It is obvious to state that 2020 was a tough year for everyone globally.
This has been a year to which we will all tell the future generation about. However what has been the most interesting is the shift in advertising and social media. Strategies have done a 180 deg shift over night in advertising and social media.
Consumer behaviour has taken centre stage.
Consumers have been interacting with brands and consuming content in ways never seen before, trends which were never thought of before are now here to stay. Audiences are also interested to be engaged to take on creative challenges set by brands, but also want more in return. They want to know that brands really care and that in return will prove it by a way of paying back in loyalty.
With brand building revolving a lot more with brand purpose brands now have the opportunity to flourish within the space if they act fast.
Remixing is here to stay
Remixing is where user- generated content uses existing formats, ideas, templates and recreates them to express a user’s own personality or ideas.
If one didn’t attempt a TikTok remixing trend this year, then they clearly missed out.
Heba Sayed, strategy leader at IBM Cloud and AI, has predicted that: “User-generated content will be the ‘crown jewel’ for great brands in 2021. The best pieces of content will be the ones marketers don’t create, but instead facilitate. At a time where consumers’ lives have changed dramatically, they look to people, not brands, for inspiration about products and services that fit within their new lifestyles post Covid-19.”
With Tiktok and now Instagram Reels increasing in numbers, there is a big opportunity for brands to provide audiences with the right tools to chime in and create content under branded hashtags. By targeting content creators to influence the consumer with an enjoyable and engaging challenge, brands embedded themselves with the creative.
Reveling in the Nostalgia
As Covid started to affect near and dear ones and hit home. Naturally people wanted to relive happier times and connect themselves with positive memories. This helped people to disconnect from their current realities and hardships.
When brands connect with that positive memory, then they are able to build an emotional connect with their buyers.
When the audience feels good, they will automatically remember the brand with a feel good factor.
According to a recent study completed by Talkwalker and Hubspot, the mentions of keywords on social media related to nostalgia increased from around 13m to 24.4m; an 88% jump.
A brilliant example of how to conduct this effectively is Gucci’s 2020 Christmas Gift Campaign. It imagines a holiday party in an office with a retro theme setting.
This example unfortunately represents a fictional party but still allows the consumer to go back in time and relive a feel of sense of normality with a luxurious twist. It’s playful , whimsical and entertaining which the current audiences desolately desire.
Going into the year of 2021, brands must look into using nostalgia and emotion to constantly engage audiences and only with the motive to uplifting memories or escapism. Loneliness or a ‘we’ll meet again’ jingle won’t create the same sort of message .
Social causes and conversations
Marketing with socially conscious messages will be key for 2021 and brands will have to engage more with socially relevant topics such as mental health, inclusivity and justice. In order for them to not run the risk of becoming irrelevant.
Vikas Chawla, co-founder of Social Beat, DigiGrad and Influencer.in, stated: “With an increased focus on well-being of self and society, the relevance of brands giving back to society and environment has never been higher. Audiences are also connecting more with brands that have a cause or stand for initiatives that they relate to and this trend is going to grow even further in 2021.”
The brand mission will now need to strongly emphasis on maintaining and creating strong brand loyalty and this will need to be delivered with compassion and authenticity to effectively connect with younger audiences.
Relationship and expectations: what consumers are expecting of brands in 2021
Overall, it’s clear that consumers are clear about their objectives from a brand. They are starting to be a lot more vocal about their wants and needs from brands. Brands need to go out of their way to make sure they are delivering to the consumer need and are also ready to create an impact in moving forward and based on a poll by Forbes in 2019, 88% of consumers want to support brands that have social causes aligned with their end product or service.
According to GWI’s Connecting the Dots report, 72% of consumers said companies behaving sustainably was more valuable to them because of Covid-19. The pandemic really put brand purpose to the test and consumers expect more than just large donations or prosaic statements. Consumers want to see that brands actually care. Therefore, businesses that are looking to grow need to align with their customers’ values in ways that are authentic and sustainable.
What content is appropriate for today’s environment?
The momentum of the brand messaging is key.
A brand that really stuck out this year was KFC and the quick U-turn it had to make after the pandemic butchered its original campaign idea. After months of working on a 2020 strategy, the whole thing was scrapped because of its slogan, Finger Lickin’ Good. Unfortunately, that message in 2020 was just not going to cut it. The iconic slogan was replaced with a tongue-in-cheek strategy that gave the creative an uplifting twist thanks to messages like: “That thing we always say? Ignore it. For now.” And: “Wash fingers thoroughly before lickin’.”
It even set audiences a challenge through influencers, asking them to come up with a temporary replacement. What was so great about this activation was that no matter where you were in the world the message still applied, unifying everyone. Brands are expected to think fast in order to avoid backlash and this will still be expected moving forward. Consumers are looking for that support from brands through these tough times.
With 2021 creeping up on us there is a clear understanding that the consumer is king. This concept had become outdated but with a looming mental health crisis and 31% feeling like they are able to turn to social media for help with their mental wellbeing (GWI), brands need to strongly think and be clear about the type of message they are putting out in the world more than ever. And as KFC has proved, the strategy might change but there is a great opportunity to rise above the rest and build loyalty like never before.