Some predictions and penchants for 2015

Last year’s marketing predictions faced the toughest challenge yet. Technology was changing the way consumers consumed media. Marketing departments were changing to become more oriented towards publishing. And big data was going to tell us all we ever wanted to know about our customers and didn’t know we were supposed to ask. The world was changing and marketers and their agencies needed to adapt or die. 
 

There were some bold claims. Wearable technology was going to make a massive impact on the consumers’ lives. Well, as Google has found out the hard way, if wearing technology makes you look creepy rather than cool, most people will not wear it. If using wearable technology is not so easy that you forget you are wearing it, people won’t wear it. As a prediction for a breakthrough for 2014, Google Glass lost sight of some consumer essentials but somehow I don’t think we have seen the last of this idea. But it would seem unlikely we will see it back in 2015.
 

Mobile was another big thing we should all take note of according to the auguries published a year ago. And boy should we have done. In the year when the number of mobile devices exceeded the number of people in the world, you would think most major companies would have their mobile act together. Now pick up your phone and search for BP.com on your mobile browser. Or hse.gov.uk. Or thisismoney.co.uk from Associated Newspapers. None of these organisations have an effective mobile solution for their websites. 
 

These predictions, and more, are explored in greater depth by Robert Pepper, Strategy Partner at pslondon, who also takes his own punt on what might happen in 2015. 
 

Robert’s thought around the requirement for us to integrate social and data insights into our marketing is taken further by Marc Michaels, Director of Behaviour and Planning at the The Gig at DST, who suggests that Big Data will unlock more effective cross channel communications, personalised to the user. He predicts this will drive greater emphasis on timely, motivating and relevant communications for the consumer. 
 

From a personal perspective, I hope he is right. But I have a feeling that the more time and effort is spent on understanding and individualising communications, the more likely this will lead to inappropriate and illogical connections. Whilst I am no expert, big data seems great for finding correlations but often doesn’t divulge causations so well. Back in the Eighties, when crime rates were at their highest in New York, a criminologist found a high correlation between the number of crimes committed and the amount of ice cream sold in a given period. Whilst the correlation was clear, the argument that selling ice cream was causing the crime rate to go up was never substantiated. Those with less scientific brains may have assumed that more people commit crimes when the weather is good than when it is not. 
 

But whatever the predictions for next year, I suspect we are in for another year of even more exposure of the poster child of modern day communications, content marketing. And with that will come more and more debates on best practice for this most rampant of current trends. A little like Big Data, I urge those involved to rely as much on common-sense as on science. And most will not go too far wrong if three simple questions are answered first. What? Why? And where?
 

Content emanating from a brand needs to have inherent value to the reader/viewer, in order to be liked, admired and shared. Therefore brands need to think differently. What motivates my target audience and in what way can I be relevant to them?
 

Why are you doing this and why would your audience be bothered?

 

You don’t have to be obvious but you do have to resonate with something that your audience believes, feels or wants. If you don’t, you will go down in their estimations and it will be harder to win them over in your next interaction.  
 

Finally, where are you going to connect them to your content? Context is the most important part of getting effective impact. If there’s one prediction for 2015 we can be absolutely sure of, it is that there will be no shortage of opportunities for you to gain exposure for your content. 

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This piece was written by Alan Thompson, MD of The Haystack Group.