Key digital trends for 2021

 Here are the seven digital trends for 2021.

1) Changes in B2B & B2C marketing strategies – Creating efficient strategies in lead generation and relationships

As well as engaging, social media now has to deliver sales results, and this is visible when a company begins to measure such results effectively. With the pandemic, some business models have been accelerated, such as online retail, click and collect, frictionless retail, and D2C e-commerce, changing the way companies position themselves to meet customer needs. Today, one of the basic principles of any content strategy is generating leads to build relationship with potential customers.

In the strategic domain, a big hit this year is expected to be big data-based natural language processing (NLP), which should help gain better understanding of the information obtained through big data systems and thus ease user interaction. Other highlights are the Data Warehouse (predictive, prescriptive, descriptive or diagnostic analytics) and Dark Data, which refer to all information that companies collect, process and store in the normal course of their activity, but are not intended for any other specific use.

2) Will 2021 be the year of AR and AI?

We are currently in the third wave of the Internet, a stage where Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are already part of all (or almost all) aspects of our lives. With these tools, brands can go beyond screens: they can experiment new formats and increase their creativity. However, like all new technology, using this resource requires a large investment in the development of prototypes.

Another factor pointing to the growth of Augmented Reality is the 5G technology, which should soon revolutionize how we connect with the Internet of Things (IoT). In the area of Artificial Intelligence (AI), we can expect a significant advance in technology being used to improve workflows and the buyer’s journey through personalization and hyper-personalization. In marketing, automation should go beyond naming the person to whom the message is directed; however, as artificial intelligence advances, some companies, such as content agencies, may probably be adversely affected.

3) Entertainment, Music, & Games – Creating online communities through influencers

It is often said that one of the paths to the future of social media is entertainment. However, several brands have difficulties in creating attractive content to their customers. An extremely viable solution is to team up with influencers who already do it very naturally. After all, real people connect with real stories, and nothing better than working with great opinion makers to bring entertainment to consumers who are increasingly demanding and seeking true connections.

Another big news is Spotify Studios , launched in 2020, which is aiming to include video podcasts. The gaming world is promising too: for instance, Fortnite has already performed several initiatives, such as including DC Comics characters in the game.

4) Flywheel – The clients are in the center

Several markets have used data captured in the digital environment and creating segment-oriented messages based on the user’s personal characteristics. Now it is time to have these data used not only by the marketing team but by the entire organization in a more strategical fashion aiming to design new products, services and solutions, and place the customer in the very center of all operations. Part of this change is related to the m-commerce, whereby purchase is made via cellphones. By the end of 2021, mobile devices are estimated to generate nearly 73% of the total e-commerce sale record, which entails that we need new digital strategies, especially content-centered strategies.

5) Engagement with purpose – Diversity and inclusion initiatives

Changing people’s lives through the enterprise’s activities is a growing trend in the market. Embracing diversity is currently a challenge for brands of which the public demands a more authentic position and long-term actions. Therefore, organizations should not decide to support a cause if they do not intend to live up to the expectations through actions. For example, if an organization is willing to invest in an LGBT-oriented campaign, it must ensure that its employees hold this ideal, provide job opportunities to this demographic, and treat LGBT people adequately. This is the only way for the campaign to be effective. This applies to any other topic of interest. Brands approaching diversity-related topics is a response to the constant changes in society, but it is necessary to be cautious and avoid superficial approaches.

6) New possibilities – Virtual Assistants, Twitch, TikTok, WhatsApp, Shoploop, & Kormo Jobs

Both voice search and use of virtual assistants such as Alexa and Siri should be taken into account in 2021. With the increasing use of voice search, brands are supposed to produce content aiming at these platforms. Twitch, which is widely used by the gaming community, has gained new audiences. Chinese social media TikTok already has offices in various parts of the world capable of designing solid strategies for brands. WhatsApp has promised to become an important sales tool, especially for small businesses.

The latest is Shoploop, a new video application that has come to compete with TikTok, but it has a more commercial focus that can truly benefit electronic commerce. This new project comes from Area 120, a Google department dedicated to innovation. For now, Shoploop is still in its trial phase, but another novelty, also from Google, that promises to draw attention in 2021 is Kormo Jobs, the Asian LinkedIn, Google’s newest professional tool. Already available in India, it promises to become the newest website connecting professionals worldwide.

7) Creative Talent – Senior professionals with a disruptive leader

With the increasing value of digital marketing over the past months, native advertising and programmatical advertising have joined forces, and now must work cooperatively. Having a team well directed by a manager with robust global experience and holistic vision is of essence. Having a well-aligned team delivering projects by the deadline is no longer enough; it is also necessary to innovate and be disruptive, to have the ability to leverage the social media and content team and assist the marketing professionals to make important decisions.

For example, in 2021 digital teams should create strategies for Bing and Yahoo! as alternatives to Google, and consider programmatical advertising for wearables, including the popular smartwatches. All that must be discussed and strategically lined-up with televised merchandising.

Ancestry.com: George Washington

Ancestory.com taps into this curiosity with this unique offer. In this Facebook Ad, the online company pulls in a new audience with a unique proposition and builds awareness of its greater product/service.

Their phrasing on this ad is enticing, simple, and doesn’t make it seem like a lot of effort is required to uncover “your history.

Digital Core Measurement and reporting tools

The five metrics that help advertisers prove the success of any native advertising campaign.

The Art Institute of Chicago and Airbnb

Have you even dreamed of walking into one of your favorite paintings? How about staying the night? In this creative campaign to generate publicity for the Art Institute of Chicago's Van Gogh exhibit in 2016, Art Institute of Chicago partnered with Airbnb to create a unique, immersive experience for art lovers.

Targeting Strategies : The Devil is in the details

Performance-based marketing is affiliate marketing, which pays Internet publishers (affiliates) to promote a particular product or service, paying a commission for each lead or sale generated by the affiliate website.


There are two main types of targeting – inventory targeting, which serves ads on sites that offer a specific type of content or visited frequently by individuals within a particular demographic, and user targeting – which serves ads to individuals who have exhibited a particular behavior or interest.

Also, there are two activities to track  1- people-based and 2- device-based.

The Best Targeting Strategy Is Diversified & Comprehensive

You don’t have to pick just one of the strategies ; check each of them out and see how they might fit your various target market segments.

Create personas for your ideal customers – who are they? Where do they live? What do they do for work and what do they do after work? What traits and characteristics might they have, and how do those align with the many targeting parameters listed ?

Identifying just who it is you want to reach will guide you to the most effective  ad targeting tools and options to get in front of them.

Let’s look at following different performance targeting strategies i tested  for social media and beyond CRM databases:

Recent Purchasing Behavior 

Purchasing behavior subcategories include Buyer Profiles, Clothing, Food & Drink, Health & Beauty and a lot more. Within each broad subcategory, you can drill down into types of behavior; for example, choosing Buyer Profiles will then let you target DIYers, Fashionistas, Foodies, etc.

Life Events Targeting

The Life Events parameter is unique in that you can choose to target people at specific intervals of time after the change.

Custom Audiences

Custom Audiences are an advanced feature that enable you to connect with your existing contacts. Getting in front of your existing customers and app users on their favorite social network reinforces your brand, but also gives you the opportunity to increase lifetime customer value, order frequency, and loyalty.

This works the other way, too – you can increase the efficacy of your campaigns and avoid wasted clicks by excluding your existing customer list. If you’re offering a free trial to new users, for example, there’s no reason to show it to your loyal customers.

Custom Audiences are created by uploading your customer phone list, or purchaser/subscriber email list in CSV or TXT format, to a platform. You can also create a Custom Audience based on your site visitors (and specific pages visited on your site), or on specific actions taken within your game or app.

Lookalike Audience

Lookalike Audiences are a logical next step, once you have a good Custom Audiences strategy in place. Even if you don’t have your own email or phone list, you can mirror your Facebook fan base. Lookalikes allow you to expand beyond your reach but still target people with highly specific profiles, by creating audiences that look like your own targets.

If you have neither a list nor a big enough Facebook following, you can still create a Lookalike Audience using a tracking pixel to create a Website Custom Audience to mirror.

Layered Targeting Options

The really powerful thing about Facebook ads is in your ability to layer targeting options on top of one another, gradually making your audience more and more specific. 

Segmentation strategies
Demographic: Marketing segmentation strategy where the audience (potential customers) is divided into externally measurable characteristics.
Behavioral: A more focused form of market segmentation, which groups consumers based on specific consumption patterns they display.

• Past purchasing history
• Browsing history

Dayparting: Targeting users that are active at a particular time of day or day of week.
Designated Market Area: A segment Nielsen uses to standardize geographic areas for the purposes of targeting and measurement.
Retargeting: Targeting past visitors of your site.
Product-related: Segmenting the audience based on usage of a product (such as heavy vs. light).

Do's & Dont's
Don’t over-specify. Avoid making your strategy so specific that you end up with a reduced pool of potential customers. Piling a variety of schemes on top of each other is called hypertargeting, and is likely to hinder your campaign's performance by reducing your audience.

Target appropriately across media. Don't address your audience purely from one front; you may be reaching a different audience with your mobile and social strategy, and consumers interacting with your message through these channels may behave differently than they would through other channels.

Think strategically before tactically. You know your clients and their objectives. The objectives for targeting on a local scale are very different than targeting at a global scale, just as the objectives for a CPG advertiser with a short conversion cycle versus a longer term cycle.

Use past campaign analysis to revise your targeting strategy. It may sound obvious, but careful tracking of pacing and performance across past campaigns will tell you how well your message resonates with your target audience. If your message is underperforming, it may be the creative – or it may be that the audience you have set doesn't mesh with a particular medium, or perhaps you've defined your target audience too narrowly.

Frequency cap. Bombarding your audience over and over tends to lead to decreased engagement with an ad, and at worst, overexposure can lead to a negative association with your brand. Industry best practices place the frequency cap at 3.

A/B test. This is best practice for all types of advertising, and will help you better measure your campaign's success and plan for future retargeting campaigns.

Burn pixel. Just as consumers don't want to see the same retargeted ad 50 times, they don't want to continue seeing ads after they have converted, such as making a purchase. An easy solution is to use a burn pixel, which untags viewers as recipients of your ad once they have made a purchase.

Ad Networks vs Ad Exchanges: 

Ad Networks

Ad networks formed in response to the explosion of publisher inventory during the Internet revolution.

In short, ad networks collect inventory from a range of publisher sites and sell it to advertisers at a price.

Advertisers generally don’t have time to sort through all the available inventory out there. Ad networks will do this for them, and present advertisers with select groupings of inventory that have been curated according to specific parameters the ad network chooses (or chooses on behalf of the advertiser).

Some ad networks offer specific audience segments (i.e. demographics, interests, behavior, etc.), while others will focus on pricing or scale.

Ad Exchanges

Ad exchanges are technology platforms that position ad inventory in an open digital marketplace for advertisers to peruse at their leisure.

Ad exchanges enable advertisers to gauge prices for ad impressions across multiple sites and purchase those that are most cost-effective.

Because ad exchanges integrate with other tools, such as a DSP, much of this ad buying is done instantaneously by automated computers. In this way, ad exchanges can provide transparency without sacrificing efficiency.

Ad Networks vs. Ad Exchanges

The most common metaphor used to compare ad networks to ad exchanges is the stock exchange, and I think it serves the purpose well.

In that scenario, ad networks are the private actors – or stock brokers – who offer select groupings of ad inventory that will satisfy a specific need. In contrast, ad exchanges act like the stock exchange itself, facilitating the buying and selling of inventory in an automated fashion on an open market.

– A Recap

1. Ad networks offer specificity. Ad exchanges offer variety.
2. Ad networks are companies. Ad exchanges are technology platforms.
3. Ad networks keep pricing static. Ad exchanges base pricing on auctions.
4. Ad networks take time to optimize campaigns. Ad exchanges allow campaign optimization on the fly.

Glossary

Ad Exchange

An ad exchange is a technology platform that functions primarily as a digital marketplace. It allows advertisers and publishers to buy and sell online ad space from various ad networks through real-time auctions. The payoff is efficiency and transparency. Ad exchanges enable advertisers to gauge prices for ad impressions across multiple sites and purchase those that are most cost-effective. All of this is done simultaneously, eliminating any lengthy ad-buying negotiations.

Ad Network

Ad networks are companies that gather ad space supply from publishers and sell it to advertisers, typically at a marked up price. In short, they act as middlemen who connect companies that create ads with websites with the space to display those ads.

Ad Server

An ad server is a web server that publishers use to store, manage, and deliver their ads to website visitors. Ad servers often employ advanced analytical tools, allowing publishers to use data to better understand and optimize their advertising model. For example, ad servers can count and track users, generating data-fueled reports for advertisers on the number of impressions their ads receive.

Ad Tag

An ad tag is code publishers place on websites in order to sell ad space. It consists of two parts: 1) a URL and 2) a piece of HTML or JavaScript code. Working together, these two parts first request content (ads or other ad tags) from the URL and then instruct the browser how to display the content.

API

An application programming interface (API) is a language format, written in code, which allows programs and applications to communicate with each other and their respective operating systems. The language creates a standard of rules and protocols which programmers use to develop software that doesn’t conflict. In the mobile ad tech sector, API-powered mobile devices offer greater visibility into a user’s lifestyle, delivering data that can create marketing opportunities and inform strategic decisions.

App
An app is simply an application. The term is specifically used to differentiate an application on a mobile device, such as a mobile game, from programs on a traditional desktop computer.
Attribution

Attribution is the process by which user interactions are identified and measured. It’s a way in which marketers garner a better understanding of how certain events lead users to a desired outcome, referred to as a conversion. Attribution quantifies an ad’s ability to influence a consumer’s purchasing decisions, providing marketers with a way to compare the effectiveness of various marketing campaigns.

Banner

A banner is any type of advertisement that acts as a “banner” displayed usually at the top or bottom or the webpage or app. Banner ads are still very popular today, and feature both text and graphics. 

Creative

Creative, specifically ad creative, is a file that houses the digitally formatted design and artwork for an advertisement. This file is rendered as a display ad on the publisher’s medium and can take the following formats: Image (GIF, PNG, JPEG), Flash File (SWF), HTML or JavaScript.

CPA

Cost-per-Action (sometimes known as Pay Per Action or PPA; also Cost Per Conversion) is an online and mobile advertising pricing model, where the advertiser pays for each specified action. For example, an action after an initial impression and click, like an install, form submit (e.g., contact request, newsletter sign up, registration etc.), double opt-in or in-app sale. Formula: CPA = Cost/Number of Actions

CPC

Cost-per-Click (CPC) is the price the advertiser pays a publisher every time a consumer clicks on the ad. The price is set by the advertiser. Formula: CPC = Cost/Number of Clicks

CPI

Specific to mobile applications, Cost-per-Install (CPI) is the price an advertiser pays whenever the consumer installs the advertised application. Formula: CPI = Cost/Number of Installs

CPM

Cost-per-Mille (CPM) is a pay structure designed to generate brand awareness. The advertiser pays the publisher for every 1000 times the advertisement is displayed to a consumer. Formula: CPM = Cost X 1000/Impressions

CTR

Click-through rate (CTR) is the ratio of clicks to ad impressions. This is the most commonly used metric to determine the success of an ad campaign. Formula: CTR = Number of Clicks/Impressions

DMP

A Data Management Platform (DMP) is a centralized digital warehouse where marketers, publishers, and other businesses can effectively store, manage and analyze large quantities of data.  DMPs are incredibly useful in marketing campaigns, enabling optimization through more effective ad targeting. 

DNT

Do Not Track (DNT) is specifically a HTTP header field that sends a signal to other websites, namely analytics companies, ad networks and social platforms, requesting them to disable any tracking of individual users. Despite the request, many sites still do not honor the DNT signal. There currently exists no standardized protocol for its enforcement.

DSP

A Demand Side Platform (DSP) is a centralized technology platform that enables automated ad buying from a range of publisher sites while simultaneously connecting with consumers through vertical and lateral targeting. It’s an all-in-one tool for advertisers, efficiently integrating the buying, delivering and tracking of ads through proper utilization of data. The result is campaign optimization. Marketers can manage and tailor both their bids and their data to more effectively reach their targeted audiences. There are a handful of good mobile DSPs out there. Ours is AdCast™.

eCPM

Effective Cost-per-Mille (eCPM) is a way to measure the value of a publisher’s inventory on a Cost-per-Mille (CPM) basis. eCPM is calculated by multiplying the number of clicks (CTR) by the CPC rate to  determine total revenue. That total is then divided by the number of blocks of 1,000 impressions delivered, giving the eCPM value. Formula: eCPM = (Total Spent/Impressions Delivered)X 1000

Fill Rate

The fill rate is the rate at which a publisher successfully displays an ad in relation to the number of times the ad was requested. Essentially, this rate evaluates the amount of wasted inventory space a publisher has.

GRP

Gross Rating Point (GRP) is a standard measure for the impact or exposure of an ad campaign. GRPs calculate reach multiplied by exposure frequency. For example, if an ad is exposed to 32% of a targeted audience and that exposure occurs a total of three times at the same 32% rate, then you have a GRP of 96. Because the GRP measures gross, it is therefore possible to have a number over 100.

Impression

An ad impression is the calculated instance of an ad being displayed to a human consumer. Impressions give marketers a broad understanding of how many people their brand is reaching.

Inventory

Ad inventory is the total amount of space a publisher has on their respective platform to display advertisements from advertisers. Ad inventory is sold to an advertiser at a price, often determined through an online bidding system. Specifically mobile ad inventory is often measured in impressions.

Mediation

Mobile ad mediation is a technology that allows publishers to maximize the revenue gained from selling impressions. The ad mediation platform ranks ad networks according to publisher priorities, enabling the publisher to quickly find and choose ad networks that provide the highest potential revenue for their inventory.

Programmatic Buying

Programmatic buying is automated ad buying. It allows advertisers and publishers to quickly buy and sell advertisements through computerized systems and without the need for human intervention.

ROI

Return on Investment (ROI) is a metric used to determine the benefits of an investment and compare that to the cost.

RTB

Real-time bidding (RTB) is the process by which ad inventory is bought and sold instantaneously through programmatic means. The auctions, which take place every time a web browser opens a website, sell ad space provided by publishers to the advertiser willing to pay the highest price. The entire process is facilitated by ad exchanges.

Rich Media

Rich media constitutes a kind of ad that will typically contain some form of video or user interaction engagement. Rich media allows advertisers to connect with and involve consumers on a deeper level, providing dynamic content and effects.

SDK

A software development kit (SDK) is a set of programming tools for developers and programmers to use for the creation of a wide range of applications for various software packages. In mobile tech, these tools are often made available to customers, offering an intuitive, easy-to-use programming kit to develop their own mobile apps. Once created, apps created from publishers and consumers alike can be published and sold over the popular app marketplaces.

SSP

A supply side platform (SSP) is a technology that allows publishers to maximize the revenue gained from selling their ad inventory. It’s an automated system that connects publishers to multiple ad networks and exchanges to facilitate the purchase of inventory. Publishers then can receive the best possible price as their inventory is exposed to the highest number of potential bidders possible.

Viewability

Was your ad seen by a human? If so, for how long? These are the tough questions that mobile viewability seeks to answer for advertisers and publishers alike. 

Samsung | Art from Space

Content today is very much a social experience for users of mobile devices. Everyone is looking for new and more interesting ways to discover, create, engage with and share content. It’s a form of both self-expression and validation among their social network.

Combining the features of both a smartphone and a tablet, Samsung’s Galaxy Note represented a new category in mobile devices. It was new to the market, and Samsung’s target. Starcom needed to bring the creative power of the Galaxy Note to life, showing Samsung’s audience all the new features and giving them a taste of the creative possibilities it offered, while building the brand’s presence in social media.

To do this, Starcom created an event for all Samsung fans, scaling it into a massive PR and social experience, in the form of a tribute to one of The Netherlands’ greatest heroes.

4D in-store projection

Projection events have become increasingly popular as one-off stunts. This is the first example we've seen where the technology has been employed on such a scale, indoors and for a prolonged period, as part of a campaign

Ralph Lauren has been wearing its digital heart on its sleeve of late. Much of this is down to David Lauren (son of Ralph), who as SVP of advertising, marketing and corporate communications is widely recognised as the man who has helped bring the Ralph Lauren brand into the digital age.

Luxury brands were initially a bit slow to embrace digital. Decades of high quality glossy print and expensive live shows were ingrained on the luxury and fashion marketing consciousness. 


There was a superior attitude that the quality and equity of a brand spoke for itself, and luxury brands largely ignored the opportunities of digital, save for a few expensive looking flash based websites.

Fortunately this has begun to change, and when Drive Production’s giant horses came crashing through the walls of a German department store to help promote the new ‘Design Your Own’ collection from Ralph Lauren, the fashion brand’s mastery of digital became apparent.

When Ralph Lauren celebrated its '10 Years of Digital' anniversary with an extravagant 4D projection in New York and London in December, it was more a media event than a campaign. But when Ralph Lauren launched its 'Design Your Own' collection at Berlin's prestigious KaDeWe department store, the 8-minute film was re-configured for the indoor location.

'Design Your Own' is a new customisable range of polo shirts. Customers select their colour of shirt, and can then choose their favourite Ralph Lauren monogram, in whatever colour they choose - creating the perfect polo just for them.

The atrium of one of Europe's largest luxury department stores, the KaDeWe in Berlin, has been taken over for the entire month of August, with a bespoke 4D digital arts installation from Drive Productions running six times a day. This is the first time 4D mapping has been used inside a fashion store anywhere in the world.

Powerful architectural projection mapping technology takes the audience on a visual journey, creating the illusion that images of models, products and on occasion polo ponies are literally appearing beyond the walls and floating out into space and towards the audience. The experience featured a new ending, to incorporate the 'Design Your Own' collection,.

At each screening, the atrium at KaDeWe - a large, brightly lit space is turned into a cinematic presentation area in a matter of minutes with the use of a combination of motorised blinds, projection screens and heavy black velvet drapes. The projection area is equivalent in size to six double decker buses.

Drive's motion graphics team created the impression of a building projection on the clean, white interior architecture at KaDeWe by projecting 3D architectural geometry, onto and into which the content of the show had been mapped.

Ben Fender, company director of Drive Productions, commented: "Architectural 4d video mapping is that rare thing - a technique that still has the wow factor - both in terms of the creative and technological possibilities it gives brands and in terms of consumer reactions to it.

But the key factor to the success of this medium is the transformational content where It is now possible to create art installations that act as stand-alone pieces of global advertising- bringing together art technology and in this case 'design your own' fashion into one perfect package."

Ralph Lauren 4D Projection Mapping Show, Berlin

The Official Ralph Lauren 4D Experience - New York



The Official Ralph Lauren 4D Experience - London

BRAND:Ralph Lauren

BRAND OWNER: Ralph Lauren

REGION: Germany

DATE: August - August 2011

AGENCY:Drive

Jack & Jones Fitness Club

Using sex to sell isn't innovative, but the clever addition of a VIP club to persuade even casual viewers to submit personal information takes advantage of the viral potential of the site.

A campaign that uses overtly sexual imagery to drive consumer engagement. It isn't big, and it isn't clever, but this online fitness studio that promotes the spring/summer collection from men's fashion brand Jack & Jones provides hours of entertainment.

Jack & Jones is a brand for the fashion-conscious man about town. Positioned toward the premium end of the crowded high street category, it's important for a brand like J&J to keep men interested. Unsurprising then, that J&J decided the best course of action was to treat the boys to a pretty lady who would cavort about on their computer screens.

Visitors to the Jack & Jones Fitness studio first of all choose their look from the collections on offer. Based on the premise of teach the user some exercises that will help get them in the best shape to show off their new outfit, a helpful gym instructor shows the lucky online shopper some helpful moves. In her pants.

The premise is simple, slightly ridiculous but excellently realised digitally.

Visitors who want to see more can visit the VIP club, with the promise of more gym class demonstrations. A pass to the VIP club can be obtained by purchasing product or submitting some personal details to a mailing list.

Once in the VIP section, the Jack & Jones instructor offers classes in skipping, pole dancing and trampolining.  As an extra treat, the viewer can switch on options, such as slow-motion or water, to add to the experience.

An associated Jack & Jones Fitness Studio iPhone app replicates the experience for mobile, helping users to "get in shape and ready for action".

BRAND:Jack & Jones

BRAND OWNER:Bestseller A/S

CATEGORY:Accessories/Clothing/Footwear

REGION:DenmarkFinlandGermanyThe NetherlandsNorwaySwedenUnited Kingdom

DATE:June 2011 - ongoing