I’ve always found articles that state what the upcoming trends to be very fascinating and I am always intrigued if these marketing professionals end up being accurate with their predictions.
One of the predictions made for this year is brands taking real-time marketing opportunities and tactics to a whole new level. Marketers are seeking out these opportunities to be able to interact and connect with their consumers in “the moment.” This is something that platforms like Facebook and Twitter have shown us, consumer like real-time feedback and interaction to the brands they follow. More importantly however, brands benefit a great deal by creating these continuous forms of interaction with their consumers. This allows them to communicate any important messages regarding their brand, new product launches or any negative marketing that they need to repair and communicate with their consumers. Marketers have found that mobile and social media marketing allow for businesses to reach their audiences at the heart of their digital usage, in other words, where and how they spend the majority of their time online. It’s no secret that smartphones and tablets have become the center of consumers’ multi-platform lives. Due to this, marketers will begin to view these platforms less as a mobile device and instead more of “the new desktop.” In essence this allows for brands to literally always be a click away from potential consumers. As a result, marketers will need to continue to try and engage consumers to be loyal to their brands and make purchases whether is via a mobile platform or physical location.
In addition to these media platforms, images and videos have also become the go to tactic for brands wishing to go viral with a particular message or campaign. The potential in this arena is really endless. Visual influencers, visuals that are meant to influence and interact directly with consumers, is perhaps one of areas that we will continue to see the most growth in the coming years. Evidence can be seen in the recent adaptation of Snapchat. What was once an application meant to send images and videos to friends for an allotted period of time with minimal written communication has recently adapted their model to include messaging capabilities. This adaptation allows this visual platform application to compete more effectively along site other messaging apps. You can also see this trend with the growth of instagram and other visual application platforms.
Another trend that we can expect to see is marketers exploring new and creative ways to reach consumer who value their privacy. As previously mentioned, applications like SnapChat are ideal for these consumers. These applications allow messages to be transferred only for an allotted period of time. Even their recently adapted messaging capability disappears from the users menu after a short time period. This gives consumers a sense of privacy in regards to their communication tactics.
Emerging Media and the Market ... from the eyes of a Graduate Student 