When you place traditional media, and what mediums you use, are both important factors to the success of your campaign. With summer right around the corner, let’s take a look at some different tactics and how they fare during this time.

Historical data from Nielsen has shown that radio listening habits shift during the summer – and some formats see more of an increase than others. Classic rock and country tend to see substantial increases during the warmer months, as listeners are relaxing on warm weather days and planning vacations.

With traditional TV (cable and network), live TV viewing tends to be lower in the summer months as consumers are on-the-go. That’s also why new releases are often in the fall or winter. However, streaming TV services see consistent usage in the summer months, due to the flexible and portable nature of the tactic. Television can still be an effective method of getting your message across in the summer, but a strategic media schedule is crucial.

Outdoor billboards are another tactic that can see increased success in the summer. Since more people are enjoying time outside or driving to vacation destinations, there are a lot of opportunities to get your brand out there in the summer! There’s also daylight for more of the day, so people can see your outdoor message later into the evening.

Here are just a few ways ux is expected to grow in the future:

This approach puts data into a visual context, arranging it in such a way that it builds a story for the user. Instead of pie charts, graphs, etc, you may want to consider creating a fun way to make the data more interesting.

Dark mode simply refers to user interfaces with a primarily dark color palette and flipping the design so the text and secondary details are more pronounced in lighter colors. It’s been used by platforms in the past, but it’s becoming a more common and popular approach to design.

These are small, visual movements that serve the purpose of making the user experience more engaging and interesting. Examples can include a swipe, hover color, animation, or scroll bar showing where you are on a page.

Oversize typography is an increasingly popular option to put some flair into website design while also maintaining accessibility. Combined with a minimalistic or more simplified design, typography can be a way to add a unique twist to your site.

73% of customers now describe themselves as ‘channel agnostic’, meaning that the formats you place ads on matter less than the journey the customer goes on. In order to do this, it means focusing less on the platform or tactic your ads are delivered on and focusing more on the message you want to deliver and the audience you want to deliver it to.

It’s important to adopt an omnichannel mindset to be ready for the changing behavior and deliver a seamless customer journey across all platforms. Just as much attention should be paid to your ‘digital storefronts’ as on the physical real-life locations. For example, 55% of consumers will visit a brand’s website during their purchase journey.

55% of consumers will visit a brand’s website during their purchase journey

One way to set the foundation for long-term relationships are mobile apps, which also increase engagement with your customers. Mobile apps allow brands to collect first-party data and can help spot trends and generate more customer value.

Studies show that app customers are more loyal than non-app customer with the same retailer – they spend 37% more, buy 33% more frequently, and buy 34% more items. Customers increasingly expect brands to offer new technological solutions that enhance the shopping experience. 66% of people say they are interested in using augmented reality for help when shopping and 60% say they want to be able to visualize where and how a product could fit into their lives.

Customer behavior is rapidly evolving, but so are marketing solutions that can help you stay ready! The most insightful brands think about the customer journey holistically, offer novel and compelling cross-platform experiences, and continually reinvent and improve the shopping experience.

Preferences for designing logos always change, and there is no formula to decide which logo style will be adopted and which will be overlooked. Creating a unique and custom design that is eligible for trademark is crucial for any business. Here’s a few predictions for Logo Design Trends in the upcoming year:

#1 Simple Shapes

Simple shapes are going to be one of the hottest and top logo design trends in 2022. By following this trend, brands will be able to obtain attractive and simple logo designs that will catch their customers’ attention more easily and pay attention to their brand image. We can also expect that simple shapes will incorporate bright colors to logos to help promote the brands and increase customer interaction.

#2 Minimalism

With this strategy, designers usually simplify the image by minimizing the features that are not impactful to the audience. Minimalism not only allows users to access their required information within a shorter period of time, but it also makes user experience simpler. Due to a greater impact not only with the overall aesthetic but also functionality, the minimalist design is predicted to be one of the best logo design trends.

#3 Typography Only

More brands are deciding on logos that are purely typography only. This design trend helps brands or websites to immediately wow customers, draw them in, and get them interested to know more about the brand. The main advantage of utilizing typography is that it creates a cohesive image of the brand logo using letters.

When you hear ‘social media’, most people automatically think of Facebook or Instagram. However, those might not always align with your campaign goals or target audience. There are multiple other platforms that offer options to successfully reach your target mix, informing them of your products or services, and turning them into high quality conversions. Let’s look at a few:

Advertising on LinkedIn provides a way to engage within the professional realm of social media. The major advantage of LinkedIn marketing is that you can reach trustworthy professionals that will drive actions that are relevant to your business and goals. An advantage that LinkedIn has over other forms of traditional social media is that a lot of first-party data is available just through someone’s profile. You can distinguish one’s job, position, what company and how long they’ve been employed, education, previous employers, skills, and who they are connected to. LinkedIn provides a vast number of targeting tactics such as company size, groups of interest, education, location, and geography, and more that can further ensure that your dollars are being spent correctly.

Pinterest advertising offers brand awareness, conversions, offline sales, and more traffic. Pinterest is used by those who want something new, but don’t have an exact idea in mind. It can be used as a visual search engine – which makes this platform a standout for retail. Pinterest advertising offers the unique feature of those ads are relevant to what the pinners are searching for. Pinterest offers ways to find the perfect target audience for your business or campaign. They allow targets to be split based on demographics (age, gender, location, or language), interests, keywords, customer lists (reaching those who engage with your website, store or previous ads), and ‘actalike’s.’

Twitter has the advantage of offering a lasting impression on those who are served your ads. The reason for this is that people come to Twitter with a discovery mindset. The audience on Twitter is more likely to be passionate, engaged, and open to learning than those on other social media sites. People spend 25% more time viewing ads on Twitter than other leading platforms. Twitter has a vast and detailed process of providing you with the correct audience for your campaign. First, you can pinpoint based on demographics (location, language, platform, device, age, and gender). Then you can split those groups into targeting based on event, tweet engager, keyword, movies, tv, interest, conversation, and more.

So, what’s in the forecast? While the last 18 months have taught us all that flexibility is key, here’s a look at what is expected in 2022:

57% of business owners surveyed think it’s harder to sustain a business now than it was six months ago

Borrell Associates surveys small-to-medium sized business owners throughout the year. In their most recent survey from August 2021, 57% of business owners surveyed think it’s harder to sustain a business now than it was six months ago. 23% think there’s been no change, and 18% believe it’s easier now (the remaining 2% had no opinion). When it comes to economic conditions, the majority of business owners (57%) think that economic conditions will either stay the same or get better over the next six months. As a result of that, most of those surveyed (77%) anticipate spending the same or more on advertising.

Local advertising expenditures are projected to increase by 6.4% overall. The bulk of the change is expected to come from streaming audio/radio and video. Spending for yellow page directories, newspapers, and other print is expected to decrease. Due to the unprecedented nature of 2020 (and at least part of 2021), 2019 was used as a base year for these projections, since that was the last ‘normal’ year.

In the long view of local advertising expenditures, digital has far surpassed other media over the last 10 years. From 2019 to 2020, digital share jumped by 6% (up to 63% in 2020 compared to 57% in 2019). 2022 is projected to be at 67%. Two-thirds of every advertising dollar spent by businesses is spent on digital. Paid search, social media and video account for 75% of all digital advertising, and spending on online video is expected to surpass search in 2025. The new year provides new opportunities to refresh your marketing. Take time to regularly review what’s working and what may not be. Think about new strategies you can try and existing strategies you can refine to be successful. We’re happy to help you plan not just for 2022, but for the years to come!

Here are some of the top trends impacting your brand:

the race to roi

As businesses struggle to recoup lost sales in the wake of the pandemic, marketers turn to social to meet two equally urgent imperatives: deliver short-term ROI with targeted performance marketing tactics while building innovative digital experiences that win long-term loyalty by bringing discovery, connection, and fun back to the customer experience.

silence is golden

A dramatic uptick in social media use presented a huge number of new opportunities for brands this year–but many missed the mark by jumping in too soon. Smart brands sat back and listened, then won with creative, original ways of fitting into the social conversation to break through the wall of indifference.

way more than ok

Stereotypes, ageism, and a yearslong habit of chasing newness over effectiveness have left marketers underestimating an increasingly digitally savvy and lucrative demographic: baby boomers. By using smart segmentation and thoughtful representation, marketers that include baby boomers in their digital strategies can leapfrog those still stuck in stereotypes.

do i know you?

For years, linking social media engagement to customer identity has proved an elusive goal for marketers. But with renewed momentum and executive attention on social media’s ability to retain critical connections with customers, now is the time to take steps–big or small–to bridging the critical gap between engagement and customer identity.