Key trends from summer: What to take forward
You may want to hold onto summer a little longer, but with fall slowly approaching, it’s important to start planning ahead so that you’re well prepared for one of, if not THE biggest shopping seasons of the year. Before you know it, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the holidays will be here!
With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the trends this summer and what you can take forward into the last quarter of the year.
Short-form content
While YouTube and Instagram have increased their short form content from 60 seconds to 3 minutes, short-form content remains a trend this summer - with apps like Instagram Edits emerging for easier content creation.
Tip: If you’re able to, check out your individual video insights to see how viewers are watching your content. Are many dropping off and swiping away after a certain point? Are they watching shorter content all the way through? Reviewing these insights can help you figure out what resonates with your specific audience. Maybe they like content that’s short and quick, maybe they’ll watch longer content if it provides value like education. These stats can help you understand your audience better and plan ahead!
AI
We’d be lying if we said AI wasn’t important right now. From chatbots, to content creation, and much much more, it’s EVERYWHERE. And it’s not going away. The important thing is to know when to use AI and how to use it in your future marketing.
You may see lots of brands using it to create content like images, and we suggest being cautious while using AI for creation purposes. For example, I’ve seen a bunch of brands using AI to create designs for their products and the general consensus from their audience is not good. Why? Because these designs may and often do steal from actual artists and at other times, they’re just obvious, deceiving, and honestly not very good. So while you can use AI to punch up your images (like using AI tools on Canva), we suggest steering clear of using it for design elements on products.
AI can also be a great tool for generating ideas for social media content, giving you a guide for content outlines, and more. Just remember not to copy and paste - put your content in your OWN words.
Tapping into pop culture
Pop culture has certainly had its effects on marketing for a long while but I feel like we’re seeing it more and more, especially with social media. For example, the reality tv show Love Island was massive this summer, the sound bites and video clips and stills were everywhere. Brands across so many industries were tapping into it for their marketing, I talked about this some more in a previous blog. I don’t anticipate any slowing down. While you don’t have to tap into every trend (and you shouldn’t), we suggest keeping an eye out for trending pop culture memes and moments that you can tap into - especially during the holidays when things are a bit more fun and magical.
Gamification
Gaming is a huge industry and plenty of brands have tapped into gaming for their marketing. This summer, brands like Pepsi and Circle K continue to use gaming in their marketing efforts. Circle K has brought back their Rock, Paper, Scissors Game, which allows users to play Rock, Paper, Scissors against AI to win prizes like free or BOGO Frosters, energy drinks, chips, and more. Pepsi, on the other hand, has brought back their promotions that feature codes on the caps but this time with a gaming element. The Pepsi Lotto Contest allows you to enter a code and then scratch a lotto card, prizes include instant cash, coupons for free Pepsi, and more.
I’ve also seen brands like Maybelline and MAC Cosmetics give scratch tickets at pop-up events that were tied to prizes like free products and branded swag.
If you want to add a gaming element to your marketing, scratch tickets (IRL or virtual) could be fun and may be easy to incorporate into your campaigns.
Want more tips for success this year? Check out our last blog, Planning for end of year success: Your guide to a high-impact marketing strategy