It is a well known fact that within the world of marketing, you must dedicate some of your time to predicting trends. In order to stay relevant, fresh and interesting to the consumer, trends are there to be followed, created and analysed. With 2022 in full swing then, it is that time of year to look at last year’s trends and use them to predict the future. How will 2022 change marketing? Let’s take a look.
First of all, it’s important to acknowledge the unpredictable nature of the world under Covid-19. With the pandemic still very much prevalent two years later, many industries are still operating at its whim. With the hospitality and retail industry opening, closing and reopening it’s difficult to predict how this year will go. However, customers have been exhibiting clear changes in behaviour and views due to the pandemic that we can base our predictions on.
Consumers value their privacy, now more than ever
Last year, customers became increasingly more conscious of just how much advertisers track their behaviour. With this awareness came increased discomfort and suspicion at just how much of their lives were trackable online. Adblocker software is not new and has been used by many for years, however, there has been a rise of VPN’s (virtual private networks) throughout the web which boasts powerful software that erases your online presence. Not only will a VPN make you appear to be somewhere else in the world entirely, it will ensure that your ad data is inaccurate. So, how will this affect advertisers in 2022?
Firstly, advertisers are going to have to create new ways of tracking data and reaching consumers. PPC advertisers work too hard to increase click through rates and ads to be wasting budget on VPN users. Location based ads to target demographics will also be redundant. And with the death of the cookie in 2023, this year we will see a huge change in online advertising. While it’s difficult to say what this change will be as this change will have to rely on completely revolutionising the way we use marketing online, we can say that this is the year for change. So, be vigilant and be ready for this change.
The continued rise of influencer marketing
With customers valuing their privacy more, comes mistrust between consumers and companies. Influencers act as a middle man to bridge the gap between product seller and buyer. Influencers spend years building a platform that forms trust between them and their fans. Followers of influencers trust influencers enough to also trust their recommendations of products. If an influencer is promoting a product, followers have the understanding that this person would not promote this product if it wasn’t good or didn’t work. Thus, influencer marketing will see a further rise this year as customers seek out people they can trust within the era of privacy.
Along with a rise in influencer marketing, we will likely also see an increase in long-term influencer-brand relationships. With creators taking on a variety of brand ambassador roles and an overall shift toward always-on programming, as opposed to one-time deals. This will allow brands the opportunity to build a more authentic connection with audiences through longer running programs with influencers that consumers trust.
The reign of short form video
Tiktok has seen a sharp incline in users and popularity in recent years, and with this came the love for short form video. Short form videos are usually considered to be up to 2 minutes 30 seconds long although with many sites adopting the format with different algorithms and such, the term ‘short form’ now means many different things. In its basic form though, a short form video is one that is a few seconds to a few minutes long. These videos have done so well so far because they encourage more than one watch, they hold consumer attention for less time and thus require little effort to consume and they can fit lots of information into a shorter space.
Short form video will continue to grow in 2022, with brands who have not yet realised their potential to start utilising them. For example, one of the best ways to use short form video at the moment is to create a 7 second video with text over the top. This seems almost too simple to be effective however, the video will end before the customer has time to ready the full text and will loop again. By the time someone has read the information you are giving them, they will have watched the video two or three times, boosting your watch time and pushing you to more success within the algorithm to reach more people.
So, in 2022 we expect more brands to utilise the short form video on social media to increase their reach to potential customers.
The rise of Audio content
Within the past couple of years, another form of marketing has been quietly dominating the influencer space. When we think of influencer marketing, we first think about instagram and facebook, influencers creating videos or pictures promoting an image. However, the lesser known form of influencer marketing I am talking about is within audio content. That’s right, podcasts.
Podcasts are quickly becoming a real asset in the content marketing space, with over 28.3 million adults listening to digital audio every week in the UK. With so many people listening to weekly podcasts and therefore, having to listen to an ad in order to listen to the content they love, you get the best of both worlds. Listeners will tune into a podcast usually because they enjoy and respect the content creators. In this way, listeners will trust the opinion of the podcast host and be more persuaded to look into the product being offered. At the same time, podcast hosts usually read the adverts themselves allowing listeners to stay tuned and want to hear what they have to say.
Audio content can boost on-page SEO performance too. In May 2019, Google officially announced that they would begin to serve podcasts and other forms of audio content in Google search. So, in 2022 we think audio content marketing will continue to rise.
Conclusion
That’s all we have for you for this year’s predictions. We’ll see at the end of the year what we got right and what we got completely wrong when we write our yearly roundup blog for 2022. In the meantime, pay close attention to the trends you see this year and try to incorporate them into your marketing strategy. If you need any help with this, All Advertising is here. With our team of experts in all things advertising and marketing, you can have everything taken care of. Give us a call on 01708 952952 or visit our website here.