As is traditional for this time of year, we’re anticipating what 2015 will bring to the communications space.
Looking back on 2014, we saw some trends continue, and some start. Who could have anticipated a whole new social network, for instance? But Ello emerged, and we shall see if 2015 is its boom or bust year.
We saw brands using social media for crisis control and reputation management. We saw brands not keeping abreast of trends and watching as crises were blown out of proportion, due to lack of communication.
We saw the even stronger emergence of the use of mobile devices, with Flow at the forefront of creating responsive web designs for clients, ensuring that their message was conveyed effectively. This led to Flow scooping up six New Generation Social and Digital Media Awards, for content, innovative web design and development, and social media marketing.
We have also lost and outgrown a lot of technology in the past year, with the consolidation of technological tools through acquisitions and mergers. We said goodbye to Orkut, as Google finally let it go. Microsoft announced the final departure of Windows Messenger years after its acquisition of Skype and stopping technical support for Windows XP in a bid to migrate users to newer technologies. Facebook acquired WhatsApp, with public expectation that this will result in leveraging technologies to expand on its VOIP offering.
These trends and other emerging game-changers have shaped our planning for 2015.
At Flow we work across various communications disciplines, working in harmony to create seamless messaging for our clients, while managing their reputations in the public domain.
Agencies as well as clients will need to work with the following in mind for 2015, as predicted by Flow’s leadership:
- As the phenomenon of the Internet continues to explode, there is a global trend for more and more communication to be done digitally. We are seeing this in South Africa, too – the increasing importance of doing digital communications more strategically and in ever bigger and better ways
- We believe that we will continue to see the growth of two almost diametrically opposed trends – the rise of more and more specialist digital agencies on one hand, and the growing tendency of larger, more traditional advertising agencies to develop their own digital capabilities
- The public relations space continues to have social media squatting at its door. The reputation of clients can no longer live only in the domain of mainstream media. PR, social media and reputation management are merging and public relations needs to be closely tied into social media strategy more than ever. This trend will inevitably see more public relations agencies taking over social media management for clients, to provide a holistic reputation and image management offering
- The second trend in public relations continues to be an increase in inexperienced journalists, where younger and more junior journalists are expected to do so much more. The pressure on media houses to compete with free content on the Internet has propelled this, as well as pressure on media houses to become more digital. This has an impact on the quality of reporting as well as coverage, placing more pressure on agencies to provide quality content on behalf of clients. PR agencies with the savvy to recognise the opportunity this presents will ensure stretched, juniorised and smaller newsrooms are provided with tailored, ready-to-use content
- Content development has turned into the art of communicating with the customer, without pushing a product, and this trend will continue to grow. The spotlight in 2015 will be on the quality of the content that is produced, and there’ll be a collaboration of content between brands and their customers, resulting in a decentralised method of storytelling. Customers will shoulder more responsibility for telling the story of brands they love through “word of mouse” content generated and distributed on social networks, as well as pass on content generated by brands as evangelists, using that to bolster their personal content contribution
- With mobile on the rise, the challenge is finding a way to meet the customer’s demand for immediacy – transacting using mobile, content available for consumption on demand and near-instant fulfilment of customer needs from the palm of their hand. Development, design, content, public relations and social media will all play a critical role in managing this, and conducting the individual communications pieces into a single, harmonious melody. What remains to be seen is whether the successful conductor will be traditional agency gone modern, or the modern specialist agency
We’re excited to usher in 2015, to rise to the technology challenge, learn from our experiences and continue to innovate for our clients in a way that adds value. Whatever 2015 may bring, Flow is ready to take it on with enthusiasm and excitement.
