Advertising Week 2022: This Year’s Expected Trends
Advertising Week is a time for the industry to explore the shifting possibilities of advertising and serves as the ultimate networking opportunity. The U.S. event will be held in New York City, offering a collection of seminars and workshops where competitors can come together for debate and discussion alongside cultural icons to re-inspire the industry. Here are some of the top advertising trends that we expect will be discussed: personalized advertising, social storytelling, influencer marketing, the cookieless future, and Metaverse marketing.
Personalized Advertising
Consumers are increasingly bombarded with marketing messages, and it's all too easy for your brand to get lost in the noise. Breaking away from the pack doesn't just require uniqueness, but personalization. Salesforce reported that 66 percent of customers expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations. Personalized marketing is one of 2022's major marketing trends and helps to promote lasting relationships within your audience.
Personalized marketing is data-driven – utilizing analytics, consumer data, artificial intelligence, and automation to create a customized client experience. Consider your consumer's characteristics and shopping habits. This information can help you to anticipate their needs, informing your product recommendations.
Social Storytelling
We are in an era of increasingly conscious consumers. Being transparent with your audience is vital.
Storytelling has always been a powerful marketing tool that makes a product or service feel more authentic. Engaging your consumers with your brand and the content that it creates means putting your brand values, style, and voice at the forefront of your marketing efforts. These storytelling methods can hone your brand voice, and may be discussed at this year's Advertising Week:
- Customer Testimonials: Real feedback from real buyers. Highlighting customer stories creates trust and credibility with your audience.
- Data-Driven Storytelling: Storing data internally is useless. Learn to share this data with your audience in a creative way. Data-driven storytelling makes raw data more appealing and can turn insights into action for your brand.
- Visual Content: Graphics or video can help put a face to your brand. Videos on social media, if done correctly, can create significant traction, allowing a brand to connect with a wider audience.
Influencer Marketing
As the name suggests, influencer marketing can hold a lot of sway over today's consumers. These individuals specialize in certain subjects or topics such as fashion, literature, or cooking — and are often regarded as experts by their followers. Therefore, products or services recommended by these influencers are often seen as trustworthy and desirable to their followers.
Once considered a trend, having influencers market your products or services is rapidly becoming a digital marketing essential. Influencer marketing has been shown to increase brand awareness, by introducing the brand to new and more diverse audiences.
Metaverse Marketing
The Metaverse is a virtual sharing space where users are represented as avatars. Virtual reality has grown exponentially over the past three years. According to Forbes, an estimated 93.3 million people used augmented reality (AR) and 58.9 million used virtual reality (VR) in 2021.
Younger generations are using this technology much more often through popular games like Roblox, and the use of virtual reality headsets for exercise. Some brands are finding it beneficial to include ads within these virtual worlds, such as on billboards. It is a good idea to create a marketing strategy that allows for a digital experience mimicking the real world for consumers.
With this wide range of topics, Advertising Week may feel a bit overwhelming, but it does not have to be. With these insights in mind, it is time to take charge and plan how your brand can capitalize on opportunities during this year's Advertising Week.
The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the contributor and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the ANA or imply endorsement from the ANA.
Brook Terran is the partner and co-founder of Evergreen & Oak.