Piaras Kelly PR – Public Relations in Ireland

I recently contributed to an article in the Irish Times about media and marketing predictions for 2012. Here are some of my other thoughts on what to look out for during the year ahead.

1. Social TV – Social TV is an interesting trend to watch in 2012. Apple is rumoured to be developing an interactive TV; Microsoft has already been leading the way in terms of redefining how we experience and interact with television by incorporating voice and motion controls, as well as incorporating a variety of content (disclosure: client); and new services like Zeebox have also sprung up, allowing users to interact with complimentary content for whatever show they are watching at the time. The immediate opportunity is the incorporation of social media to increase viewer engagement. A recent study by Nielsen has highlighted the simultaneous usage of devices while watching television. You only have to log onto Twitter and watch the commentary around live shows or sports broadcasts to highlight this. There’s a number of opportunities here. The likes of the WWE have begun to try to push hashtags as part of their regular TV show in order to get topics to trend and pull in viewers. Services like Zeebox show you what your friends are watching, gives you access to additional content about the show you’re watching and also lets you download relevant content. Despite the multitude of content available, seeds will be sown in 2012 that will look to push the crowd to specific content and get them more engaged with it.

2. Erosion of the Middle Ground – With consumer spending tightening, the trend of brands getting caught in the middle between luxury and value will continue as shoppers either trade down or hold out for status purchases. From a grocery perspective, the huge growth in Own Brand is evidence on the value side of the spectrum. Retailers have invested heavily in Own Brand ranges and consumers are well over the stigma of buying these items, not only due to the savings but also because they find the taste is the same if not better. On the other side of the fence, you only have to look at the likes of Apple’s continued success at charging a premium for their products and consumers are only happy to fork out their hard earned cash. The challenge for brands that find themselves caught in the middle is to try and establish a point of difference fast.

3. Communicating Value – Building on the previous trend, there has been a noticeable shift in the second half of the year as to how companies are communicating value, essentially redrawing the battlelines on their own ground. Rounded price points appeal to consumers as they are able to calculate their spend easily whilst shopping. Good positioning in store combined with rounded pricing is an excellent way to drive impulse purchases. Some companies have taken this a step further and are reshaping their offer based on a price point which will appeal to consumers. Coke’s recent introduction of a new bottle variant at a rounded price point is a good example of this. Instead of discounting, they’ve effectively reshaped their offer for what consumers are willing to pay.

4. Targeting emerging markets – While Irish consumers might be tight with cash at the moment, there’s a number of markets who aren’t like the Chinese. According to research, Chinese tourists spend as much as 8% of their discretionary income on foreign visits. Ironically despite the reputation for being able to pickup knock-off luxury goods in the likes of Bejing’s Silk Market, they place a huge emphasis on picking up real luxury goods whilst on foreign visits. Brown Thomas in Dublin recently revealed that the Chinese represent 1% of their annual sales and have adapted to ensure that they have Mandarin speakers in store and can also accept Chinese credit cards. Yet it is ironic that a recent survey showed that four out of five hotels in Ireland do not cater for non English speaking tourists on their websites. From an Irish tourism perspective, we have to reengineer our offer to specific segments.

5. Online data analysis – Every two days now we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003, according to Google’s Eric Schmidt. There is a huge amount of publicly available information being published by consumers in real time, which will prove to be a goldmine of information. Google claims that can predict flu outbreaks based on the rate of searches for specific terms. This is being exploited by firms like Recorded Future, which uses information to predict future events. According to a recent feature in Wired UK, if you used their stock market predictions since 2009 you would have made an annual return of 56.69%. It highlights that online monitoring isn’t simply a service to identify potential issues, but can also be used to spot market opportunities and predict future behaviour.

6. Communicating Complex Information Simply – We’re living in an era of information overload where consumers are scanning headlines in newspapers or browsing through their Twitterstream. In order to grab their attention, organisations are having to rethink how they present information in an engaging fashion. The rise of infographics over the past year is a good example of this, whereby complex information is presented in a simple fashion visually. From a media perspective, it helps draw the reader’s attention to the page and will hopefully entice them to read other information around the infographic.

7. Waste – The shift to reduce the amount of packaging will continue, driven simultaneously from a CSR perspective as well as an effort to drive down costs. The likes of Aldo have accomplished this very nicely, where the shoebox also doubles as your carrier bag as the simple addition of a piece of string to the box, cutting out the need for a carrier bag.

8. Proof of Concept – There has been a trend in the Internet industry to develop a product off the back of a landing page, essentially establishing proof of concept before actually offering anything. Lots of companies are essentially just setting up landing pages which give an idea of what the service may be, registering interest on the pretense that you will be the first to get access to the service and then deciding whether to develop the product or not, even getting VC cash off the back of how many signups they have received. It’s certainly a trend other sectors will have to have noticed and will look to exploit in order to make investment decisions more cost effectively.