For forward-thinking marketing and communications pros, sometimes half the battle is sifting though the latest list of shiny objects and trending topics to see what can really make an impact versus what might be a passing fad or empty theory.
In recent months, some of the more talked-about digital marketing and communications trends include responsive design, mobile (everything), re-targeting, fragmented social media, fragmented search, email re-marketing and attribution measurement.
While each of those trends/issues is playing a significant role in the current landscape, four current digital communications trends stand out for brands to start leveraging right away — content marketing, multi-channel storytelling, native advertising and big data.
Content Marketing
For the last few years, many communications pros have been saying brands should become media companies. It’s finally starting to happen, and in a big way. Brands like Red Bull and Coca Cola have received an enormous amount of attention for their content marketing strategies, while Oreo continues to be held up as the darling of the real-time marketing craze. Below is some data supporting the importance of content marketing:
- 61% of consumers say they feel better about a company that delivers custom content; they are also more likely to buy from that company (Custom Content Council)
- Interesting content is a top-three reason people follow brands on social media (Content+)
- 78% believe that organizations providing custom content are interested in building good relationships with them (Custom Content Council)
- 92% of retweets are based on “interesting content” (Mindjumpers)
Clearly there’s no shortage of data supporting the benefits of content marketing and also no shortage of success stories of brands that have seen their message break through by implementing a content marketing strategy. But success can’t happen without structure and discipline. Brands embarking on a content marketing strategy should first take the time to make sure they have the right staffing model in place, the right platforms and tools at their disposal, an internal content engine to ensure content relevance and the tools and expertise to measure content performance and adjust as necessary in real-time.
Multi-Channel Storytelling
It’s becoming cliché, but only because it’s true… now more than ever it’s imperative for brands to create the right content that reaches the right people at the right time and in the right place. It’s been said there is currently a content surplus but attention deficit, thus making it more important than ever for brands to tell a consistent story across multiple platforms so they stand out from the noise. Here are some interesting stats to consider:
- By 2015, one-in-three online U.S. consumers will own a tablet (Forrester)
- 49% of American adults own a smartphone (Nielsen)
- 179 million U.S. Internet users watched nearly 38 billion online videos in February 2012 (Harris Interactive)
The point? Engagement now happens everywhere, so brands need to carefully consider the right platforms to share their stories and create unique content for each platform in order to ensure that content is discoverable and shareable to break through the clutter.
Native Advertising
According to Mitch Joel of Harvard Business Review, “native advertising is an advertising format that must be created specifically for one media channel in terms of the technical format and the content (both must be native to the channel on which they appear and unable to be used wholesale in another context).” Since the concept started to gain popularity last year, there has been a steady stream of coverage regarding its impact and effectiveness. Following are some additional stats on native ads:
- Readers are between 10-20 times more likely to click on native advertising than on an average banner ad (BuzzFeed)
- Native ads boast click-through rates of 300-400% percent more than typical advertising (The Atlantic)
- Native ads create a 300-500% engagement lift (The Atlantic)
- 32% of CMOs have bought or are preparing to buy native advertising in the next six months (Sharethrough)
The key takeaway here is native advertising is mutually-beneficial for brands and media companies alike. Brands want to showcase engaging content that is worth reading, interacting with and sharing, while media platforms are looking for higher page views, click-throughs and engagement rates. The value of partnering with a relevant media platform to feature a story far outweighs placing one-way static banner ads.
Big Data
Big data must rank at or near the top of marketing industry buzz terms during the last couple years. For the sake of this post, big data is considered the analysis of the intersection of many sources of data – including social media, customer data, purchasing information, product usage and other significant data points – which can enable marketers to earn media coverage by leveraging data that was not possible in such quick turnaround before and change the course of programs and products based on real-time feedback. A few stats about the rise of big data:
- 91% of senior corporate marketers believe that successful brands use customer data to drive marketing decisions (Columbia Business Schools)
- Organizations that leverage big data financially outperform their peers by 20% or more (IBM global CFO study)
- Retailers using big data could increase their revenue by more than 60% (McKinsey)
In addition to the benefit of big data for marketers to get feedback on their products and services in real-time, it also gives communicators a new tool to create relevant stories in a timely fashion. For example, just as Nielsen has been using its ratings to create a news cycle around viewership of big TV events for years, Twitter is now consistently creating news around how major events play out on its platform, and brands are using product data to create dynamic content and manufactured news cycles.
Some trends come and go quickly, while others never come to fruition. For marketing and communications pros trying to successfully navigate the new landscape, leveraging content marketing, multi-channel storytelling, native advertising and big data can make a positive impact right away.
(Disclosure: EA SPORTS is a client)
