There’s a scene in Back to the Future in which Marty McFly realizes that the selections he made within the beyond are having surprising and cataclysmic outcomes on the future. We in the advertising enterprise are coming to a number of those same realizations today. It’s becoming abundantly clear that amassing statistics without asking, eschewing creativity to chase the click, and freely giving content material totally free are unwise processes. If 2018 turned into the year that it all hit the fan, 2019 is our opportunity to reset the clock. The largest content material marketing trends of the year are all approximately recommitting to our audiences, including building their trust and specializing in what topics to the maximum. Here’s what we counted on to peer more of in 2019.
Goodbye, Big Data
The onset of virtual media gave us exceptional access to statistics on customers — everything from the pages they browse and the objects they purchase to who they observe and what they say. We collectively had fun on the marketing opportunity to hand and proclaimed that “statistics was the new oil.” But brace yourselves: We’re searching at the quit of statistics series as we comprehend it.
As it seems, the human beings that we have been all gathering this data from weren’t precisely pleased about it. With scandals like Cambridge Analytica making headlines, moguls like Mark Zuckerberg performing in Congress to shield Facebook, and massive breaches from massive companies like Marriott and Equifax, it’s clear that the public is not at ease with their private statistics being to be had to anyone and everyone.
In some parts of the arena, the government has commenced stepping in. Laws are being passed in California to prevent the collection of personal info without permission, and the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is putting regulations in place for all online gamers. All in all, we’re searching at statistics backlash.
The largest result of these turning tides? Companies need to exchange what they’re bragging about. Instead of boasting about having “an insane amount of facts,” agencies must be dashing to build credibility using announcing: “We don’t acquire any information without your knowledge.” Apple has already hooked up that it doesn’t accumulate any personal info they haven’t instructed you about, and it’s only a depend on time before other brands start to comply with suit.
Instead of having numbers of their lower back pocket, marketers should begin returning to classic “pull” techniques for promotional materials. Maybe you can’t parent out the age and hobbies of whoever sold a race skip in your marathon, but if you’re sharing fantastic tales approximately schooling and walking expertise, the target audience you need will come to you.
Hello, Big Ideas
These past 12 months became all approximately experimenting with formats. Everyone and their marketing-degree-protecting brother had been pumping out multiplatform content, dabbling in the whole thing from podcasts to digital reality (VR) films. These formats have the capacity for fantastic storytelling, however too regularly, marketers just use them because they’re new and bright.
In 2019, it was time to hark back to the fundamentals of advertising. If you’ve got a brilliant idea derived from a profound insight into your target audience, you may share it in any variety of approaches. Imagine you’re advertising a tourism destination. If you have to get admission to super personal memories from a long-time hotel doorman, a easy Q&A article should virtually serve you higher than a VR enjoy. Maybe it’s no longer the most up-to-date medium, but it’ll highlight the individual’s personality in a clearer, extra attractive way. The backside line: Ideas have to lead the manner, no longer flashy tech.
Subscribers Rule All
As mass media houses war to attract advertisers in a competitive market, some of the most well-known media brands attempt something new: selling their content immediately to their target market. It’s a model that’s been around for a reason that first newspaper and is now coming again into style.
Look at the New York Times’s paywall or Netflix’s subscription version. These corporations are doubling down on developing high-quality, authentic content material — content so excellent that humans are willing to pay money to access it. This renewed attention on great is a welcome change to the propagation of clickbait and sensationalized headlines which have dominated social media streams in recent years.
When the content material’s excellent degree rises at the editorial side, it must upward push on the branded side, too. Branded TV shows are now competing towards Amazon Prime originals; an educational piece on finance from Chase Bank is now an instantaneous competitor of an editorial deep-dive from The Economist. It may not be cheap, but brands ought to suit what media properties are doing so nicely if they need to preserve that direct line to the reader.
Fraudsters Will Be Found Out
Content marketing budgets are anticipated to hit $412 billion by 2021. When you’ve got that much money flowing, fraud clearly follows. According to a deep-dive from AdPros, about 60% of banner advert visitors are fraudulent (with impressions on faux websites or clicks by way of bots juicing the numbers). Faux influencers, with follower lists made of bots and fake engagement, are rampant too.
But the human beings spending billions are catching on, and tech corporations have stepped up to weed out the fraud. Third-birthday celebration content marketing software program is to be had to neutrally verify that media houses can correctly represent their genuine reach and target audience. That engagement is coming from actual human beings (did 10,000 human beings from Pakistan honestly have a look at an English-language article about New York fashion trends for two seconds every?). If those tendencies can teach us something, it’s that content advertising continues to grow at an amazing tempo — and prefer Marty McFly, we’re bound to make a few errors along with the manner. This yr we should research and adapt, with a renewed consciousness on what our audiences want. Great storytelling, despite everything, is extra than a fashion — it’s undying.
