2022 marketing strategy: What markers should know to set up their brand for success
[Singapore Edition]
As we’re crossing the second year mark of the pandemic, still chasing for that light at the end of the tunnel, 2021 has brought some much needed clarity and directional sense for marketers. It has been a sobering coming-to-terms with the realities of always-on uncertainty and industry game-changers that turn out to be déjà vus from the 1990s.
In this year’s January analysis, I am discussing some of the main developments of 2021 in the Singapore context and how they could help guide marketers in designing a winning marketing strategy for 2022.
Groundhog Day marketing
The rise of e-commerce should not have gone unnoticed by anyone in possession of a mobile phone. It took a while in Singapore, but by mid 2021, any brand looking for a way out of the Covid dip, jumped on the e-commerce train — one way or another.
In marketing terms, that led to a monthly Groundhog Day scenario. Following the role model of all e-commerce promotions, the big 11/11, every numbers combination on the calendar became a special promo day. And with the monthly Groundhog Days came a content marketing plan that elevated the tactical sales push to a marketing gold standard.
The result, an insatiable content demand and a booming content creators scene. Not even the scandal-ridden image media outlets tagged on to the scene could change that. If nothing else, marketers were simply too busy with the monthly turnaround to even notice. Unless, of course, they had to publish apology letters on their brand accounts.
Occupied with prepping for the next promo day comms while still juggling the ongoing promo day, creators are treated as deal delivery channels. In fact, this is not a new development. It has been the MO of brand marketing for years. What changed is the frequency and direct linkage to sales KPIs.
This led to a situation where some content creators promote different brands in parallel. Some launching multiple campaigns within the course of a week, just to promote a competitor brand the following week.
‘Spray & pray’ is only the awareness side of the e-commerce approach. Immediate conversion remains the holy grail and, here, sales targets have been brutal, particularly for brands that were previously not aligned to the churn of e-commerce.
Following the China model, the lost art of 24/7 infomercials re-emerged from the shadows of TV and barged into the lights of livestreams on socials and in-app. This is where brands and marketers separate the wheat from the chaff among influencers. Those that can sell $1mil in Gucci bags within an hour and those that cannot.
Building long term value
Looking at this development, it should be evident that the classic six-weeks campaign is about to lose its appeal for 2022 plans — which may not be a bad thing. It did not have much of a place pre-Covid anyways.
What is of concern, however, is the shrinking prominence of a long term content marketing strategies. In previous January analysis editions, I discussed the need for brands to become content publishers with the importance of building content IPs — be it fully owned or co-created — by means of transmedia storytelling.
Any long term planning, beyond a one year horizon, has always been a hard sell for marketers. IP development discussions with management traditionally end in “show us examples of brands that have done it before”. With the permanent 11/11s of the marketer’s toolkit, IPs have taken a back seat, even more so than they used to.
Something worth paying attention to is a sets of numbers coming from the big IP developments of the past decades. IPs that are paying off big time, now, 13 years after inception. This is content that is intrinsically interlinked with global pop-culture, defining an entire generation.
Of course, many will say, “but these are entertainment IPs, content produced by content brands. It is not going to move my brand’s inventory or bookings. It is not going to provide that Earnings-Per-Share boost on the next quarterly results report”.
In a volatile market where regular stock prices fluctuate near crypto swing dimensions, chasing the small wins just to stay afloat is the prime priority, which keeps everyone hyper-busy and distracted from the big picture.
These days, rare are the brand strategies — in the original sense of the word: “a plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim”. The Metaverse craze is synonymous to the ‘boost share price now, strategise later’ mentality. Many of the concept videos presented by brands still look much like a 1990s mix tape of Johnny Mnemonic and The Matrix.
Pulling back to 2021 Singapore, the metaverse and its Web 3.0 promise are still in a nascent stage, despite all the media buzz. SPH’s Own a Piece of the Metaverse event, selling NFTs for charity, displayed the boundaries of what is actually doable right now within the confines of regulatory and mass acceptance.
To contrast this with the approach of sports companies like Nike and Adidas that position themselves to challenge their own products’ value proposition instead. Particularly Adidas’ entrance is intriguing as it involved a collaboration of established digital artists and their communities.
Which brings us back to content creators who continue to be underestimated by many brands.
Creators think long term. They build their own IP. And they are really good at it. Simply because they have a stake in the game, it’s their personal future. It’s not a job that can be swapped for a new role at another company every two to three years.
This also puts the unleashed growth of TikTok into perspective. It is the forum for creators to hone their craft and develop that personal identity. Much like on YouTube before. The difference this time, it can be scaled faster and bigger than anything in the history of content before.
Creators culture is not just setting the meme trends, it is destined to be the driving force of global pop-culture. Those in the scene will argue that this is already the case. My frame of reference is defining global pop-culture on the scale and revenue volume as the likes of Disney do today.
Long form content drives public discourse
Previously, I argued the importance of ‘time spend’ and how it is a success indicator for the impact content can have on people.
‘Time spend’ is the concept that became the engine behind long form interview content. Shows like the Joe Rogan podcast are able to capture several hours of listeners’ time and ignite instant online discussions in a scale and speed that even big tech grapples to keep up with.
In Singapore, we began to see a similar trend where a larger national conversation spawned off from long form content. The NOC saga or the COP hearings resulted in hours of interview content, each episode being dissected extensively by the public. People organised ‘watch parties’ at home to discuss and comment with their family and friends on every twist and angle of the story. Quite a refreshing new outcome for an online conversation environment that tends to be dominated by the internet mob to sweep across socials and forums with a one-sided narrative.
Not to say that there was a shortage of polarising online mob activity in 2021. In particular the situation for brands has become even more precarious.
The events of the past two years have further widened the gap between the haves and have-nots. While negative sentiments around economic factors like the job market situation continue to soar, the vocal comment section online expanded its crosshairs to anything that carries the resemblance of a rich VS poor image. Naturally, a ‘taking back control’ narrative always resonates, fuelled by the urge to vent in a time recurring lockdowns and ever-changing goal-posts.
Local incidents like the recent school security guard blocking a Bentley driver, that got captured on video, show how fast things spiral out of control when a mundane situation triggers exactly that sentiment nerve. People and brands get implicated and impacted without even being connected to the events in any form.
On a macro level, the same narrative can be found in larger global trends, especially around the concept of decentralisation. Scott Galloway published this excellent primer on Web 3.0 and how this narrative aligns with the realities of this emerging ecosystem.
Where does all this leave brand marketers with their 2022 strategy?
The quick answer: with a headache.
Simply reshuffling more budget from traditional media to digital channels will not be a sufficient marketing plan this year. In a market like Singapore, tactical campaigns are still important to maintain sales and provide the baseline brand visibility. But this approach has an expiry date and it’s coming fast and furious.
Now is the time to think beyond the scorecard report in December 2022.
This year we will see more surprising partnerships between brands to combine their customer base and services under a revenue share model. More brands will also make an effort to co-create with local content creators and their communities beyond just commissioning message broadcasts.
It will not be easy to straddle between the different ends of the marketing spectrum — building long term value while delivering quarterly results. For those that cannot afford playing the spiralling performance marketing game of more reach, higher frequency and catchy dance song videos, 2021 offered an alternative lesson: simple storytelling. Human-interest content that is captivating and resonates with the zeitgeist.
This sounds like a textbook answer, but it is still the hardest form of marketing to achieve. Simply because it does not talk about the brand. Which is exactly how a brand can become relevant, by communicating its views of the world as seen by its people — be it employees or customers.
…if you are 🙄 right now and thinking “you made me read all this without having an actionable list at the end” you might find answers to what content to create for the next twin digit day on the calendar here.
