If 2010 was a year in which marketers collectively held their breath and hoped for recovery, it is somewhat fitting that 2011 will be a year when marketers can afford to breathe a little easier. While the unprecedented squeeze on public spending will only exacerbate fears of a double-dip recession, there are signs that the marketing sector has seen off the worst of the economic downturn.
With this in mind, we asked some of the industry's leading thinkers to share their views on what the coming year will bring.
PHIL THOMAS, Global category director for surface care Reckitt Benckiser
The household, healthcare and personal care categories in which RB operates did not suffer as much of a decline over the past two years as many other, more discretionary categories. We continued applying our high marketing support model through the downturn and this has been an important factor in maintaining strong brand share.
We've also continued to deliver innovation to consumers, with 2010 bringing the introduction of products such as the Dettol 'No Touch' handwash system, Vanish Extra Hygiene and Brasso Gadget Care. We believe that high levels of innovation with strong media backing are vital to ensure our brands and the categories they compete in, continue to thrive.
Looking ahead, we don't see much evidence that the UK economy will recover significantly in the short term and we would expect consumers to continue to shop smartly, looking for the best value (rather than lowest price).
Our own plans include continued innovation across the year to help ensure consumers can consistently recognise the value that we offer.
As we remain at home more and eat out less, the use of many of our brands such as Finish, Cillit Bang and even Durex will continue to grow. However, it also means that the recent increase in TV viewing is likely to remain a factor, and we will continue as one of the top three TV advertisers in the UK. We are also connecting more and more with our consumers online, building a closer and more personal relationship through programmes such as our online 'Air Wick Fresher Homes Club'.
In summary, 2011 will remain a tough economy in the UK, but we believe that with our proven model of strong, consumer-centred innovation and high marketing support, our brands will continue to earn consumer trust and loyalty and will be rewarded with business growth.
ANDY NAIRN, Creative director MCBD
No prizes for guessing that shopper behaviour in 2011 will be dominated by economic concerns. It won't be pretty, but there will still be opportunities for smart brands. Consumers will continue to demand pricing reassurance from all brands (a fact thrown into sharp relief by Waitrose's recent benchmarking against Tesco) and bargain-hunting will become more habitual (good news for aggregators, comparison sites and voucher providers).
However, shoppers will not be driven solely by price. Instead, they will also look for help in navigating markets and fixtures (most of which have become more chaotic since the onset of the downturn). So, brands that simplify, collate or edit should also do well.
Customer journeys will become more complex, as cautious shoppers use more channels to do more research in more stages - so providing opportunities for risk-free trial will become even more important. Within this, mobile shopping will finally make its much-heralded breakthrough - this is going to be one of the few areas of runaway growth, so if you don't have your strategy sorted here, you'd better get one sharpish.
Finally, a counter-intuitive prediction: ethical shopping will make a surprise comeback this year. For despite (or, rather, because of) the gloom, we will also have a keener understanding of the important things in life.
NICOLA MENDELSOHN, Chairman and partner Karmarama
This will be a tough year for marketers, with government budget cuts biting hard. It's likely that clients will once again consider reducing budgets, despite studies telling us the brands that invest during downturns are the fittest for when times turn good. Could this be the time, then, to take a risk or two and begin investing in demonstrating brand usefulness to an economically stretched audience? Ever-improving technology makes this easier and cheaper. The rise of location-based services such as Facebook Places allows brands to deliver real-time value, so they get closer to consumers, monitor behaviour and are instantly responsive. This is the ideal channel for serving too-good-to-miss promotions or news updates.
Trust will play a vitally important role in demonstrating worth. Increased wariness of the commercial world will steer consumers toward brands they can believe in, so perhaps we'll see the return of hard-nosed proof points and demonstrations of expertise.
Not surprisingly, consumers will need to be savvy about seeking the best value possible and we could finally see the usefulness of mass consumer-collaboration gain marketplace traction, pointing out or actually creating the best deals available.
Finally, for any timid clients out there, perhaps it's time to return to the testing ground and explore bite-sized test regions to prove the case for national roll-out. It could be the easiest, and safest way to take that risk.
OBI FELTEN, Director of consumer marketing Google EMEA
2011 will be the year of mobile. Phones today are truly smart, data plans are cheap, open platforms are enabling a whole new ecosystem of innovation, and consumers are embracing the mobile revolution. Twenty-five per cent of UK mobile users have smartphones, a proportion that is rising fast, as they form the majority of new phones sold; 38% of those users access the internet every day. By 2015, it is predicted that mobiles will be the main way to access the web globally.
The apps success story will continue. There are more than 300,000 iPhone apps and 100,000 Android apps available, created by single developers and big corporations alike. The most interesting apps I've seen the Google mobile team working on exploit the fact that handsets have eyes (camera), ears (microphone) and can talk (speaker). Ask your phone questions and get instant answers with Voice Search. Tell it to call somebody or start playing a music track with Voice Actions. Combine Goggles (the eyes) and Voice Search (the ears) with Translate and you can read a foreign menu or hold a conversation with a taxi driver who doesn't speak your language. These are just a few examples of the huge amount of exciting innovation happening on the mobile platform, which is why it holds so much potential for marketers in 2011.
MARK SIMPSON, Marketing director Ford of Great Britain
Over the next 12 months we will be launching two new vehicles, as well as celebrating our centenary, so television advertising will continue to be key to our marketing.
I believe the death of the medium has been overplayed - for a brand our size, television is vital to get the breadth of reach we need.
Ford is in the business of continuing to build brand reputation over time, and to do this we need a consistent marketing spend. We are certainly planning to match, if not increase, our marketing investment over the next 12 months.
This year will also be key for mobile marketing. We started thinking about mobile at the end of 2005 and the growing penetration of smartphones means it is set to be an important content portal for us over the coming year.
This will be a year of collaboration for Ford. We need to push our boundaries a little and bring in more specialist expertise from the worlds of film and social media to work with our existing agencies.
Which digital trends will be key for marketers in 2011?
ANDY KINSELLA, Innovation director Glue Isobar
- Socialisation of media Mainstream media will continue to drive search and social activity.
- Facebook continues to wow and frustrate, while Google hooks up its services with a new social layer. Everything kicks off and brands are spread thinner.
- Customers become creators as brands talk to them about what they really want and expect. Brand relationships become a form of self-expression.
- 北京赛车pk10 hubs return using social plug-ins on a bigger canvas with creative code.
- Display advertising makes a comeback as Google gets behind it again. It becomes bookmarkable and offers rewards.
- Location matters Brands use digital to get smart about coupons, redemption, price-check and group buying.
- Mobile web takes off as we become weary of developing for multiple platforms and suffer app fatigue.
- 'Internet of Things' means channel thinking gets mixed up. QR codes on products let people 'Like' them.
- Installations and events take off Chris Vernon, insight manager at Saatchi & Saatchi, says: 'As cuts consume publicly funded art projects, there is scope for brands to become patrons.'
- Creative thinking achieves cut-through rather than the latest technology.