Another year end, another round of marketing-focused predictions for the year ahead. Promises of new technologies, better ROI, and, of course, more engagement with your target audience if you get ahead of the “next big thing” around. Eventually, these predictions might come true.
However, we too often cast aside the insights that just came into their own the year before to follow the new “shiny objects” that hold promises of grandeur. “Shiny object” marketing doesn’t work—it can take a good plan and throw it off course, wasting time and money. Of course, the new year should bring around innovation and changes, but we should first master what’s already in the marketplace.
Here’s a list of some of the best trends from 2015 (developed from healthy debates with colleagues) that we shouldn’t just abandon with the new year:
1. Advertising will remain the lifeblood of content, but advertisers and publishers need to heed the ad-blocking wake-up call:
In the last six months you couldn’t get through a day without hearing something about ad blocking, and for good reason. The trend in advertising has often focused on sheer coverage, not targeting consumers in a smart way—ad blockers are a reaction to this. Our resident advertising cynic Dan Thain notes, “Advertising is currently stupid. There’s too much talk about targeting, not enough actual targeting.” The conversation is changing this focus toward the content itself—interesting and personalized creative married with smarter targeting parameters will be the differentiator that matters in 2016.
2. Programmatic is here to stay, but the industry needs differentiation:
Programmatic was another buzzy trend in 2015 but, per Chris Choi, despite all the hype it didn’t grow the way it needed to: “With more publishers, networks, and exchanges getting into the space and gaining access to the same data, there has been a democratization of programmatic buying. While programmatic isn’t going anywhere, publishers and platforms need to do a lot more to differentiate offerings. The next wave in programmatic will be, and needs to be, about the quality of the data and whether data can help advertisers solve complex and unique challenges to measuring success.”
3. Marketers and advertisers need to get smarter about data to drive personalization:
“2016 is going to be the year of smart data collection—both what we collect about a person and how we use that data,” says Jack Steadman. “We need to get creative about how we interpret data, what insights we can glean from it, and how we make those insights available for better targeting and customization. It’s not just about the obvious amplification of actions we know they’ve taken before, it’s about building up fuller profiles and creating an ever-more-personalized experience.” Harnessed appropriately, this advanced data collection and application can lead to more cross-channel personalization, like a text message following up on an in-person store visit for a retailer or an email program triggering personalized messaging based on your previous giving history to a nonprofit.
4. Organizations need to give digital a seat at the adult table:
With the steady uptick in mobile use, there’s a feeling that there’s always someone consuming content. Companies don’t want to miss a moment, which can be extremely important—if the right action is involved. Save for some extreme cases, the “always on” approach can set you up for customer burnout. As Stuart Shapiro explains, “Many times, digital does not receive the same planning as other types of marketing to fully understand what audiences actually want, and this is where ‘always on’ fails. While ‘always on’ theoretically continues to have a place in the world, most organizations don’t respond with content that actually delivers any value. As we move into 2016, digital marketing needs a seat at the adult table, where it can complement tentpole events and also respond to the small, genuine, community-building moments that actually matter.”
These are the topics and trends we are constantly talking about and feel will remain center stage when it comes to creating real value for organizations. What did we miss—what are the debates you’re having as you start planning for 2016?