Trends in Branding and Marketing for 2021 — Macro Trend 2: Tech Developments
3/8: Tech developments Impacting Marketing and Branding
This is the third of a series of articles in which we discuss three macro trends impacting the world of business, viewed from the lens of branding and marketing, interpreting desk research specifically for marketing & branding in 2020, and adjusted by a post-2020 point of view.
In this series of articles we offer advice for anyone with a strategic responsibility for marketing, branding, design or marketing technology — to navigate the playing field and have an impact on the world around you after 2020.
- Read the introduction to this series of articles here.
- In the second article, we discussed the first two macro trends we consider for this series: uncertainty and current prevailing philosophies or ‘the ideas lying around’. Read article 2 here.
Next to historic events taking place before our eyes and the ideas that influence these, and vice-versa, there’s a third stream of change taking place — one that even mediates the relationship between world events and ideas — and that is, of course, the break-neck-speed of current technological innovation.
Don’t forget, the spread of Covid-19 was monitored using digital technologies and it was the simple, lowly smartphone that brought to light the blatant murder of American citizens by the very police officers sworn to protect them.
The developments in tech, for better or for worse, have an impact on every aspect of our lives.
Tech developments in 2020
Well, what has been happening in that exciting world of AI, Blockchain, Quantum computing, AR/VR, voice and IoT? In their 2020 Tech Trend Report, Deloitte denotes nine broad categories of technology that will impact business over the next few years, and thus will impact marketing and branding.
Let’s not discuss all nine trends at length. At the core, the expected changes have to with
- Managing trust between parties using blockchain and other decentralized technologies;
- Immersive experiences with the help of AR/VR and cloud/edge computing combined with the expected explosive growth in miniature connected devices; and lastly -
- More and more emotionally appropriate user experiences by the adding of an artificial EQ to AIs’ and bots’ IQ.
What will these tech developments mean for marketing and branding? For one thing — if indeed trust is going to be managed differently — the way that (digital) marketers have become accustomed to tracking and measuring the contact points between their digital assets and users, will likely soon be a thing of the past. Within a few years we can expect to see the demise of good old cookie-based marketing and retargeting, thanks to a rise in consciousness among the general public about the use of data by marketers and businesses — and a subsequent rise in the use of cookie-blockers.
The European GDPR may have just been a first step.
In the not-too-distant future, we might even be seeing the management of trust between digital brands and their audiences enabled by blockchain or other decentralized technologies.
For more on this, take a look at the functionalities of the Brave browser and their Basic Attention Token.
How can branding and marketing make the difference with tech beyond 2020?
A few key technology areas stand out as fundamental to your brand’s success in 2021.
User Experience
The Bynder 2020 State of Branding report based on research amongst hundreds of marketers and brand managers worldwide, showed that User Experience would be the strongest brand differentiator in 2020, with growing brand awareness as the greatest challenge for marketing teams, and faster, more efficient content creation as the best use of automation in tech.
Digital events and Podcasts
In 2020, needless to say, we have seen an explosion of not only remote working and videoconferencing but also of digital live events, podcasts and e-courses.
The market for virtual events is poised to skyrocket over the upcoming years:
Podcasts have been gaining traction world wide over the past few years and with the events of 2020 show no signs of slowing down anytime soon:
If podcasts, virtual events or offering e-courses to your audience to share knowledge, be sure to explore further and include one or more of these into your strategy for 2021 and beyond.
Digital Burnout and mental health
Next to that, after 2020 and specifically after Covid-19, the broad effects of technological innovation will surely be accelerated. Everybody who’s lucky enough to still be in business and to be working, seems likely to be working from home much more in 2020 and beyond than ever before.
What is the relationship between marketing and digital burnout?
More than you would expect:
Our prediction is that the impact of the way digital technology is used in remote work and collaboration is going to need serious attention — within marketing and branding departments and all other teams — for the sake of your employees’ and audience’s mental health, productivity and overall wellbeing.
For more information on the impact of digital technology on mental health, visit www.lifebeyond.one.
Brand Management Tech: DAM Systems
Creating enough high-value content is still top of the list when it comes to the priorities of CMOs and brand managers worldwide in 2020. Even with the internet creating a massive amount of content each day — the challenge remains to find the right stories to connect to our audience and be helpful to them.
To maximize the scalability and Return on Investment of digital assets, you want to be able to maximize the effectivity of anyone on your marketing/branding/design teams on the one hand; and engage all employees to be brand advocates by creating their own branded content on the other hand.
A Digital Asset Management system (DAM) can be of great help to do both, making it possible among other things to create templates for assets and content which can be used by anybody, but controlled and managed by people in marketing positions.
Ethical Use of Data Analytics Capabilities
If you haven’t already by now, please get your analytics together as soon as possible.
No, marketing attribution is no science but rather mathematical estimation — but it’s so important to have a general sense if things are headed in the right direction in terms of high-over KPIs like (brand) awareness, engagement, and conversion; and also to measure the direct effectivity of smaller experiments from an Agile standpoint.
Meanwhile, realize that the awareness around the use of personal data by commercial companies is on the rise.
In the playing field of 2021, with the rise in awareness around the use of personal data by companies, for profit, it’s advisable to be ahead of the curve when it comes to ethical use of data capabilities for marketing and branding purposes. More on this in a later article in this series.
In the following article of this series, we’ll dive into the analysis of what the three macro trends (uncertainty, prevailing philosophies and tech developments) will mean specifically for brand and marketing strategy in 2021.
This is the second of a series of articles in which we discuss three macro trends impacting the world of business, viewed from the lens of branding and marketing, interpreting desk research specifically for marketing & branding in 2020, and adjusted by a post-2020 point of view.
We then offer advice for anyone with a strategic responsibility for marketing, branding, design or marketing technology — to navigate the playing field and have an impact on the world around you after 2020.
The core of this advice will be as follows:
Businesses, Marketing and Brands will need to be much more human-centered and Purpose-driven to connect with stakeholders and have a significant positive impact in 2021 and beyond.
Apart from using technology as a multiplier for humanity and an authenthic, human connection, we view the alignment of Corporate Brand with Personal Brand — and thus the alignment of Organization’s missions with indivivual stakeholders’ personal ‘Why’s’ and Values — in other words; Brand Advocacy or Brand Ambassadorship — as paramount to your brand’s success in 2021 and beyond.
SparQle: Shine, Connect, and Grow
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