Marketing Predictions for 2016 from the Marketing Association

As we start our year in 2016 we can be sure of one thing – change! What was new and exciting  to our customers last year might not have so much impact this year. So how do we prepare for this, and how can we predict the ways in which we can best influence our target audience? Here are a few top tips from us and the people in the know at marketing.com.au.

Put Some Time Into the Relationship

Relationship marketing is where it is at in 2016, so make sure you think about how you can make your campaigns personal in order to foster loyalty and long-term engagement.

At Displays 2 Go we have seen how effective experiential campaigns and sampling can be when aimed directly at the consumer, so finding ways to increase this relationship is key. Being able to build relationships with potential customers by creating “touch points” with them after they’ve engaged with your brand can be very effective.

Marketing.com.au have also said that the increase of mobile interaction has been a key driver in the rise of relationship marketing, so companies should integrate this into their plans for 2016.

Nothing Wrong with a bit of Customer Location-Tracking

Sounds disturbing and a little Orwellian but like it or not, location-based marketing is here and it’s going to rear its head in even bigger ways next year. The rise of location technology, such as iBeacons will allow you to target customers right at your location. iBeacons work off Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology. These tiny transmitters can be set up in a bricks and mortar store, when a customer walks in you will be alerted and you can send location-specific information on sales straight to their smartphone.

At Displays 2 Go we’re busy exploring the integration of this technology into our sampling stands, so that sampling campaigns become even more effective.

The Future is Here

Virtual reality is, well, a marketing reality. Virtual reality gives marketers the ability to provide immersive experiences to customers all over the world, 24 hours a day 7 days a week. You can give them a 360-degree tour of a car; take them through a beach-side villa in the Maldives or take them on a ride in the business-class section of an airliner.

We’re exploring ways of giving customers a more engaging and immersive brand experience by integrating virtual reality into our sampling stands and experiential displays.

However we also know that smelling, tasting and feeling the product is a huge influence when running sampling campaigns, so it’s still important to get out there in front of your customer!

Say Your Piece and Leave

A lot of these marketing techniques are being developed specifically for the millennial market. What millennials love more than anything else is ephemeral marketing. Short, sharp bursts of information that don’t hang around. Snapchat is the perfect platform for ephemeral marketing, and companies are already taking advantage of this. The beauty of Snapchat is that the video disappears, so you get the opportunity to deliver marketing that truly engages on a personal level without being obtrusive.

Many might describe supermarket sampling in the same way. It’s short, sharp, disruptive and then it’s gone, as the shopper moves on down the aisle.

Nothing is More Ephemeral than a Video

Following on from the previous point, video marketing is going to stake a big claim this year as the king of all marketing content. Video marketing is a great example of ephemeral marketing because it has an expiry date, it has a set duration and then it’s gone.  Millennials, with their shorter attention span and thirst for image-over-text, love it. YouTube is a monster and will continue to grow, and now even Google has decided it can’t ignore the moving picture any longer. Video advertising will be introduced to your search engine results page (SERP) and, who knows, before too long the whole SERP may be made up of videos. It’s worth remembering that Google owns YouTube, so the evolution of video ads is a huge unknown thanks to the extraordinary variety of possibilities.

At Displays 2 Go we have a range of display solutions that integrate screens and interactive displays into your display solution to take full advantage of the power of video.

The Internet is Everywhere!

Well it already is, but know that in the near future it’s going to be everywhere in a wearable, physical sense. The ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) is happening – 28 per cent of people will have adopted wearable technology by next year. This means that all the creepy marketers and analysts out there will be able to track our every move. This won’t only affect the way we market; it will also have an effect on the data we collect, which will be based far more heavily on customer behaviour.

Stop Denying the Inevitable

Some would argue this has already happened, and those with their heads in the sand would like to downplay it’s importance, but one thing is clear. Next year, mobile will have been unanimously declared the undisputed heavyweight champion of internet traffic. The Google algorithm change was made in a response to this and mobile traffic has outstripped PC traffic in 10 countries already. Expect that number to climb sharply, and keep your marketing efforts PC-focused at your peril.

Does SIRI Know Who You Are?

Currently, people turn to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and pay-per-click advertising when they are trying to increase their visibility. But, could 2016 usher in another way of getting your name out there? More and more people are getting their information through digital assistants like Siri and Cortana. These assistants only turn to Google and other search engines if they don’t already have the answer themselves. The key to optimising your company so that you’re visible to Siri and Cortana is to make your information easily accessible, as opposed to trying to push them specifically towards your site.

Does Anyone Read Anymore?

Of course, they do, but all the signs are pointing to the diminishing importance of articles, and an increase in the importance of interactive content.  Interactive content, like surveys and quizzes, is far more engaging and can be consumed on the go. If you’ve got a five-minute coffee break, the research says you’re far more likely to spend it watching a video or filling out a quick survey than reading a blog post or scanning an article. Taking into account the irony that this warning is written in an article, it may be time for marketers to spend a little less energy on crafting their prose and more time brushing up on their video editing skills. There will always be a place for the written article but when there are so many articles to compete against, widening your skillset isn’t such a bad idea.

Through experiential campaigns, it provides clients with the potential to create hours of video content to engage with thousands of consumers. Rarely do they have to read anything – just listen, play, and taste.

So whether you’re completely on board with this or not, it’s all food for thought and one that we at Displays 2 Go thought was insightful.