Top 10 Marketing Keywords in 2020

Looking back at 2020, although affected by the epidemic, the overall performance of the advertising and marketing industry was not as good as in previous years. However, many brands have also come up with new marketing ideas, and popular products are not uncommon. Behind this is the new change in the marketing environment: on the one hand, as marketing budgets tighten, brand owners have further increased their requirements for advertising value and refined delivery ; on the other hand, consumer demand for advertising has become weak, traffic dividends have gradually disappeared, incremental space has become smaller, and growth has become increasingly difficult.

So, in the face of an increasingly complex marketing environment, how should brand marketing innovate in the future? How can we effectively reach consumers and achieve the ideal state of "quality", "efficiency" and "sales"? In this regard, as a vertical professional platform in the field of advertising and marketing, the SocialMarketing website summarizes its observations on the advertising and marketing industry in 2020 into ten keywords , in order to provide a more diverse perspective for everyone's future brand marketing.

As the Internet dividend gradually disappears, marketing homogeneity becomes serious, and competition in the existing market becomes fierce, how to improve marketing efficiency has become the same problem that brands face in 2020.

Going out of the circle is one way to solve this problem.

Thanks to targeted creative content output, this year brands such as DingTalk, Lao Xiangji, Wuling, Tencent, and NetEase Yanxuan have broken through the audience circles of their own products and gained unprecedented attention. They have proved to the industry that "going viral can be replicated and mass-produced."

As for how much traffic it can generate after it goes viral? The ghost video "DingDing, the real Ding, begs for mercy online" immediately swept the entire network after it was released. The number of views on Bilibili reached 27.285 million, and the number of barrages reached 340,000+. As soon as Lao Xiangji’s “Strategic Conference with a Budget of 200 Yuan” was launched, the number of readers exceeded 100,000+ and the number of viewers was over 27,000. On the day of its launch, it was as popular as Apple’s new product launch.

Brand promotion is just a means to gain popularity; the key to retaining consumers still lies in high-quality products and services. In addition, after going out of the circle, how to effectively connect different circles and improve one's own product strength and brand power is also a question that the brand needs to think about next. Otherwise, if you just focus on attracting attention, it will be in vain.

In 2021, we expect more brands to emerge.

After the epidemic, the business model has changed, and trading venues are no longer just about transactions. In order to carry out more refined operations and stronger control over the traffic ecosystem, a new concept emerged in the industry in 2020 - "long-term ROI" . This redefines brand advertising and makes it the new standard for evaluating advertising transactions.

After Tencent proposed this concept, many brands have tried this new operating model .

After "long-term operation", the beauty brand Hansu achieved a 90-day ROI of 2.05; during the epidemic, Feihe milk powder integrated private domain positions, refined operations, and used corporate social retail tools, and its 90-day long-term ROI increased by 3 times compared with the same month; sports fashion brand FILA, with the help of Tencent Youshu, refined operations on user assets and marketing methods, and increased its ROI by about 1.46 times...

As the effect cycle of one-time marketing becomes shorter and shorter, there are more and more cases of long-term ROI success, and more and more brands are turning their attention to "long-term operations."

For brands, seeking growth and activating existing stocks are both important. Perhaps in the future, digital operational thinking with long-term ROI will help more brands create their own new growth peaks.

It can be said that "charity marketing" is one of the hottest keywords at the beginning of 2020.

During this year, major brands have made new attempts and explorations in public welfare marketing. From Kuaishou's "A Tribute to Every Ordinary Person", Alibaba's "Right Now" to NetEase Yanxuan's "Don't Look at This Advertisement", major brands have linked public service advertisements with corporate brand characteristics to reach a consensus on values ​​with consumers.

With the development of AI and other black technologies, from China UnionPay's "River of Poetry", Tencent's charity "Sound of Nature", or Ant Forest's "Connect with Trees", the participation and interactivity of brand charity marketing have been greatly improved. More and more brands are joining the charity marketing camp, and the ways of charity marketing are becoming more diverse.

Public welfare marketing is not necessarily the optimal solution for brand upgrading. Although public welfare marketing can help brands quickly improve their image, strengthen their differences, and reshape their values, we must not simplify our thinking, otherwise it is easy to fall into the public opinion of showmanship and increase public disgust. With less routine and more sincerity, there will be greater potential value for brands to tap into in public welfare marketing in the future.

On this year's May 4th Youth Day, an advertisement from Bilibili titled "The Next Wave" entered the public eye and immediately sparked huge controversy, with the term "The Next Wave" quickly becoming popular.

As a result, young people defined as the “post-wave” have also become the focus of major brands. According to the "2020 China Consumer Survey Report" released by McKinsey, with multiple factors affecting purchasing power, young shoppers still maintain high consumption growth. This means that the "Houlang" is the blue ocean of the brand's future incremental market.

This year, we have seen many brands making great strides towards becoming younger. For example, Wangzai Milk is based on national trend elements and launched new packaging for 56 ethnic groups; White Rabbit has joined hands with Pacific Coffee, Maxam, and Smell Library to break through the brand barrier and create new gameplay; Baidu's magical rap "What Did You Say" closely follows the trend of young people...

Wherever the new wave goes, there are opportunities. For brands, if they want to impress young people, they cannot just talk to themselves, but they need to enter the context of young people and amplify and spread their ideas in a way that young people like.

Bilibili has undoubtedly become the best channel for brands to embrace young people. This year, more and more brands are "making friends" with young people through Bilibili. From Xiaomi’s “Are you OK”, to DingTalk’s “Online Begging for Mercy”, to Tencent’s “Dougeyuan”... it can be seen that Bilibili will become the next marketing home.

Therefore, female marketing has also become one of the most iconic marketing techniques of brands this year. Whether it is Neiwai’s “No Body Shape Is Insignificant” focusing on the diverse values ​​of women; or Apple’s “Salute to You Behind the Mac” paying tribute to the women who have silently contributed to changing the world; or HomeFacialPro’s online poetry exhibition “Women are a Library” encouraging women to be themselves...major brands have successively spoken for women, all trying to gain a place in the “her economy” market.

But marketing to women is about more than just wooing women . Otherwise, you will only be trapped in your own web.

This year, Yasmin's "No condoms are the key to winning back a man" ad, Durex's "How to judge whether a girl is truly married and happy" copy, RT-Mart's "terrible" size labeling, Okamoto's Christmas copy "You clean the house, I clean you"... many brands lack deep insight into women's needs and have failed one after another. With the gradual awakening of women's consciousness, topics such as "her economy " , "women's equality " and "women's marketing " are all worthy of deep thinking by brands.

In the new social context, most traditional marketing tactics are ineffective. At the same time, the homogeneity of marketing advertisements is becoming more and more serious. How to use unique creative ideas to establish a differentiated image in marketing has become a difficult problem for major brands.

Reverse marketing undoubtedly provides a new idea.

During this year's epidemic, many reverse marketing cases that went viral, such as Xibei's public selling of sympathy and Burger King's commercial on moldy burgers, have allowed many brands to find new marketing focus. Then, Baidu launched the "Let the Children Go" outdoor poster on Children's Day and the "Don't Ask" series of posters on Chinese Valentine's Day; in October, the bigwigs in the advertising circle called on people to "not advertise"; in November, NetEase Yanxuan withdrew from "Double Eleven"; at the end of the year, Tencent Video teamed up with Xiaoguo Culture's "Talk Show Against New Year's Eve"... Various anti-routine marketing methods emerged in an endless stream to attract the attention of consumers.

However, capturing people's hearts is the essence of all business. Reverse marketing is not a panacea.

The reason why reverse marketing can attract consumers is that it breaks through the expression form of inertial thinking and easily triggers consumers' rebellious psychology to achieve the effect of brand exposure. However, frequent reverse marketing is not very helpful for building a brand value system and may even be counterproductive.

In the face of the epidemic, it’s either digitalization or death. Due to the special circumstances this year, all industries and sectors urgently need to save themselves through digital transformation.

On the one hand, major brands are actively embracing digitalization and upgrading their marketing effectiveness. In addition to Internet brands, many offline brands have also begun to move online this year to test the waters of digital marketing. For example, IKEA launched Taobao live broadcast, and the live broadcast room was transformed into a model room; BMW, Chevrolet and other car companies launched online interactive activities; Walmart, Powerlong Commercial and other shopping malls created a new smart retail landscape and launched door-to-door delivery services...

On the other hand, cloud economy and 5G commercialization bring more possibilities for brand marketing. From "cloud exhibition", "cloud variety show", "cloud tourism", "cloud teaching", "cloud office", "cloud house selling", "cloud press conference" to Migu 5G+4K ultra-high definition + VR+AR innovative gameplay and Chengdu 8K ultra-high definition + 3D naked-eye advertising, it can be seen that with the further maturity of emerging technologies such as cloud technology, big data, and 5G technology, consumer scenarios are constantly being extended, and the pace of brand digital transformation will be further accelerated in the future.

Although the practical application of "digitalization" has further catalyzed the development, brands must not be led astray by "digitalization".

As young people of Generation Z gradually become financially independent and begin to dominate the consumer market, virtual idols have become the hot spot for brand marketing this year.

Virtual idols have existed for a long time, but they have become more popular this year. As we enter the first year of cyber, the virtual world becomes more and more realistic, and the value of virtual idols is increasingly magnified. We have seen that Lil Miquela, a virtual internet celebrity in the fashion industry, has made tens of millions of dollars in profits for her parent company by cooperating with various international brands; the well-known virtual singer Luo Tianyi and the originator of virtual idols "Hatsune Miku" have successively tried Taobao live streaming and received rewards from millions of people. The powerful influence of virtual idols is evident.

However, the virtual idols that have debuted cannot meet the needs of brands, and many brands have launched their own virtual IPs. Virtual idols such as Infinite King Group, KDA Girl Group, Colonel Grandpa, Ding Brother, Ding Sister, Liu Yidao, Qian Miao, G Future Ambassador... have debuted one after another, providing a new breakthrough for brands to break through the dimensional wall and extend the industrial chain.

It is undeniable that these virtual idols can integrate brand information content with media and further expand brand information exposure, which can be said to have broad market prospects. However, the operation of virtual idols requires considerable investment and most of the operations are relatively difficult. It is still unknown how content and commercial monetization will be connected in the future.

"Marketing sinking" has been mentioned frequently in recent years. During the epidemic, the online interaction initiative and interaction time of users in the sinking market have increased significantly, and the potential of the sinking market has been further highlighted.

The marketing war among major brands has intensified this year. Internet platforms such as Pinduoduo and Kuaishou, which started out in the sinking markets, are making further efforts in the sinking markets; e-commerce platforms such as Taobao and JD.com have successively launched special price and express versions; catering brands such as KFC and Xishaoye have successively launched "small town model" stores in fourth- and fifth-tier cities; luxury brands such as Gucci, Tiffany, and Givenchy have successively settled in social platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Douyin, and started live streaming to sell goods... More and more brands have realized that if they cannot humble themselves, they will only be passively caught in the torrent of mud and sand in the downward phase of the market, unable to extricate themselves.

As marketing channels "sink", advertising scenarios also become more down-to-earth. Alipay took advantage of the 717 Carnival Festival to create the concept of "Street Night"; Bilibili and Juhuasuan teamed up to paint walls in rural areas for the "Rap New Generation" program; Huawei used dialect to bless the short film "Nearby"... These down-to-earth advertisements immerse consumers in them and create an image of intimacy and familiarity for the brand.

Marketing sinking is not a false proposition. Let’s see how each company will fight this marketing war next year.

Last year was the first year of e-commerce live streaming, and this year is the era of live streaming for all.

During this year, we have seen that live streaming is not just about selling goods.

Ever since Viya and Li Jiaqi’s live streaming sales went viral, celebrities such as Liu Tao and Li Xiang have started doing live streaming; celebrity entrepreneurs such as Ding Lei, Dong Mingzhu, and Li Hongyan have also joined in; even various social roles such as CCTV anchors and poverty alleviation cadres have entered the scene. Against this background, more and more brand "trend followers" have joined the market, using live streaming as an important channel for brand promotion and product sales.

In fact, live streaming has become a new engine for brand growth and a new front for brand marketing. In addition to selling goods, live streaming has broadened its derivative space based on the business characteristics of different industries. In the future, we can consider whether it can have closer integration with consumption, services, education, etc.

Of course, live streaming is not a panacea for brand marketing.

After the cooling-off period, the popularity of live streaming e-commerce has subsided and chaos has emerged. In an increasingly chaotic market environment, the most important thing for major brands is to find a marketing path that suits them, otherwise the myth of live streaming sales will eventually turn into a bubble.

Let us wait and see where the live streaming trend will blow in the future.

Finally, the key word that can summarize the marketing of the whole year of 2020 is undoubtedly: danger and opportunity . New challenges also bring new opportunities. These challenges will force brands to find a way out. Over the past year, with the development of marketing technology, we have seen a qualitative breakthrough in brand marketing in 2020: focus on long-term ROI, digital transformation, Bilibili marketing, virtual idols, and the normalization of live streaming sales ...all give us hope. We believe that after the test of time, brands will produce more wonderful marketing cases!

Author: Jiuzhilan

Source: Jiuzhilan Internet Marketing (jiuzhilan)