A new year doesn’t officially begin without a new set of predictions, so let’s not waste any time!
Mobile Will Officially Take The Lead.
With endless app production and Google’s phasing-out of non mobile-optimised sites, Mobile’s strong presence in the digital sphere should come as no surprise to anyone.
However, Mobile’s rise to power is expected to take a historical step and completely dominate desktop in 2016.
This prediction is supported by statements made in a Google Webmaster Hangout Q&A back in August 2015, where it was revealed that Google will support mobile-only sites with no desktop version required. This is a stark contrast to Google’s exclusion of sites without mobile capabilities from their SEO criteria.
If that’s not enough, consider the fact that Mobile has already become number one in 10 countries, including the US and Japan.
Ad Blocking Will Make Marketers Lift Their Game
A saviour for consumers and a demon for digital marketers, Ad blocking software continues to gain momentum we all delve further into the digital sphere.
In 2015, Ad Blocking grew by 41%, and cost publishers an estimated $22 billion (PageFair). It’s becoming clear that people are done with annoying, data-heavy digital ads and want them gone for good.
What does this mean for marketers? One possibility is that they find another way ‘in’ until the public finds out how to keep them out again. Likely as it may seem, we believe that this is not the direction marketers will end up going down. We believe they will opt for native advertising with a stronger emphasis on user experience.
Why? Because marketing standards have now lifted to a point where consumers expect much more from their favourite brands. More and more businesses have a social media presence and over 60% of people say that they’re open to changing their opinion of a business if it responds to negative feedback on social media (Sensis).
If Marketers don’t impress, they simply won’t be heard.
VR Marketing Will Begin Emerging
The OculusRift has just started accepting pre orders for their public VR Headset. Although Oculus aren’t the first company to release VR technology for everyday consumers, the OculusRift is the most highly anticipated VR headset to be released to date.
In September of 2015, Facebook released a video creation tool that allowed publishers to produce 360˚ videos to their pages. This step, combined with the push Facebook made to encourage users to use its video format for video uploads instead of other video hosting websites, could be the stepping stones to the future of VR advertising.
If the Rift gains traction and begins to become more popular, the marketers will naturally start looking for ways to become involved.
No matter what happens, we know for sure that 2016 should be a big and exciting year for both Marketers and Consumers alike.
