We’re entering the third year of pandemic life, which has disrupted much of the business landscape. Now, change isn’t new to the marketing world, in fact, marketing professionals thrive during change. However, it’s important to understand what changes are coming to prepare.
We’ve compiled what is felt to be the top marketing trends for 2022.
- Shifting purpose to include more than just profits
- Companies will begin to shift the expectation of purpose to include more than just profits, incorporating partnerships with non-profit organizations and community outreach initiatives. By including the engagement of non-profits in marketing plans, the potential to grow business while assisting philanthropic missions in alignment with company core values is an excellent business strategy and can be leveraged in many media outlets engaging new audiences.
- More inclusive advertising
- The consumer population is diversifying and it’s imperative for brands to create advertising campaigns that speak to the entirety of the population, be it race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.
- The future of events will be hybrid
- Hybrid events are not a trend. A major shift in the entertainment and event planning world was felt when the pandemic forced closures, implemented social distancing requirements, and canceled in-person events.
As a workaround, virtual events arose and provided instant access to live events that could be “attended” from the comfort of living rooms. As the desire to gather again is growing hybrid events will become more important and should include technologies like AR and VR to create a more immersive experience for those consumers not ready to venture out just yet.
- Marketers will find alternatives to third-party cookies.
- Google recently announced yet another predicted death, that of the third-party cookie, but this will not happen until 2023. With that said, marketers have just a year to wean themselves from the use of 3P cookie-based targeting strategies. Think deployment of more sophisticated first-party use cases to optimize data and engagement.
The horizon looks intriguing and full of new challenges ready to be overcome. The important thing about marketing is that it's adaptable, its participants smart and the possibilities endless.