Before I start making some wild claims about what the marketing landscape for 2016 is going to look like, I thought I’d do the sensible thing and take a long hard look at what those wannabe Nostradami were predicting for 2015 and see what flew and what flopped.
This time last year you couldn’t move for someone waxing lyrical about wearable tech. In 2015 we were all going to be wandering around smothered head to toe in smart-garms. From intelligent wigs, which changed colour according to our mood to smart watches, which would adorn every self-respecting wrist in the land. But take a long hard look at the person at the desk opposite you. Are they dripping with trend-setting rose-gold tech? Thought not.
So maybe wearables that we’d be willing to actually wear in 2016 will have to be a little more discreet. It might be a tad sci-fi to think that by this time next year we will have tech sewn in under our skin, but ‘digestible wearables’ (tech that diagnosis and treats our ailments from the inside) will most definitely be a thing.
There is one piece of tech that we are all still wearing with pride. Yes, even the guy opposite you. Not wearing in the traditional sense of course but most of us feel as naked without one as we would if we stepped out of the house without our pants. I’m talking, of course, about our phones. We pop out with them stuffed in our back pockets, jog round the park with them strapped to our arms and sleep with them firmly under our pillow. Smart phones are going nowhere fast and it doesn’t take a genius to predict that these little big screens are here to stay for the foreseeable future. They’re a firm fixture in all of our lives whether we like it or not and should therefore be front and centre of any campaign activity.
Virtual reality was mooted as a strong contender to the tech throne in early 2015 and anyone who has put a headset on can be in no doubt that VR is a solid game changer. Absorbing, immersive and downright mind-blowing, this is wearable tech that wears us, rather than us wearing it. VR is here and in 2016 it’s going to be virtually everywhere. We’ve always ached to get consumers to connect with our brands in meaningful ways. Now we can smother them in glorious three- dimensional 360 degree universes of our making. Creating content that consumes the consumer. The first brand forays into VR have been real eye-openers. Although obvious in hindsight, what better way to get someone to donate to a cause than actually have them walk in the recipients shoes? Or offer a punter a glimpse at the majesty of the Canadian woodland before signing them up to your out- ward-bound adventure holiday? I can’t wait to see, feel and hear where virtual reality will take us next.
Veering away from the virtual for a moment and on to the physical, many mystics predicted the rise of home 3D printing in 2015. And although there have been furtive steps in that direction, I haven’t found myself printing my own Ray Bans recently, although I did put a 3D printing pen on my Christmas list. But maybe that was never the point. Who could fail to be touched by those films of youngsters receiving a printed prosthetic? And on an industrial scale, being able to print a home or a heart valve is just downright awesome. But while this form of manufacturing will affect many lives, as far as every home having one, I’d give it a couple of years yet.
After the ‘big data’ fanfare of 2015, will 2016 be the year that those big data boffins finally confess that this is the same data that real marketers have been chewing over since, well, direct marketing was conceived? Big data was less of a prediction and more of a pronouncement. Data is data is data. Whatever size it comes in. Ignore it at your peril but it certainly wasn’t news last year and it isn’t news now. Data is people. What they do, think, buy and ignore. So let’s continue to study them and let that study influence our insights but data shouldn’t lead the way. You see, data in its rawest form is cold. And what we all want – all we have ever wanted – is to be wrapped up in the warmth of a real story.
And storytelling is a trend that we have all been harping on about for a while now and as we’ve got better at spinning those tender yarns, 2015 saw the rise of the ‘emoti-ad’. Yes, ‘Throw like a girl’ was sublime and produced a fair few imitators all trying to tug at our heartstrings but what of those other emotions? Anger? Fear? Joy? I hope 2016 – a year that for many has never looked so threatening – is one where brands stop turning on our waterworks and give our ribs a tickle instead.
Simon Attwater is executive creative director at DigitasLBi MENA
