What were the biggest shifts you saw in digital in 2021?
The pandemic drove the growth of new app releases, showed us the resilience of digital natives within the e-com/food app space, altered our lifestyle and prompted businesses that were heavily reliant on brick-and-mortar environments to digitise their value proposition. It was at this point we were propelled towards the metaverse without even knowing it.
We saw significant app growth across the fintech, shopping and food delivery categories. With this we witnessed operational change across all industries, where a lot of companies understood the fact they had to provide the best possible digital experience for consumers due to the surrounding restrictions and concerns of the pandemic. Some restaurants, for example, where the USP is centred around their fine-dining experience, launched across food delivery apps.
We also saw a major shift in community and corporate operations. With meetings being held remotely, it still tends to be a permanent occurrence of our day-to-day now that we are again able to go to the office should we choose to. Operational automation became key as we found ourselves shorter on time throughout the pandemic, responding to new business challenges and needs. This also provoked a shift in lifestyle, with companies around the world-altering their flexible working policies.
The resilience shown by artists struck me the most. As galleries were closing their doors due to lockdown restrictions, NFT technology revolutionised the creative and financial industry by fusing the two and bringing forward a creative economy. The NFT movement gave power to artists, enabling them to create and showcase at will. It created a community that operates on a supportive system.
These changes in behaviour and business models somewhat solidify the position of what we can expect to see with the metaverse.
What will the most notable changes be in 2022?
NFTs have been around since 2015, but dominated the main conversation towards the end of 2021. I expect 2022, to be the year where NFTs will explode and NFT artists and brands will be challenged to be outstanding and original. We’re likely to see more growth due to regulations occurring globally. The film, art and luxury industries will adopt and start developing NFTs of their own. Web3-based social networking will be happening in the NFT space.
More brands will start to produce NFTs, where the exclusive digital asset will be redeemable by the consumer in the real world. This is something we’ve been helping brands with here at Boopin HQ by preparing our partners for what is to come with designing, producing and strategising the launch of digital assets. We are redefining the meaning of omnichannel experiences and measurement with market-leading attribution solutions.
Where are the biggest challenges this year, and how should clients overcome them?
Brands will need to work extremely hard to excite and delight consumers. With consumers shifting more than ever before to digital platforms, naturally ad clutter will also continue to increase whilst the growing data restrictions and privacy laws coming into play will have implications on ad relevance.
Brands need to cut through the clutter by providing rewarding and meaningful content and experiences.
We are helping our clients maintain their engagement and consideration levels through creative content strategies and leveraging exclusive data and tech partnerships to ensure we remain consumer-first.
What should clients do to make the most of the biggest opportunities?
Brands will need to think about their right to play in the metaverse and how accepting digital forms of payment may be a potential building block to this. Thought, however, is also required around how to mitigate the operational and financial risks.
Preparing your businesses as soon as possible around the impeding implications data privacy may have on digital measurement and attribution is also critical. We have invested in both top talent and technologies whilst developing and executing clear roadmaps, which will help our partners ensure they remain unscathed by these changes through advancements in technology and analytics. This is not something to be taken lightly and the implications will be severe if no action is taken.
What digital new year’s resolution should people make this year?
Re-evaluate your digital infrastructure. Understand where each element of your marketing and business operations sit within the maturity scale and strategise what you need to do in order to move along that scale. We have developed comprehensive maturity scales for our clients that look at the entire digital spectrum, from single customer view to attribution and more.
I’d encourage you to ask questions and don’t be afraid to have the conversation as it may provoke some innovative thinking. It can be intimidating and ambiguous at first, but as a business you need to consider the chance of facing the inevitable.
The last thing you’d want is to see your competition make advancements you should or could already have had in place.
