Digital marketing trends in 2021

Before you tell me, yes I know I’m one month late to be talking about digital marketing trends for 2021. But then again, it’s not that these ‘trends’ started forming in January 2021. And it’s not that they are going to last till December of this year(unlike what people thought would happen to COVID-19 at 11:59 on 31st of Dec 2020). What I’m talking about here are technologies which are up and coming. Ones which a lot of brands will experiment with in the coming months and years. These technologies are going to be increasingly relevant with more and more users using them. Brands are going to leverage the trends to communicate and engage with these users. While these pilots will not have high reach, they will be high visibility because few brands are trialling these platforms and the ‘PR’ value attached to novelty. So let’s kick off with the list:

1. Live stream E-Comm: Probably one of the 2 most mainstream trend I’m going to talk about. We all remember QVC or a variant of it. I remember it because of the unique products and overzealous hosts. Well, this is exactly that, but only online. It actually caught on from China and is already huge there. In 2019, live stream e-commerce sales in China reached $61 billion, and the number is expected to more than double to $129 billion in 2020. (for reference: ecommerce in Europe is expected to be worth 717 billion euros at the end of 2020). Chinese influencer, Viya, sold out 15,000 bottles of Kim Kardashian’s KKW fragrance in under a minute during a livestream in November 2019. Korea and Japan were some of the first countries to do it, and Alibaba has brought the practice to Russia and Southeast Asia. Now Amazon and Wayfair are using livestream sessions to draw in their customers too. In September 2020, beauty brands (including Flawless by Gabrielle Union, Honest Beauty, Cetaphil, Neutrogena, Elemis and Follain) participated in Amazon’s Beauty Haul Live event. The 11-hour event included hundreds of livestreams and over 70 special offers. Since then, Facebook group apps, TikTok, and even YouTube is focussing on it. I guess the biggest sign of the times is that even QVC is going to use Youtube TV for selling now. Amazon Live is selling multiple product lines in the US, but it is still to come to Europe. Can’t be too far away.

2. Connected Packaging: Another popular one. IOT is the buzzword and popularly used in so many of the ‘connected’ things we have in our lives. Our phones, music devices, home appliances, cars, even dog collars. But a lot of CPG companies were feeling left out. The consumers, though, were ready. As per a survey of 1,000 consumers by Mindshare,

· Over 50% were interested in scanning packaging to find out more about provenance

·     62% would trade their data for something of value

·     62% found the idea of re-ordering appealing

·     58% liked the idea of a reminder close to expiry date

And even the tech has been there for some time, It’s just that it has got better now. And more ubiquitous, helped by the fact that most phone cameras read QR codes now. AR has also become native. This has allowed packaging to become a real communication solution. Again, use cases are many, especially in packaged goods industry. Some brands have already joined the bandwagon. For instance, to celebrate St Patrick's Day in 2020, Jameson launched NFC-enabled connected bottles. Each limited-edition bottle carried an NFC chip to deliver brand content and promotions. There is a strong use-case in cosmetics. Retailers like Sephora have dominated the “trial” POS model. Kellogg’s had an AR game on pack of their new WKK by Kids range. There are also of course opportunities for loyalty programmes.

3. Location Based Data: Burger King made it famous with its Whopper Detour campaign leveraging geo fencing. Location data marketing is not new. Using it to target consumers in proximity to your desired locations is pretty common. But the possibilities are a lot more.

·     Choosing sales locations: Coca–Cola chooses vending machine locations based on data about relevant audience footfall.

·     Historical data: Understand what the consumer pattern is. Is user on the go every morning. Can they be targeted with relevant products?

·     Planning & insights: Understand location and behaviour of customers through path to, and post purchase. This data can also enrich first party data.

·     Campaign efficacy: Evaluate campaign effectiveness by seeing how many users purchased at the store after seeing an ad.

One of the apprehensions has always been that would consumers be willing to share their location data. According to a Microsoft study, consumers are willing to share data in exchange for perceived benefits like

·     99.6% for cash rewards

·     89.3% for location-based discounts

·     65.2% for loyalty points

Clearly, dipping into location based insights is going to become only bigger in the future.

4. Audio: Suddenly it seems voice is becoming mainstream again. TV, it seemed, had brought an end to the era of audio broadcasting. Even on digital, the trend was moving towards more and more video content. But audio has made a comeback. First through smart speakers, then podcasts, and very recently through apps like Clubhouse. But what can brands do. A lot of them are creating Alexa apps, much like brands had jumped onto the mobile app trend, before realising that they need to solve a customer need. Sonic branding has been prevalent for some time. You still cannot, not hear the ‘Intel inside’ jingle when you think of the brand. Blerp, is another interesting site which allows you to create or use existing audio content as memes or any other audio effects. Brands need to figure how they can they either best use these for their benefit or integrate these into their communication strategies.

5. Virtual Reality Ads: VR is getting bigger. With technology getting better, thanks to big players like Facebook, more and more people are playing with and in Virtual reality. But how can brands create a truly immersive yet noninterruptive experience? Just imagine how brilliant it would be to visit a cruise liner through something like this. In the Corona times we live in, it could address many challenges faced by sectors like reality, automobile, etc.