Advertising Trends in 2021 – What to Know!

Digital Trends 2021

Following up from our last blog that took a look at the ad industry as a whole in 2020, we’re going to be looking forward to seeing what trends and changes the industry may face as it evolves everyday. Find out what’s growing and what’s shrinking, what’s working and what isn’t. So let’s take a look at what the future holds so you can prepare yourself for the industry you’ll be graduating into and take advantage of what might await us!

Social Media

It comes to no surprise that social media has continued to grow across the globe, in fact it has grown at an average of 12.5% year over year! It’s not going anywhere and the advertising on these platforms is here to stay with it, but the tactics and strategies used are changing dramatically!

E-Commerce

E-Commerce is becoming an increasingly large industry as the world becomes more digital each day. Marketing online businesses has never been more important and the digital landscape is the top platform to advertise it on. In response to this, many social media platforms have added built-in shopping features that allow in-app purchases!

• Instagram recently introduced Shops
• Facebook Shops was launched in September of 2020
• TikTok partnered with Tee Spring that allows creators to sell merchandise directly on the app

It seems social media companies like Facebook and TikTok are starting to compete with rival E-Commerce platforms such as Shopify or Etsy, and in addition they may be using this opportunity to compete with one another. If you have  an online business or are thinking about doing on the side, it could be a great skill to have as E-Commerce businesses advertising needs are increasing each day! 

Platforms on the Rise

It’s been a while since we saw any big new social media platforms on the rise, but this year we saw the explosion of many. TikTok is now known across the world and is quickly growing to challenge all other social media platforms, their focus on individual content creation has proven the importance of engaging material! Reddit has been the quiet social media giant for as long as Facebook’s been around, but recent events have brought global wide attention to the app and it’s continuing to grow at an alarming rate. The list could go on but here is a few more growing social media platforms that are becoming increasingly relevant

• TikTok
• Houseparty
• Twitch
• Clubhouse
• Reddit

Ad Tech

As the world becomes more and more dependent on technology, we will see new advancements in the advertising field, as latest tech is applied to advertising strategy and creation. Here’s what happening with Ad Tech in 2021!

AR/VR

Augmented reality is growing exponentially  and is considered by many to be one of the biggest future technologies. Currently we are seeing advertisers taking advantage of it! One of it’s greatest features is allowing users to get an extremely in depth view and experience of a product without having to physically be there. You may think that a picture could do the same thing just as easily but you would be mistaken! Companies like Amazon have begun using augmented reality to add a “View in Your Room” feature, which allows users to see in real time how products will look inside their physical home to help them make a purchasing decision! It connects the product to the user in a direct and personal way that we have never seen before. Augmented reality is continuing to grow, so these strategies will continue to develop and be used all across the advertising industry.

Video

Video is becoming one of the most used forms of media for advertisers, as it’s becoming more and more aware that it is the best for creating engaging content which is vital for a successful ad. TikTok has proven this in their quick success as their entire platform is based on video sharing. Snapchat was an early innovator of this idea through their stories feature which has now been adopted by almost every other social media platform. Video is only going to continue to dominate the landscape and become a larger part of the advertising world. For years, video has been steadily rising as the dominant form of online content. So if you are interested in video, consider learning the ins and outs of it for advertising as you may find yourself acquiring some very valuable skills! 

Data Privacy

Data privacy has of course been a great ethical dilemma in the recent years, and 2021 is no different in this regard. As consumers begin to lose trust in their online experience with data monitoring and cookie gathering. Having reputability is vital for advertisements to work, so in response many of the tech companies have responded to the issues to try and regain consumer trust. It appears that in the future we may seen certain strategies eliminated completely. 

• In Janury of 2020 Google announced it would end third party cookies in Chrome by 2022, which will put them along with Safari and Firefox as they have already done this.
• Apple announced that they were ending the IDFA which came as a shock to many, as they double downed on their stance on consumer privacy. If you’re interested check out a blog we wrote about it here!

If this trend continues and more and more features are eliminated, advertisers will have to rethink their entire strategy as they can no longer rely on the advanced targeting features and surplus of data once provided to them. It means that advertising can take on a more classical approach in valuing the content over the strategy. 

Conclusion

Puting all these trends togethers paints a bigger picture of how the ad industry is changing. We’ve seen in social media how engaging content has propelled brands and businesses to new levels not seen before! It’s becoming understood that the creative message and the content behind the ad is deeply important for it to be successful. The new Ad Tech technologies are only supporting this trend through it’s advancement in video capturing and augmented reality applications. Ads will have to adapt to this as many of the current advertising strategies could be on their way out. Advertisers are going to have to create a more personalized approach to regain the consumer trust, build a relationship with them, and truly persuade them. It’s honestly a very exciting time for the ad industry, and we should all be looking forward to seeing how exactly the industry will continue to change!

Also here’s a fun fact about Ad Block! The estimated loss of revenue from the program is expected to increase to $12.12 billion in 2020

Sources

2021-Digital-Marketing-Trends—Falcon.io (2021)