User-generated content is the new currency

#1 Marketing moves into a participatory age (ALS ice bucket challenge).

54% of Super Bowl ads had a hashtag in 2015. For the Super Bowl in 2015 it will be closer to 75%, with the majority of above-the-line marketing co-ordinating digital response via hashtags as the call to action.

#2 2015 will be the year user-generated content becomes marketing currency.

The huge growth in mobile broadband has led to an explosion of camera phones, catching and sharing content on a proliferation of social networks. Whilst this isn’t new, 2015 will be the year that marketers start to really harness user-generated content. The marketing currency of 2015 is not building likes/followers, it’s triggering/finding user-generated content that is effectively harnessed.

#3 The majority of brand websites become social hubs, featuring user-generated content and interactive social experiences in 2015.

This will reduce bounce rates and increase dwell time – a natural by-product of marketing in a social and participatory age where much of the traffic is coming from a proliferation of social and mobile channels.

#4 Physical retail outlets get in on the action in a big way and integrate video walls full of social content.

This is done by everything from fashion retailers to betting shops as user-generated content becomes a key part of convincing consumers to purchase.

#5 The majority of companies will experiment in 2015 with adverts across digital and physical channels that star the voices and content of consumers, not just brand generated content.

The rise of anonymous & the darker side of sharing

#6 The privacy of communications continues to dominate how social media is evolving. Snapchat, Kik and others took over the Campus in 2014, but in 2015 this spreads to demographics including post education young professionals, who migrate more and more to using social channels that give them more control over their content.

#7 The rise of anonymous networks proves just how important privacy is in an open social world. The mobile app Secret goes mainstream internationally as people experiment more and more with anonymous sharing. We want to share, but it’s not just privacy settings that matter, sometimes we want to share what we never want to own up to…

#8 Brands incorporate advertising designed to generate shareable/ephemeral content, daring brands win out. 2015 isn’t a time to ‘play it safe’.

Social networks – the changing of the guard

#9 The regularity that people are using Facebook has dropped in younger demographics and will start to impact the 22-35’s as people spend more time on other networks.

#10 As Facebook becomes an aggregator of content from multiple different apps/networks, its implicit value declines as a destination for users to be social.

In 2015 we will see it struggle to aggregate life information of users in a consumable format, balancing the real estate it has for ads and the content pressure on the newsfeed. The mass market breakthrough of wearables like the Apple Watch in 2015 and the growth of apps that run everything from our diets to our training programmes increases the content pressure on the Facebook newsfeed, decreasing its value as a place to connect with friends.

#11 In 2015 social apps and wearables will focus on niche areas of our life, such as exercise and diets, and continue to expand in number and adoption.

Brands start to take advantage of huge wealth of user-generated content that emanates from these apps (there are already 28m Nike+ branded photos on Instagram mainly from the Nike+ app).

#12 2015 is not all bad for Facebook.

The purchases of Instagram and Whatsapp prove to be genius moves in 2015. Whatsapp outstrips Facebook in daily active users, and in the video battle, Instagram Hyperlapse trumps Vine and takes a big chunk out of YouTube. Brands that bet on experimenting with Instagram win big in 2015.

#13 Facebook tries to buy Tinder.

Why wouldn’t it?… Facebook needs the youth market and this is one of the most sure-fire ways to get it. Integrated status changes and Tinder could bring another realm to dating, particularly as the social aggregation features of Facebook would give you a much broader glimpse into someone’s life to help find a match.

 

By Richard Jones, CEO at EngageSciences. 

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