The document outlines digital marketing trends for 2021, emphasizing the importance of customer-centric strategies, empathy in marketing, and the rise of social advocacy. It highlights significant shifts in how brands engage with consumers, including the adoption of AI-powered marketing and personalized approaches. Notable digital campaigns from 2020 illustrate innovative brand storytelling and community engagement efforts.

1. Digital Trends
14th December, 2020

2. Background
Digital Trends
This document records the latest
digital trends that both brands and
consumers are currently engaging.
Below is the layout,
● Quotes from Marketing Experts
● Predicted Marketing Trends in
2021
● Notable Digital Campaigns in
2020

3. Sources for this report are:
● Trendhunter
● Twitter
● GetDayTrends
● BrandPoint.com

4. Quotes from Marketing
Experts

5. Marketing Trends in 2021
“Be flexible” “Expect the unexpected”
In 2020, these phrases took a whole new
meaning.
The events of this year has definitely tested
the limits for us as key players in the
marketing and advertising industry. However, it
is possible to step into 2021 with a more solid
plan for the brands and agencies as a whole.
The next few slides show the tips and insights
from top marketing experts, regarding
marketing trends in 2021.

6. Customer-centric Marketing
Val Geisler - Fix My Churn
Customer-centric marketing - Find out
what matters to them. Then create solutions
to their problems. “Center them in your brand
and you’ll have a customer not just for 2021
but for years and years to come”.
Josh Braaten - Brandata
Marketing leaders will want to reassess their
understanding of their customers through 1:1
feedback, user testing and surveys to gauge
whether changes in behavior are temporary
or permanent”.

7. Customer Experience & Empathy Marketing
Joshua Sewell - Irregular Choice
2021 will be a time to really focus on customers and
make sure e-commerce site, customer service and
in-store experiences are at the highest level. Key
marketing trend in 2021 will be providing a seamless
customer experience.
Sarah Panus - Kindred Speak
In 2021, brands have a real opportunity to let
empathy drive their brand storytelling efforts. Using
empathy filters is the fastest way to connect
heart-to-heart, and mind-to-mind with your audience.
With so much online competition vying for your
audience's’ attention, brands will invest more in
growing their internal and external brand storytelling
teams in 2021.

8. Social Advocacy & Audience Targeting
Emily McGuire - Flourish & Grit
In 2021, we’ll be seeing more social advocacy. More
brands being aware that their participation in their
community matters to customers. This will show in
their campaigns, how they promote the hard work
their employees do and in the causes and
organizations they align their brand with.
Steve Lubahn - FUN.com
Audience targeting will be a key trend in 2021.
Brands can no longer can you do mass messaging
and expect all prospects to respond. Developing
customer personas and target audiences are
essential skills for today’s marketer.

9. AI-Powered Copywriting & Personalized Marketing
Victoria Peppiatt - Phrasee
Trailblazing marketers have already lain the
groundwork in showing the commercial benefits of
using AI-Powered Copywriting to generate sensitive
messaging at scale, delivering more revenue and a
greater level of control.
Mandy Vogt - Gravity Software
Personalized marketing will be important to replace
that face-to-face value that many businesses have
now lost. There will be more video marketing,
particularly when communicating to potential buyers.
This will also be a differentiator among competition
and companies that can build relationships and stay
connected “virtually” to their audience will be very
important.

10. Predicted Marketing Trends in
2021

11. Inclusivity & Social Advocacy
By the day younger audiences and marginalized groups,
want to see a more optimistic depiction of equality and
representation in the content they consume and the
brands they purchase from. A good example of this was
during the #EndSARS movement, where the younger
demographic, were ready to cancel brands that didn’t
support the movement.
In 2021, digital marketing efforts (content for your imagery
and videos, the topics discussed in social media and
blogs, or even the line of products offered) will be
adopting inclusivity and social advocacy as a means of
reaching key target audience.
Cultural shift is already affecting purchasing behaviour:
41% of shoppers “have shifted… their business away
from a retailer that does not reflect how important
[identity and diversity] is to them.

12. Ad Spend Targeting Shoppers
The pandemic-driven spike in ecommerce, and a related
impact on advertising budget allocations, are both
projected to continue. As Amazon, Walmart and other
players have attracted more shoppers, they’ve also
grown their ad sale businesses. According to eMarketer,
advertising on ecommerce platforms jumped 39% in 2020
and will grow another 30% in 2021, capturing 13% of total
U.S. digital ad spend.
According to an April study from Catalyst and Kantar,
advertisers believe leading ecommerce sites provide
better measurability of ad ROI than many other digital ad
types, including social media ads. Additionally,
ecommerce sites know a lot about their customers, which
is key to ad targeting without reliance on third-party
cookies.

13. Brand to Brand Collaboration
Marketers will put a renewed focus on celebrity
collaborations and company-to-company
partnerships, such as Adidas’ collaborations with
Lego and Allbirds. Unexpected partnerships
between corporate brands capture media attention,
generate social buzz and allow for cross marketing to
customer bases—without celebrity endorsement
fees, all of which plays well in an era of
hard-to-capture consumer attention and tightened
budgets.

14. Ad Blockers
With 27% of internet users expected to use ad
blockers in 2021, many marketers are having their
primary stream of traffic automatically cut off at the
source, including PPC campaigns.
For brands whose ads do fall victim to ad blockers,
the best strategy is to adapt. Don’t waste time trying
to convince potential customers to change their own
preferences. Re-adjust existing advertising budget to
suit other, more fruitful campaigns, like influencer
marketing or sponsored content.
Younger audiences don’t respond well to display ads
anyway, but they do respond well to influencer
marketing, so making the switch is advisable in any
situation.

15. Customer Segmentation
customer segmentation is another trend that’s not
new but rather newly popular. The idea is simple:
instead of a small number of large marketing
campaigns targeting general audiences, it’s
better to have a large number of small marketing
campaigns targeting specific audiences.
Customer segmentation means grouping your
target audience by certain traits or behaviors,
such as demographics or shopping habits.
This allows brands to more accurately tailor their
content to suit their customer’s preferences;

16. Micro -Influencers
Micro Influencers: as opposed to
premier influencers, micro influencers
are more like average people who have
a larger-than-average social media
follower. If you attract enough of them,
typically through social media contests
and giveaways, you can achieve the
same numbers as top-level influencers
at a fraction of the cost and effort.

17. Local SEO
In a way, local SEO is even more powerful than
broad SEO—people searching for a specific type of
business with their geographic location have more
intent to purchase, so it’s easier to convert them.
Brands have to get verified by Google. This helps
them rank higher in Google SERPS, and also gives
the chance to offer additional information about
your company to online searchers.
Additionally, you want to incorporate local keywords
prominently into your SEO strategy. Obviously,
prioritize the name of your city or town as a top
keyword, but you can go the extra mile by also
incorporating related keywords. If your location has
a famous landmark or quirky claim-to-fame,
mention it once or twice.

18. Notable Digital Campaigns in
2020

19. Facebook - Super Bowl Ad
Facebook Released Its First-Ever
Super Bowl Ad, ‘MoreTogether’
Promoted Rocky Balboa And The
Groups Feature
Created with Wieden + Kennedy,
Sylvester Stallone and Chris Rock
“rocked” the platform using the
Groups feature.

20. Volkswagen - My Favorite Things
Volkswagen India as for
International Women’s Day.
This ad shows a Race-car Driver
drifting the car, performing
adrenaline and outrageous donuts
on the asphalt track. Stepping out,
revealing while removing their
helmet, the driver turns out to be a
young lady, 21 year old Shivani
Pruthvi and she’s an NCC cadet, a
medical student and a professional
race driver.

21. IKEA - Your House has Something to Tell You
IKEA Encourages People to
#StayHome
After the COVID-19 outbreak, IKEA
created a campaign around the
#StayHome message.
The brand payed tribute to homes,
they demonstrated that home is the
place that always there with many
memories and feelings for us, and
“it will be here, no matter what.

22. Hallmark - Mother’s Day
In Hallmark’s Mother’s Day video,
we see a short story of a girl with
down syndrome and how her mom
supports her in all her steps. A
perfect scene which we can find
ourselves in. Mothers are always
there for their children and support
them no matter what. Unconditional
love!

23. Dove - Dad On
For Father’s Day, Dove reminds us
that our dads are anywhere we look
at while they are teaching,
innovating, holding down the home
front and the frontlines with their
Father’s Day campaign. Sometimes,
they are our friends to have fun, and
sometimes they embrace us no
matter what.
In addition, Dove is supporting
families with essential donations
and at-home parenting resources
with their Father’s Day ad campaign.

24. Heineken - Back to the Bars
Heineken announced that the bars
are re-opening and you can sip
your Heineken at the bars now.
However, they also remind us that
we all should still be drinking safely.
Because this is the new normal
after COVID-19 outbreak. No more
spoilers, here is the video:

25. Thank You