Trends in 2016
As we rebuild our world in 2016, it will be all about the “Emotional
Web” according to Meabh Quoirin of The Future Foundation who gave an excellent
talk at DIT on Tuesday. “The
Warming Web” and channeling people’s moods was just one of the trends she
identified.
“Injury Time Appeal” was another – an example of which is a
customer in-store getting a brand message telling him/her that they have only 10
minutes to redeem a certain offer. The
importance of “Peer to Peer” enterprises, social entrepreneurship and self-parody
(showing that we’re not perfect, we’re human) were also highlighted. One
excellent example was cited – Carsberg’s “Beer Body Ready” response to that “Beach
Body Ready” ad campaign. The slide above
shows absolute “no-no’s” for brands in 2016.
I’ve only skimmed over the excellent talk that Meabh gave at
DIT who, along with The Marketing Institute, ran the seminar to promote their Masters
in Digital Marketing & Analytics.
Is your business ready for Apple Pay?
Possibly launching here later this year as Apple
apparently contacted Irish banks earlier in the year, is your business ready
for Apple Pay? According to this
article Apple Pay is definitely not just for the ‘big boys’ – any company that
considers itself premium, tech-driven and user-friendly should be seriously
considering enabling their customers to pay them this way. It cautions that before you invest, you
should check who your customers bank with and if they’re interested in using
contactless payment services like Apple Pay. It’s a trend that can only
increase with 44.8% of all UK online payments last year made with a mobile
device. If you do adopt it, you’re
advised to train staff well on how it works and ensure you have an “Apple Pay
Champion” on every shift.
Are the 5 ‘fringe’ social media platforms suited to your business?
Well, it all depends on where your target audiences spent
time, of course. This article gives one
tip to find out where your audience are – check to see where your website is
coming from and which networks they’re on.
They then give a brief description of Snapchat, Vine, Tumblr, Vimeo and
Quora. 71% of Snapchat users are under 25, 57% of Vine (the 6 second video platform)
users are women and this is ideal for Twitter users, Tumblr is for short blogs,
Vimeo for professional video users and those who enjoy a quality experience
while Quora boast 2.9m users on its Q&A platform.
