Trends and Shifts in 2020

2020 is truly a unique year — the beginning of a new decade, the ushering of a new generation. The year even sounds nice twenty-twenty, thus people associating quantum leaps and eventfulness to it. This behavioral shift will cause marketing to be reactive when it should be proactive.

In the bid to be proactive and be ahead of our time, here are some trends and shifts happening in the disciples of marketing communication. 

Strategy

1. 2020 will be the year of the customer [Yes, I know they always say this, but this is it really]. We see a massive shift in beliefs about what marketing actually is. It’s no longer about trying to convince people to buy from or work with your company. Instead, the priority has moved towards providing fantastic customer experiences that will keep people coming back for more. Customer Experience will be the buzzword in the marketing circles[You heard it here first]. 
2. We see more collaborations between brands, the most popular will be Access Bank and Star. For smaller business strategic marketing transformations, where businesses operating without a strategic marketing plan evolves by changing its fundamental business processes and procedures. So the brand, company reputation, customer relationships, and the customer experience as a whole are considered in every business activity.
3. Personalization will meet humanity. Today’s consumers are overwhelmed with marketing messages from multiple channels to the point where they have started to tune them out. Traditional advertising is losing its effectiveness, if not evolved. Personalized marketing messages that forge a real connection between the brand and the target market is the way forward in 2020. This level of personalization will be a reality by trading USPs with ESPs’s [emotional selling proposition], actionable data and micro-targeting. 

Content

1. Visuals in content creation and development are bound to get more interesting in 2020. People will move from just responding to videos and gifs, to being creators – the rise of Generation Z influencers You can now make your GIFs with gifhy, and Snapchat is helping people create their AR filters.
2. Ultra-targeted, customer-first content.
3. The climax of brands using user-generated content [The content team at Piggybank and Cowrywise were daring enough to show all the way]
4. The death of the routine Social Media Pillars – #MondayMotivation #TuesdayThoughts #WCW #MCM #FridayTrivia #TGIF #TGIS and the likes.

Design

1. The year of Artistic Typography – To create more innovative and modern compositions, designers are playing with typography big time. This trend will flourish in 2020. Figuratively and literally!
2. Liquid designs as opposed to geometric shapes which have strictly fixed edges and curves, liquid forms suggest creativity, agility, and movement. Leaving out the edges helps achieve a smooth, soft look which many designers want to recreate.
3. To Doodle on pictures as a way of mixing illustration with photography – This will be the new movement in editing pictures. 

With all you now know, go forth and do great things.