by Boniswa Pezisa (@BoniswaPezisa) Let’s talk about the macro environment and emerging trends.
Budgets
As the world economies continue to be under pressure, marketing budgets will be under squeeze, especially for those marketers and entities who do not believe in marketing-led growth.
Given the perceived budget challenges, marketers and their advertisers will need to partner and both own the integrated approach in order to leverage and amortise every cent of the budget.
Big ideas that are campaign-able and can stretch across various channels will be the winners.
Technological advancement
This is a triple-edge-sword for marketers because, in some areas, they’ll have to lead consumer take-up and embracement of tech in order to stay ahead and relevant. At the same time, innovating at the bottom end offers great opportunities for African-made relevant solutions
The challenge is to make tech part of the marketing solutions, not an afterthought. This is exciting and it will stretch our creativity.
At the same time, tech will continue to drive consumerism, given the power of mobile and the technological applications that enable consumers to drum up their activism. Therefore, reputation managers will continue to grow in the sector.
Messaging
Given the plethora of communication platforms and channels, singlemindedness in messaging will continue to be critical.
Infobesity and visual tsunamis will continue to drown mediocre strategies and communications; therefore, breakthrough ideas will be the winners. However, channel relevance will be even more crucial to break through the wall of mediocrity.
Purpose
As a country with enormous socioeconomic challenges, purpose-driven brands and purpose-driven marketing initiatives will stand a better chance in building brand affinity and long-term brand growth.
Brands and marketing strategies that have their fingers on the pulse of the double-edge sword of info-consumption fatigue and time-starved consumers by offering escapism are likely to be embraced by this busy-bee cohort.
Diversification & collaboration
We will also begin to see the emergent of diversified offerings and collaborative opportunities of the creative sector.
Original article: http://www.marklives.com/2019/01/bigq2019-infobesity-visual-tsunamis/