Another year with several thought-leaders indulging in crystal ball gazing about the future and trends expected in the world of technology, marketing communications and media. I will simply decipher a few observations on the dynamic changes the marketing world might witness as a result of this volatile economic environment.

1. THINGS TO
WATCH OUT
FOR IN 202010

2. Another year with several thought-leaders indulging in crystal ball gazing about the future and trends expected in the world of technology, marketing
communications and media. I will simply decipher a few observations on the dynamic changes the marketing world might witness as a result of this
volatile economic environment.
In my view, not much has changed since the last year except that the consumer confidence seems to have dropped even further with a muted outlook.
We are also witnessing how they are becoming increasingly skeptical and less trusting of businesses, brands and social platforms in some cases. They
are no longer investing their time, money and attention in brands that just sell quality products at fair prices. They are making carefully considered
choices to buy from companies that stand for a purpose they personally identify with that reflects their values and beliefs.
In 2019, questions about a industry’s drive for endless growth with profit as the sole measurable moved from shouting on the streets to conversations
in boardrooms. Businesses across categories are under tremendous pressure to reassess their goals, while a growing number of people are embracing
conscious consumption. Concerns about plastic expanded into a major climate-crisis movement, which is now becoming every CEO’s top priority to
drive sustainability. Meanwhile, the clash between the technology industry, governments and their citizens is causing widely felt tremors in society.
Brands will need to be extremely creative in order to achieve higher efficiencies and greater effectiveness for their marketing investments.
This dynamic will help separate the wheat from the chaff – where clients will not merely sign up an agency with cheaper rates, but the one who will
help deliver greater business results!

3. 1MICRO INFLUENCERS
OVER CELEBRITIES
Consumers are starting to tell the difference between a
Celeb, an expert or an opinion leader and these so-called
Influencers, to regain trust in brands. A return to a less
quantifiable era of influence may seem like a loss, but if
anything it’s the opposite. Trust, ultimately, is unquantifiable.
And perhaps in the absence of futile attempts to assess it,
gooey amorphous authenticity will reign once more.

4. 2MERGING OF IDEAS
& PROGRAMMATIC
German Rail was a classic example to illustrate how a core
creative idea can attract audiences while programmatic
technology & data can personalize a campaign driving
engagement & effectiveness. It generated nearly 10,000 unique
personalised images and resulted in the sale of two million rail
tickets, a 24% boost in revenue as well as the best ROI of any
summer campaign in the brand’s history.
https://youtu.be/_35uEjs2W7Ihttps://youtu.be/_35uEjs2W7I

5. 3RESONANCE OVER
RELEVANCE
The Peloton commercial was a great case to exemplify how
it is not enough for brands to merely focus on relevance but
equally important, if not more to ensure the messaging is
crafted insightfully for high resonance. An ad the internet
loved to hate – not only triggered a social media firestorm
but the stock dropped 10.5% costing them US$1bln drop in
market capitalization.
https://youtu.be/pShKu2icEYw

6. 4With margins under pressure, marketing budgets will be
tighter – compelling companies to seek out brand alignments
in partnerships and mutually-beneficial collaborations.
Leverage the skills and offerings of others instead of investing
unnecessary efforts in own. Seamless consolidation will
enable coherent integration.
CONSOLIDATION OF
SERVICES

7. 5ERA OF ‘INSTANT’ IS
PERMEATING BRAND
COMMUNICATION
Ryan Reynold’s liquor brand Aviation Gin saw an opportunity
with the Peloton communication fiasco blazing the internet,
with this spoof showing what happens when she gets off the
bike & hits the bar – a spoof executed within 75 hours
vaulting towards 10mln views
https://youtu.be/pShKu2icEYw
https://youtu.be/H2t7lknrK28

8. 6GROWTH OF
PERSONALIZED
SHOPPING
We will see more brands following the Burberry-Apple
strategy where they created a more personal shopping
experience with a new service called “R Message” -
integrating with Burberry’s ios app and allowing store
associates to directly message select clients

9. 7COMMUNITIES OVER
INDIVIDUALS
Instead of focusing on individuals, brands like Netflix focus on
their relationships and look at the communities they belong to.
They go beyond psychographics of its average consumer. They
know the relationship between its members and its content;
and things like their viewership behavior. Netflix brand isn’t its
shows. It’s personalization. This positioning allows Netflix to
create a global market made out of micro-communities with
their niche tastes.

10. 8RISE OF CLIMATE
ACTIVISM
While awareness and the concern for the environment are
both rising amongst the citizens, we will start to witness more
& more brands jumping onto the sustainability bandwagon in
the name of brand purpose. According to a YouGov survey
over 85% of UAE residents who were interviewed, recognized
climate change as a real and salient problem. And across the
board the youth now want brands to stand for something.

11. 9COOKIES WILL
START TO CRUMBLE
With the demise of this 25-year old third party browser
tracking technology, advertisers will need to explore new
technologies, innovation, and strike a balance between profit
and privacy choices. Possibly explore direct integrations
between publishers and measurement partners to enable
true cross-publisher measurement for the first time.

12. 01RISE OF SOCIAL
SHOPPING
Although shoppable posts were launched in our region over
8 months ago, we will now witness an explosion of these
blinking dots, primarily because of easier, out of the box
integrations with third party apps and ecommerce marketing
tech. 90% of active Instagram users worldwide follow shopping
brands. Moreover, interactive ads would minimize bounce rate
and reduce the sales funnel as customers are provided with a
seamless online shopping experience.

13. THIS IS NOT THE
END OF THE REPORT,
BUT A START TO OUR
CONVERSATION IN
THIS NEW YEAR!