Five by Five

written by Katie White, Planner, Five by Five

Six Online Trends to watch out for in 2008…

Trend No.1: Media Snacking

Brands are taking a sharp move away from the creation of ads, to the creation of experiences across all things digital.

The Internet needs to be understood more as a big convenience store, where consumers can pick the snack they want for free. Consumers won’t waste time eating snacks that they don’t like.

To get consumers to snack on your offering, it must be of the highest quality, most conveniently packaged and totally relevant to your target consumer’s personal taste.

As consumer desire for instant gratification grows, audiences will devour brands with increased frequency and maximum speed. They will grow quickly bored with flavours so there is a need, more than ever, to keep things fresh.

Trend No.2: Who’s the Daddy?

Status can be gained in more ways than simply leading a lifestyle saturated with high price consumer goods.
In an online world or virtual world, social status 2.0 is all about who you connect to and who wants to connect to you. It is the most popular people that will be at the driving edge of digital in 2008.
This concept encompasses status gained from the number of views for photos on Flickr, to the number of friends on Facebook, to gaming skills, to finding out about the whatever and wherever on anything before everyone else.
Consumers are increasingly demanding the opportunity to utilise everything that they buy and interact with online to construct their identity and tell their peers a story about themselves.

Digitally, the winning brands will be those who give consumers the opportunity to use their brand to help construct their perfect identity.

Trend No.3: Tick-Tock

Time is another new currency. As increasingly cash-rich and time-poor digital audiences emerge, it is time that is the scarcest resource. Digitally, timesaving measures that help consumers maximise the efficiency of their interaction with communications are the order of the day.

Usability is no longer a dirty word. It is an essential consideration when developing your digital communications and no longer refers to the provision of three font sizes on your website. As consumers become more and more impatient there is less room for errors – mess up and you’ll quickly lose your audience.

Brands need to think slick designs, smooth functionality and intensive personalisation to get consumers interacting with their brand digitally.

Trend No.4: More Demanding Consumers = More Squirrel Monkeys

Digital communications develop at an astounding rate. Five by Five has had to employ an entire room full of squirrel monkeys tapping away with the latest digital equipment, just to keep up with it.

But when we’re looking at the newest widget or social networking website and thinking about how we can exploit or develop it to reach our audiences we must remember that without consumers, digital wouldn’t be moving any where at all.

It is consumers, and their demands that dictate the path that digital communications take because they are the ones interacting within the digital sphere.

Trend No.5: DON’T SHOUT… nudge

More than ever consumers don’t want to be interrupted and our digital media choices should reflect this. Instead of stalking potential and existing consumers, brands should approach their audiences in smart and relevant ways.

Media will need to be cleverer, with consumers insisting that their attention is earned rather than demanded. The Holy Grail is the production of digital content that is so relevant to consumers, that they can’t wait to get their hands on it. All they need is to know where to find it.

Trend No.6: MIY - Make it Yourself

Finally, who can forget our old friend co-creation; a natty little word and one that isn’t going away in 2008. Tapping into the collective experiences, skills and ingenuity of hundreds of millions of consumers is the ultimate way to reach people.

To contact Katie click here >>

taken from the Fresh Start Edition of the Five by Five Review, January 2008