Branding Challenges In Today’s Hyper-Digital World
Today we live in a hyper-digital and multi-device world. There is a plethora of information out there and needless to say, everyone with a device is bombarded with all kinds of communication from the moment they first wake till they close their eyes to sleep. With the speed of communication on par with or perhaps faster than the speed of light, this becomes an added challenge for brands to stand out from among the thousands of messages. It becomes even more challenging for an advertising agency to help brands be relevant and contemporary. The challenges in branding under digital marketing are far and many, not just in terms of execution but also in terms of perception. Some of the challenges are:
1. Social media noise:
The rise of social media has made everyone feeling the FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). All businesses have since jumped on the bandwagon to make their presence felt on social media. This is besides the influencers who have successfully used their personal self to market a variety of products and collaborate with brands. And last of all, we have the consumers who have so many options to choose from. All this noise on social media has been widely discussed as distractions in today’s attention economy. Consumers are spoilt for choice which means ad agencies are pushed to be ‘more creative’ to rise above all the noise. Not that creativity has any limits but the need to be ‘unique’ and for constant novelty is a major challenge for digital marketing today.
2. Fickle Millennials: The millennial and generation Z cannot be blamed for being fickle. With the number of options available to them and add to that shorter attention spans, it is not surprising that loyalty is a limited resource today. While some brands have managed to capitalize on the fickle behavior of the younger consumers such as Tinder and Uber, for others the younger generation seem a challenging target audience.
3. Short term thinking: Digital marketing agencies carry with them a perception of thinking for a short term. This is usually because brands and agencies become obsessed with making a big splash with their marketing ideas. ‘Make it go viral’ is a usual sentence spoken by the advertising powers that be. Every concept is demanded to be treated with urgency and sometimes without regard for the political and social climate or timings. The challenge is to take an action which should be beneficial for a business today as well as in future.
4. Digital Ad Costs Digital marketing agencies carry with them a perception of thinking for a short term. This is usually because brands and agencies become obsessed with making a big splash with their marketing ideas. ‘Make it go viral’ is a usual sentence spoken by the advertising powers that be. Every concept is demanded to be treated with urgency and sometimes without regard for the political and social climate or timings. The challenge is to take an action which should be beneficial for a business today as well as in future.
5. Data Privacy: In the aftermath of the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal, data privacy has become a big concern among all the world leaders and tech giants. Many insiders of the tech industry have come forward with disturbing practices of unethical and sometimes unauthorized practice of data collection. With growing concerns over data privacy, there will be limits put in place for accessing and storing such consumer data. This is going to impact market and consumer research.
6. Ad-Blockers Another challenge for advertising in the digital space is the use of ad-blockers. Ad-blockers are browser extensions or software applications that prevent ads from popping up on the web-page or a mobile application. Although currently, ad-blocker users are in the minority, nevertheless the very existence of technology such as this is a challenge for digital marketing. Another aspect of this is the fact that consumers are now willing to pay to do away with ads. This is an additional challenge for the digital marketing space.
Thank You Content Courtesy: Water Communications
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