Rise of Videos as the Desired Form of Content
Videos are fast emerging as the most popular form of Content for online consumption across the entertainment, news & educational sectors. A well made, engaging and thought provoking video can connect with the audience and evoke emotions which none of the other forms of content effectively can.
To establish the connection and hook the audience it is imperative to do proper research around some of the trending topics, a strong script to back it up, a human face for efficient narrative delivery and last but not the least, a well made thumbnail to arouse curiosity. Demand for short videos within 60 secs instead of long form content has also been witnessing a rapid rise and many platforms like YouTube, Facebook have adapted themselves to this change by introducing all together the shorter videos segment.
Emergence of Metaverse as the Future of Marketing
Metaverse is fast emerging as a space which will be redefining the existing rules of marketing by transforming from a 2D to 3D experience space in the virtual world. Some of the Tech giants are already placing big bets on something which we are still to see. Microsoft is in the process of acquiring Activision Blizzard, a company which makes games like call of duty, candy crush etc. Google has also invested 39 million dollars in private equity funds for metaverse.
Brands have also started investing in their efforts of getting in front of the young crowd in the virtual space and creating unique experiences for them. Folks who are in their early teens and not their direct target segment now, but in 10 years time when metaverse is operating at its full capacity, they will be the potential customers for that brand. A prime example of it is Gucci Gardens by Gucci. Some of other Fashion giants like Burberry, Nike, Adidas and gaming industry players like fortnight, minecraft, second life are the early adopters of this revolution.
Personalized Data Driven Marketing
As brands have started gathering more and more data about their consumers with the help of zero party and first party cookies, personalized data driven marketing is one more trend which is on the upswing. It is like a KYC for any user who visits your platform, the more data points you can gather about them, the more precise and specific you can be in terms of showing them the right Ads and catering to their needs at the right time. This also ensures a higher engagement and conversion rates at an optimum customer acquisition costs.
Emergence of AI Driven Bots & Tools
AI Powered conversational tools for live chat, voice assistant is now the new flavor of the town. From a customer?s experience point of view it is absolutely essential to strike a conversation with the user and deliver them what they are looking for in the minimal time frame. This not only ensures a seamless user experience but also helps the user save on their most valuable asset, i.e. time.
At the same time, the success of AI-driven content powering tools like ChatGPT will depend a lot on the value these tools can add with respect to unique, rich content and at the same time how it can help in establishing a connection with the audience taking the emotional quotient into consideration
We need to also watchout for how Google responds to ChatGPT and other AI driven tools as ultimately they are the biggest competitor to Google Search for the near future. So definitely Google via its own version of ChatGPT, i.e. Google Bard, which uses real-time data unlike other AI tools, will find ways to integrate it with Google Search feature where people can naturally find it and use it for fact-based information and accurate answers.
Whether they will be able to make a few manual driven tasks redundant, that we will get to know in the future course of time. But one thing for certain: adapting to the change will require a great degree of reskilling and upgrading of the existing skill sets on an individual?s part.
Mobile Commerce
With smartphone ownership rapidly on the rise, Mobile Commerce is fast becoming consumers' preferred shopping channel. Technology has played a major role in this upswing. One-click ordering, Social Commerce, Retail Mobile Apps, VR & AR, Chatbots, and Voice searches are some of the features that will redefine the entire mobile shopping experience in the times to come.
At the same time, there is still a large percentage of consumers who prefer the omnichannel route of combining smartphone searches with an in-store visit. It makes it imperative for retailers to symbiotically blend physical commerce with pre-purchase mobile touchpoints. How well the retailer can adapt to this new trend by coming up with mobile-friendly websites and superior shopping experiences will define the success mantra for them.
Rise of Influencer Driven Marketing & OTTs
With the rise of video as the most popular form of content, influencer marketing has been a lateral beneficiary. More and more brands are now looking forward to trying out macro and micro content creators who are relevant to their target audience. These influencers get the products in front of their communities and become a trusted voice of the brand. This helps the brand with laser sharp targeting at optimal costs without burning marketing dollars on the traditional avenues like TVCs & Print Ads.
Something which looks imminent is, OTTs doing a similar damage to TVCs which E-Papers did to traditional Print Media advertising. While TV will remain to be a popular medium among the middle- aged to senior citizens for consumption of news,sports and soap operas, more and more young generation audiences will be flocking to OTTs for binge watching. This trend can be seen from a simple stat of the IPL Advertising for 2023, where the Ad Sales Revenue of Jio Cinemas surpassed the Ad Sales from the official broadcaster Star India.
Summing it up, brands which can quickly adapt to the changing demand of the consumer needs will thrive and surge ahead and at the same time the workforce needs to reskill and upskill themselves to stay ahead of the curve and ensure they don?t get redundant.
