5 Marketing Trends You Can’t Ignore In FY 21-22

Plato was right, 'Necessity is the mother of invention.' Last year's stay at home orders unequivocally created a sense of emergency for brands across industries to relook at their marketing strategies. Brands had to create an online persona to reach out to their desired audience, since virtual experiences were preferred over in-person experiences. Brands started diverting a chunk of their marketing budgets to digital mediums. I reckon, the digital wave has hit us and this one’s here to stay. 

Here are the 5 marketing trends that will play a pivotal role in the new age digital world:

The New Search Engine - Social Media

It’s safe to say that Google has a new competitor in the coming years as more and more people are relying on social media networks for their day to day queries. Today, it is used as a search engine platform by a majority of the population, shooting up the average time spent on social media. According to an Insider Intelligence forecast report, the average time spent per day with social networks increased from 56.23 minutes in 2019 to 65.44 minutes in 2020. From cooking to fixing a bulb, people rush to social media for their minutest of queries. Social media platforms are also evolving to make their UIs search friendly. Every industry is using social media as a tool to reach out to their desired audience. Up to 80% of businesses rely on social media to boost up awareness and drive traffic to their website. 

Social Commerce

Social Commerce is a subset of e-commerce. In simple words, it is internet shopping through social media platforms. A report by RedSeer Consulting stated that Social Commerce in India is projected to rise up to USD 7 billion in GMV by 2025. A classic example of Social Commerce is PropShop24, where they have added the ‘view products’ feature on their social feed to drive sales. 

In conclusion, it reduces the hassle of finding the product on the website and a consumer can buy the product in just a few clicks. All in all, social media will turn into a hot station for buying and selling of products online. Advertisers should start fabricating computerised strategies to make a buyer purchase items without leaving the social media pages. If you’re one of them, now would be a right time to start strategizing. 

Regional Marketing

After the Jio wave hit the market, people’s accessibility to the internet has increased drastically. A report by KPMG stated that almost 95% of video consumption in India is in the vernacular languages, which clearly states that the audience is consuming content in regional languages. A lot of brands have changed their communication language as well as transcript from English to Devanagari to cater to a larger audience.

A few examples: &TV and Star Bharat

Influencers like Komal Pandey and Beer Biceps also have started curating content in Hindi to reach out to the masses. 

A few content pieces in regional languages: 

Not only brands but also agencies have made a move towards regionalisation. One of the classic examples is TheSmallBigIdea, a marketing agency in Mumbai, started a localised content vertical, TSBI Bharat, focusing on regionalisation of content. Harikrishnan Pillai, the CEO of TSBI stated that ‘20% of our social media revenue is generated from TSBI Bharat’ which I believe is only going to grow as Regional content is acquiring prevalence.

 Social Biz Content 

Subtle marketing is the new cool. Social Biz content is when brands subtly plug in their product into engaging content to shoot up their sales. Basically, the content is branded. In my opinion, It is way more engaging than display ads. OTT Platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime video thrive on social biz content, for eg: Netflix’s Behensplaining and Behensplaining Bhavishyavani. I think it’s a brilliant way of using engaging content to promote a product. Today, a consumer prefers an experience rather than a direct promotion. In a conversation with Rajni Daswani, Director: Brand Experience at SoCheers, she stated that ‘In my last scroll of my Instagram feed (covering at least 12-14 posts & 5-7 users stories), I must have spotted at least 2-3 pieces of branded content (besides the ads I see every 3-4th user story). We live in a world where content is being consumed every microsecond and it’s being created by every person using any social media apps to share highlights of their lives.  If there is any creator you are following with an average of 10K and above followers, the likelihood is that they are creating branded content. 140 million people in India use Instagram, 120 million people use short video content apps like MXTakatak, and 265 million users on YouTube - they are all there on the app, consuming content - more so in visual video formats than in written formats (like we used to in the late 2000’s). Since users are spending so much time consuming content (an average Indian user spends 2 hours 36 mins on social media), it only makes sense for brands to partner in content creation & ensure their brand visibility to their target customers. Branded content has shifted from just in-TV/in-movie placements, to in-web shows placement, collaborating with popular YouTube channels to integrate their products into their regular videos, to creating short videos with key digital KOLs/digital celebrities to content creators & meme pages.’ I absolutely agree with Rajni, long gone are the days when people just consume content, they are here now to engage with the brand as well. This trend is just taking off. In the near future, social biz content will be embraced by brands to create original content assets.

Some examples of social biz content that I absolutely loved: 

Voice & Visual Search 

Voice: Conversational marketing is gaining popularity in recent times. A majority of people rely on voice assistants like Google, Alexa, Siri and Cortana. It definitely is changing the way brands interact with the audience. Starbucks’ marketing strategy for the South Korean market left me in awe, they let people order and pay in advance using voice cues like Alexa and Bixby. It simplified the whole process of ordering while driving cars, which I think is phenomenal. A research report by Juniper Networks Inc, stated that currently about 27% of the global online population uses voice search, and by 2023, voice commerce is predicted to reach USD 80 billion, which I believe is bound to happen, looking at the number of households who own a smart speaker today. So, If you’re an advertiser, it’s pivotal for you to design your website in a manner that supports voice search for better results. 

Visual: The words of Joe Sacco couldn’t be more relevant when he said ‘It’s a visual world and people respond to visuals.’ 90% of the information transmitted to the human brain is visual. According to a report by Visenze (2019) 62% of millennials want visual search over any other new technology. That’s because a lot of advanced tools like Google Lens, Cam Find, Search by image have made it possible for people to browse and search with the help of visuals. By the end of 2021, brands that redesign their websites to support visual and voice search are forecasted to increase digital commerce revenue by 30% according to Gartner. It’s essential for a marketer to use image alt-text and sitemaps in their website to shoot up sales and drive awareness. 

To conclude, things are moving pretty fast in the digital world. You would be sub-consciously aware of these trends. However, since you know the potential now, it's the right time to dive in. Which of these marketing trends will you try first?