Gender Stereotypes
It’s expected that more brands will get behind the rising trend to squash outdated gender stereotypes in advertising. In 2016, Unilever’s global analysis revealed that 50% of adverts portrayed negative or “not progressive” stereotype of women.
This year, Alibaba, Facebook, and Google have joined Unilever’s campaign and signed up to the ‘Unstereotype Alliance’. The Advertising Standards Association (ASA) quickly followed, by announcing in a statement, that new rules around gender stereotyping were due to be released in 2018.
Voice Technology
We’ve seen voice technology grow extensively in recent years and its captured many marketers’ imaginations during 2017. Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home, are two key products in the market that have capitalised on the use of this technology and many more brands are quickly jumping on the bandwagon to include voice technology in their upcoming products.
Those in the SEO industry have been discussing voice search for a little while and the potential impact it will have. Google reports that 20% of all its mobile search queries are submitted via voice searches.
This could drastically impact future SEO strategies, as instead of a long list of results presented to consumers, it’s predicted that voice results will produce just one answer to searchers.
Search query types will also be affected by voice searching as many consumers type differently to how they speak. For example, they may type “cheap London hotels” into a search engine, but for the same search, they may say “what are the cheapest hotels in London?”
It’ll be interesting to see how voice search develops over the coming years and how brands will need to adapt in order to appear in searches.
Augmented Reality
Following on from the success of Pokémon Go, brands will be able to give consumers specific content, for example, content that is based on their location.
It’s likely that more brands will take advantage of augmented reality in 2018, as mobile devices are becoming more powerful and apps are increasingly able to integrate with AR.
Video Marketing
Attention spans are shorter than ever and videos are an ideal way to grasp your audiences’ attention.
This is by no means a new marketing tool, however it’s one of the most consistently popular and influential form of digital content for businesses. (when it’s used correctly, that is) it’s likely that many more brands will join the trend.
We recommend using video marketing authentically as part of an overall marketing campaign rather than as a stand-alone strategy. Videos must engage your audience straight away as one in five viewers will stop watching within the first 10 seconds. Spark your audiences’ curiosity by asking them questions and hook them in straight away.
Video marketing can, therefore, help to increase search engine rankings, increase consumer engagements, and produce more website traffic.
It’s also expected that live video usage, such as Facebook Live, will increase. A study has revealed that 80% of social media users said they would rather watch a live video than read a blog post. Facebook has reported that live videos increase views by three times.
Mobile Optimisation
Mobile usage is rapidly expanding and in 2018, mobile video consumption is expected to increase by 25%. On the flip side, video consumption via laptops and desktops is expected to decrease for the first time.
Marketers have known for a while that websites need to be mobile-friendly in order to rank well in search engines, but it’s been noted that in 2018, these penalties will really start to hit home. So, now’s the time to get your websites in order people!
GDPR
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force in May 2018 and marketers must make sure that all their data is fully compliant. Put simply, brands won’t be able to market to individuals who have not given their expressed permission to do so.
It’s still partially unknown how they will fully affect the marketing industry, but what we do know is that consumers want more control over their data. It has been reported that 80% of consumers want this control, however, 71% of consumers aren’t aware of GDPR.
So, there we have it, some of the marketing changes that are likely to affected brands in 2018. There are of course many more in the pipeline for the year so watch this space!
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