So Social
The power of TikTok, Instagram, Facebook Shops, User Generated Content (consumers are the media) drives a mass increase in agenda activism and movements. Everyone has become a social butterfly. It's the most engaging form of cause based shareable & shoppable content online.
- 71% of consumers turn to social for shopping inspiration
- 55% of online shoppers now make the majority of their purchases through social media channels.
ASOS, Clothing the Gap, Fy and Levi’s are selling their products through Instagram Shops, Facebook Shops and even Pinterest Catalogues. So, let’s look at the most important trends to leverage!
Social Personalisation
Personalised marketing is not new; it uses data to target specific consumers with marketing content.
But social personalisation provides a deep well of data insights, which can be leveraged to engage consumers with individual offers, ads, product suggestions.
Coca Cola’s 2015 #shareacoke campaign, replaced its logo with consumer names and encouraged people to share photos on social with the hashtag. Rumoured to relaunching to focus on diversity.
Spotify “Wrapped” personalised campaign, revealed individual listeners trends.
It proved popular, prompting millions to share their individual #2019Wrapped on social media.
Lexus ran 1000 different Facebook ads in a campaign, all personalised to unique customer types. Cadbury ran a Facebook video campaign, users created personalised videos using their account data.
Breast Cancer are now using personalised video marketing campaigns. Social personalisation will be incredibly effective marketing strategy for 2021.
Branded and User Generated Content “Live & Reels”
Long-form video was predicted to overtake short-form video
TikTok & Instagram’s “*Reels” feature created snackable video content which is popular.
“Live” has become the most engaging form of content on the internet, we consumed a whopping 1.1B hours of “Live” video.
Many brands use “Live” or “Reels” to create beyond product storytelling.
Video is driving shoppable content - Facebook/Instagram Shops, so sCommerce is big.
*Reels is a new short-form video tool that allows users to record quick, real-time moments between 1 & 30 secs. 1 in 5 Facebook videos are “Live” streams. 1M Instagram users watch “Live” video every day. Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn have all jumped on this fad.
Brands are now going “Live”. Global Citizen is using IG “Live” to promote their #TogetheratHome campaign. NASA uses YouTube “Live” to live stream news about scientific discovery and aeronautics research.
Content for Good
Social has become the primary platform for spreading agenda-based awareness (content for good) It allows brands to reach a large number of people with their positive message, while creating an open dialogue by welcoming interaction and engagement from their audience.
2020 saw exponential growth on social of agenda, cause & politically base content.
#MeToo, #Black Lives Matter, #Climate Change, #Feminism, #Covid-19.
The increase in people advocating and supporting causes has been staggering.
Reebok, Nike, Netflix openly supported Black Lives Matter movement on social media, alongside millions of people who shared educational and inspirational content on BLM.
Even Instagram made a big move to keep people informed, safe, and supported on its platform during the pandemic.
Self-Aware Marketing
Is simply the ‘reverse psychology’ of the marketing industry. Self-aware marketing is centred around satirical or ironic adverts that poke fun at themselves, other brands or the concept of advertising in general. While traditional marketing campaigns aim to hide the fact that they’re trying to promote products or hit sales targets, self-aware marketing campaigns do the opposite by putting ‘the sell’ front and centre.
Brands are adopting self-aware marketing. McDonald’s released a self-aware campaign promoting their Signature Burger Collection – a range of ‘posh’ burgers and ‘premium’ products served up on a silver platter (literally) – as a way to make fun of the brand’s cheap, fast-food reputation. Marmite’s social posts blatantly point out the controversial nature of their product.
Humanisation Marketing
People, fundamentally, connect with people, and brands are already starting to take a more human approach to how they communicate online.
Brands are using Social to make ‘real’ connections with their customers and audiences, as lockdowns drove the world’s populace to appreciate the authentic, human factor.
Now many marketing strategies delivering further on transparency, authenticity and vulnerability in order to develop rich connections. I expect that influencers will play a vital role in this, with brands developing long-term relationships with ‘real people’ to amplify their key marketing messages and build trust with new audiences.
Meaningfulness and Environmental Marketing
Any business not currently moving towards sustainable packaging, materials, technology, or supply chain, MUST. Consumers are increasingly aware of - and motivated by - their products origins. And will voice this on using Social cause-based channels. I expect mental and physical wellbeing will be a big part of social in 2021. Brands who genuine will benefit from this inclusive conversation, which will translate into followers and sales growth.
Influencer Marketing
Brands are leveraging influencer authenticity as a way to reach valuable new online audiences. Brand influencers will create much stronger, longer-term relationships to create niche, targeted campaigns with Instagram Reels, TikTok challenges, and longer-form YouTube episodes. Instagram and YouTube will continue to take the lion's share of the influencer spend, but TikTok and Twitch look likely to grow in 2021.