The year, and the decade, is coming to an end. Typically, this is a time to reflect, to look back over the year to see what we’ve learnt, and what we can take moving forward. We’ve had a busy year at 4media group, so to round-up, we’ve put together a little guide to what we’ve discovered, and what it could teach us all in 2020.
Content
Social media has been prevalent as ever throughout the year, but 2019 saw the rise of a new social channel. Launched overseas in 2017, TikTok has taken the world by storm. With over 1 billion original downloads, the ‘lip-syncing’ short-form app is immensely popular with Gen-Z and has tickled people everywhere with its catchy, hilarious and often downright ridiculous content. Its simplicity has been praised, and it has provided a platform where people can generate their own personal content, and share it across the internet to high acclaim. The popularity of the app has proved that there is a never-ending desire for different forms of content, and has highlighted the rise of mobile-only social media platforms and vertical content moving into 2020.
Digital
One of the biggest changes we’ve seen at 4media group this year is the growth of shopper marketing. Still a relatively new concept, knowing how to influence consumers at the Point of Purchase can yield effective sales, and marketers have developed more insightful strategies to help connect with them. Through research, we have discovered that purchasing decisions are rarely a completely rational choice, but are based on environmental and physiological factors that reflect to quality and value. We’ve seen a lot of growth with shopper marketing with our own clients, and feel that marketers will be employing further techniques to better understand the mental process behind the decision to buy in the new year.
Communications
Over the course of 2019, we’ve seen a shift in the direction of social commerce to become more targeted. Forum-based communications have become more popular, with sites such as Reddit being recognised as credible sources of content, along with Facebook groups. The focus has been drawn to the niche – in creating content aimed at specific groups and targeting specific people. This has seen a rise in influencer engagement, using smaller nano-influencers who are on the whole more relatable to audiences. We predict this trend will continue into 2020, with marketers creating more tailored, bespoke content for specific audiences.
Intelligence
By far one of the biggest things to change intelligence and market research in 2019 was AI. The benefits of Artificial Intelligence were already known to us, and it had even been implemented in some businesses, but we’ve now been able to see the difference it’s made. AI is helping people to become more effective in their jobs through the ability to generate insights from large amounts of data, enabling interactions with technology via natural-language conversations and allowing business to continuously survey the market whilst analysing data in real-time. Looking to the future, 4media group predict that marketers will make more of AI, using it to reduce insight time and uncovering the unknown.
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