7 Digital Trends for 2016 and beyond
Yep, it’s one of those articles you’re probably fed up with already. But bear with me, I’ll promise to keep it short!
2015 was a great year for Digital Marketing. It has finally become mainstream, and everyone (clients, creatives, and media agencies), understands the importance of digital channels.
What made 2015 such a good year wasn’t the just the fact that everyone is online and has a connection at home or their work. It was the widespread adoption of two things. Smartphones and social networks.
It was the wide adoption of smartphones that really made digital marketing mainstream. 2015 was especially a good year for this. Estonia’s smartphone adoption is growing at over 50% yoy. and everyone under 35 has a smartphone these days.
But let’s look ahead to 2016. What’s coming and what agencies, clients and consumers should expect
1- 360 / 3D / VR
In 2015 we saw an exponential growth in the production of short form video formats for social networks. Production budgets are getting smaller and an increasing number of brands can now publish video in a way that was only accessible to big budget brands in the past. In 2016 this trend will continue, but there is a specific video format that will emerge: 360 video. To put it shortly, 360 degree video is a type of video that is shot with either spherical cameras or multiple cameras arranged in a manner as to capture not just what is in front of the scene but everything around the camera. You can then play them in dedicated devices like the oculus rift or in channels that already support it. Like Youtube and Facebook who now support native 360 video with no need for additional plug ins. If you are watching these videos on your smartphone you can also move your phone around to see what is happening around the camera. This is great for specific storytelling formats and when you want to let the user explore the scene around.
Examples:
2- Beacons
The next step in merging of the mobile app world and the physical retail world.
Beacons are small devices that can be placed around in stores, and when a smartphone comes near them, they are used to detect a user and send messages to that user’s phone (via a dedicated app). These messages can be targeted to a specific user, like discounts and promotions and suggestions of what to buy. Or they can be generic like “welcome to our store”. Beacons can also be used to guide a user on a very big shop (think supermarket or shopping centre) to the place where the item he/she is looking for. (indoor mapping).
The other thing beacons can do is very precisely detect how many people are passing by a certain area, therefore giving big shopping centre owners a better overview of their foot traffic in all shops.
Examples
3- Content data analysis
The media world has been disrupted with the emergence of digital channels, and the immense amounts of data points and new KPIs they enable. Digital brought the possibility to track every action and every click, and we were able to know more than we asked for about who was watching our ads and which ads were performing better. In 2015 and with Content Marketing, we created yet again new KPIs and more data points, usually collected through disparate sources and hard to compile reports.
Suddenly everyone is busy collecting data, but very few are busy making sense of that data. In 2016 expect a growth in data driven campaigns, and media agencies hiring data analysts. Perhaps there’s even room in the market for a startup that addresses the specific needs of data collecting companies in the advertising world.
4- Mobile SEO
SEO (search engine optimization) was really important when everyone was only using Google Search to find what they were looking for. But as most web traffic switches over to mobile (smartphones, tablets, etc), the majority of traffic will be split between Apps and the mobile web, and the way people find what they are looking for will also change from a simple Google query, to things like using Virtual (AI based) assistants like Siri (Apple), Cortana (Microsoft) and Google Now (Android). The other aspect that changes when people do a google search on a mobile device is that the results are tailored not only for that specific person, but also for the environment around them (time of day, geo location, device type, etc). Mobile SEO is far more complex than normal SEO, and it is a new area that is just emerging. How are people looking for information on these devices, and how do we make sure our clients show up first with relevant information.
5- Social media (influencers)
In 2015 we ran the first pan-Baltic Social Media survey that showed how Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians are using social media. It gave us some insights into what networks different target groups are present in. Basically everyone (and their dogs) are on Facebook and most people under 35 are going to Instagram (with their dogs)
Social media is going to grow in importance in the coming months/year. Facebook is going to continue to dominate the landscape. Instagram is going to keep on growing at a fast pace, particularly with the most appealing demographic. Snapchat is emerging as a new channel for those under 25.
We have finally come to the point in Estonia where we are moving beyond amassing “likes” and “fans” and are engaging with audiences and giving them useful and meaningful content that they’d like to spend time with.
With everyone spending so much time on Social Media, brands have two options of reaching their audience. They either set up their own presence with their own channel, and they pay Facebook to reach that audience, or they can use Social Media influencers. Social Influencers are social media users who have already gathered enough followers as to have their own audience. They are usually addressing a specific product category (fashion, food, adventure, etc) and have a dedicated following. Their reach is bigger than if brands would post under their own accounts.
In 2016 Social influencers will have a bigger reach than traditional PR campaigns, and will some cases have a bigger reach than paying the social media channels for paid advertising.
6- Messaging
SMS is reborn. Whatsapp, Facebook messenger, Viber, Telegram, Snapchat, Google Hangouts, etc.
People are starting to spend more time on these platforms than on traditional social networks. There are now apps built into these messaging platforms. You can run tasks, order things, buy, schedule, etc. all inside a messaging app.
Will we see campaigns in Estonia taking advantage of apps built inside messaging apps in 2016? Perhaps. If mobile parking via sms was widely available in 2004 when I first visited the country then in 2016 there is certainly room for innovation in this field
Now that ordering your groceries online is becoming commonplace in Estonia, imagine that all I have to do is open Facebook messenger and send a message to Selver to re-order my usual shopping basket and have it delivered the same day, I would then get a confirmation message within the same app and an option to pay by transferring money all within the app. I would also get a notification once the driver was about to arrive.
7- Data / Artificial Intelligence / Machine learning
It’s way too early for this, but there are some interesting things happening in this field. We’re just barely scratching the surface here, but in the long run, digital ad formats will adjust themselves to the audience in front of them. This will happen with any digital enabled ad (TV, print, outdoor, and mobile). Ads will almost write themselves. (scary thought for creatives). This is beyond re-targetting, we are talking about ads that design themselves and “learn” from how the users are interacting with them.
2016 will probably not see any such case in Estonia or the Baltics, but it will be interesting to see how the field evolves in more developed markets and what implications this has for both consumers and agencies.
Hi! I’m Joao Rei, Head of Digital Innovation at Idea Group, the largest pan-Baltic Marketing and Communications group. Find out more at www.ideagroup.ee or get in touch with me on Linkedin or twitter or old-school email (joao.rei@idea.ee)
