Disruption in PR, Marketing & Advertising
Hello, creatives!
Today we’ll briefly discuss some major disruptions that have taken place in the last few years in the public relations, marketing, and advertising industry. I’ll categorize them in three buckets: trends, software, and platforms. This by no means is an all-encompassing post. These are just highlights that provide some food for thought for those who are in the marketing communications field.
Trends in PR, Marketing & Advertising
While a lot can be said here, especially in 2020, I’m going to focus more on bigger picture concepts that have occurred in the last 5 years. And for brevity and to have room for more in-depth discussions later, I’ve narrowed it down to 3 things:
the rise of the micro-influencer
the need for hyper-personalization
social responsibility as a branding pillar
The Rise of The Micro-Influencer
The micro-influencer market has been a booming business model for a few years now with some stats reporting that the industry reached $1 billion in 2017. But what exactly is a micro-influencer? A concrete definition is kind of hard to come by because it depends on the target audience and the platform. Here’s G2’s definition, which is the rule of thumb that most people take:
Micro influencers are defined as an individual who has a follower count between 2,000-50,000 on a specific social media channel, who curates content around a certain niche topic or market.
As I’ll talk about throughout this post, a solid marketing communications strategy requires smaller businesses and brands to know their target audience well. Micro-influencers are a great option for niche markets or targeting specific audience profiles. For instance, say you’re a cloth diaper brand that uses organic linen. You’re target personas will most likely follow lifestyle influencers such as mommy blogs and natural living Youtube channels.
The draw of the micro-influencer is that there is a more personal connection with the audience and thus, a more trusted source of information when it comes to purchasing decisions. Micro-influencers typically aren’t full-time content creators like larger influencers. This brings more authenticity into what they post and how they interact with those who follow their social channels.
The Need for Hyper-Personalization
Have you noticed the surge in consumer products that market themselves as “not for everyone”? From beauty products diversifying their products to be more inclusive of different hair types, to meal kit services catering offering various diets to Apple branching out in their color schemes, the need for personalization is everywhere.
And in a way, the micro-influencer movement arose out of this need to see everyday people interacting with brands and offering constructive feedback on how to customize it for their intended users. For brands that provide a service or consumer product, the need to have an innate understanding of the customer journey is paramount.
Where and when does your target audience get introduced to your brand? What are the pain points of your customers? How can their lives be improved by your service or product? These are all essential questions to know when crafting your marketing communications strategy.
Social Responsibility as a Branding Pillar
2020 is the year of brands seriously waking up to the need to put their money where their mouth is. Younger consumers (ie, Millennials and Gen Z) are especially drawn to brands with solid corporate social responsibility initiatives. It’s not just the under 40 crowd either, in some surveys, 80% of all consumers have stated that they are more loyal to brands with social responsibility in their values.
For the record, I was born in 1995 and depending on the sociologist you ask, I’m either the tail end of Millennials or the very beginning of Gen Z (as you can see from the articles I linked to, both of which have very different definitions of where the cut off is for each generation). So I see traits of both in me: the need to enjoy life through quality products and experiences like Millennials and the Gen Z need to build wealth and work for a company that has follow-through in their CSR.
So to figure out where your brand’s social responsibility lies, look to your personal values and to the values of your target audiences. Where do they spend their time and money in terms of volunteering and donating?
Software in Marketing Communications
Because of the pace at which everything moves these days –which is to say lightning-fast, on-demand, and agile–, software has become a pivotal tool that separates the successful from the not-so-successful. And, just as AI has infiltrated the publishing industry, so too has artificial intelligence become infused into many types of software that’s used in marketing communications. I’m going to identify two frequently used types of software within public relations, marketing, and advertising:
Customer Relationship Management
Email Marketing
Digital Marketing (HubSpot, ConstantContact, Salesforce, Zoho)
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software
CRM software is a tool that organizes contact lists and helps keep track of where each relationship is at in terms of their customer journey. The specifics of this depends on the software you use, but the entire customer lifecycle can be tracked with the more powerful options. From marketing, sales, commerce and customer service, a CRM is an all encompassing tool that helps gather and analyze data on the campaigns your brand is running.
Popular examples include: HubSpot, ZenDesk, Zoho, Apptivo and Salesforce Lightning. The pricing and specific tools offered by each vary widely. Here is an article that breaks it all down.
Email Marketing Software
Email marketing software may be included in a CRM, but you can find separate software if your brand doesn’t need a full suite of CRM tools. Email marketing tools provide a means to draft templates for newsletters, announcements, sales and then turn those templates into “drip” campaigns that are triggered by certain actions.
For example, let’s say someone signs up for a newsletter, with an email marketing software you can set an automatic thank you email to be sent after they sign up. You can also pre-write newsletters and schedule them to be sent at certain times.
There are plenty of options for email marketing software: ConstantContact, HubSpot, MailChimp and Zoho are just a few. I personally am using MailChimp right now. It’s not as intuitive as I would like it to be and I’m still working out some kinks, but I like it so far for what I need it to do.
Digital Marketing Software
Notice how many of these software options are all-encompassing? That’s because marketing automation is paramount in a world where your customers, clients, and readers can find you on a variety of channels. Having a single dashboard for everything makes it easier to work with your contact list, set up ads, manage your social media accounts, and create email campaigns.
Here are some options for a marketing automation: ConstantContact, HubSpot, Salesforce, and Zoho. I linked to a PC Magazine article that can provide a much more thorough explanation of what they do.
Popular Platforms in Marketing Communications Right Now
When you’re building out your target audience profiles, you’ll need to be aware of where they hang out. These “touchpoints” are a means to introduce your brand and bring them into your community through social media, email newsletter sign-ups, webinars, sales events, and much more. The last few years have seen an explosion of use among platforms such as social media and more recently thanks to 2020, video games (more on that in a second).
Social Media
As mentioned earlier, the rise of micro-influencers has brought on a need to connect with your audience in a very niche and hyper-personalized way. This means understanding how to effectively use social media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok.
If your audience is between 18-49 and your brand is highly visual or interactive, then Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, might be the way to go. With live streaming capabilities and having the Stories function, this is a platform that very much appeals to those that have some means to purchase products and want to be connected to a brand on a more personal level.
Snapchat, however, is a dark medium, meaning that only those who follow you can see your content. This app is very popular for audiences between 13 and 24 because of the ability to visually send messages to each other through pictures and short videos. If you are a brand that caters to this audience then you may be able to advertise through visual, interactive ads that are geo-targeted to specific areas.
Now, we’ll talk about TikTok, the Chinese-based company that Gen Z loves as a means of sharing 1-minute videos of dance challenges, citizen journalism, and hyper niche information. Brands that want to target Gen Z in an organic, raw, and authentic way should, by all means, be on TikTok.
Of course, TikTok has been under fire since pretty much the beginning, when India banned it from the country due to security and political concerns. Google may have an answer to that though. YouTube, which is owned by Google, is currently testing out a TikTok competitor in India called Shorts. If it’s successful then it will launch in other countries. So, stay tuned to see if this makes it to the US and if Gen Z will take to it like they have TikTok.
Video Games
I know, I know. Video games as a platform may not be the first thing that comes to people’s minds, especially if you are a smaller business or just starting out in your creative career. Hear me out. Fortnite and League of Legends began virtual concerts earlier in 2020, which created a platform for artists to share their content and for the video games to earn sales through virtual merchandise called “skins”. Some of the top trending songs right now are from bands in League of Legends, made up of real artists, but the band only exists in the game.
Wild isn’t it? So, video games have become a merchandising/brand awareness dream for those companies that are looking to target people who play specific video games. Video games are now the cool thing to do and where there is money to be made, there is culture ready to be shaped. A brand seen in the game can spark sales. This is a touchpoint that shouldn’t be ignored by those brands that have the means to sneak their way into these games. And it’s only just begun.
Phew. This one was a lot longer than I anticipated, but it’s incredibly fascinating to me how all the moving parts interconnect. I hope this was helpful or at least interesting to you as well.
Until Next Time,
Rochele
P.S. Are you looking for a fresh set of eyes to bring your creative business to the next level? Feel free to fill out this form and I’ll be in touch to book a discovery call for a brand coaching session or my strategic planning consulting service.