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How to build a strong digital marketing strategy that maximizes your campaign’s impact in an unstable 2022 – 7 examples of concepts to apply

Minio’s Digital specialists, Simona Fugaru and Răzvan Sarivan tell us their perspective on digital campaigns in 2022 and update the communication mixes with 7 fresh proposals.

 

The increasing diversity of new trends, platforms, formats, rapidly changing user consumption and industry competitiveness is a challenging process for any communications or marketing person. 

The current context comes with huge pressure on marketing and communication people, with budget adjustments, communication caution or project postponements. But the main focus remains on results and achieving objectives.

For an easier and more relevant choice, an impactful one, we come to your aid with recommendations of 7 concepts that should not be missing from your communication mix.

 

The user is increasingly selective online and their attention is just as hard as ever to grab. The user’s online content consumption habit has changed a lot lately, in the sense that they are much more attracted to content generated as organically as possible, non-ads, UGC, which has been amplified by the pandemic context and excessive marketing of previous years. 

A great example of a campaign that focuses on customer satisfaction and service quality is “A service company selling shoes” from Zappos. Zappos doesn’t sell shoes, clothing and accessories, Zappos sells services and incidentally sells something else, Zappos solves problems. Read more about Zappos’ strategy here.


The amount of advertising we are exposed to will increase, so will the number of products we can choose from and it can all get tiresome for the consumers. The trend is for brands to move towards developing integrated campaigns that deliver remarkable user experiences or try to create a more personal relationship with people. As Joel Rathelson says “We don’t choose brand A over brand B because A is better, but because we’re sure it’s good.” Consumers buy products they trust, the focus on efficiency and metrics is vital, but no longer enough. This trend is also validated by Rory Sutherland (in the book “Alchemy“): “Don’t put efficiency ahead of customer experience“.

 

What does cookieless era mean? It means, loosely translated, the absence of personalised user behaviour data. The direct effects of this change will be felt very strongly throughout the digital marketing industry and will completely change the way certain channel mixes are now used in campaigns, the most affected segment will be Ads. We estimate that the change will come from mid-2023 at the earliest, and by the end of the year when we run out of cookies.

The focus will shift towards collecting data directly from users, which cascades into the growth of other strategic digital marketing components such as email marketing or lead generation campaigns

Dstlery.com is one of the pioneers of behavioural targeting that uses artificial intelligence to track user behaviour without storing confidential data.

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It is no longer a secret that the influencer marketing industry has grown enormously in recent years, and the pandemic period has acted as a veritable incubator. 

This component is no longer just a must-have in any marketing strategy, but a channel in its own right in the media mix. Brands have quickly learned that they can approach new communities through the voice of an influencer. This was the missing piece of the puzzle in former communication approaches: real, human-centric, simple content, interaction and a sense of belonging.

Some examples of integrated campaigns with influencer marketing:

1. Moxy Hotels or Moxy Downtown Coming Out Party

2. Banca Transilvania

Source: Instagram Deliric

3. La Roche Posay

Source: Instagram Adela Popescu

We also have a tool recommendation that can be used in creating content for an influencer marketing campaign. This is Lalal.ai, a Social Media tool that works based on artificial intelligence. With Lalal.ai you can extract music or voice from any audio file, you can export only the sounds that are of interest and that can be used later in developing content for Social Media.

 

 

The benefits of integrating this component into campaign amplification are huge. Video formats are easy and simple to distribute, they capture users’ attention, search engines rank them at the top of results and provide visually triggered information

Among social media platforms, video content remains the most relevant, the TikTok network will continue to grow (especially on educational content), and businesses will have to take it more and more seriously. 

TikTok offers a lot of possibilities for content creators and attracts more and more users of all ages. The opportunity comes from the fact that the platform is still a new territory for brands, with many still reluctant to use the channel, and from the fact that it is probably the last platform (alongside YouTube) where creators can grow organically at a rapid pace, and since the option to upload videos up to 10 minutes long was introduced, more and more creators of valuable, even educational, content have started to emerge. There are already examples of brands successfully using TikTok, for example the Banca Transilvania quiz show with Bianca Adam (Tequila) and Silviu Faiar.


Live shopping is an approach to e-commerce that takes place in a live digital event and is directly addressed to the end consumer (Direct-to-Consumer). They watch a product presentation in real time, can ask questions or request information and buy the product in question with a single click.

Social shopping (or e-commerce on social networks) is estimated to be worth $1.2 trillion globally by 2025, according to an Accenture study, growing three times faster than traditional e-commerce. 

The year 2022 is an experiential one in this segment, with platforms working to integrate the check-out process as seamlessly as possible to the user’s advantage, including integrating the payment process without making the user leave the app, for the benefit of UX.

This represents a great opportunity for brands to adapt and develop their product page infrastructure and optimise their social media accounts. It greatly simplifies the process of buying a product.

What exactly is Metaverse? It represents interconnected digital universes where we can develop any kind of personality or avatar we want, using augmented or virtual reality technologies.

With the integration of these types of technologies into the Metaverse, their development will also increase greatly, so Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) will become increasingly complex and innovative. Some examples:

1. Heineken Decentraland virtual launch:

2. Gucci Garden Showcase:

NFTs in your 2022 strategy? There are brands in Romania that have executed integrated campaigns using this technology, Mirinda being just one of them.

In addition to technology and financial opportunity, NFTs also come with membership in a select group, and owning such an asset is a great networking opportunity. Anything can become an NFT, from music (we have the local example of Delia who released a single in this form), to photos or videos, drawings and animations, you name it. 

We’ve also found a few examples that show that more and more brands are starting to integrate NFT’s into their campaigns, regardless of industry:

1. Stella Artois “The Drop Artois

2. Acura creates a digital showroom in the Metaverse and a collection of NFT’s for a new car model.

3. NBA all-star VIP pass NFT, the NBA is launching an auction for NFTs dedicated to die-hard fans that offer numerous benefits and VIP access to games.

Digital collectibles are a new market for companies or a way to raise money for a good cause. They can go a long way to building loyalty and improving brand image, especially as stories can be told differently through NFT’s, supporting the reach of new audience segments,

 

Final Words

It’s going to be a complicated time socially and that’s why consumers will choose brands that they connect with on an experiential level, that understand their needs and are there for them.

Always start your communications strategy with the human in mind, focus on their needs, and your campaigns will succeed.

In 2022, technology and content creation are more dynamic than ever, so it’s really important to adjust our key messages to the right platforms, the right formats, the right people at the right time and stay agile.