DIGITAL CLIENT CLUBS
There were several early starter mediated discount services like Groupon that most of us have forgotten by now. Now it is all about building own branded audiences and selling their attention and buying potential. The new big development is attracting early adopters that are active in client clubs. A marketer needs to be prepared to more or less give the services and products for free through the digital client clubs to the extremely valuable clients that write reviews.
ECOLOGICAL MARKETING
The not visible digital sphere around a brand is a complex mix of web pages, apps, pixels, ads, person information and social media. It is all clearer that if a tiny little pixel in this network is not working, the problem is quickly spreading to the whole ecosystem. Very critical reviews at AppStore can make the webpage has half less visitors. It is clear that the digital brand is an ecosystem where different parts of the system affect the other. This sets hig standards on communication and marketing management that must think holistically and has to have a mandate to continuoustly develop the brands whole digital ecosystem. Earlier it was enough that the manager understood the core of the digital brand, often with help of some specialists, but today it is clear that leaders in marketing and communication have to have a digital competence of their own.
ELITE VLOGGERS
Vloggers now are what bloggers and instagrammers were a while ago. We can see how they can create entertainment value are the first to win big audiences, closely followed by them who share skills and inspiration in clearly separated nisches. But vloggers are different from the digital groups of influencers we have seen until this day. It depends partly on the huge thresholds they have to overcome and master to be able to appeal to the discerning video audience.
It is true that the content beats the production quality every day, but the technics has made it possible for several to produce moving content of extremely high quality. That is why we are going to see a growing gap between them who manage to reach out with moving images and those who only try.
DEEP CONTENT
Sometimes the digital content becomes viral. The new is to create deeper meanings in content where the moving parts are a hygiene factor. Deep content that all the time leads further to more specialised and more valuable content. For example: a blog post that is shared in social media leads further to content upgrade that leads to an automatised loop of mail through email with a video course that deepens the content in the original blog post. And so on. This is going to be important because the brands on the web cannot afford to let go of a shown interest.
PREFERENCE ADVERTISING
Advertising on internet has a long time been to sell products and services. Now a considerably bigger part of advertising is going to be put in preference advertising, ads that collect data to build retargeting groups.
DIGITAL COMPANY WORLDS
Many successful communication campaigns have been aimed at creating storyscapes around the brand where imaginary characters are linked to the brand. These fictional worlds have largely conveyed through television commercials and physical advertising campaigns, now is the time when these worlds and characters take proper steps out on the digital arena.
DIGITAL PREPPING
Despite strong economic conditions and technological achievements, more and more people will begin to relate to our lives online. What happens when ”the shit hits the fan”? More and more mainstream audiences will start asking questions about backup solutions, seeking opportunities to protect their personal identity and integrity, securing what happens to their own social profiles in a sudden descent and asking for solutions to be able to have critical parts of the web cached if the internet goes down.
Internet has become such a central part of our lives that more people will take precautions.
FLEXICORP
Many early adopters have a long time experimented with a lifestyle as digital nomads. Working as a freelance and at a distance has become a trendy lifestyle choice.
Many organizations have identified the need for flexible workforce to meet the rapidly changing conditions in many markets. It is likely that the freelance trend will last, something that also applies to the gig economy with a strong focus on hired crew. Now it is time for companies to embrace the much-needed flexibility as a clearer argument in the organisation’s employer branding. For example, the Automattic Internet company (which is based on WordPress, used by almost a quarter of all sites in the world), has no physical offices. Both recruitment and all internal communications are via digital platforms and the company is literally spread all over the world. Far from all companies and organizations can take full steps to become 100% virtual, but many can offer far more flexible working conditions.
THE SHIPWRECKED
The pursuit of digital talents will continue – and intensify. There is no shortage of generalists but the growing need for digital specialist skills will cause serious problems for companies and organizations that are far behind. Skilled digital specialists do not want to want to work for brands that are far too much behind. This creates a kind of limbo for many companies and organisations and even if there is will and resources available, they do not succeed in attracting the skills they need.