Social Trends from 2014 by Eric Drumm, Account Supervisor, Social@Ogilvy

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Data, Ice Buckets and A Look At the Future B Y E R I C D R U M M ,

S O C I A L @ O G I LV Y

https://social.ogilvy.com/

SOCIAL TRENDS 2014 Data, Ice Buckets and A Look At the Future

IN A FEW DAYS IT WILL BE 2015. If Back to the Future II is to be believed, the Cubs are going to win the world series and we’re all gonna rock self lacing Nike Air Mags and shred around on bitchin’ hoverboards. Regretfully, I don’t think

we’re tracking to achieve those goals, but that doesn’t mean the future is bleak. In fact, for the social media industry, it’s as bright as the after burner on a nuclear powered Delorean.

In 2014 we saw everything from people dumping buckets of ice on themselves to get out of giving to charity to your mother learning how to use a hashtag. For brands, there may not have been earth shattering social content making it onto the Colbert Report, but the slow burn of social dissolving traditional advertising and media definitely increased by a few degrees.

Here are a few of the things we recognized and we see having some impact on 2015:



Snapchatisn’t just for kids anymore

IT TAKES QUITE A BIT OF GR AVEL in your guts to turn down $3 billion of Facebook money. However, Snapchat knows that they have something special on their hands. In just three years, over 700 million photos are being shared daily. That’s mind-boggling. The truly breathtaking part is that their users like seeing ads. 58% of college students would consider buying a product they received a coupon for via Snapchat. With an estimated only 1% of marketers taking advantage of the space, it’s pretty much a goldmine. While the younger set make up most of its user base, older demos are steadily adopting, which will impact what will come from the app in the future.



Social activationsfor you, me, grandma, etc.

IT’D BE HARD TO TALK ABOUT SOCIAL in 2014 without talking about the Ice Bucket Challenge. Opinions vary on its ethics and how successful it was, but I think the bigger point is that it was understandable social. Something like the Challenge was so simple and relatable, it’s potential participant audience was everybody. Literally everybody. Everyone hates disease, and (pretty much) everyone has the internet and a bucket of ice. So putting those things together created a message that had virtually no barrier of context to understand and enjoy. My mother would get it. My grandma would get it. The nomination angle was a built in sharing function that made it explode. Now that the dust has settled, I think it opened the door for more group based social activations, which in turn will force marketers to think about more than just the individual participant.



Google+ Rising

FOR ME PERSONALLY, Google+ is like the weird smelly kid you don’t want sitting at your lunch table. He’s there, and technically you are peers, but you irrationally don’t like him. I crack jokes about it all the time, saying that its B-team at best and is the Beta Max of social networks. However, looking at the numbers, I’m wrong. Very, very wrong. According to Google, the network as 300 million users a month. That’s nothing to sneeze at. Going into next year, it may be a good idea to start putting Google+ strategy into your pitch decks if they aren’t there already. As Google becomes more and more one stop shopping, it may start to take some attention real estate away from Facebook and Twitter. And putting down my haterade for a second, pictures really do look awesome on it.



MORE AND MORE IN 2014 we saw social networks shifting their functionality to be more story focused. Seemingly everything is moving towards a timeline view, displaying content chronologically so that it tells a narrative story. Your story. And sometimes it’s not your story but that’s fun and efficient too. Twitter has been nice enough to assemble World Cup and NFL content for us without us having to go look for it. The larger point is that the sites have done their homework in how we, the followers, like to consume content and they are bending their own framework to accommodate us.

Cool Story, Bro



Listenclose

Now fire up the Flux Capacitor because we’re going to the future! (As in two weeks from now when it’s actually 2015):

THIS WILL BE ON every year-end list you’re going to read, but that doesn’t make it untrue. More and more the moves a brand makes on social are informed by social listening. With the tools available to you, it seems like a no brainer to not include this into your strategy. Without it, you run the risk of delivering the wrong content to the wrong people, making your entire effort moot. And who wants to be moot? In fact, I think that you’ll be seeing more agencies creating a full time, always on resource to do their listening and analytics. Kind of like that Social Command Center that Social@Ogilvy has built in our New York office that is launching in 2015 :-) ☺



BR ACE YOURSELF. In 2014, wearables won’t just be for fitness fanatics and gadget nerds anymore. The iWatch and the bevy of rival products that are sure to come soon afterwards are upon us. This is going to be a behavior breaker for a lot of our everyday life. Taking a wearable into account when thinking about mobile strategy is going to have to be commonplace. What kind of content are you going to serve to people on their super cool Dick Tracy watches?

Looks good on you



Tweeting with your money

IT’S KIND OF A PAIN IN THE NECK when you see something awesome on social and you want to buy it, and have to go through a couple links and forms before your purchase is complete. #firstworldproblems, amirite? In 2015 more social networks will adopt BUY NOW buttons on promoted content that are linked to your money somehow so that you can make lots of rash and impulsive spending decisions (and hopefully some good ones, too.) With Apple Pay, Venmo and Snapcash already making a dent, it’s probably not that far away for Facebook and Twitter to jump in next. If you can buy something right then and there, it will change how we look at and value ads on social in a huge way.



SONY AND QUITE A FEW CELEBRITIES will tell you that if they learned one thing in 2014, its to secure your files. To most consumers, data security isn’t a big priority. But as we become more and willing to transmit sensitive data through our devices and social networks, it’s a growing concern. In 2015 I think people will be more willing to go the extra mile for security, possibly choosing one social network over another if one has better privacy and security. This will become even more true if we start doing one touch buying through social ads.

WHAT ARE YOUR

PREDICTIONS FOR

2015? LET’S US KNOW!

Private eyes hopefully are not watching you


Social Media

Social Trends from 2014 by Eric Drumm, Account Supervisor, Social@Ogilvy