2017 will see the rise of personalisation. This will be with video, social media engagement, webpages and Interactive Videos. There is no doubt that personalisation is already in use and extremely popular, but in 2017 we will see this marketing technique get bigger and so much better. Personalisation is a marketing trend which has been around for years, I remember as a child being thrilled at the thought of my name appearing on toys, books, board games or clothing.
But taking that trend, and mixing it with the latest social media platforms and technologies, will take the customer experience to the next level. We'll also see the rise of social engagement working in harmony with television, animated video will play a bigger part in our working lives and Interactive video will start to become more mainstream.
Related Post: Virtual reality and the future of social media
1. Personalisation
Personalisation shows your audience they’re not just a number, you are able to connect with individuals by embedding their unique details into a video, email, campaign or webpage. If you are a Facebook user you would have come across plenty of personalised videos, Pizza Express, #ShakeTheTree campaign was extremely successful. 74% of consumers get frustrated with a website when content does not adapt to their preferences - Hubspot "True personalization of customer experience will stop being reserved for a select few and will need to become an operational principle for any marketer who wants to remain relevant in an increasingly fragmented and regulated environment." - Tamara Gruzbarg, senior director of analytics and research, Gilt.com
2. The rise of Social Engagement and Smart Television
2017 will see an increase of social media engagement and television, this trend has taken a while to catch on, but some television shows, my personal favourite The Last Leg, successfully use real time social media engagement, but I think we will see more television programming work in harmony with social media. Smart Television & Social Media Yes we already have Apps, allowing the viewer a greater experience, but these are only achievable on two separate devices, allowing Smart Television to become socially smarter, we will see live social media feeds appearing on our television screens, allowing the viewer to really engage with the programme and see what other people are thinking. 87% of consumers use a second screen device while watching TV. And 74% of 14- 17-year-olds use a combination of TV and smartphones. - CrowdyNews Real Time Chats More actors and television programmes will start engaging in social media real time chats, this allows the viewer to really engage with the programme and their favourite actors, ask questions and share stories. Popular show, The Walking Dead, topped the social media activity rank between August 2015 and June 2016: 435,000 tweets were sent on average per episode in the US alone. - CrowdyNews
3. Animated Video
Animated videos can maximize your customer reach, messaging is clearer and visuals make it exciting for the viewer. You can either hire a professional team or you can DIY. Using the DIY tools take away huge costs for businesses and individuals and allow everyone to create their own Animated Video. I’ve experimented with most of them and with a little bit of time and effort you can create your own cool and effective animated videos. PowToon, Wistia, GoAnimate and many others are all seriously disrupting this space with their online platforms. And let's face it, Walt Disney was onto something... PowToon have over 1 Million users who have created 1.9 Million PowToons 44% of video marketers primarily use animated explainer videos - wyzowl
4. Interactive Video
Corporations and brands are already using Interactive Video, in 2017 we will see the rise of cooler and more interactive video, as brands fight for their place in the rankings and to capture their audiences attention. Ecommerce brands already use Interactive video very successfully, and fans of Coldplay would have seen their supercool video, check it out here. The rise of interactive video will only get bigger and better as our imagination and technology continues to grow. Visual content is 40x more likely to be shared on social networks. - SlideShare Interactive video was extremely successful in 2013, with viewers watching the entire video reaching 70.0% in North America. - eMarkerter
5. Virtual Reality
This is already a super cool technology with existing functionality which is amazing, one of my favourite companies is www.3dentity.co.uk, who really incorporate the power of Virtual Reality, check out one of their VR Experiences here which showcases an Aylaa Exclusive property. The cool thing about this product is of course you can use your Virtual Reality glasses, but you can also explore this environment without them. So what more will Virtual Reality do? I think we will see the incorporation of social media within your VR world, this will include commenting, liking, sharing and even purchasing products all while in your Virtual Reality experience.
Google's Cardboard app has been downloaded up to 10 million times - Fool.com "Users seem to be embracing VR not to try to escape reality, but rather to make products and environments more real for them, so that they can save time and feel empowered to make well-informed decisions anytime, anywhere. That's why I believe the business focus on VR will be to make it even more widely applicable, accessible, easy to use, affordable and, ultimately, omnipresent." - Maya Christova Director 3DENTITY
