Staying on top of industry trends is crucial if you want your brand to stay ahead of the curve. As marketers, you always want to be in the know of what’s happening around you, so that your strategy can evolve and change alongside the rapidly growing industry. Using trends as benchmarks against your content strategy will keep your brand from being left behind. To help you prepare, we’ve done a bit of digging! We’ve rounded up five trends we think will matter to marketers in 2018, and that should definitely be on your digital radar.
1. Digital Video
Year after year video continues to evolve and change and remain high on any trends list. For 2018 eMarketer expects the average daily viewing time to increase by 5 minutes over that in 2017, totalling 1 hour and 22 minutes. With the rise in watching time, a shift in consumption habits will also occur. Viewers will no longer just watch video on small devices like mobile and tablets but continue their video viewing at home on larger devices like their TVs. Brands will need to continue to develop video content that is responsive across all different platforms in order to keep up with this growing trend.
2. Ad Transparency
Visibility is key for 2018 and many social media platforms have already begun taking the necessary steps to be more transparent about what ads are being served to viewers. Facebook and other social platforms want to keep advertisers accountable to the messaging their sending out and the people they are targeting. Ad transparency will let users see which ads are specific to certain organizations and who is responsible for putting out the content. This program is currently being tested in Canada and will likely roll out to the United States later in 2018.
3. Auditory “Smart” Content
Voice controlled devices are on the rise and are an additional point of entry for marketers to target consumers. Gartner predicts by 2020, 30% of consumer browsing sessions will be voice conducted. Even now on mobile devices voice search is at an all time high and marketers should not be ignoring this. Brands can leverage their content in different ways and use this as a new opportunity to target any consumer. Food & Beverage brands are leveraging their recipe content and providing users with endless recipe searches and guided tastings. What does this mean for SEO? A shift in strategy will definitely be the case when creating voice enabled content, and marketers will need to adapt their 2018 strategies accordingly.
4. Augmented Reality
Move over virtual reality, augmented reality is set to take the lead role in 2018. Apps like Snapchat are already providing users a tiny glimpse into AR; but more and more mobile users will have the ability to play in the AR space for 2018. Even brands like IKEA are using AR to connect this technology to everyday life—they’re app let’s user place furniture in any space and get a real life glimpse of how it would look. What does this mean for marketers? Brands will have the ability to inspire consumers with new ways to interact on social and provide a more compelling user experience.
5. Advertising on Amazon
The powerhouse online retailer made waves this year and there’s no sign of slowing down in sight. Sources say 2018 might be the year Amazon gives Google and Facebook a run for their advertising money. This year Amazon will continue to expand itself as a digital advertising platform, remaining the fifth-largest digital ad firm in the country. Marketers, you’ll want to keep this platform on your advertising radar; a recent survey of B2C Marketers in North America found that 31% of respondents had bought ads on Amazon and nearly two-thirds have plans to increase their ad spend in the next 12 months.
How are you producing branded content for 2018? As the number one service provider in North America we can help you stay ahead of the curve! Find out why over 500 marketers chose THP for their content creation and social media ad campaigns. Our 100% on demand model means you only buy what you need, when you need it. Give us a call to learn more.
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