What Marketing Trends Will We See in 2022?

The definition of curiosity is to have a strong desire to learn or know something. Curiosity without judgment is a crucial characteristic of great marketers. Curious marketers actively seek out challenges and new learning to broaden their experience to overcome business barriers. The best marketers explore new marketing trends based on the evolution of technology, and platforms, to identify new opportunities.

To best compile marketing wisdom going into the new year, we turned to some of the best marketers for their recommendations on trends we should focus on in the future.

Some responses were lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

GET ACQUAINTED WITH TODAY’S TEENS

Watch teenagers. Seriously. Not a sexy answer. But be very aware of what’s making them tick. The intersection of technology + creativity + access to media is creating whole new worlds of marketing opportunities.

– Paul Carpenter, Head of Client Relations, Launch

GET IT RIGHT AT THE SHELF

Precision and agility are the name of the game for 2022. Consumer expectations on where and how they shop have shifted, and today, a brand’s shopping journey must include the digital shelf. How successful brands are at growing and protecting market share depends on how well they can understand their consumers to get it right and stay effective. To do so, brands should:

• Attribute sales to marketing initiative to know what’s really working
• Compare your performances against category benchmarks to stay competitive
• Incorporate inventory management capabilities to ensure that your shoppers are always driven to where products are in stock
• Look at the demographic and psychographic information of your highly qualified audiences for better targeting

– Rachel Tipograph, Founder and CEO, MikMak

GET ON THE LIST (REAL OR VIRTUAL)

As the world’s top CPG brands navigate the challenges brought on by the pandemic, they still need to meet their most important goals with cost-effectiveness in mind. Getting on shoppers’ digital grocery lists continues to be a KPI of growing importance for brands, especially as supply chain issues and growing privacy restrictions continue to evolve. Engaging shoppers via their mobile devices while planning and making trips to the store has become a proven way to drive sales. Shopping list marketing will maintain and grow its place as an established tactic for 2022 and beyond. 

– Robert Bryan, Director of Strategy, AdAdapted

AUTOMATING SHOPPER MARKETING

Success will evolve from episodic shopper marketing campaigns to habitual, automated marketing efforts that focus on the shopper’s lifetime value. Conversion-focus marketers will become empowered to influence behavior change beyond the initial trial purchase. They will leverage retailers’ data and their own first-party data to communicate with shoppers directly to drive repurchase, and eventually, advocacy.

– Rich Butwinick, Founder & President, MarketingLab 

“INSTANT NEEDS SHOPPING”

A developing consumer behavior is “instant needs shopping.” People are not shopping once a week; they make more frequent shopping trips to the store (4X a week vs. 1.5X a week) and spend more per week overall. GoPuff (and now Instacart/Kroger) provide consumers a viable option to deliver products in 30 minutes or less, leading to a shortened period between planning and buying. We must shift how we market our brands based on these new consumer behaviors. 

– Risa Crandall, SVP CPG Strategy Aki Technologies (an Inmar Company)

ORCHESTRATE BETTER ACROSS THE ORGANIZATION

“Agility” is going to be a thing for marketing. Many marketers have spent enormous resources on data lakes, CDPs, DMPs, etcetera but that’s just the plumbing. They need to better orchestrate across all these tech platforms to get the most out of these investments. Marketing must use the technology to sense, grab insights, and act on them. It’s how the art and science will happen. 

– Lisa Bradner, General Manager, Analytics, Yieldmo

CREATIVE EFFECTIVENESS: MORE CRUCIAL THAN EVER

The adage ‘right person, right place, and right time’ has never been more true – and never have the capabilities to deliver on the promise been so great. However, the creative execution must make the most of each touchpoint: insight-based, noticeable and inviting, and clear, relevant, and compelling. With more and more brands able to pinpoint the right person at the right moment, the ability of the creative content to effectively make the most of that moment will be the differentiator.

– Lynn Neal, Chief Product Officer, SellCheck