I’m uneasy about the term ‘trends’, and especially the majority of reports that appear about this time of the year purporting to be significant changes in marketing for 2015, which in the main seem to really be ’12 cool things I saw this year on Instagram’.
But they can be great stimulus for testing things with clients; “Here’s some emergent things – shall we do some tests around them in 2015 to see if their are relevant for this brand?”..type sell in.
So in that spirit…Ogilvy’s Jeremy Wilson was invited to take part in a panel on #Trends2015 as part of Advertising Week in New York recently. This featured a range of perspectives from startups, enterprises, media and agencies. From this Jeremy shared a list of predictions; ‘Top 5 Advertising and Technology Trends for 2015′ and found a whole range of things that I am going to build into proposals for 2015 trials.
The truncated summaries of the trends are Jeremy’s, the social trials are mine.
1. Rise of the Sensors
Ibeacons act as triggers that allow for smarter interaction with an environment – for instance, if I walk into a store a beacon will know who I am and what department I’m in, sending me a notification for an in-store promotion based on my past shopping history.
Social trial: does your client do things at events or retail spaces? In 2015 trial triggering social sharing and content consumption with beacons at a sponsored event or in flagship store.
2. The Evolution of Mobile & Social Payments
Mobile and social payments will finally be able to shine in 2015, Twitter is running a payment pilot with a range of musicians and content providers, allowing them to sell access to a video or track with just a click.
Social trial: does your client sell direct to the public (pizza, films, books, holidays)? In 2015 trail in-feed sales.
3. Health Tech & Wearables Go Mainstream
Smart watches will start to appear on wrists throughout the year, brands and apps will rush to shrink their content into what is being known as ‘glanceables’ – small snackable content formats that can be viewed on a watch or a Google Now card.
Social trial: what brand related content or functionality would a user need to have immediate access to on their wrist? (Because it’s useful / entertaining). How can it be snackable and drive social engagement?
4. Selfies Get Serious
Next year it’s time to up your selfie game – 2015 is when the selfie really gets tech. Hyperlapse, Drone shots, and connected devices that can trigger the camera on your phone are becoming mainstream – they offer us a whole range of new perspectives to present ourselves to the world.
Social trial: How does the brand take advantage of these now ubiquitous formats in developing their content on social channels? Update the Q1 content calendar to test each one of these for audience engagement.
5. More Ambitious Native & Branded Content
This year we have seen quality TV shows funded entirely by brands. My bet is that in 2015 we’ll see a brand fully fund a scripted feature film. There is already loads of product placement but I’m talking the primary production backer. Fueled by the ability to debut straight to streaming distribution and inspired by Netflix’s plans to debut their own movies directly on their platform, I can see some brands making a smart impact within film.
Social tactic: if your client’s brand were to make a movie what would it be? Now step back from that Big Hairy Ambition and think of slightly less ambitions formats / lengths that would support that. Put aside £10k to test some of them in Q2.
Happy pitching…