The year
2014, similarly to 2013, will be a year that will give us a hint about how our digital
future will look like, however new technology will still not bring dramatic
changes to our lives, it will just make our living easier. The main changes
will continue to happen in the areas of: mobile, social media, content &
video, clever digital devices, smart shopping, big data, and cloud.
“There is no escaping a digital future. Right
now we are at a crossroads. …The Earth will become one digital room with
everyone in it. For the first time in history, physical reality will not be the
only reality,“ says Dan Abelow,
an American digital development guru, a graduate of Harvard and the Wharton School,
patented inventor, technology consultant and author, owner of Expandiverse. “How many in 1970 foresaw what 2010 looks like? The speed at which 2013
becomes 2033 will be far faster … Today´s digital seems cool. But it´s only
just begun.” Dan Abelow expects huge increase in location based marketing,
rapid proliferation of devices and the explosion of the Internet of Things. People
will be more dependent on the technological breakthroughs; cognitive computing
will be the next big trend.
Progress
cannot be stopped. More and more CEOs are personally sponsoring the agenda of
digitalization; more and more marketers are re-allocating budgets to digital
activities. They respond to changes in the digital landscape, enabled by
permanent connectivity, resulting in social media and new technology addiction.
In the meantime, Facebook in the
U.S. managed to attract more young consumers than traditional TV stations,
whose viewership is declining, due to paid streaming. The value of digital
advertising today in America exceeds the value of TV ads. Advertising on Google surpasses the summary of paid
ads of all newspapers and magazines. No wonder that the value of new media
Companies tops the traditional media firms.
As about
three billion people on the Earth have on-line access today (while China´s user
base is twice as big as the U.S. one), human society moved from information
hungry into information overloaded. But digital disruption is not just about
easy access to information; it is also about new experiences and fun. On
average, users spend the daily minimum of one hour on their mobile phones, and
one hour on their tablet (eMarketer.com, USA).
The World is becoming multiscreen - one individual using multiple devices and
screens (PC, smart phones, tablets, smart TV, wearables,…). As the sales of
tablets crush PC sales, and smart phone sales boom, smart phones and tablets are
becoming the center and integrating component of consumers´ multiplatform
lives. Creating a buzz in the digital sphere will be the new art, companies
will have to adjust to all the changes.
7 Most Distinctive Trends For 2014
1
1. MOBILE
Mobile is
perceived as the most disruptive media and marketing trend. Mobile currently accounts
for one fifth of Internet traffic and it is expected that it will surpass
desktop in two years. Mobile rules in the U.S.: about one third of organic
search today is happening over mobile (RKG);
mobile video traffic is continuing to surge; the majority of e-mails opened is
occurring on mobile devices; and social media and music are now also mostly
mobile (Facebook 65%, Twitter 80%, Pandora 85%). Mobile also changes shopping habits. According to eMarketer.com 19% of internet sales will actualize over
mobile in 2014 in the U.S. (in Europe even 24%) and the percentages will continue to grow quickly.
All these
changes mean that Companies will have to adjust to them quickly, not only in
communication with their customers. The route to success will lead via user
friendly responsive designs, the reallocation of budget to mobile advertising,
and setting up business models reflecting on users mobility – not only in the
area of m-commerce, but also in the area of data availability for mobile
employees.
2. SOCIAL MEDIA
The
question will not be if the Company should be present in Social Media, but rather
in what scale, with which targets and with what relevant content. If the years
2012 and 2013 were about focus on acquisition of large fan/followers numbers
and driving their engagement, the year 2014 will become a year, when companies
will capitalize on their learning from failures and experiments, they will
effectively target brand ambassadors, passionate and influential brand
advocates. They will increase the content attractiveness – also thanks to micro
video formats. Marketer will continue to integrate their social media
activities with their entire content strategy. Facebook, Twitter, and more and more significant Google +, Tumblr, Instagram a Pinterest
will be the priority for brand communication in 2014. In B2B LinkedIn will continue to lead the
game.
Content will
remain the king, but it will be crucial to adapt it to multiple formats –
video, micro video, blogs, white papers, studies, articles, webinars, e-books,
live presentations, e-mail newsletters etc. – and also to multiple screens (PC
vs. tablet vs. mobile). The primary focus for companies will remain in building
the relationship with customers to build the image of an iconic brand, not the
hard-sell. The shift from content towards context indicated also recent changes
that Google made in search algorithm
and when it removed keyword data from
Google Analytics. The deeper geo-location focus of Google´s algorithm will
be requiring localized link-building in companies target markets.
The creation
of content that is easily consumed in the mobile environment will become a
necessity – it will become natural to have responsible designs, more actionable
and shorter blogs and location based content marketing enabled by GPS
technology. Short videos and pictures will have bigger impact on young target
group than plain texts. The creation of viral videos with the use of the micro video
applications - Twitter Vine (6 sec),
Instagram (15 sec), MixBit (16 sec), and Tumblr GIFs will increase the interest in sharing, as Coca-Cola, Oreo, and RedBull already learnt (micro video on
Vine increased sharing 4x vs. classical viral video).
With the
increased popularity of video format among consumers, it is expected that 9 in
10 brands in the US will increase their spending into video advertising, most
probably at the expense of TV campaigns (Adap.tv
and Digiday: State of the Video Industry). Video will also become fluid
medium - Apple TV, Chromecast, You Tube
– will enable syncing content across screens, so that consumers can return to
the point when they stopped film watching, even if they change the viewing
device. At the same time ads will be optimized for the screen size.
Enterprises
will use their own resources and vehicles to connect to a person on their own
terms, not relying on any outside source to create a meaningful brand
relationship. Netflix (House of Cards),
Red Bull (Media House) and Amazon (Alpha House) have already tried
to break through all the noise on their own. They stopped the co-operation with
agencies and rather established their own newsrooms and production studios.
4. INTERNET OF THINGS (IoT)
“Internet
of Things” (IoT) and all of the devices associated with it will explode in
2014. It is expected that very soon smart watches (Pebble, Omate, Sony, Samsung Galaxy Gear, Nissan´s Nismo), smart
glasses (Google Glass), medical
devices, fitness wristbands (like Nike+
Fuelband or FitBit) and other smart products will become attractive to
masses not only in the U.S., where according to Business Insider already 13% of people tried at least one wearable
product. As wearable technology becomes ubiquitous in 2014, devices will change
the way we interact with existing screens and they will also make our lives
easier. The market of wearables will
boom globally from 750 million USD in 2012 to estimated 5.8 billion USD in
2018, according to Transparency Market
Research. The health and fitness market will continue to play a key role in
bringing the wearable technology to consumers.
5. DIGITIZED RETAIL EXPERIENCE
Shopping
experience will move to new heights. Brick-and-mortal shops will be offering
not just products, but a lifestyle. Stores will look very different. Cash
registers will enable mobile payments; shoppers will be attracted by digital
displays. There will be greater expectation on services and personalization.
Internet shopping will continue to grow double digit, while mobile commerce
will record the biggest dynamics (global value of e-commerce reached nearly 1.3
trillion USD last year, according to eMarketer).
Shopping
will no longer be linked to a physical store, consumers will be using their
permanent connectivity to search the internet for information and compare
competitive offers. The shopping trip will start earlier and end later than it
used to. The consumer will always be in the consideration phase for purchasing
something. Retailers will start to understand the consumer in greater detail, the
path to purchase across all off-line and online touch points, and they will be
able to segment that path to derive valuable insights to make better strategic
and tactical investment decisions.
For 2014, the International Data Group (IDG) predicts that the topic of “Big Data” will become a priority for a minimum of 70% of large companies, who will each invest, on average, 8 million USD, into this project. The focus will move from the agenda of collecting, storing and sorting big amounts of not-related data, into using the Big Data related applications, that will be smarter, context aware, location sensitive, predictive, visualized, simplified and actionable, thus enabling companies and their managers to improve the quality and the speed of their decision making, to improve the planning and the new product / service development process.
There will
be more dependence on cloud services, as it will be more advantageous to store
big amounts of structured data in the CLOUD.
7. CLOUD COMPUTING
The global
market of cloud services will continue to grow rapidly; according to Gartner, it will reach 148.8 billion USD in 2014. Cloud will become the
most important data manager. Cloud service providers that guarantee data
security and offer the clever linking with the off-line world, will have the
biggest competitive advantage. It is expected, that the biggest portion of the
cloud market will be taken by Amazon,
Apple, Microsoft and Google, that
will explain to companies and individuals the benefits of cloud storage and that
will provide their clients safe base.
VISION 2025
The
upcoming DIGITAL era will produce significantly bigger amounts of intelligently
assisted programs, smart advisers, smart devices, modern industrial systems, robots,
etc. than we can foresee today. According to the Company Cisco, in the future, the
Internet of Things will transform
into the INTERNET OF EVERYTHING (IoE). The Internet will link people,
processes and data together, and we will observe the boom of smart homes, smart
offices, smart industries, and smart cars. It is expected that people will be
connected by miniature chips that will enable wireless long-distance
connectivity to the Internet.
According
to CISCO, the potential economical
value of the market of the Internet of Everything (IoE) accounts for ca 6.2
trillion of USD in 2025. Companies that adapt quickly to the upcoming massive
changes in the Digital world will be the ones that can capitalize on them and
survive the uncertain future. There is no possible way to escape the digital
future.
