Many of us are looking forward to the end of 2020, which is ingrained in our memory a year full of crises and constant change. The forecasts for 2021 in the media, advertising and marketing are presented by Jakub Bugieda, Senior Communications Planner and Magdalena Prucnal, Junior Communications Planner from the Spark Foundry media agency.
Event of the year
Undoubtedly, the event of the year that has affected all sectors of the economy and people around the globe is the COVID-19 pandemic, while at the same time becoming a major topic of the media.
In turn, the change of Nielsen’s people meter panel was a key event for the television market. On June 1, they enlarged the panel by 540 farms (currently 2,540 in total), and by the end of 2020, they want to reach the level of 3,500 farms.
In addition, in mid-July, Polsat, after obtaining the consent of the President of the Office of Competition Protection (UOKiK) took over the Interia Group from Bauer Media Group. The Polsat Group has made a strategic investment in Internet services in the growing online market”.
Success of the year
Video conferencing applications, which gained in a rapid pace of growth of users, turned out to be a success during the pandemic. Among them, the following applications gained the highest popularity: Microsoft Teams, which reports up to 115 million active users per day, and half a year ago there were about 75 million of them. Zoom from 10 million users in December 2019 now exceeds 300 million. Google has seen a 30-fold increase since January and now more than 100 million people use in Meet on a daily basis, according to “The Verge”.
Failure / disappointment / crisis of the year
Fashion blogger Jessica Mercedes suffered a huge image crisis in 2020. In December 2018, she founded her own clothing brand Veclaim, which gained great popularity at a frantic pace. However, in 2020 she encountered a fire of criticism after it came to light that her clothes are not 100% produced in Poland despite such a declaration on her part. A large part of the customers felt cheated when it was discovered that T-shirts come from Fruit of the Loom, which sews its clothes in many countries, however Poland is not on this list. A statement on social media made by the blogger herself, which was perceived as an incompetent admission of the mistake only added fuel to the fire.
The Apart brand and its latest Christmas campaign can also qualify for disappointment of the year. The ad started to break popularity records on the Internet at a very fast pace. Unfortunately, not as an original brand-name ad, but as its parody made by Comedy Club. The camera ad showed beauty and splendor in a very pompous and unnatural way, did not go unnoticed by the audience. It can be considered that the brand did not notice that the world around us changed greatly, and so did the attitude of consumers.
Another disappointment of the media industry is the inept combination of exciting posts on important social issues such as the Women’s Strike with product placement and encouragement to buy, as we have seen in recent weeks – for example the post of Klaudia El Dursi or Fitbadurka. Such an action is far from today’s standards, in which users are very aware of the problems of the current world and seek truth, transparency and expect more from brands than just a discount code.
Premiere, novelty of the year
The premiere of Facebook Dating in Poland! The application is to make it easier to find love or meet new people. Facebook shows us the people who match us based on posts, pages and the events that we like. As a result, the algorithms should be more accurate.
Modivo – an online store opened its first brick and mortar store in Warsaw. The brand is part of e-shoe, that is why the brick-and-mortar store was created in the same concept. The store includes tablets for placing orders and browsing the offer. In addition, along with dummies there are multimedia screens located all over the store and customers have the possibility to order clothes directly from the fitting room.
Service / campaign / project of the year
The campaign of the year, but really consistently and well-run project is “Żabka – Mały Wielki Sklep [Żabka – Little Big Shop]. The actions were noticed and appreciated by the jury of the Effie Awards 2020 competition by awarding gold in the Long-Term Marketing Excellence category. What is more, Żabka also won the prestigious Grand Prix of this competition, thus becoming a model of a well-run business.
Trend of the year
Increase in CSR activities. Brands are more and more willing to express themselves and work on socially important topics. Starting with mBank, Kubota or Green Caffe Nero supporting the Women’s Strike or help for medics and hospitals during the pandemic shown by, among others, Blik in the “Zastrzyk wsparcia” [Injection of support campaign or the donation of the amount of PLN 4.5 million by Żabka chain of stores. More and more brands understand that consumers as conscious recipients want to support companies that share their views.
Another trend, results from the report “2020 Pandemic and the QR Code Economy”. This refers to the use of QR codes in the WeChat communicator, which increased by 25.86%. compared to the same period in the previous year. From January 23 to May 6, i.e. during the period of the biggest coronavirus infection, institutions, companies and individual users used QR codes in WeChat over 140 billion times!
Another trend in 2020 is the increase in podcasts. During the ongoing pandemic, more and more consumers started to reach for podcasts to deepen their knowledge, inspire or meditate. Spotify observed an increase of 300% in the first half of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.
Forecast for 2021
The year 2021 will undoubtedly be a year of great challenges and, at the same time, of overcoming new barriers.
Behavioural economics will be necessary to better understand the consumer and the mechanisms of his purchasing decisions. This notion appears more and more often in business conversations and communication planning. And rightly so!
In addition, creating a better shopping experience with customers, which CCC is already working on, for example, with its delivery within 60 minutes of ordering. It is setting new standards and challenging the whole business.
Most probably the trends in 2020 such as the growth of users of video conferencing applications, podcasting or the use of QR codes will continue to be strongly visible in 2021.
