It’s almost 2018 people, we’re three years past hover boards and self lacing shoes and now entering the era of artificial intelligence, mixed reality, emotion detection, and more. Sometimes the ability to recognize what’s to come remains a large challenge amongst brands and marketers.
It’s time to reflect back on what’s been working and get ready for what lies ahead. Unique brand storytelling, brand video and content, influencers and live content will be the theme of 2018, each bringing a host of opportunities for brands.
Marketing Trend #1: Live Social Content is King
It’s no longer about where you were, it’s about where you’re at. Leverage this opportunity by ensuring you have a resource to capture event highlights and consumer / brand moments to share with your audience. Some marketers predict that over 80% of internet traffic in 2018 will be generated by online video.
Attendee capturing the moment using Facebook Live at a Concert
Marketing Trend #2: Augmented Reality Hits The Mainstream With Brands
Augmented reality technologies continue to trend among consumers and with good reason. When Pokemon Go opening up the world’s eyes to augmented reality, brands quickly followed suit. Brands such as IKEA and Toys R Us look to engage shoppers direct with AR experiences that provide entertainment and fun as well as a means for product and brand discovery.
The VR/AR market could be worth and eye-watering 108 Billion by 2021.
Marketing Trend #3: Storytelling becomes vulnerable
Brands have been under great scrutiny. Experience is crucial to trust and 73% of consumers are willing to pay more for products that promise complete transparency. Nearly 40% of consumers are happy to switch to a brand in the pursuit of transparent practice. If it hasn’t been completely grasped yet, 2018 will illustrate how important brand transparency is to brands and marketers.
Check out how Domino’s increased sales 14.3% using radical transparency
Marketing Trend #4: Celebrities and Megastars Compete with Micro Influencers
83% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know IRL. 66% of consumers trust other consumer opinions online and on social media. There is new data emerging that shows that the celebrities and megastars of social media are no longer the one’s with true clout. These micro-influencers that brands are looking for are, “The Experiencer”. Individuals out there who experience, reflect and share.
Photo from Toyota’s Hotel Tacoma Experiential Marketing Activation
Marketing Trend #5: Artificial Intelligence aids personalization
There’s a lot of steps required in delivering consumers personalized content and artificial intelligence will help marketers produce a lot of content very quickly. For example, Artificial Intelligence can accurately add a variety of specific tags automatically to images that humans would normally have to add in, or replace a face with another face. There are virtually unlimited possibilities in marketing with artificial intelligence.
Marketing Trend #6: Brand Activations and Art Installations Become Seamless
There has never before been a moment in history when the visual image has been more important, and more democratized. Visual content is harnessing a great power for brands today, and we will continue to see brands creating installations and brand activations that are used to generate social currency for consumers, integrating their branding at every step, further distributing authentic, branded content.
M&M’S x Visionaire x KAWS
Jeff Koons x Snapchat
There are some great examples happening with activations such as 29Rooms, and Artech house.
29 Rooms LA
ARTECH HOUSE in Washington D.C.
If you have questions about experiential marketing or engagement marketing contact BeCore today! We’d love to partner with you! Contact us!