It’s January. And that means a feature predicting the main trends for the coming year. Here’s Alex Aspinall’s take on what you need to be thinking about in 2013
Apart from the Olympics, which deservedly dominated for a while in the summer, 2012 was all about video and mobile. There were a lot of B2B videos put out last year. Some were good, others less so. Meanwhile mobile was quickly becoming our favoured method of digital consumption. Brands were wrestling with words like ‘responsive’ and ‘adaptive,’ and figuring out whether they needed to invest thousands in making an app (most didn’t). But what does this year hold in store?
A post-PC world
My first prediction is a relatively safe one, and that’s for a bit more of the same. Video and mobile are going to become even bigger in 2013. Brands still need to explore the benefits of creating video content. They might, however, want to pay less heed to voices saying ‘everyone’s got smartphones so we can all make video.’ As the market becomes increasingly used to consuming video content, the lower quality ones will quickly start standing out for all the wrong reasons. Hopefully we’ll see brands continuing to embrace video, but with a new focus on ensuring the quality is there.
More certain is that mobile will continue to generate month-after-month of bewildering usership stats. The exact date when it will usurp desktop browsing, and we can declare we’re truly in the ‘post-PC world,’ remains unknown. But brands that aren’t yet dealing with mobile, need to act this year.
Scott Wilkinson, planning partner at Bordello, agrees. He says, “My personal thesis is that by this time next year we’ll be in the age of ‘mobile-is-everything’ – the small shiny package in your pocket will be the only device you’ll need. Of course most people will still have multiple computers – laptop, tablet and desktop. But it will be possible to ditch them. We’ll be able use our mobiles for more or less everything.”
Data will rule
Hand-in-hand with – and indeed a direct result of – the formidable rise of the mobile, is the even more meteoric assent of data. Our digital footprints hold a mind-boggling array of actionable business intelligence. And we’re already seeing that those brands best able to decipher the stories being left lying around cyberspace are the ones most capable of digital success. This is going to become even more the case in 2013.
Ellen Valentine, product evangelist at Silverpop, sees big data as something brands should be starting to get to grips with next year. “In 2013, big data will begin to move from the aggregate to the individual and start to become actionable for smaller companies. Admittedly, thinking about the mountains of data across so many channels can be overwhelming.
The key is to not let the data paralyse you but rather be empowered by it, implementing a continuous improvement initiative in which you use the data to capture insights that enable you to improve and take action on that data.”
It’s good advice. So often, adopting a positive approach to new technological developments serves to turn what could have been intimidating challenges into exciting opportunities. And data is the perfect example, not least because it is going to be central to so much of a marketing department’s activities in the coming years. The brands that do manage to get on top of their data will be best placed to make the most of several of 2013’s other likely developments.
It’s all about context
Maybe I’m starting to go out on a limb here slightly, but I also predict the abdication of King Content. He’s had a good reign but there’s a sprightly new prince in town and he’s got his eyes on the big chair. Context will replace content as King of Marketingland. Hopefully he’ll usher in a new era where clichéd marketing phrases are eradiated, but it’s unlikely. What will change, though, is there will be a movement away from one-size-fits all content offerings.
It stands to reason that different customers in different areas of the world at different stages of the buying cycle and different stages of the funnel (if it still exists) need different information presented in different ways. The smartest, most digitally sophisticated brands will start offering context-specific content to the right people at the right time, and they will reap the rewards too.
Of course, it won’t be easy. But help is at hand. And it comes, to a certain extent, in the guise of marketing automation. Though not new by any means, marketing automation is starting to come of age. It’s no longer just for the giant tech corporations. ‘Normal’ companies can use it too, and it can help them provide more useful information to their customers. This year more brands will embrace the opportunities presented by marketing automation and they will be firing out better targeted marketing, allowing them to slowly edge closer to the holy grail of B2P messaging.
It’s not all change though. Perhaps more Emperor’s New Clothes. Brands that dare to be different will still stand out, while those too nervous to embrace new digital opportunities will continue to fall behind.
As Joe Edwards, head of strategy at Brand Engage, points out, 2013 will be all about providing your audience with interesting reasons to engage. He says, “With everything everywhere in 2013 (content, information and messages) and with the same tools available to us all, our audiences are finding new ways to eradicate noise from their lives. As businesses, we all need to get back to creating compelling opportunities to engage our audiences.”
Social in 2013 – What can we expect?
Despite an attempt in this piece to ignore the ‘s’ word, predictions for the year ahead that don’t address social media in some way aren’t going to fully represent the marketing landscape.
So what can we expect from social in 2013? Is it now a stable mature channel, or is it likely to redefine itself once again in the coming year?
There’s no doubt marketers have started to take control of the social channel more these days. Thankfully the voices questioning whether social is a viable marketing channel have grown silent. But this widespread adoption has been responsible for the incredible noise present on the major platforms. It is possible 2013 may be a tipping point in terms of people seeking new, more streamlined social experiences.
We covered a few new platforms last year. Perhaps, most notably, The Obvious Corporation’s platforms of Medium and Branch, both of which offer something not yet delivered by the big players. Another possibility is the potential rise of more niche social platforms. Lauded examples such as doctors.net.uk and Spiceworks are already leading the way with this.
Finally, and even though many scoff, Google+ will come of age in 2013. The search giant is investing huge sums to make it happen. And if that fact alone isn’t enough, a decent Google+ presence is going to become increasingly synonymous with SERP domination. Our Circles will be decidedly more populated this time next year.
