After a year of distrust in brands and influencers coupled with talks about data privacy in 2019, where does 2020 take us? As we delve deep into surveys with marketers globally and observe consumers’ behaviours and interests, we know that 2020 is going to be a year where consumers will become even more woke than before. Then, as marketers, therein lies the opportunities to bring the brand into greater light through meticulous data protection, reevaluating ad spend and possibly taking a stand for a cause. There’s plenty to be done, but we’ll be here to guide you through it.
Social
Your brand needs to take a stand. What is it going to be?
Accenture Strategy’s global study of nearly 30,000 consumers found that 62% of customers want companies to take a stand on current and broadly relevant issues like sustainability, transparency or fair employment practices.
As brands like H&M and ZARA come under great scrutiny for greenwashing and Facebook for data leaks, brands will need to approach the topic of conscious consumerism carefully. Locally, supermarkets like Fairprice are expanding the ‘no plastic bags’ drive to drastically reduce single-use plastic. Even online retailers are feeling the pressure to assess their packaging from product down to shipping.
Before you take the plunge to support a noble cause, know that empty promises and half-hearted initiatives may backfire on you. Take some time to plan a long-term strategy. Brand purpose may be important but it cannot take you far without an excellent product and customer experience.
Find inspiration on how you can take a stand.
MARIGOLD 0% FAT YOGHURT DRINK – Feel Good It Shows
NESTLÉ PURINA PRO PLAN – Spread a Pawsome Joy
Content
Not all influencers are influential
In 2020, brands will need to embrace collaboration with influencers as the social sphere begins to value the work of creators. Yet, we need to be exercise caution to pick only the most reliable influencers. Instead of focusing on the influencer, go a step further to think about the community that they engage with and how you can tap on the community to bring you your desired results.
See how the collaboration between MARIGOLD HL Milk and Randall Tan engaged the elderly in the Healthy Ageing campaign.
Content is king, context is key
A study by IAB UK revealed that advertising on premium content sites results in three times the attention of task sites, while there is also a 25% uplift in attention between content and premium content sites. The opposite is true too – brand safety is a big concern for marketers as the research found that brand can be associated negatively with content that were inappropriate. To maximise attention, investing time in tailored creative and considering how different channels work makes a significant difference to whether an ad is noticed.
Aside from placing your content next to premium, quality websites, consider social platforms for how they perform as well. While YouTube is great for driving awareness, Facebook is where you can garner brand favourability. On Instagram, visual takes lead and captures your audience’s attention first.
→Brands are looking to investing more in online videos, especially on Instagram and YouTube. While Facebook spending is expected to slow down, a significant number of brands have decided to spend on TikTok for the first time.
→Increased search spend is expected to benefit both Google and Amazon.
Tell your story and spare no details
Copywriters and marketers have always been trying to keep it ‘short and sweet’ for the time crunched users scrolling through social media swiftly. However, long form captions on Instagram and YouTube videos containing influencers’ feuds have people engaged for longer and have them drawn into the complex narratives in 2019. While narratives are important to build an authentic and transparent relationship with audiences, brands will need to spend a lot more time and resources into quality long-form content.
See how we drew audiences in with a comical drama featuring Darlie’s All Shiny White Supreme!
Technology
It is hard to say whether 5G will become mainstream in 2020 but as it slowly becomes more accessible, digital marketing will also advance accordingly. With significantly faster data rates and higher connection density amongst other upgrades, we can expect digital marketers to move towards augmented reality and expect a rise in videos.
In a nutshell, your brand can definitely benefit from giving sustainability and environmental issues some thoughts, investing in longer form videos and paying attention to brand safety and data privacy in the coming year.
Need some more tips to plan out your 2020 marketing strategy? Get in touch with us!
