The year 2012 saw revolutions, political elections, art, and
natural disasters that rocked the world, sending ripples across our interlinked
economies and societies. We don’t expect anything less from 2013, the first
year since 1987 to have four unique numbers in its sequence. While the
integration of traditional and digital marketing enjoyed a phenomenal boost
last year, it will only continue to gain leverage in the market place and in
the hearts and minds of consumers. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter
are the perfect embodiment of this beautiful creation. We expect to see
businesses, particularly top brands, continue to push their presence across the
social media landscape.
In addition to the growth of the already giant social media
scene, Amazon will continue its domination of the e-commerce market. And, they’ll
be offering a few more things you may or may not have expected from them: an
app lover’s store, a genuine Amazon tablet competitive with the top brands, a
bulked up advertising platform, video streaming services, and…what’s that? Is it
a bird? Is it a plane? NO! It’s an Amazon cloud computing platform. How they
manage to juggle all of these new services will be interesting to see.
Here is another pinteresting
development also worth mentioning for the coming months of 2013: Pin for the
Win. Pinterest is quickly gaining as much popularity and mentions as Instagram.
Will this pin-happy service be purchased by one of the social media giants?
Does Facebook have them in their sights? Only time will tell.
The final trend to keep an eye on for the 2013 marketing world is something called, "native advertising." Ads "go native" by adopting the voice, format, and style of the specific platforms in which they appear. In other words, it is advertising that exists under the radar. Viewers no longer consider them to be an intrusion upon their web surfing experience because the ads do not disrupt the flow of viewing, nor do they scream "deals!" or "specials!" from the sidebars. This type of content shift will not be easy, but it will be integral to the success of smaller brands trying to compete with larger, well-established companies.
At Versa Creative Group, we look forward to what's in store for the world of social media marketing and digital advertising in the year 2013. And, as always, we welcome any comments or opinions here or on our Facebook page.