1- Breaking Good – The awakening of a new conscious for brands
Every time it is even more necessary to re-signify digital communication about the perspectives of current semiotics. The Breaking Good paradigm is a chain of thought that preaches the “disruption” of marketing as it exists today, due to create a narrative that contributes to social and cultural changes in the society, using communication as the protagonist of this 4th revolution (the revolution of consciousness). This comes against a new trend of capitalism that has been broadly discussed by many CMO around the world, where companies have realized that they need to contribute with the building of a better world. Another point of the “Breaking Good” paradigm is the high-end technology that will contribute to a highly interconnected universe. The challenge for social media and digital marketing in the next months is to get out of the bubbles and become a hub of connections between what people believe and share the same ideologies and thereby create cultural hubs that share the same values overspread by semiotic codes in a brand message.
2- Hyper-segmentation – New technologies as the key to create experiences
Probably the biggest trend in digital marketing in 2018 is the creation of experiences (we can increasingly include the use of Virtual Reality, 360° Videos, Computer-Generated VR (CG VR), Augmented Reality-AR, and Mixed Reality-MR). People are tired of empty speeches and superficial content that makes no sense to their lives. The challenge of creating targeted content for each audience is growing and appearing with more frequency. Especially in the age of hyper-segmentation. We must be willing to go beyond content production and start creating true experiences due to engage the audience and by creating an emotional bond. For this purpose, artificial intelligence prototypes are already being tested to deliver personalized hyper-segmentation strategies. It works through a behavioural reading that can create content exclusively thought for each user. The challenge is that now we understand even more that social networks are the main stage for bringing consumers closer to the brand and the best way of doing that is through the creation of experiences. That is why the challenge for next year is precisely change that key. Stop creating just content is to start creating experiences with the contribution of AI engine or sources related to data studies.
3- Influencers – Emerging communities will be the future of digital actions
Undoubtedly, 2017 was the year of micro-influencers, finding bubbles on the internet and being able to map voices that are influential in a certain community moved the market in such a way that we witness the emergence of numerous platforms. Influencers campaigns have the enormous potential that has even caught the attention of one of the biggest advertising festivals in the world (Cannes Lions), which for 2018 launches the Social Influencer category. Initially, besides of working with three communication pillars: celebrities, influencers and micro-influencers, the main aim of any influencer strategy is to bring the concept of a given campaign closer to the public and this is no an easy task. You must enter in the present of the creative process of the concept and create several paths for this message, so it can be really impressive. A strong opportunity is always to look for different elements in popular culture that can contribute to the success of a given campaign.
4- Investing in Talents – Diversity is synonymous with excellence
One of the great challenges of the communication industry nowadays is the discovery and retention of talents. Many traditional models, the lack of a career path, low salaries and the lack of prospects about the future are increasingly contributing to the distancing of the great talents of the creative industry. Many companies around the world are reformulating itself to transform the new structures into a more attractive ones. With no doubts, today the most successful companies tend to hire people who have a rich cultural experience and who bring to their structure different looks in order to contribute to the plurality of the company. Perhaps this is the big challenge for some creative companies: open their eyes to this diverse world and also invest in professionals with new looks. Another challenge that arises is the difficulty of finding leadership that conveys this spirit of diversity. New leaders are more scarce day by day, professionals with strong personalities capable of transmitting these concepts to the market, enchanting the client and being firm are increasingly difficult to meet. After all, following the concepts of exponential evolution, our industry will soon undergo another major re-signification, including robots through the use of artificial intelligence engines into creative processes, and finding leaders who understand the need of taking these structural changes today is a great challenge for any large international group. Certainly the great executives of this generation will not be found in the obvious ways.
5- Big Data – Strategy as the main lung of the entire ecosystem
I think we will see a large and continuous investment in data, not only in data capture platforms, but especially in the formation of highly prepared teams to extract relevant information about consumers, capable of redefining global strategies. In a market where everything changes very quickly, today the most important factor within a digital campaign is the strategy which is underpinned by in-depth studies. I still remember when I started working with Facebook, it was 2008, the strategies were very simple focused on editorial lines and crisis management. Almost 10 years later the market has reinvented itself a lot. Social networks have changed the story of how consumers relate to brands and now it is necessary to take a step forward. Consumers expect brands to have a more active voice and to achieve this goal it is necessary to build a strategy according to the interests of users. That is why data exist in this industry, to validate hypotheses and contribute directly to the increase of sales of a certain product.