Fast and Furious: The Biggest Marketing Trends to Watch out for in 2017
Introduction:
If you think the incursions and disruptions happening within the advertising and marketing industry was fast in 2016, 2017 will be furious. In the light of a receding economy and the rapid adoption and use of social media, mobile and digital technology by the public, there is going to be a lot happening within the marketing and advertising practice both on the client and agency sides and this can be attributed to key major trends disrupting the industry.
Though few are saying it, It is no longer a secret; digital disruption has thrown the marketing and advertising industry into a state of flux and the implications are becoming clear. Marketing Agencies are in the first line of interrogation. The battle to prove their worth, affirm their value and contribution to the bottom-line will be hot. The traditional media is being challenged by new media platforms for metrics, established advertising and public relations agencies are being challenged by young and nimble media agencies while your next campaign will be challenged for metrics and resonance with customers.
While I will not attempt to predict the future, several key factors will sway the landscape in favor of anyone or business which anticipates the scenarios and matches the dynamics with ruthless execution.
Marketing Budget: Digital takes a leap
Though the growth of digital marketing in Nigeria has been slower than forecasted by many, the big win for digital in 2016, was that it found its way into the board room. Digital and social media marketing have grown from struggling for attention about five years ago- when social media was thought to be for youngsters and for fun- to its current position challenging existing media channels for metrics and impact. The attendant economic recession, coupled with the clear need to justify huge marketing and advertising spend, has ensured that a lot of marketing spend will come the way of digital and direct marketing activations in 2017.
Most brands will not only spend a lot of money on digital and social media initiatives this year, they will also put a lot of pressure on their agencies to justify every amount spent of marketing and promotions this year.
Brand Managers on Trial
As businesses battle the need to stay afloat and maintain positive figures in a receding economy, there will be a greater demand on marketing and brand managers to step away from their desks to lead a marketing orchestra. It is already commonplace for client-side marketing professionals to line up several corporate and product campaigns for the year, and also supervise the bouquet of agencies implementing, while they measure compliance and impact. With the massive amount of ATL, BTL and Digital activations occurring across the year, it is possible for most marketers to be drawn into tactical activities that will see them chasing after granular deadlines and cross-functional objectives which may be counterproductive to their set annual business objectives. Brand Managers will be more challenged to run deeply integrated campaigns that will score high on both creative marketing excellence, and business effectiveness.
The greater challenge for 2017 will be for them to deliver business value and not activities.
This requires leading synchronized efforts at combining overseeing tactical activities and matching them with strategic thinking and approach. More agency and brand activities will be subjected to the scientific process of evaluating resonance with the customer alongside delivering business and economic value.
Facebook + Google Duopoly
With shifting budgets comes the clear fact that the bulk of spending by brands on digital advertising will be going to Google and Facebook and that will shape the system. Combined, both organizations accounted for 75 per cent of all new online ad spending in 2015 based on an Internet Trends report published Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a US Venture Capital fund. In the US alone, 85 cents of every new dollar spent on digital went to the two companies in the first quarter of 2016. As Google and Facebook eye Africa in search of a new generation of internet users and new businesses, the presence of the duo is already causing a shake up in the industry. The massive online shift of advertising budget to digital marketing is a clear benefit to the duo- the they both house the largest community of internet users in Africa. While research admits that TV still commands massive viewership across Nigeria, in other news, Ad spend is gradually moving the other way. Let’s face it, Facebook and Google have moved away from being social networks into becoming giant media companies. Apart from owning the top destination websites globally, Facebook and Google account for 60% of the top 10 most downloaded apps on people’s mobile phones.
Google and Facebook are making great incursions into the marketing space by directly engaging brands owners, training and empowering marketing professionals, entrepreneurs and users on the opportunities digital technology offers and this will dramatically increase numbers of users, hence advertising opportunities for the brands. Brand Managers, Public Relations Experts, Advertising Professionals and Agencies need to understand the opportunities, and the clear challenges emerging across these main players to remain relevant in the coming years.
Creative Agencies take on Digital
Facebook is not a strategy and digital agencies need to quickly understand this or lose out.
As Digital Agencies now struggle to prove their understanding of marketing beyond the ability to use online tools, creative advertising agencies are also going for their jugulars. Owing to a bit of timidity and lack of understanding of the emerging digital landscape, creative agencies created room for digital agencies to spring up and gain the first mover advantage, but this will be challenged more in 2017. Creative agencies are being challenged to expand their competencies beyond traditional media or risk losing a huge chunk of their income to digital agency counterparts who are young but understand the rudiments of marketing communications. Since Creative agencies have consistently adapted to every new media, some creative agencies are already making visible progress in managing digital and integrated media campaigns. Simple, but powerful indicators include, X3M Ideas winning the bronze medal under the ‘Best use of social Media” at the 2016 African Cristal Festivals and Insight Publicis Nigeria using a digital led Pepsi Long Throat campaign to win the Silver prize at the Global WARC Prize for Social Strategy, Publics Africa Groups’ Grand Prix award, Brand Journalists’ (BJAN) Most Talked about Campaign and LAIF Campaign of the year.
As creative agencies are gradually getting a grasp, consulting agencies in digital and digital agencies are nibbling at them in bits. Small to mid-size digital agencies with extended marketing and creative capabilities are leveraging the old fashioned international affiliations that made traditional agencies thrive. This will enable them compete more tenaciously against bigger, more established creative agencies, with lean overheads on their side. On the other hand, mid-manager level talents in creative agencies are already being snapped up by agencies and client side marketing departments. Pawns like money, position, and purpose will be the currency of trade. On the other hand, smart digital agencies are moving beyond the advertising mantra to evolve business models that enable them scale, compete and expand their scope of operations. The partnership between digital agency Ventra Media and Guardian Nigeria is both a beautiful sight to behold, and a breadth of fresh air from ‘agencies of internet tools’ into agencies that help their clients evolve business approaches that ensure they remain competitive in the future.
Either you work in a digital or traditional marketing agency; the power and relevance interplay in 2017 is not something you should be grabbing a popcorn for.
Business Consulting Eye Digital and Advertising Budgets
For a long time, Brand Advertisers have struggled with ways to measure the effectiveness of their overall marketing efforts and that of their several agencies– enter Business and Digital Research Consulting. Traditional marketing research agencies are acquiring digital competence and are bringing that into the market. Leading research companies like Nielsen, TNS, Kantar, Millward Brown are already helping brands subject advertising campaigns and marketing efforts to rigorous and objective scientific processes, and are also helping to unlock the changing dynamics of consumer behaviour, purchase patterns and user journey. However, this is no Eldorado for them as well.
According to The Ad Age Agency Report for 2016, of the top 15 digital networks worldwide ranked by revenue, three of the top five were Accenture Interactive, IBM Interactive Experience and Deloitte Digital – the consulting agencies that understand business and finance have landed in marketing. In addition to providing strategic advice on corporate strategy, finance and digital business transformation, other agency marketing services will be a great add-on for them.
These have been happening for several months, so why have these become important in 2017 for Nigeria?
A lot of these have already activated their Nigerian operations so expect a massive digital organizational transformation within organizations, a battle for share of the marketing wallet, a lot more digital savvy business executives and managers and an openness to explore technology tools that will help improve business and organizational processes.
The Rise of Micro-influencers
Either for financial crunch, or for lack of justification for huge budgets, expect the massive investments into celebrity endorsements to wane. While 2016 threw them up significantly, expect 2017 to be the year of the micro-influencer. What or who again is a micro-influencer? I am glad you asked.
Micro-influencers are the new mid-level celebrities. They are not as popular as Don Jazzy but their credibility is worth its weight in lead. They are people who manage online communities, have a sizeable number of followers on Social Media covering Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or even own communities of their own online. These new level influencers do not have the halo effect of celebrities which is where the power of their believability and credibility lie. They are more responsive to brand initiatives and are more consumer-centric, nimbler, and real-time-oriented than celebrity brand ambassadors. Although the number of followers vary for each person, brand owners, marketing and agency professionals are beginning find a lot of direct consumer engagement using these influencers. While an A-list celebrity may be great for your brand, it is becoming important to consider someone else actively building a stronger bond with your desired target community. 2016 has thrown up a lot of micro-influencers who have jumped into prominence solely on the power of their online content, credibility and influence. Although there will always be a market for celebrity endorsements, brands have caught onto the fact that an influencer’s number of followers isn’t as important as we once thought – the credibility of their activities and story- especially the humanness and cultural relevance of their story- is all that matters.
Platform: Brands go after Communities
As at early 2016, 5 of the top 10 most valuable brands by market capitalization were platform-oriented companies—companies that created digital networks that allow buyers, sellers, and a variety of third parties get connected in real time. It is no longer enough for businesses to push out media content, they also seek to directly engage their target audience in a more meaningful and measurable way.
Apart from tapping into micro-influencer communities, brands will attempt to take a greater bet on engaging new media platforms. The easiest approach is to create online communities on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter which is already facing policy challenges and limited reach. Several brands like GTBank, Access bank, First Bank and UBA are already creating theirs by turning themselves into publishers, leveraging their huge customer base, and financial might to launch online TV channels. Others have also created their own branded communities and are using this to nurture their own online community such as Access Bank’s W community, MTN’s Marketplace and several others. The approach for some is to partner with several existing platforms through sponsorship and support. An example is Konbini and Nescafe; How we made it in Africa and DHL. To confirm that communities are the way to go, Linda Ikeji’s biggest move after nurturing her long-term entertainment blog was the launching of LindaIkejiSocial.
I expect to see more of this and the ability to create a community of constantly engaged and loyal customers will be an important currency in 2017.
The explosion of Video Content
If you think video was huge in 2016, wait till you see the impact in 2017. The combined factors of cheaper smartphones, lower cost of data, ease of content creation and video technology, only one word will describe the massive effect online videos will have – an explosion. With Iroko TV expanding its online operations to terrestrial TV and movie production, MTN securing a traditional TV license, Traditional TV stations like Channels and TVC expanding their online operations, the terrain is bound to be a competitive one. While Netflix is finding the Nigerian online subscription hard to crack, Showmax (owned by Multichoice) and MTN Front Row are waiting to compete on the online movie streaming front, then there’s the informal content creation ecosystem to consider.
With the massive number of online skits, images and content being generated every day by simple individuals, brands will struggle for attention and engagement. In YouTube’s top 10 trending videos for 2016, no single brand video made the cut, comedy took the crown. Brands and businesses looking to leverage this massive amount of internet attention will have to be completely unusual in approach.
Data Science and the rise of Analytics
If you are a creative professional and still have not got the memo, science has come to stay in marketing and the creative process of consumer engagement. The combination of several technology tools will ensure that maximizing digital technology to track user behaviour, engage across the purchase funnel and to track plus identify purchase intent will have a field day. A lot of market and consumer data will be relied upon for marketing and business decisions. For a long time, traditional agencies have relied on industry accepted Mediastar (owned by Media Planning Services) and other industry reports such as Mediafacts by MediaReach OMD, The Nigerian Advertising Guide by Media Perspectives and the recently launched Consumer Connection System (CCS) launched by Media Fuse Dentsu Aegis. The release of new media analytics and consumer analytics will take this notches higher.
As a matter of fact, tracking and engaging customer intent will be a more powerful and established tool in 2017. The implementation of data science and behavioral analytics in marketing will ensure the Google Keywords can be matched with location data and messaging. Facebook Location Awareness ads can be matched with CRM data to create ultra-targeted ads that match ad messaging with consumer journey. The evolution of marketing is already here.
What’s your play?
It is an insult to intellect to say that the marketing and advertising industry has been disrupted; smart people know it’s changing quicker than brands and companies can deal. In the face of rapidly changing consumer behaviour, marketing managers and agency professionals need to move beyond the normal into the uncharted, and putting a lot of trust in your agency is going to be a huge part of this work.
In competitive strategy, the ability to proactively predict scenarios and outcomes are critical to the survival of any brand, individual, organization or people group. Every segment of the marketing profession will feel the impact of this evolution and the people able to leverage this massive shift will be the clear leaders when the dust settles.
Don’t be surprised the next major award-winning campaign may be done by a three-man army.
Deola is a Digital Marketing Consultant with Insight Publicis Nigeria and the author of Digital Epidemic: A Strategic eMarketing Guide to Growing your Business in the age of Connected Customers
Website: www.adeolakayode.com, Twitter: www.twitter.com/delola, LinkedIn: ng.linkedin.com/in/deolakayode/
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