It’s an exciting year ahead for the world of PR and marketing. What do we think are the defining trends for 2016? Read on for a glimpse of the future.
1 - Marketing in 3D
Augmented and virtual reality will hit your customers - mainstream style - in 2016. Are you ready to take advantage of this technology? Sure, we’ll see the gaming community first take to this, but it’ll move beyond shoot ‘em up games (STG’s) rapidly. Expect geeks to push this across the chasm and then the sky is the limit.
I get excited when I hear that students in my university lectures are already gaining work experience at start-ups that are ahead of the curve… this week it was online retail fashion and virtual reality.
How will pitches to journalists and bloggers change once augmented and virtual reality is a common platform?
2 – Social media will be recognized as a channel
Yes, we know that you get this, but so many people don’t. Social media is a channel – it’s not a strategy. We’ve said this so many times it’s somewhat numb to us. We really think that all will understand the message soon.
This means that social media is fantastic at supporting other marketing, but it really sucks as a standalone tactic. Expect budgets to reflect this and your marketing strategy to be defined in different ways.
3 – Mobile gets more mobile
We all know that web sites need to be mobile friendly, and we know that there are a number of apps that can help us with PR and marketing, but there is more of a fundamental shift.
Users, customers and targets are more mobile and thus on more mobile devices. Many school age children over different countries are on tablets with or without keyboards. The latest groovy large iPad means that professionals are moving away from a computer or laptop completely. So, our strategies need to be updated to take this into consideration.
4 – Content is king, queen and commoner
Ad blockers were just another nail in the coffin for online advertising. News aggregator apps seem to be de-facto across most platforms, allowing users to truly personalize their receptors to the type and style of information they want. So content is king – for sure.
It’s more though. Your content needs to have a style, a personality and connect emotionally to your reader/listener. You now need to move your content creation up a strategic level and be sure your team knows how to create a consistent character across all content.
5 – Data is big… very big
Sorry to be misleading – we don’t mean big-data, although that is really important for so many people. We’re talking about measurement, feedback and the data for your campaigns. Expect your entire C-level suite, peers and team members to demand measurement before, during, and after campaigns to validate return on our marketing investments. If you can’t measure it, don’t expect to be doing it in 2016.
Which trends do you think will define PR & marketing in 2016?
What did we miss?
What are your predictions?