins can be used.

Product Twins

Product Twins are virtual representations of physical products, offering marketers unprecedented capabilities in product development, marketing, and customer engagement. These digital replicas allow for detailed simulations of product usage, enabling marketers to gather insights on how customers interact with products in various scenarios. This data can inform product improvements, guide marketing messaging, and enhance customer support.

Product Twins can power interactive product demonstrations, allowing customers to virtually “try” products before purchase, significantly enhancing the online shopping experience. Importantly, buyers can have conversations with these twins, asking specific questions about features, compatibility, or use cases. These AI-powered interactions provide personalised product information, mimicking the experience of talking to a knowledgeable sales associate, but available 24/7 and scalable to millions of customers simultaneously. This conversational capability not only enhances the customer’s understanding of the product but also builds confidence in their purchase decision.

Product Twins can also facilitate personalised product recommendations by matching product attributes with individual customer preferences and usage patterns. Additionally, they can support post-purchase engagement by providing customized usage tips, maintenance advice, and upgrade suggestions based on the customer’s specific product and usage history.

Store Twins

Store Twins are digital replicas of physical retail locations, offering marketers a powerful tool to optimise the in-store experience and bridge the gap between online and offline shopping. These virtual representations allow marketers to simulate different store layouts, product placements, and customer flows, enabling data-driven decisions to enhance the shopping experience. By analysing foot traffic patterns, dwell times, and conversion rates in the digital twin, marketers can test and implement changes that maximize engagement and sales. Store Twins also enable personalised in-store experiences by integrating with customer data, allowing for targeted promotions or product recommendations to be delivered to shoppers’ mobile devices as they navigate the physical store. This seamless blend of digital insight and physical retail helps create a more engaging, efficient, and personalised shopping experience, ultimately driving customer satisfaction and increasing sales.

Location Twins

Location Twins are digital replicas of geographic areas, providing marketers with a powerful tool for location-based marketing strategies. These twins can simulate customer behaviour and movement patterns within specific locations, such as neighbourhoods, cities, or regions. Location Twins offer invaluable insights for targeting local campaigns, optimising outdoor advertising placements, and planning pop-up stores or events.

By integrating demographic data, foot traffic patterns, and local trends, marketers can tailor their messaging and offers to resonate with the unique characteristics of each location. Location Twins also enable more effective geofencing strategies, allowing marketers to trigger personalized mobile notifications or offers when customers enter specific areas. This technology can significantly enhance the relevance and effectiveness of local marketing efforts, leading to improved customer engagement and higher conversion rates in targeted geographic areas.

4

More Twins – 2

Employee Twins

Employee Twins are digital representations of a company’s workforce, offering unique opportunities for enhancing customer service and marketing effectiveness. In B2C/D2C marketing, these twins can be used to optimise customer-facing roles by simulating various customer interaction scenarios. Marketers can use Employee Twins to test and refine scripts, training programs, and service protocols, ensuring that every customer interaction aligns with the brand’s values and marketing messages. These twins can also be used to personalise customer service by matching customers with the most suitable employee based on their preferences, history, and current needs. Furthermore, Employee Twins can help in identifying top-performing behaviours and strategies, which can then be replicated across the organization. By improving the quality and consistency of customer interactions, Employee Twins contribute to stronger brand perception, increased customer satisfaction, and ultimately, higher customer lifetime value.

Partner Twins

Partner Twins are digital replicas of a company’s business partners, such as suppliers, distributors, or collaborators. In B2C/D2C marketing, these twins can be leveraged to optimize the entire value chain and enhance the customer experience. Marketers can use Partner Twins to simulate various collaboration scenarios, testing how different partner strategies might impact product availability, pricing, or promotional activities. This allows for more effective co-marketing campaigns, seamless product launches, and improved inventory management. Partner Twins can also facilitate better communication of customer needs and preferences throughout the supply chain, ensuring that partners are aligned with the company’s customer-centric goals. By optimizing partner relationships and operations, marketers can ensure a more consistent and satisfying customer experience, from product development to after-sales service, ultimately driving customer loyalty and repeat business.

Competitor Twins

Competitor Twins are digital models that simulate the behaviour, strategies, and performance of rival companies. For marketers, these twins provide invaluable insights for competitive analysis and strategy formulation. By creating virtual representations of competitors, marketers can simulate market scenarios, predict competitive responses to new product launches or marketing campaigns, and identify potential gaps in the market. Competitor Twins can be used to benchmark performance across various metrics, helping marketers to set realistic goals and identify areas for improvement. These twins can also assist in pricing strategies by simulating how competitors might react to price changes. Furthermore, Competitor Twins enable marketers to test “what-if” scenarios, such as how the market might shift if a competitor introduces a new product or changes their marketing approach. This proactive approach allows marketers to stay ahead of the curve, quickly adapting their strategies to maintain a competitive edge in the fast-paced B2C/D2C landscape.

I asked Claude if there were any additional twins that could be relevant in the marketing context.

• Campaign Twins: Virtual replicas of marketing campaigns that allow for simulation and optimization before and during execution.
• Customer Journey Twins: Digital representations of the entire customer lifecycle, enabling marketers to visualize and enhance every touchpoint.
• Brand Twins: AI-powered models of a brand’s identity, values, and voice, ensuring consistency across all marketing efforts.
• Channel Twins: Virtual replicas of marketing channels (e.g., email, social media, website) for testing and optimizing cross-channel strategies.
• Event Twins: Digital simulations of marketing events or trade shows, allowing for virtual planning and attendance.
• Influencer Twins: AI models of influencers or brand ambassadors, helping to predict and optimize influencer marketing campaigns.
• Market Twins: Comprehensive digital representations of entire markets, enabling macro-level strategy simulations.
• Budget Twins: Virtual models of marketing budgets that simulate different allocation scenarios and predict ROI.
• Content Twins: AI-generated replicas of marketing content that can be personalized and optimized in real-time.
• Loyalty Program Twins: Digital models of customer loyalty programs for testing and enhancing reward structures and engagement strategies.

5

Creation

The creation of digital twins in marketing follows a process similar to that in the industrial world, but with a focus on customer behaviour and marketing strategies. The process involves several key stages:

1. Data Collection: In the industrial sector, this involves sensors and IoT devices collecting real-time data from physical assets, along with historical performance data. In marketing, data is collected from various customer touchpoints, including CRM systems, purchase histories, browsing patterns, push messages, social media interactions, and demographic information. Zero-party data, gathered directly from customers through surveys and feedback forms, also plays a crucial role. Adtech data can be another important source, especially for Segment Twins.
2. Model Creation: Industrial digital twins often start with 3D modelling using CAD software, followed by integration with collected data and simulation software. For marketing twins, this stage involves developing Segment Twins for customer groups and Singular Twins for individual customers. ML algorithms analyse and model this data to create dynamic representations of customer behaviours and preferences.
3. Integration and Testing: Industrial twins are integrated with enterprise IT systems and undergo rigorous testing. Similarly, marketing twins are integrated with marketing platforms and tools, allowing for real-time data exchange. They are then tested with different marketing strategies to validate their accuracy in predicting customer responses.
4. Continuous Improvement: Both industrial and marketing twins benefit from continuous updates and refinement based on real-time data and feedback loops.

Claude gave a very interesting list of use cases for marketing by drawing from analogies in the industrial world.

• GE’s Wind Turbines
  • Industrial: GE creates digital twins of wind turbines to monitor performance and predict maintenance needs.
  • Marketing: Create digital twins of customer segments to predict behavior and tailor marketing strategies.
• NASA’s Spacecraft
  • Industrial: NASA uses digital twins to simulate and troubleshoot issues with spacecraft.
  • Marketing: Use digital twins to simulate and troubleshoot customer journey issues.
• Siemens’ Factory Planning
  • Industrial: Siemens uses digital twins to plan and optimize factory layouts.
  • Marketing: Use store twins to optimize retail layouts and customer flow.
• Boeing’s Aircraft Design
  • Industrial: Boeing creates digital twins of aircraft for design and testing.
  • Marketing: Create product twins for virtual product testing and customer feedback before launch.
• Smart Cities
  • Industrial: Cities create digital twins to manage infrastructure and services.
  • Marketing: Create location twins to optimize local marketing strategies and experiences.
• Automotive Manufacturing
  • Industrial: Car manufacturers use digital twins for vehicle design and production optimization
  • Marketing: Use digital twins to personalize the car buying experience and after-sales service.
• Oil and Gas Industry
  • Industrial: Companies create digital twins of oil platforms for remote monitoring and management
  • Marketing: Create digital twins of complex customer ecosystems (e.g., B2B relationships) for better account management.

ChatGPT brought in a use-case approach.

Example 1: Predictive Maintenance in Manufacturing

• Industrial: Sensors on machinery collect data on wear and tear, predicting when maintenance is needed to prevent breakdowns.
• Marketing: Data on customer interactions is analyzed to predict churn, allowing for preemptive retention strategies.

Example 2: Performance Optimization in Aerospace

• Industrial: Digital twins of aircraft engines simulate performance under various conditions to optimize fuel efficiency and maintenance schedules.
• Marketing: Digital twins of customer segments simulate responses to different marketing campaigns, optimizing content and timing for maximum engagement.

Example 3: Supply Chain Management in Retail

• Industrial: Digital twins of supply chains model logistics and inventory management to ensure efficient operations.
• Marketing: Digital twins of customer journeys model interactions across touchpoints, optimizing the path to purchase and post-purchase engagement.

The key principle in both industrial and marketing applications is creating a virtual replica that accurately reflects its real-world counterpart, enabling prediction, simulation, and optimisation. In marketing, this translates to creating detailed, dynamic models of customers, products, and market environments that can be used to enhance marketing strategies and customer experiences.

6

Conversations and Content

The application of digital twins in marketing is poised to transform two critical areas: conversations and content. These use cases leverage the power of AI to enhance understanding, personalization, and effectiveness in marketing strategies.

Conversations: Dialogue with Digital Twins

Digital twins enable marketers and AI-powered Co-Marketers to engage in insightful conversations with virtual representations of customer segments or individuals. This capability offers unprecedented depth in customer understanding and strategy development.

1. Segment Twin Dialogues
   • Marketers can “interview” Segment Twins to gain insights into collective behaviours, preferences, and pain points of specific customer groups.
   • Example: A fashion retailer might converse with a Segment Twin representing “eco-conscious millennials” to understand their views on sustainable fashion, price sensitivity, and preferred communication channels.
2. Singular Twin Interactions
   • Co-Marketers can engage with Singular Twins to predict individual customer responses to personalized offers or campaigns.
   • Example: An AI Co-Marketer might interact with a Singular Twin to craft a highly personalised email campaign, testing various subject lines and content options.
3. Scenario Testing
   • Marketers can run various “what-if” scenarios by conversing with twins about potential product launches, pricing changes, or new marketing initiatives.
   • Example: A quick commerce company could discuss a new pricing structure for subscriptions and platform fees with Digital Twins to gauge potential reactions and identify potential objections before implementing changes.
4. Trend Identification
   • By engaging in ongoing dialogues with multiple twins, marketers can identify emerging trends or shifts in customer sentiment early.
   • Example: A food and beverage company might notice a growing interest in plant-based products through consistent conversations with various Segment Twins.
5. Customer Journey Optimisation
   • Conversations with Digital Twins at different stages of the customer journey can reveal pain points and opportunities for improvement.
   • Example: An eCommerce platform could interact with twins representing customers at the consideration stage to understand what information or incentives might push them towards a purchase.

Content: Creation and Optimisation

Digital twins offer a powerful tool for content creation and optimization, enabling marketers to develop and refine their messaging with unprecedented precision.

1. Content Creation Assistance
   • Digital twins can provide insights that inform content creation, ensuring it resonates with target audiences.
   • Example: A travel company could use insights from conversations with Segment Twins to create blog posts that address the specific interests and concerns of different traveller types.
2. Advanced A/B Testing
   • Rather than traditional A/B testing, marketers can use digital twins to simulate responses to multiple content variations simultaneously.
   • Example: An email marketer could test dozens of subject line variations with Singular Twins, predicting open rates and engagement levels before sending to real customers.
3. Dynamic Content Optimisation
   • Digital twins can help create adaptive content that changes based on predicted user preferences and behaviors.
   • Example: A news website could use Singular Twins to dynamically adjust article recommendations in real-time, maximizing engagement for each visitor.
4. Multichannel Content Alignment
   • By testing content across various digital twins representing different channels, marketers can ensure consistency and effectiveness across all platforms.
   • Example: A retailer could use Channel Twins to optimize how a campaign message is adapted for social media, email, and in-store displays.
5. Personalisation at Scale
   • Digital twins enable the creation of highly personalized content for large customer bases.
   • Example: A streaming service could use Singular Twins to generate thousands of personalized show recommendations, each tailored to individual viewing habits and preferences.
6. Long-term Content Strategy
   • Conversations with Digital Twins can inform long-term content strategies by predicting evolving customer interests and needs.
   • Example: A fashion retailer could analyse trends from Segment Twins to predict seasonal fashion preferences, enabling the creation of targeted content such as blog posts, social media campaigns, and lookbooks that align with upcoming trends and customer interests.

**

By leveraging digital twins for both conversations and content, marketers can create a powerful feedback loop. Insights gained from conversations inform content creation, while the performance of that content, as predicted by digital twins, further refines the understanding of customer segments and individuals. This iterative process allows for continuous improvement and optimisation of marketing strategies.

7

More Interactions

Here are some additional examples of interactions between marketers and digital twins.

Campaign Testing: Digital twins can simulate the response of various customer segments to different campaign elements. Marketers can test messaging, visuals, timing, and channel mix before launching a campaign. This allows for fine-tuning and optimization based on predicted responses, potentially increasing campaign effectiveness and ROI.

Product Recommendations: By interacting with Singular Twins, marketers can refine product recommendation algorithms. These twins can simulate how individual customers might respond to different product suggestions, allowing for more personalized and effective cross-selling and upselling strategies.

UX Design: Digital twins can help marketers and designers test different user interface layouts and user experience flows. By simulating how customers interact with various design elements, companies can create more intuitive and engaging digital experiences that lead to higher conversion rates and customer satisfaction.

Sentiment Check: Marketers can use digital twins to gauge potential customer reactions to new initiatives, brand messages, or even current events. This allows companies to anticipate public sentiment and adjust their messaging or strategies accordingly, potentially avoiding PR crises or capitalizing on positive sentiment.

Forecasting: By simulating various market conditions and customer behaviours, digital twins can help marketers forecast sales, market trends, and campaign performance. This can aid in budget allocation, inventory management, and strategic planning.

Product Design: Interactions with digital twins can inform product development by simulating how different customer segments might use and respond to new product features. This can help companies create products that better meet customer needs and preferences.

Loyalty Program Design: Digital twins can help marketers test and refine loyalty program structures. By simulating customer responses to different reward tiers, point systems, and benefits, companies can design more engaging and effective loyalty programs.

Event Simulation: For both virtual and physical events, digital twins can help marketers simulate attendee behaviour, test different event layouts or agendas, and optimize engagement strategies. This can lead to better-planned and more successful events.

Crisis Management: In the event of a PR crisis or product recall, digital twins can help marketers simulate various response strategies and their potential outcomes. This can aid in quick and effective crisis management, minimizing damage to brand reputation.

I asked Claude to suggest more possibilities.

• Pricing Strategy: Digital twins could help marketers test different pricing models and strategies, simulating how various customer segments might respond to price changes, discounts, or new pricing structures.
• Customer Service Optimization: By simulating customer service interactions, digital twins could help companies improve their support processes, train staff, and develop more effective self-service options.
• Competitive Analysis: Marketers could use digital twins to simulate competitor actions and market responses, helping to develop more robust competitive strategies.
• Ad Placement Optimization: Digital twins could help marketers determine the most effective ad placements by simulating customer attention and engagement across different digital and physical advertising spaces.
• Influencer Partnership Simulation: Marketers could use digital twins to simulate the impact of potential influencer partnerships on different customer segments, helping to choose the most effective collaborations.
• Brand Perception Analysis: By interacting with digital twins representing different customer segments, marketers could gain deeper insights into how their brand is perceived and how various brand-building initiatives might shift those perceptions.

8

Marketing Minions

In the dynamic landscape of modern marketing, digital twins will emerge as the unsung heroes, akin to the lovable minions from the animated world of “Despicable Me.” Just as Gru’s success hinges on his army of yellow helpers, marketers will find their strategies amplified and executed with unprecedented precision through an array of digital twins. These AI-powered entities serve as “marketing minions,” working tirelessly behind the scenes to analyse, predict, and optimise every facet of customer interaction. From personalised content creation to real-time campaign adjustments, these digital twins can form the backbone of a new era in marketing efficiency and effectiveness, turning grand marketing visions into reality with meticulous attention to detail and data-driven insights.

The true revolutionary potential of Digital Twins lies in their ability to function within multi-agent systems enabled by Agentic AI. This concept transforms the Co-Marketer from a singular entity into a dynamic orchestrator, capable of spawning multiple specialised sub-agents. Each of these sub-agents is designed to interact with various types of digital twins, creating a complex, interconnected network of AI-driven marketing expertise. This system operates with a singular focus: to maximize the lifetime revenue from every customer by gaining a deep, nuanced understanding of individual needs, preferences, and behaviours.

For instance, one sub-agent might specialize in analysing Segment Twins to identify broader market trends, while another focuses on interpreting Singular Twins to craft hyper-personalised messaging. A third sub-agent could work with Product Twins to optimise product recommendations, while yet another collaborates with Location Twins to refine geotargeting strategies. These sub-agents don’t work in isolation but in concert, sharing insights and coordinating actions to create a seamless, holistic marketing approach.

This multi-agent system enables a level of marketing sophistication previously unattainable. It can simultaneously operate at macro and micro levels, balancing broad market strategies with individual customer experiences. For example, while one set of sub-agents works on developing a company-wide branding campaign based on insights from Segment Twins, another set can be fine-tuning personalised email campaigns for high-value customers using Singular Twins.

The beauty of this system lies in its scalability and adaptability. As the marketing landscape evolves, new sub-agents can be spawned to address emerging challenges or opportunities. This flexibility ensures that the marketing strategy remains cutting-edge and responsive to market dynamics.

Moreover, this multi-agent approach embodies the concept of a “Department of One” for a “Segment of One.” It allows for an unprecedented level of personalisation at scale, where each customer can potentially have a dedicated ‘team’ of AI agents working to understand and cater to their specific needs. This not only enhances customer satisfaction and loyalty but also significantly improves marketing efficiency and ROI.

In essence, these AI-driven marketing minions, orchestrated by the Co-Marketer, create a marketing ecosystem that is simultaneously comprehensive and granular, strategic and tactical, innovative and data-driven. They represent the future of marketing, where the boundaries between human creativity and AI efficiency blur, resulting in marketing strategies that are not just more effective, but truly transformative.

**

The advent of digital twins in marketing heralds a new era of unprecedented precision, personalization, and predictive power. As these AI-driven entities evolve from mere tools to indispensable collaborators, they promise to reshape marketing strategies by turning every customer interaction into an opportunity for mutual value creation. By enabling marketers to simulate, test, and refine their approaches in risk-free virtual environments, digital twins pave the way for more effective, efficient, and engaging customer interactions.

Digital twins operate with an incredible ability to seamlessly integrate vast amounts of data from various sources. By harnessing this data, they can, in real-time, analyse the past and evaluate the present to predict the future. This involves examining historical data to identify trends, patterns, and anomalies that have influenced customer behaviour and market dynamics. Simultaneously, they assess current conditions, including ongoing marketing campaigns, customer interactions, and market fluctuations, to gain a comprehensive understanding of the present landscape. With these insights, digital twins can forecast future outcomes, enabling marketers to anticipate customer needs, optimize strategies, and make data-driven decisions that drive engagement, loyalty, and profitability.

This dynamic capability transforms marketing from a reactive to a proactive discipline, ensuring that businesses stay ahead of the curve in an increasingly competitive environment. The synergy between human creativity and AI-powered insights will drive innovations we can scarcely imagine today. As businesses embark on their Profipoly Quest, digital twins will be their compass, map, and co-pilot, guiding them towards exponential forever profitable growth.

9

Maya’s Story

This has been written by Claude.

It’s a crisp Monday morning in 2026, and Maya, the CMO of A1Beauty, settles into her home office. She opens her holographic display, and her AI Co-Marketer, Ava, materialises as a lifelike avatar.

“Good morning, Maya,” Ava greets warmly. “I’ve been analysing our performance and have some exciting insights to share. Shall we dive in?”

Maya nods, “Absolutely, Ava. What have you got for me?”

Ava begins, “I’ve been working with our Digital Twins overnight, and we’ve identified several opportunities to accelerate our Profipoly Quest. First, our Segment Twin for Gen Z consumers has shown a 30% increase in interest in our sustainable packaging line. I’ve already initiated conversations with our Product Twins to explore expanding this line.”

Maya leans in, intrigued. “That’s fantastic. What about our personalisation efforts?”

“I’m glad you asked,” Ava responds. “By engaging with Singular Twins of our top 1000 customers, I’ve crafted hyper-personalised skincare regimens. Early simulations show a potential 40% increase in customer lifetime value for this group. I’ve also spawned a sub-agent to manage the rollout of these personalised recommendations across our omnichannel network.”

Maya nods approvingly. “Impressive. How are we leveraging this for new customer acquisition?”

Ava’s avatar swipes through some holographic charts. “I’ve been working with our Competitor Twins to identify gaps in the market. We’ve found an underserved niche in the anti-aging market for millennials. I’ve already briefed our R&D team and initiated product development simulations with our Product Twins.”

“That’s a great opportunity,” Maya agrees. “What about our retail strategy?”

“I’m glad you brought that up,” Ava replies. “Our Store Twins have been running simulations on various layout changes. We’ve identified a configuration that could increase in-store sales by 25%. I’ve also coordinated with our Location Twins to optimise our pop-up store strategy for the upcoming holiday season.”

Maya leans back, impressed. “This is all fantastic, Ava. How are we looking in terms of our Profipoly Quest?”

Ava’s avatar expands a complex 3D graph. “Based on our current trajectory and the initiatives I’ve outlined, we’re projecting a 50% increase in profitability over the next year. More importantly, our customer retention rate is forecasted to hit 85%, and our market share is expected to grow by 10% in the next six months.”

“That’s incredible,” Maya beams. “Any challenges we should be aware of?”

Ava nods, “Our Sentiment Twins have detected some concerns about ingredient sourcing for our bestselling serum. I’ve already spawned a crisis management sub-agent to develop a proactive communication strategy. We’re also working with our Supply Chain Twins to explore more transparent and sustainable sourcing options.”

Maya stands up, energized. “Ava, this is exactly why you’re invaluable. You’re not just executing our strategy; you’re anticipating challenges and identifying opportunities I hadn’t even considered.”

Ava smiles, “Thank you, Maya. It’s a team effort. Your strategic vision combined with the insights from our Digital Twins is putting A1Beauty on a clear path to becoming a Profipoly. Shall I schedule a board meeting to present these findings and initiatives?”

“Absolutely,” Maya agrees. “And Ava, let’s also set up a virtual town hall with all employees. They should know that we’re not just growing; we’re revolutionising the beauty industry.”

As Maya ends the meeting, she can’t help but marvel at how far they’ve come. With Ava and their army of Digital Twins, A1Beauty isn’t just competing; they’re reshaping the market. The Profipoly Quest, once a distant dream, now feels within reach. Maya smiles, knowing that in this AI-driven world, they’re not just predicting the future of beauty – they’re creating it.

10

Summary

Claude

1. Digital Twins, powered by AI, are transforming marketing by bridging the gap between adtech and martech, helping increase customer LTV and lower CAC.
2. Two primary types of Customer Twins exist: Segment Twins (representing groups with similar behaviors) and Singular Twins (replicating individual customers).
3. The convergence of big data, advanced analytics, and AI has created the perfect environment for digital twins to thrive in marketing.
4. Digital twins enable a shift from reactive to proactive marketing strategies, allowing marketers to anticipate customer needs and behaviors.
5. Beyond Customer Twins, other types include Product Twins, Store Twins, Location Twins, Employee Twins, Partner Twins, and Competitor Twins, each offering unique capabilities for marketing optimization.
6. The creation process of digital twins in marketing involves data collection, model creation, integration and testing, and continuous improvement.
7. Digital twins enable two critical applications in marketing: conversations (allowing marketers to interact with virtual customer representations) and content optimization.
8. Marketers can leverage digital twins for various interactions, including campaign testing, product recommendations, UX design, sentiment analysis, forecasting, and crisis management.
9. The concept of “Marketing Minions” envisions digital twins as an army of AI-powered helpers, orchestrated by a Co-Marketer to execute marketing strategies with unprecedented precision.
10. The future of marketing with digital twins promises hyper-personalization at scale, enabling a “Department of One” for a “Segment of One” approach, potentially revolutionizing customer engagement and business growth.

ChatGPT

Digital twins, powered by Agentic AI, are set to revolutionize marketing by providing highly detailed and dynamic virtual representations of customers, products, and market conditions. These “marketing minions,” akin to the minions in “Despicable Me,” tirelessly work to enhance every facet of marketing strategies, from personalization to campaign optimization.

There are two primary types of customer twins: Segment Twins, representing groups with similar behaviors, and Singular Twins, which replicate individual customers. These twins enable marketers to simulate scenarios, test strategies, and deliver highly personalized experiences, thereby shifting from reactive to proactive marketing strategies. The convergence of big data, advanced analytics, and AI has created an ideal environment for digital twins to thrive, offering unprecedented insights and predictive capabilities.

The creation of digital twins in marketing involves several key stages: data collection from various customer touchpoints, model creation using machine learning algorithms, integration with marketing platforms, and continuous improvement based on real-time data. This process allows for the development of dynamic models that evolve with new data and interactions.

Digital twins can be applied in various contexts beyond customer segmentation, including Product Twins for virtual product testing and personalized recommendations, Store Twins for optimizing retail layouts, Location Twins for effective local marketing strategies, Employee Twins for enhancing customer service, Partner Twins for optimizing the value chain, and Competitor Twins for competitive analysis.

These AI-driven twins enable marketers to engage in insightful conversations with virtual customer representations, informing content creation and optimization. They allow for advanced A/B testing, dynamic content adaptation, and long-term content strategy planning. By leveraging these capabilities, marketers can enhance customer satisfaction, loyalty, and ultimately drive higher lifetime value.

In essence, digital twins act as an army of AI-powered helpers, working in harmony to ensure marketing strategies are executed with precision and efficiency. This multi-agent system, orchestrated by a Co-Marketer, enables a level of personalization at scale previously unattainable, paving the way for transformative marketing practices and sustainable business growth.