7 SOCIAL TRENDS FOR 2017

7 SOCIAL TRENDS

as-new-ambassador-10254936/ Douglas Van Praet

“As people screen out so much advertising, the challenge is to get past the brain’s screening

TREND ONE: THE AUGMENTED REALITY WARTREND TWO:ADVERTISING THAT MAKES THE INDIVIDUAL THE STAR TREND THREE:FROM PASSIVE SCROLLING TO REACHING PEOPLE WHEN THEY’RE ALREADY ENGAGED TREND FOUR:SEARCH BEING TIED INTO SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISINGTREND FIVE: THE (FORCED) EMBRACE OF SHORT FORM VIDEO ADVERTISINGTREND SIX: LONG FORM ENTERTAINING VIDEO CONTENT FINDING A HOME ON FACEBOOKTREND SEVEN: THE BRAND AS A BROADCASTER

TREND ONE: THE AUGMENTED REALITY WAR

as-new-ambassador-10254936/ Douglas Van Praet

“As people screen out so much advertising, the challenge is to get past the brain’s screening

A large part of Snapchat’s popularity – for its audience and advertisers alike – has been driven by

lenses that can alter physical appearance and the look of surrounding environments. It’s also

enabled a new form of advertising: sponsored lenses. As smartphones continue to develop, driven

by social network competition, we will see the complexity of augmented reality increase in 2017.

Snapchat, for one, is already planning new lenses that will interact with real-world objects and

“identify environmental elements”, allowing it to superimpose digital effects over Snaps. Reported

advertising options include examples like Pepsi being able to sponsor a lens that fits atop real-world

bottles.

Facebook, the world’s biggest social network – having dipped its toe into bringing AR to the platform

through a choice of reality selfie masks on its livestream – is now experimenting with wholesale

Snapchat-style AR special effects that include geo-filters and graphic overlays as part of its new

camera experience. This includes animated selfie masks for brands, mooted as part of a new

advertising revenue option.

Then there’s how AR will help normalise e-commerce on social networks, allowing – by nature of what it does – people to envisage how products might look on them, something Snapchat and YSL experimented with late last year through a sponsored lens that let the audience try out different lipstick colours.

As Mark Zuckerberg noted in July 2016, the future of AR will be driven by mobile. Social media can also be included in that.

TREND TWO: ADVERTISING THAT MAKES THE INDIVIDUAL THE STAR

as-new-ambassador-10254936/ Douglas Van Praet

“As people screen out so much advertising, the challenge is to get past the brain’s screening

In the arms race for users and eyeballs, social networks are making creativity central to their platform offering.

Different AR formats are ushering in a new level of creativity on social. First we had images, then video, and AR has now given us lenses and stickers, rich options on social that are available at the touch of a button, both for users and brands, to add an extra layer of creativity. These are filters that can, for example, turn a human into a cat, or change a grey office into one filled with bubbles. This new level of creativity is also moving advertising forward on social, where through Sponsored lens and filters, the audience can become the star of a brand advert.

Snapchat’s innovation may have stole a lead, but by copying their creative offering, Instagram, Facebook and Messenger are bringing this type of creativity to a wider audience and, in doing so, taking these creative formats (and soon AR advertising) into the mainstream.

TREND THREE: FROM PASSIVE SCROLLING TO REACHING PEOPLE WHEN THEY’RE ALREADY ENGAGED

as-new-ambassador-10254936/ Douglas Van Praet

“As people screen out so much advertising, the challenge is to get past the brain’s screening

AR isn’t the only offering rival platforms have borrowed from Snapchat. The copying of Snapchat’s stories format (i.e. where images or videos can be collated to make a ‘story’) by Instagram and WhatsApp (and a format that is currently also being experimented with by Facebook itself) empowers audiences, as well as brands, to have a more narrative-driven content feed.

It also gives brands the option of placing full screen ads within these stories, thereby reaching a target audience when they are already immersed and engaged in content, instead of when they are scrolling through their newsfeed and more likely to, potentially, scroll past.

The idea of capturing people when they’re already engaged in content is part of Facebook’s move towards heroing long form videos, with the mooted intention of serving mid-roll ads (see trend six)

TREND FOUR: SEARCH BEING TIED INTO SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING

as-new-ambassador-10254936/ Douglas Van Praet

“As people screen out so much advertising, the challenge is to get past the brain’s screening

Bridging the gap between discovery and intent to purchase, new advertising capabilities will see 2017 setting a trend for social channels to be used to take people further through the sales funnel.

Social has traditionally been used to reach the passive buyer (people who might not necessarily be considering a purchase, but match the target audience), but now – through YouTube and Pinterest – we have opportunities to target content to people based on what they have been specifically searching for (within Pinterest itself and, in YouTube’s case, through Google search history), allowing us to communicate with relevant consumers within active purchase journeys.

TREND FIVE: THE (FORCED) EMBRACE OF SHORT FORM VIDEO ADVERTISING

as-new-ambassador-10254936/ Douglas Van Praet

“As people screen out so much advertising, the challenge is to get past the brain’s screening

Facebook has been promoting the idea that marketers should experiment with shorter ad creative to drive value for a while- and now YouTube is joining them.

As of 2018, YouTube will be phasing out their unskippable 30 sec ad offering and renewing focus on unskippable shorter form ads of six seconds.

Social networks are forcing brands to move away from just sticking to their advert online, to creating adverts that embrace short form video storytelling.

The future might be long-form for entertainment content, but for adverts on social the 3 second audition will become the rule of thumb

TREND SIX: LONG FORM ENTERTAINING VIDEO CONTENT FINDING A HOME ON FACEBOOK

as-new-ambassador-10254936/ Douglas Van Praet

“As people screen out so much advertising, the challenge is to get past the brain’s screening

Facebook is taking on TV, hoping to transform how people consume video content on the platform. To rail against audience behaviour of scrolling through the News Feed, longer videos with higher completion rates will now be ranked higher in the News Feed and video will auto-play with sound.

This bid to get people used to watching videos for longer opens up the potential for Facebook to serve mid-roll ads, something it’s experimented with already. To aid this Facebook is also reportedly planning to create a video-only tab and to bring exclusive shows to the platform.

TREND SEVEN: THE BRAND AS A BROADCASTER

as-new-ambassador-10254936/ Douglas Van Praet

“As people screen out so much advertising, the challenge is to get past the brain’s screening

Facebook Live, Twitter and now Instagram are helping to drive the concept of the brand as a broadcaster.

Brands from Airbnb to GE have used these formats to livestream event content (like GE’s #Droneweek) or perform Q&As, while Adidas produces a weekly YouTube football show called Gameday Plus, which generates millions of views.

All brands now need is a relevant entertaining high-profile partnership/event or a topic that has a passionate audience to tap into in order to become a viable broadcaster in their own right.

as-new-ambassador-10254936/ Douglas Van Praet

“As people screen out so much advertising, the challenge is to get past the brain’s screening

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