2016 has been the season of fresh techniques to highlight content, and video has been the reasonable champ. The steady consolidation of keen innovation, for instance, Virtual Reality (VR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), wearables, live streaming, GoPros, drones has been promising movements that have been much discussed about in 2016, and the world foresees anxiously for what will spread out in the years to come.
Just three examples to start out with:
- Pokemon Go needed only two weeks to become the most played game in the history.
- Microsoft announced the $26 billion LinkedIn acquisition.
- Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon are the top 5 most valuable digital players.
2017 will witness ceaseless venture towards driving the real capacity of innovations, with a balanced approach towards connecting with the customer.
Let me shortlist some of the marketing and technology integration’s scheduled for 2017 making your marketing journey more exciting.
New Products Roll in From the Brand Revolution
We as the consumers have a decent seat at the marketing table by sharing our feedback or our purchasing choices on the social medias emerging these days. Brands will be more attuned to the needs and priorities of the customers and will shape their product offerings around the latest lifestyle trends.
Native Ads (Advertorials)
Genius blend of an advertisement and an editorial, features sponsored content on the website portrays the look and feel of an editorial piece. Native ads fit the style of the website on which they are hosted and includes the call- to- action within the content that links you to the sponsors website. During the height of presidential election many of the sites are filled with the sponsored ad contents as a result of the political commentary. Native ads help engage readers and aid them in link building for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Videos to get more views
Market researchers anticipate that digital video consumption will replace television in the years to come, and the arrival on venture beyond any doubt appears to make it advantageous and a near possibility. Resources will be invested by brands in gaining insights on what really connects with groups of onlookers, sponsored by predictive tools being executed by leading portals.
Personalized content production soars
The repeated use of the same imagery and the move from the stock footage will help future winning brands on digital to create personalized content which will tell a unique story every time. Use of real imagery can help you get double the engagement and evangelism for brands while the fresh imagery engages the same audience six times more. Gaining insights on this, marketers are acquiring partnerships with content production agencies for personalized visuals and a digital first strategy.
Mobile continues to grow, with regional being the core
India will be the second biggest smart phone market in the coming years according to the researches conducted. The utilization of mobile marketing keeps on extending with Google expanding its offerings towards versatile applications, and shoppers seeking and purchasing continuously. Regional marketing will affect Facebook use as well as advertising to increase SEO and Google rankings, spreading contents of higher relevance to various sections. The need to get ready, deliver and disseminate content to fit the organization, channel, the time and place for current and target clients is essential to the expansion.
Increased focus on technological innovations
Virtual and augmented reality at this moment is a streaming edge field, however in 2017, anticipate that it will go standard and be the game changer it guaranteed to be. In 2016, we have seen products, for example, Sony PlayStation VR, HTC Vive, Samsung Gear VR and Oculus Rift making all the noise, alongside portable application and game developers making substance to keep shoppers enthusiastic. With brands seeking to make new encounters and customized sensations, with the desire to move their status to a favored brand, it has seen acceptance in real estate, tourism etc. The presentation of Artificial Intelligence which will have the capacity to deliver insights in another way and perform based on every component learnt.
One agency, many partners
Gone are the days when organizations worked towards building all the ability in-house to consider customer needs or customers worked with numerous offices to drive a similar business reason. Customers need a one-stop shop that can comprehend the general business and associate them with the correct arrangements, regardless of whether it is in-house or through experts brought in. Pushing ahead, the need to embed customer’s ethos as an agency and recruiting experts to carry out the job right is the way things will move and accommodate noteworthy benefits.
Digital outsourcing solutions
Organizations comprehend the need to expand digital marketing teams in-house however comprehend the difficulties of not having the capacity to give direction, training and continuously permitting an asset to advance through the most recent happenings in the industry. Consequently, like public relations human asset administration, digital outsourcing is seeing an increasing demand. While they aren’t replacing agencies, they turn into the caretakers of the brand and the agency, having the capacity to consistently tie-in prerequisites with solutions, adapting to the quick paced requests of the digital world.
Social media command centers
The dedicated space for a company’s social team for monitoring and engaging in social conversions is termed as the social media command centre. This centre makes the real-time monitoring of trends to capitalize on opportunities and emotions. Well-known brands including Dell, Marriott International have been the leading command centers serving as best practices. Social media is the customer care platform, utilized more making the consumers stronger and wiser. Command centers are accepted by many of the brands which are serious about entering a digital realm.
Creating sales opportunities
Utilizing social analytics, brands drill down and gain valuable insights. If your organization is looking for a viable parameter, social analytics can be used to identify patterns. This enables gauging effectiveness in marketing. Even though there is no shortage of recommendations or products in the market ready to help us measure the social analytics but the actual need is a collaboration between the apps, platforms and networks. Driving business value in the form of website clicks, footfalls and sales is vital and realizing this businesses have started putting efforts to increase the value of every penny spent and focusing more on ROI. Brands have started understanding the power of digital and its impact on business. Social media is getting innovated with special “buy” buttons which allows the buyers to instantly purchase decisions and to directly buy from social networks.
Eric, thank you for your comments and I’m glad you found it helpful!