If you’re in the advertising or marketing industry, you’ve likely noticed a large shift in the way products are marketed. Consumer engagement has moved away from traditional TV commercials to new digital and experiential methods of advertising. In today’s blog post, we explore emerging technologies and strategies that brands and marketers should consider utilizing to expand their customer base. Whether your brand is struggling with the transition from traditional TV or you’re simply interested in other tactics to reach your customers, read along and let us know what you think.
Twitch, a video-game streaming service, boasts over 100 million monthly users.
Twitch – If you’ve never heard of Twitch and have a customer base with a large segment of millennial males, you may want to stop multitasking and read along carefully. According to their website, “Twitch reaches half of millennial males in America.” If that’s not enough, “nearly half of Twitch users spend 20+ hours a week on Twitch.” Now that we have your attention, you may be wondering: What’s Twitch??? Twitch began as an online gaming site where customers watched their favorite social media influencers play video games. Twitch has since grown into much more by building digital communities and hosting events. You may be thinking this is only for hardcore gamers and not really your target customer, but we encourage you to check out Twitch and explore for yourself. At any time throughout the day, there are hundreds of thousands of people viewing games.
An artist's rendering of the future of Virtual Reality shopping.
Virtual and Augmented Reality – First, let’s make sure we’re all clear on the difference. Virtual reality creates a new world for customers with products like the Oculus Rift, while Augmented Reality augments your current world with new sounds, graphics, etc. Although this may sound like cutting edge technology that won’t be widely available for a couple of years, did you happen to hear about the Pokémon craze? When Pokémon Go released their characters in cities around the world, they introduced the world to the power of augmented reality. With estimates of 10-20 million active users in the U.S., engagement was through the roof. Although this technology may not make sense for every brand and there is no secret formula for guaranteed success, you should consider the use of VR/AR as options as you think about your long-term brand strategy. We encourage you to take a proactive approach with this emerging technology as it will find its way into your living room before you know it.
An example of how Augmented Reality is being used to promote businesses.
Video – Although not a new technology, online video viewing has skyrocketed recently. From Buzzfeed’s Tasty videos to Facebook’s increasing reliance upon streaming (estimates state Facebook will be almost all video within the next 5 years), it’s more important now than ever for brands to understand how video can be used to make a powerful impression on customers. If you haven’t produced any video content for your brand, now is the time to hop on board. Video has been used to describe services, highlight a new product, showcase an event and launch a new campaign among many other uses. With video en route to dominate online engagement, find the best way to use video for expressing your brand and go shoot!
Video allows for brand-building strategies to remain consistent across platforms and devices.
Responding in Real Time – An aspect of their engagement strategy that all brands can improve on is reaction and response in real time. While yesterday’s customers would wait for 15 minutes in a lunch line, the next generation won’t wait 15 seconds to complete their online food order before switching to a new site. So if your brand gets mentioned spontaneously or has the opportunity to capitalize on an event in popular culture, reacting in an authentic manner can help brands capitalize on unforeseen (and did we mention free) opportunities. You’ve been given the gift of reaching millions when your brand is already top of mind. Don’t miss your chance - you have at least a couple minutes.
Real-time responses and reactions from brands improve consumer engagement & connections.
Have you tried any of these tactics? Do you have other strategies for success in our changing marketing industry? Let us know what you think or comment below. We’d love to hear from you!