Digital Trends for a Post Corona World
source: https://www.digitaltrends.com/
The prospect of a pandemic has been a well-known risk for many years, but it was hard to predict the exact timing of the current corona-virus crisis. Trends operate the same way: The big shifts might be well-known; but it’s hard to predict the timing and shape of the bell curve that most trends follow. Will they stay niche or suddenly see accelerated mass adoption because of some external trigger? At times like these it’s good to look at trends that were already out there, but now feel primed to play a more vital role in our marketing strategy
My attempt below is to decode the few digital trends that have been radically accelerated by the crisis:
1. Digital Escalation of video content: 1 in 3 watch online video
While it is no secret that video consumption is high amongst the internet population, with the economy moving towards a virtual experience economy, this trend is going to gain new levels of meaning.
A significant portion of this video content is consumed on mobile phones. No wonder you see Netflix rolling out a mobile first subscription service for India. While brands have been striving to create good quality video content most of us miss out on the the language preferences of the video content.
So as a company if you aren’t creating solid video content then you are missing out on reaching out to your consumers in the manner that they most prefer. If you are, well you need to start considering tailoring these videos as per the regional specific cultural nuances and vernacular preferences. Key here is not to just translate content but also to delve deeper to understand the implications of the translated content on consumers. Identify key markets for your brand where you need to build salience and dive deeper into what conversation style you need to adopt.
The companies that are ahead of the curve with localized and sharp video content are the emerging social commerce firms who are using videos extensively to sell product across different categories. Look at the Chinese firm TaoBao owned by the Alibaba group, which has seen a whopping 700% increase in traffic post the pandemic! This has also led to meteoric rise of short content platforms such as Tik Tok, Vmate and Quibi among others. As people in India have gone mobile, and as attention on mobile is centered around newsfeeds and stories, video and in particular short-form video becomes an incredible opportunity to capture the attention of your target customers on a device that is with them all the time.
Something very important to note here is while the consumption of media on mobile is on the rise, Indians are resorting to the multi-screen phenomena to watch content. With 836 million television viewers in India, 70% of media is still consumed on television. According to a recent report by Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), people are now watching TV for all seven days with an increase of 47 per cent viewership.
That brings me to my second point that marketers need to keep in mind while crafting the media mix to put out those videos. A balanced combination of TV and digital can be leveraged to drive incremental brand impact by marketers rather than pitting one against the other. A multi-screen approach works far more effectively to deliver reach, frequency and brand impact compared to single platform approach!
2. Search trends are changing discovery and brand consideration
The Near Me/Hyperlocal Search is the single biggest search trend that marketers need to pay attention to post the pandemic! People would like to drive higher efficiency and productivity every time they step out of the house post the pandemic. In order to do so, there is going to be a strong surge of hyperlocal searches so that they can be sure that their neighborhood store can fulfill their requirements. Consumers will embrace brands and stores that are swift in fulfilling these search queries. If as a brand you manage to show up in moments that really matter to your consumers, then there is no better way of marketing. It is also hugely beneficial from an ROI standpoint to be present in these moments as there is high intent to shop. As per the google report “Insights for Brands” some emerging “near me” search trends are:
A growing number of consumers are researching online and purchasing offline. This corresponds with findings that 50% of organized retail will likely be influenced by digital in 2020. While a lot of brands are adopting an Omni channel selling strategy, the marketing team also needs to embrace an Omni channel information strategy where consumers can move seamlessly between online and offline and there exists no asymmetry of information.
The other search trend that is gaining immense traction is “the best” searches. Post the pandemic consumers are going to be a lot more definitive and explicit in their shopping decisions. The discovery funnel is going to change significantly atleast for the next few quarters post the pandemic. This will mean lesser window shopping opportunities and thereby will affect offline impulse purchases. Rather discovery of new products might shift online with searches and consumers demanding timely and transparent information from brands.
As per the Google report “While this core behavior has been consistently observed over the years, it has manifested to more niche categories as we observe a change in consumer priorities.” Armed with this new information, I cannot help but think of the leakages and loose ends our current SEO and digital strategy has. Therefore, marketers need to focus on building a much sharper SEO strategy and adopt a method where they focus on building category leadership by building more on “best of” searches.
3. Rise of digital gaming
3. Rise of digital gaming
Due to an increase in the number of mobile internet users, smartphones and tablets in India mobile has already garnered close to a 54% share of the total Indian gaming market. eSports is also becoming hugely popular with over 2 million existing viewers and poised to grow five times by 2021. With people having additional time at hand due to pandemic, digital games across the board are seeing massive adoption acceleration. This has made it impossible to overlook In-Game marketing as a key tool to reach out those digitally connected consumers. Given that video games are so immersive, the full effect of the ad registers on the viewer because they are so invested in the game. The interactivity of the game also allows marketers to work their messages into the game-play in a manner that becomes more immersive rather than disruptive.
I am personally an advocate of taking this a step further and adopting gamification to convey your marketing messages. I have witnessed an uplift of 30-50% in marketing message recall and conversion by employing gamification successfully.
Most consumers value enjoyable and amazing experiences along with amazing products. It is upto a marketer to deliver those experiences in their marketing campaign. Fortunately gamification gives you an option to stand out and deliver those unique and fun experiences.
Necessity is the mother of all invention. During crisis both businesses and consumers will welcome technology to make their lives easier. Here I have covered a few digital trends that seem primed for an accelerated journey. I hope these tips help you build more engaging and optimized digital campaigns. I would love to hear your experiences in these areas in the comment section.
Sources:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/interviews/short-form-videos-are-becoming-an-important-platform-to-achieve-marketing-goals-justin-halim-bain-company/articleshow/69860190.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
(https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-apac/ad-channel/search/year-in-search-india-insights/)
https://www.ciiblog.in/industry/indias-billion-dollar-digital-gaming-market-on-the-upswing/
https://www.marketing-schools.org/types-of-marketing/in-game-marketing.html
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-apac/country/india/multiscreen-mix-how-marketers-india-are-embracing-combination-tv-and-youtube/
https://optinmonster.com/gamification-in-marketing/
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-apac/country/india/what-india-searching-insights-brands/
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