The blurring of lines, the human touch and instant gratification are among the trends that will define 2017, according to a predictions report from Havas-owned PR group Red Agency.
“Marketing will transcend traditional boundaries to a place of borderless creativity, with demarcation lines between fluid PR, social, experiential, advertising and media specialists blurred,” is the idealistic view of what 2017 will bring for brands and marketers in the report.
The report, authored by CEO James Wright and agency principal Jackie Crossman, makes 10 predictions for the trends and behaviours brands will experience and need to respond to in the year ahead.
The disruption we all hear so much about will only accelerate, they note, meaning a heightened need for more integration in what brands do, whether it is advertising, sales, PR or beyond.
Brands as publishers has long been a trend as companies rode the content wave, but this year will be “next-level”, according to the Red Agency report, which states brands have to “be the media” not just in the media.
“The lines have blurred. Technology platforms are news providers. Publishers are brands. Brands are publishers. And in the battle for eyeballs, we’re all in the entertainment business,” it states.
Technology might be the driving force behind a lot of change and evolution, but the human touch can't be forgotten. Red Agency describes as the shift from the 4 Ps of marketing (Place, product, promotion, price) to the 4 Es – emotion, engagement, exclusivity and experiences.
Brands will also need to disrupt their processes to deliver real-time PR to satisfy the desire for instant gratification and provide instant responses from brands.
Influencers rose to prominence last year, and they won't go away this year. But, if influencers are going to stay in the spotlight there will be an increasing demand for measuring the effectiveness and return on influencer-driven activity, according to Red Agency, which has adopted influencers in the work it's done for brands including Heineken.
Personalisation, one of the key words of 2016, will remain big in 2017, the pair predict, as one-to-one messages go mass thanks to layers and layers of data and customer intelligence gleaned by brands. It means better targeted offers and communications, but greater concerns over privacy.
Cognitive communication, driven by data-led intelligence, such as Siri and Alexa, and of course augmented reality and Snapchat also make an appearance in the list.
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