04 Dec 2019 Trend Predictions – How Did We Do?
Each year we make predictions about what what trends will dominate the year, and at the end of the year we take a look back at how we did!
Craft Trends
After attending the Creativation show in Phoenix in January 2019, we penned 2019’s Hottest Craft Trends and highlighted above all else, that 2019 was the year of the dabbler. At the show we saw a variety of small project kits put together for the avid crafter looking for new skills. Embroidery, macrame, sewing and quilting, cardmaking and papercrafts; you name it and there was a kit for anyone interested in trying a new craft. As the year comes to an end, we’re still seeing the popularity of DIY crafts and kits as both urban and rural dwellers add handmade touches to their homes.
We also saw tons of letter boards as well as stamping, card making and paper crafts. Those enjoyed popularity as well, although letter boards may have hit their peak. Again the emphasis is on trying new crafts, dabbling in a variety of techniques and creating handmade goods rather than just buying commercially produced items.
Social Media Trends
Midway through last year, we penned 2019 Trends in Social Media and Marketing and took a look at all of the trends we were seeing.
Shopping from Instagram and Stories was one of the biggest trends we saw, and that hasn’t changed. In fact, social media users’ engagement with Stories is still skyrocketing. Stories are the best way to share your brand with your consumers in ways that a still photo, no matter how expertly shot, just can’t. The data supports this; The number of daily active Instagram Stories users has increased from 150 million in January 2017 to 500 million in January 2019 (Statista, 2019).
But don’t count Facebook out either. Roughly two-thirds of U.S. adults (68%) now report that they are Facebook users (Pewinternet, 2018). Facebook is still king, and since it now owns Instagram, Facebook has rolled out new features like Stories and other Instagram-integrated posting which are a must for your social media plan.
We might sound like the Brady Bunch, but we predicted video, video, video as another top trend and we nailed this one as well. According to GlobalWebIndex’s latest data on social video:
- 56% of internet users watch videos on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat or Instagram each month.
- 81% of 55 to 64-year-olds are watching videos online each month.
- One in three social video viewers watch videos made by brands every month.
Even more interesting is this Cisco study, which predicts that by 2022, 82% of all online content will be video content. Even if trends fall short of that predicted peak, we still think it’s safe to say that video content is here to stay.
We also saw the rise of conversational commerce this year. According to a GlobalWebIndex report in 2018, 54% of social browsers use social media to research products. This includes asking questions in comments and DMs on social media platforms. Successful businesses will need to be responsive to and engaged with their audiences on social media platforms to develop relationships and trust, which eventually will translate to sales.
Finally, we predicted that the demand for consistency and transparency would continue to grow in 2019. Social media users are becoming more sophisticated and are looking for transparent, authentic information about products, brands and companies before they buy. With regulations like GDPR and tagging branded content in play, transparency is not just a consumer preference, but also a legal requirement. We predict that these trends will only grow in 2020 and beyond.
We’ll be back at the end of January after the AFCI/TNNA Creativation show with our predictions for 2020. In the meantime, if you’re interested in working with us to help add new items to your marketing plan, contact us today to get started!
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