Remember October 21, 2015 – the date Marty and Doc travelled (back) to? That film showed us some sweet wearable tech, hoverboards, powerlacing Nikes and some rad 80s music. Much of that we’ll actually see next year. Anyways, before looking towards the future, December is usually all about looking back.
Boy o boy did 2014 give us some big surprises, great campaigns and new tech. But which trends and insights should we take with use to the New Year?
That’s a toughie... But no need to get your crystal ball out, ‘cause last week Contagious hosted an event (MostContagious) that analysed the years’ most impactful marketing to decipher what influence these will have on the immediate future for brands and advertising.
Different speakers talked about Movements, Content, Messaging, Data and Cities. Sounds a bit abstract? Jup, but luckily I was there and wrote a nice little blog about it.
MOVEMENTS
It is almost a bit sad if we realize the things that dominated the blogosphere in 2014: Frozen, Kim Kardashian and video selfies. Frozen is going into their second x-mas of parents buying merchandise for their kids. Extraordinary in a market where films wrestle each other to get a snippet of peoples attention (and money). Why is this Disney movie so special? Without villain or big romance, this is just about sibling rival and coming to terms with yourself – a new concept for Disney that certainly paid of. Kim Kardashian thought us that you can’t break the Internet, ‘nuff said about that. And then there were the video selfies…, no one could have predicted we would all be pouring buckets of ice water on our heads and posting this on our social channels.
CONTENT
Next to video selfies, would you have predicted a podcast examining a murder would be extremely popular? Serial has been downloaded over 20mil times and smashed iTunes records. And how do brands tap into these unpredictable trends? Any brand can claim something in a 30 second spot, but if you want to share the brand values you will probably need something more, you need storytelling. Branded entertainment is key when you don’t have TV budget or when you try to reach an audience that is spending the majority of their time on new platforms. We all know people love entertainment, but remember, distribution trumps emotion. You can make great content but if no one sees it…
MESSAGING
Yes, this was the year of SnapChat. But for everyone who’s not addicted to rapidly disappearing content, we’ll explain what’s so special about this app. SnapChat basically changed the dynamics of attention. As the content is only visible for a very short time, it requires total focus. And the SnapChat rage isn’t over yet, soon you can also pay via the tool. Not a lot of brands have successfully implemented messaging apps in their communication strategy, but with these apps already building on content and community, with ecommerce now soon in the mix things sure will get interesting. So the first one who nails it, gets a beer
DATA
People aren’t sitting around waiting for data derive insights, they want magic. So how are we going to give this to them? People don’t need a drill, they need a hole. And knowing they need a hole, you can sell them a drill. Statisticians will have the hottest jobs in the next years. Because understanding data and knowing what data will look like in 3-5 years – that is pure gold. So where are the smarty-pants that are going to tells us how to anticipate on this?
CITIES
From podcasts, selfies and messaging apps, let’s take it up a notch. Some time ago the (real) power shifted from Goverments to Brands. Because, first of all brands have money. Second, they are creative and can make people love and adopt a product or service. And we now see brands adopting their core business to enhance the cultural, ecological or natural balance of cities. They can redesign the space we live in. A nice example of this is billboard houses. Would people trade living space for advertising space? If an ad space puts a roof over my head, why not. Brands can also improve safety; Halonix used light advertising in a smart ways to light up dangerous parts of the city. In every city’s chaos or issues there lies an opportunity.
More inspiration and trends by Contagious can be found in their 10th year anniversary issue – in which they look back not only on 2014 but also on the last 10 years! The issue is now downloadable for free (and we all love free) on their website.
Oh, and one more thing to keep an eye on next year is AI. Is 2015 the year the masses finally embrace AI? And while on the subject, is AI the biggest treat to the human race? Because, honestly, humans are limited by slow evolution and simply cannot compete.
