2021 is still going to be about Covid—Playhouse
By Zion Rufus
No doubt, consumer behavior and the acceleration of digital transformation across all spheres including marketing and advertising has changed drastically compared to the past year.
As 2020’s Pandemic plunged the world into a new normal and the adoption of digital transformation solutions, digital experts across the globe have predicted that these trends will still be seen post-pandemic and more digital transformations are to be expected.
According to reports collated by Playhouse Communications Ltd, one of the leading digital agencies in Nigeria, 2021 is still going to be about COVID.
The current existence of vaccines will not automatically wave the pandemic overnight with the snap of a finger as countries around the world are still battling with recession, overpopulation, proper modes of administering the vaccine, and other internal crises. In Nigeria, how long will it take to vaccinate 180+ million Nigerians? This reflects that while the world waits, and the recession continues “we think we need to accept that COVID is not a short-term thing”.
“This is not unique to Nigeria,” Playhouse stated. “Globally, times are hard. We all know that the first thing that gets cut in a recession is the marketing budget! But this recession isn’t necessarily bad news for Digital; the fact that COVID/lockdown has driven more people online means that we expect to see some growth in digital budgets. We expect that even if brands are cutting their spend, the one budget they will look to at least keep constant, if not grow, is their digital spend/activity.”
The Playhouse predictions also see 2021 as the year third-party cookies are going away due to increasing data privacy concerns. Third party cookies allowed brands to develop strategies for targeting specific audiences.
Cookies are small pieces of data stored on the user’s computer by the web browser while browsing a website. They enable websites to remember user information (such as items added in the shopping cart in an online store) or to record the user’s browsing activity (including clicking particular buttons, logging in, or recording which pages were visited in the past).
“We believe brands need to think about their own first party data. What info are you getting and keeping regarding who is visiting your site and what they are doing on the site? And with regards to being able to target audiences on other sites, it is a “watch and see”. Google, and others, are looking at solutions like a ‘Privacy Sandbox’ that will give users control of their data but also allow marketers to still develop targeted campaigns.”
Innovation, social activism, and government regulation were not left out. In terms of innovation, we expect to see a lot of innovation in 2021.
On the other hand, Government regulation is also expected to take full charge in 2021. Late in 2019, the Nigerian Senate started considering two bills relating to freedom of expression online.
For brands, the bills in themselves don’t present any problems, most brands are already very careful about the content they share. The two bills are ‘The National Commission for the Prohibition of Hate Speech bill’ and ‘The Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulation and other Related Offences’ bill.
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