Top trends for digital marketing in 2016

David Ole is a seasoned digital marketing professional of over five years experience working with global brands. He is a founding member of one of the first digital marketing firms in Nigeria, Webliquid Nigeria. He currently works as the director of Planning and Insight at Sponge Limited, a marketing solution company that has led and been a part of ground breaking campaigns in Nigeria and across Africa. He recently revealed some current trends that are likely to shape the digital marketing world in 2016 as captured by Omolade Kuponiyi, new business and marketing manager for Sponge.

Omni-Channel Customer-Centric Focus

Consumers have more alternatives to choose from than ever before, when deciding how to engage with brands. Whether real world or virtual, brands will start to explore ways to identify and consolidate data across different touchpoints, in order to provide more value to their customers. Creating one holistic customer-focused experience will be paramount; tracking users across all touch points from a unique ID.

Digital Currency

Every like, share or sale is valuable. As more platforms emerge, the challenge to reward engagement across multiple touchpoints increases. Digital currencies provide a convenient and scalable alternative to physical goods. Brands will explore more ways to reward in this manner. Every point earned will be considered valuable. A possible solution could be a coupon service that brings brands, merchants and consumers together to reward engagement.

Mobile Payments

M-Commerce and Peer 2 Peer transactions facilitated through mobile wallets have continued to experience increased adoption. Consumer confidence in virtual transactions is on the increase and brands will explore new ways to integrate this into their marketing activities to create seamless redemption for consumer promotions.

The Sharing Economy

If you never believed the term ‘Sharing is caring’, in 2016 you will! Brands have realised the significance of shared marketing intelligence as well as how they can create mutually beneficial partnerships. Expect to see a lot more of this in 2016.

Entertainment Consumption

Entertainment is undoubtedly a big part of our lives. Almost every form can now be sourced and consumed digitally. We’ve also seen the emergence of new players in the digital space responsible for some of the most viral content in 2015. This will be taken to a new level in 2016. Consumers will demand a more personalised experience that goes beyond consumption to participation. Brands will be looking to find immersive digital entertainment that allows the consumer to interact with sights and sounds, creating a customised experience tailored to the user.

Programmatic Media

Programmatic advertising provides increased return on investment through higher conversion on media spend. In 2015, brands saw how this buying model could provide effectiveness and efficiency in finding the right audience at the right place and at the right time with a higher return on investment. Brands will seek to partner with programmatic media companies such as ARC and a larger percentage of their media would be expended programmatically.

Mobile Marketing

The growth in mobile and smartphone penetration presents amazing opportunities for brands to connect with consumers anywhere, anytime and a minimal cost. There will be a lot more ways to utilise this medium in 2016; on-site discovery and communication, in-aisle shopping offers, and iBeacons tracking mobile users every step of the shopping process. Maybe Wi-fi would be better utilised in maximising Shopper marketing activities.

Private Messaging

Whatsapp, BBM, WeChat and many other instant messaging apps have continued to grow in usage and brands have already adopted most of them for communication. With recent stats indicating their popularity over social networks, brands will look for ways to strengthen their presence here creating new formats for marketing within this space that encourages consumer participation and sharing. Branded messaging stickers and emoji keyboards might just be the answer.

Content

You’ve probably heard this so many times; content is king! The good news is it will grow even more dominant in 2016. Content provides a subtle yet impactful way to connect with consumers, and more focus would be on ensuring the right strategy and formats are available. It is crucial that more attention is given to producing content that is simple, fluid and connects to the consumers while achieving the business objectives.

Online Video Advertising

People spend hours on ending watching videos on social media platforms and this is only likely to increase in 2016. Recent studies by Ericsson shows 64% of time spent watching video content in Nigeria, is on mobile devices. With increase in views comes greater investment in online video advertising. Which brand wouldn’t want to connect with its consumers where they would be found?