Incredible Journey Back to Authentic Storytelling: An Introduction

It’s easy to forget how much the world has changed for brands, advertisers and consumers in the first two decades of the 21st century.  In 2004, Facebook was still a “hot or not” app used only by Mark Zuckerberg’s fellow Harvard students, YouTube didn’t exist, Twitter wouldn’t be founded for another two years and Instagram was more than half a decade away.  Meanwhile, the percentage of companies thinking seriously about how they would use artificial intelligence (AI) to learn more about their customers, interact with them and personalize products and services was a tiny fraction of what it is today.  It was nearly impossible to predict the full range of implications that revolutionary technologies would have in a few short years.

The rise of these new technologies has been driven by dramatic changes in consumer attitudes and behavior.  Consumers want to break down as many barriers to communication as possible.  They expect brands to be immediately accessible on many different platforms at once.  They crave more engagement than ever before.  They want to be treated like individuals, which means brands are under increasing pressure to offer personalized products, services and experiences.  They demand authentic interactions and content that supports them.

In an era of rapid and dramatic digital transformation, advertisers should never forget that new technology is always a means to an end: Earning the trust and loyalty of customers.  By understanding the trends that are driving the evolution of their industry, they’ll be in a stronger position to do just that.

In this multi-part series, which is available in its entirety via downloadable .pdf from Catch&Release (see below), we’ll cover five key trends that advertising creatives, agency executives and brand marketers need to know:

1. The Evolution of Micro-Influencers
2. Found Content as a Creative Medium
3. Belief-Driven Buyers and the Power of “Performative Wokeness”
4. The Shifting Brand-Agency Relationship Dynamic
5. Digital Integration Fosters Human-to-Human Interaction

Coming next:  Trend One -- The Evolution of Micro-Influencers

Note: The full report, titled Catch&Release 2019 Trends in Advertising: The Incredible Journey Back to Authentic Storytelling, is available via a downloadable .pdf below.

Photo credit:  Dean Rose/Unsplash

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