From content marketing to 5G: digital trends for 2019

During 2018, Google announced numerous significant changes; many of which, are going to be deployed in 2019. One of those which is launching the Google Marketing Platform. This has seen AdWords renamed to Ads, as well as the tighter integration of Doubleclick ad platform and analysis tools like Google Analytics, Data Studio, and AB testing.

Social media

Ofcom’s Communications Market Review 2018 revealed interesting data taken from 2016-2018. Let's take a look at the power swing between Facebook and Instagram as an example:

Facebook has seen stagnant or often declining usage across most age groups, except the older (55+ age group) which has now become the biggest group of users.

Instagram, on the other hand, has seen an increase across all demographics with the largest, the 25 to 34 age group followed by 18 to 24.

This shows us how important Instagram has become, for example; Facebook ad spend grew 40% year over year in Q2 2018 whereas that of ad Instagram jumped a massive 177 per cent. This doesn’t mean we should start looking beyond Facebook, with the messenger becoming ever more important. Companies like Nike have cottoned on to this and have one of the most user-friendly applications around. With 1.3 billion people using the chat every month, it is not something to be ignored as a marketing tool.

Meanwhile, huge advances are being made in Neuro Linguistic Programming, permeating the realms of chatbots and this will be an area to watch well beyond 2019. There will also be an increased growth in audio in 2019 through machine learning. Given that nearly 50% of all searches will be made through voice search by 2020, brands should plan on using AI to be more creative in communicating with consumers, via audio and voice-activated creative formats.

Content marketing

2019 is set to bring with it a more strategic approach to content marketing. We have already seen many businesses with a holistic content marketing strategy to support audience engagement and commercial goals, and there is every reason to expect this trend to continue.

What we will likely see is more focus on quality content which better emulates user behaviours. As more investment pours in during 2019, expect to see new talent and resource generating engaging content.

GDPR

2019 is already being heralded as a year of radical change and challenges. The two areas that will have a significant effect on this are GDPR and the increased use of AI in digital.

GDPR legislation has reduced the use of ‘cookies’ which has damaged ad revenue streams.

However, the legalisation has enforced creativity. There is less programmatic inventory available which has pushed prices up and made higher quality sites and ad formats more appealing. Creativity, not conformity, will be the biggest differentiating factor in who successfully monetises their inventory or campaigns in 2019.

As of 2018, there are still around 1,000 U.S. news sites that are not available in Europe, because they don’t care enough about data security to make GDPR a priority. What we mustn’t forget about is why GDPR was developed. Its aims are for customers to be better informed; have decision making power in their own hands and choose which companies handle their data. The transparency that GDPR brings will mean that in 2019, those companies who don’t comply and continue to disregard their users' privacy will end up hitting the headlines - for all the wrong reasons!

5G

5G 5G blah blah! We’ve been hearing about it for years and yesterday I actually found myself, briefly, in the archaic and scary realm of 3G. So why care now? Well, in a nutshell, it’s here. 2018 saw a number of deployments from companies like Qualcomm, Intel, Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung and Huawei all moving up a quarter of a G. We are also seeing new companies like Mimosa Networks making it feasible to roll 5G out to both rural and urban locations, paving the way for the larger companies to start offering innovative, faster, newer and outright cooler services for mobile users. It’s an exciting time for 5G and mobile alike. 2019 will see 5G finding its way into the upper corner of our mobile devices (unless you have an iPhone, of course, but that’s another topic).

Here’s to a successful, innovative, creative and profitable 2019 to all.

Jenny Stanley, managing director, Appetite Creative