Top 5 Marketing Trends of 2022

As the new year beckons, businesses across the globe predict up and coming marketing trends. Last year’s pandemic emergence caused a wave of marketing change, some of which will continue into 2022.  We take a look at the some of biggest emerging trends, from the rise of short videos to the death of the third-party cookie. Here’s our Top 5 Marketing Trends of 2022.

1. The Evolution of Content

‘Content is King’ has been a popular phrase for digital marketers for the last decade. During our research into 2022 trends, we discovered several businesses proclaiming something along the lines of ‘Content King is Dead!’ This is wrong; it is merely evolving. In two ways, to be precise.

Firstly, Simplicity is becoming a much more valued way to present content. Rather than long written text, the power of simplicity is being embraced to convey brand messaging. If you look at ‘content’ as a market, it’s highly saturated. Consumers now have access to a wealth of information. What they want now is more unique content with a clear message. Be creative with it, for example, if your writing a ‘top 10’ blog post a bit like this one, don’t write a long text about it on social media. Create an eye-catching post that conveys the core points of your blog into one post or a carousel post. Then link your blog to the post for consumers that actually want to read it, this way you’re more likely to engage with customers.

Secondly, become a storyteller, educator and thought leader. This is why the phrase ‘content is king’ is still relevant in the marketing world. Long content like blogs and articles which provide educational content have gained stature. Give your audience relevant educational content that adds value to them. It demonstrates that you are an expert in your industry and have niche knowledge beneficial to them. Rather than pushing out your products in customers faces with big bold annoying advertising, upsell your expertise. This will help build a strong brand image, gaining consumer trust which will sell your products for you. This can include being a storyteller. Tell your consumers about customer experiences with your brand, how they had a problem and how you fixed it. Written in an engaging story format. This is a better way to express the advantages of having your product.

So, ‘content is still king’, you just need to know how to produce it.

2. CSR becomes more important

In 2022, businesses will address the demand of a more socially conscious society. Consumers want brands to be transparent about the ways they work. Is it sustainable? Are you investing in green technology? What are you doing to support the local community? What are you doing to support your employees? What’s your stand on wellness? What’s your diversity initiatives?

Answering these questions by posting about them on social media will gain the trust and respect of consumers. Although it’s not a cost-effective process, we’re certainly seeing a huge increase in ESG investment. Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG), are a popular set of standards/metrics that are used to analyse a company’s operations. Measuring ethical impact and sustainability practices. Investors look at factors such as a businesses carbon footprint, water usage, community development efforts, and board diversity.  It’s precited that ESG funds will triple by 2025, increasing their share of the European fund sector from 15% to 57%.

For more information on sustainability in business, read our blog on sustainable development in business: 2022.

3. Short videos take centre stage

Over the past year, we’ve seen the rise of TikTok. Becoming one of the most popular social media apps around the globe. In 2020, it overtook Facebook as the most downloaded app globally. Which makes us reminisce on Vine, truly ahead of its time. Now, every social platform is incorporating something similar such as Youtube Shorts and Instagram Reels. It is predicted that in 2022, video will make up 82% of all internet traffic. Coming in many forms and ranging in length, here’s a list of the types of short videos we’ll see more of in 2022.

Types of short-form videos:

Product Teasers – With minimal cost, brands can build anticipation around a product launch with teasers. Keeping them short at 6-60 seconds.

Funny Videos – Social media users are more likely to share content with friends and family if it’s funny. It’s highly shareable and will spread brand awareness. Although, being funny isn’t for everyone. So, if you’re going to do it, make sure it works. Otherwise, it can negatively affect your brand.

Educational / Informative – Informative content will be coming in the form of short videos in 2022. They’re easier to engage with than reading (younger audiences are more likely to engage with informative content in a video form), add value to your audience and are highly shareable.

Behind the scenes – A great way to develop authenticity and transparency. This is one of the 2021 marketing trends that is continuing into 2022.  Consumers will feel you’re connecting with them on a more personal level, showing them inside footage e.g. How a product is made.

User-Generated Content – Studies have shown UGC influences consumer purchasing decisions more than a brand does. People value opinions and referrals, posting UGC is a great way to gain the trust of customers.

Brand Challenges – An effective way of engaging customers is creating a brand challenge. This can result in plenty of UGC, which spreads brand awareness. It’s also one of the best chances you’ll get at going viral. These were a strong trend in 2021, and they’re here to stay.

Influencer Ad’s – This is nothing new, but it shows no signs of slowing down. What’s happening now is influencers are being used to promote products in the form of short-form videos.

4. Cookies phase-out

In February 2020, Google announced their plans to build a more private web for consumers. Resulting in the removal of third-party cookies. Although this is only on Chrome, it dominates the industry as the most popular web browser. It boasts a dominant market share at just below 70% on desktops and 64% on mobile devices.

Third-party cookies are a favourable tool that’s been used by marketers for years, giving an insight into consumer behaviours. They guided marketing strategies, allowing them to improve user experience and target advertisement more efficiently. To worsen the burn for the digital industry, Google further announced later in the year that they won’t be building “alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web.” This insinuates a lot of data-tracking issues for the coming year. It may be the death of the cookie, but it isn’t the death of effective digital marketing. In 2022, we’ll see marketing innovators coming up with solutions to combat Googles announcement. Here are some solutions we predict to see:

Cookie Solutions:

First-Party Data still exists – First-Party data will become crucial to digital marketers. Brands will start employing new systems to track data. For example, when a customer calls you, this is valuable first-party data. Consumers express their opinions and how they feel through conversations. There are automated systems that can track what’s being said and accurately derive meaning from it.

Zero Party Data – Data that is given to a business directly from the consumer. Done through interacting with a brand online such as surveys and gamification.

Contextual Advertising – This basically means that brands go where the consumers are. Advertising relevant products and services to their location/ digital location e.g. If you’re at a football game and you see adverts for football boots. It’s targeted and less disruptive than cookie-based advertising which consumers can find invasive.

This is one of the most influential digital marketing trends that will reshape the marketing industry in the future. To be successful in this change, brands will seek to provide their consumers with a balance of privacy and personalisation. The days of invasive data tracking is over, consumers have the power and brands must respect it if they want to gain their trust.

5. Always-On Influencer Marketing

Touched upon briefly under short videos, influencer marketing is nothing new. But like content, it continues to evolve. In previous years, brands used celebrity endorsement and influencers to promote products often for short periods of time, such as one-off campaigns. Although this is cost-efficient and requires fewer resources, it actually misses out on the chance to build value. Nowadays, customer loyalty is at a record low and one-time campaigns don’t always do the trick. Emerging into 2022 we’ll see more ‘Always-On’ influencer marketing.

So, what is it? Always-On Influencer marketing is having a partnership with an influencer for the long-term. Providing ongoing support and promotion. This can benefit brands in a number of ways:

Build a loyal partnership for the future – The longer the partnership, giving it’s a healthy one, will increase the chances of them staying loyal to a brand. If they grow in popularity this will only have beneficial effects for the business.

Improve authenticity – Having a long-term partnership means consumers will be repeatedly reminded of their relationship with the product or service. Seeing that the influencer genuinely loves the product or service. Enhancing authenticity and trust.

It’s evident that the marketing trends of 2022 will bring plenty of challenges for marketers. The cookie phase-out will see the emergence of new innovative strategies to track consumer behaviour. Furthermore, it could negatively affect the businesses that don’t react quick enough. Rising CSR demands from consumers is a trend not just for 2022, but for the foreseeable future. The coming year will show us which brands are reacting to these demands now, and are willing to make a change. New technologies and advertising alternatives are becoming ever more in more important. One thing is for sure, these trends are building a better society. A safer, more private web to browse on for consumers, and a more socially responsible greener future.