Analysts forecast 2018 digital trends
Analysts and stakeholders from various industries recently converged on this year’s edition of Digital Coffee Forum to discuss technology trends and how it affects every industry. The forum is an annual industry event convened by Nigeria’s Interactive marketing and advertising agency, Street Toolz.
Speaking on previous editions of Digital Coffee, Mike Ernest, Chief Operating Officer, Street Toolz said, “past editions have helped agencies understand and use global trends to their advantage; resolutions from the event have also helped consultants in making vital business decisions in line with what is currently obtainable in other parts of the world.”
Ernest in his presentation, highlighted the need to catch-up with the global digital revolution, according to him “the world has gone digital and we should adopt the new and more effective ways to communicate directly with our target audience. The change is not limited to the marketing communication industry, it all includes the agriculture, insurance and the creative industry”.
Highlights of the event featured three sessions. The first session entitled: ‘Artificial Intelligence: Technology & Trends’ which had Tunde Adegbola, a research scientist, consulting engineer and cultural activist as its speaker and moderator while the second session focused on ‘Consumer Centric Content.’
The third session was a highly interactive panel discussion that had Babs Fagade, Founder/CEO, Ocean Outdoor and Former Director General of OYSAA; Bunmi Adeleye, Head, Corporate Communications, Leadway Assurance, Banjo Temitope, Sales Manager, Bayer Crop Science and Michael Earnest, COO, Street toolz among others as discussants.
Head, Corporate Communications, Leadway Assurance, Bunmi Adeleye charged both government and private sectors to do more with available citizen data, “we have enough data to plan as a country, the only thigh is that we are not taking advantage of it. With the use of technology we can use the available data for better customer relations, better security or even to plan a more people oriented budget”.
Among digital trends forecast to shape 2018 includes that ephemeral content will rule social media, there will be an increase in videos and expansion of live streaming, increase in messaging platforms, continued investment in influencer marketing and a shift in focus to Generation Z.
CEO of Street Toolz, Jerry Oche expressed his happiness at the turnout of people for the digital event. In a further reaction, he said, “The key learning for us is to look at these trends and see how we can take advantage of it in marketing communications and across all industries and sectors. 2018 is certainly going to be interesting in terms of trends in the digital space.
“What we are going to see in 2018 is going to be a continuum of what we have seen in the latter part of 2017. Above all, in the IMC space, we will get to see more digital marketing agencies emerging. Also, unlike what is the norm, in 2018, I foresee digital agencies leading pitches as creativity now boils down to what you can create digitally, what you can put out there that people will see, etc. We are going to see more digital agencies coming into the country and we are going to see more digital ideas springing up,” he concluded.
Daniel Obi