Summer is the time of year when many people expect life to slow down. But this year – with the upcoming presidential election, mega business deals and gaming phenomenona – that expectation has not held true. While events and stories like these have dominated the news cycle, marketers especially need to pay attention. Here are five major advancements we saw this summer and what they mean for your marketing strategy going forward:
In addition, clients are using LinkedIn as a thought leadership platform, posting long-form opinions and insights through LinkedIn’s Published Posts and LinkedIn Pulse. Today, Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Jack Welch and many others write long-form content on LinkedIn.
Pokemon Go shows that augmented reality is the future. Bring out the champagne because augmented reality was born this summer. Sure, AR (and virtual reality) has been talked about for a few years now, but Pokemon signifies that AR is really here.
Marketers need to figure out how augmented or virtual realities fit into their programs. If you want to create experiential campaigns, no longer do you need to host live events or hire street teams. You can create a tour of your facility, figure out how that new coffee table you are selling will look in someone’s living room, or educate a potential client about your new service or offering via AR. While no brand (other than Pokemon Go developer Niantic) has really mastered the use of AR, McDonalds and HBO are both experimenting with AR and virtual reality.
Snapchat is not just for teens anymore. If you aren’t on Snapchat, stop reading this article and create a profile right now. This summer Snapchat made a number of updates to its user interface and ad platform to make it more attractive to brands. Companies that are successfully leveraging Snapchat are doing it several ways; some are generating handles, some are creating filters that people in specific proximities can use to enhance their photos, and some are using the paid channels.
If you want to use Snapchat for your brand, be authentic, timely, leverage location, and understand the audience on this channel does not want pre-produced formal video content. For example, AdWeek recently wrote that “Michael Kors' recent #NationalSunglassesDay garnered 100 million views and lifted purchase intent 2.1 times above the market norm, said Millward Brown Digital.”
Instagram launched its own version of Snapchat, cementing the power of the ephemeral. After being rebuffed in its attempt to buy Snapchat (actually Instagram’s owner, Facebook, tried and failed), the photo-sharing social network launched its own version of disappearing images and video, "Stories." While Snapchat still has the lead in terms of filters, geo-targeted ads and “buzz,” Instagram has more than 500 million monthly active users, fives times the number that Snapchat has. Recently, Snapchat reported that its daily users surpassed 150 million.
What this means for marketers is that people want to share content – and the ability to do so non-permanently – and that the idea of the disappearing picture isn’t just for sending illicit images. Marketers need to understand the power of the ephemeral. While the functionality of Instagram's Stories has only been live for a short period of time, many major fashion brands that I follow on Instagram have already started posting these disappearing clips.
The Verizon and Yahoo deal reinforces that content and mobile are king. The $4.8 billion dollar acquisition of Yahoo by Verizon will make Verizon the third largest online/mobile ad platform, behind only Facebook and Google. Why is Verizon betting big with the purchase of AOL and Yahoo? Because the company knows that mobile advertising is going reign supreme. For marketers, mobile content is where your focus needs to turn. While anyone who hasn’t lived under a rock for the past three years should already know this, the increase of ubiquitous Wi-Fi networks, the insatiable appetite for consuming content via mobile devices, and the fact that there are now more mobile devices that humans on earth should reinforce that mobile-first marketing strategies should be leading their thinking for the near future.
Technology is changing faster than ever before and many of these advancements directly hit the marketing department. These new advances will transform marketing departments by requiring new thinking, new talent and continued emphasis on social sharing and authenticity. However, rather than get overwhelmed, surround yourself with a team that isn’t afraid to try new things.
Start small: Create a Snapchat profile and play around with it at the office before you begin to market it. Explore small ways to start to use augmented reality; buy an Oculus Rift and start to get a sense of what is possible in the world of VR. And remember, you can have the best LinkedIn profile and most compelling content on a mobile-optimized website, but just because you build it, doesn’t mean your core audience will rush to it.
Be patient. Be thoughtful. And most importantly, remember who you are trying to reach, use the appropriate channels, and create the content that will resonate with your particular audience.
