Social Trends from 2014: Data, Ice buckets and a Look at the Future, by Eric Drumm, Account Supervisor, Social@Ogilvy

1. 2014FROM
trends
social
Data, Ice
Buckets and
A Look At
the Future B Y E R I C D R U M M ,
S O C I A L @ O G I LV Y

2. SOCIALTRENDS2014 Data, Ice Buckets and A Look At the Future
I
N A FEW DAYS IT WILL BE 2015. If Back to the Future II is
to be believed, the Cubs are going to win the world series
and we’re all gonna rock self lacing Nike Air Mags and shred
around on bitchin’ hoverboards. Regretfully, I don’t think
we’re tracking to achieve those goals, but that doesn’t mean
the future is bleak. In fact, for the social media industry, it’s
as bright as the after burner on a nuclear powered Delorean.
In 2014 we saw everything from people dumping buckets of
ice on themselves to get out of giving to charity to your mother
learning how to use a hashtag. For brands, there may not
have been earth shattering social content making it onto the
Colbert Report, but the slow burn of social dissolving traditional
advertising and media definitely increased by a few degrees.
Here are a few of the things we recognized
and we see having some impact on 2015:

3. SOCIALTRENDS2014 Data, Ice Buckets and A Look At the Future
Snapchat
isn’t just
for kids
anymore
IT TAKES QUITE A BIT OF GRAVEL in your guts to turn
down $3 billion of Facebook money. However, Snapchat
knows that they have something special on their hands.
In just three years, over 700 million photos are being
shared daily. That’s mind-boggling. The truly breathtaking
part is that their users like seeing ads. 58% of college
students would consider buying a product they received
a coupon for via Snapchat. With an estimated only 1%
of marketers taking advantage of the space, it’s pretty
much a goldmine. While the younger set make up most of
its user base, older demos are steadily adopting, which
will impact what will come from the app in the future.

4. SOCIALTRENDS2014 Data, Ice Buckets and A Look At the Future
Social
activations
for you,
me,
grandma,
etc.
IT’D BE HARD TO TALK ABOUT SOCIAL in 2014
without talking about the Ice Bucket Challenge.
Opinions vary on its ethics and how successful it was,
but I think the bigger point is that it was understandable
social. Something like the Challenge was so simple
and relatable, it’s potential participant audience
was everybody. Literally everybody. Everyone
hates disease, and (pretty much) everyone has the
internet and a bucket of ice. So putting those things
together created a message that had virtually no
barrier of context to understand and enjoy. My
mother would get it. My grandma would get it. The
nomination angle was a built in sharing function that
made it explode. Now that the dust has settled, I
think it opened the door for more group based social
activations, which in turn will force marketers to think
about more than just the individual participant.

5. SOCIALTRENDS2014 Data, Ice Buckets and A Look At the Future
Google+
Rising
FOR ME PERSONALLY, Google+ is like the weird
smelly kid you don’t want sitting at your lunch table.
He’s there, and technically you are peers, but you
irrationally don’t like him. I crack jokes about it all
the time, saying that its B-team at best and is the
Beta Max of social networks. However, looking at the
numbers, I’m wrong. Very, very wrong. According to
Google, the network as 300 million users a month.
That’s nothing to sneeze at. Going into next year, it
may be a good idea to start putting Google+ strategy
into your pitch decks if they aren’t there already. As
Google becomes more and more one stop shopping, it
may start to take some attention real estate away from
Facebook and Twitter. And putting down my haterade
for a second, pictures really do look awesome on it.

6. SOCIALTRENDS2014 Data, Ice Buckets and A Look At the Future
MORE AND MORE IN 2014 we saw social networks
shifting their functionality to be more story focused.
Seemingly everything is moving towards a timeline
view, displaying content chronologically so that it tells a
narrative story. Your story. And sometimes it’s not your
story but that’s fun and efficient too. Twitter has been
nice enough to assemble World Cup and NFL content
for us without us having to go look for it. The larger
point is that the sites have done their homework in how
we, the followers, like to consume content and they are
bending their own framework to accommodate us.
Cool
Story, Bro

7. SOCIALTRENDS2014 Data, Ice Buckets and A Look At the Future
Listen
close
Now fire up the Flux Capacitor because
we’re going to the future! (As in two weeks
from now when it’s actually 2015):
THIS WILL BE ON every year-end list you’re going to read, but
that doesn’t make it untrue. More and more the moves a brand
makes on social are informed by social listening. With the tools
available to you, it seems like a no brainer to not include this into
your strategy. Without it, you run the risk of delivering the wrong
content to the wrong people, making your entire effort moot. And
who wants to be moot? In fact, I think that you’ll be seeing more
agencies creating a full time, always on resource to do their listening
and analytics. Kind of like that Social Command Center that Social@
Ogilvy has built in our New York office that is launching in 2015 :-) ☺

8. SOCIALTRENDS2014 Data, Ice Buckets and A Look At the Future
BRACE YOURSELF. In 2014,
wearables won’t just be for
fitness fanatics and gadget
nerds anymore. The iWatch
and the bevy of rival products
that are sure to come soon
afterwards are upon us. This is
going to be a behavior breaker
for a lot of our everyday life.
Taking a wearable into account
when thinking about mobile
strategy is going to have to
be commonplace. What kind
of content are you going to
serve to people on their super
cool Dick Tracy watches?
Looks
good
on you

9. SOCIALTRENDS2014 Data, Ice Buckets and A Look At the Future
Tweeting
with your
money IT’S KIND OF A PAIN IN THE NECK when you see something
awesome on social and you want to buy it, and have to go through
a couple links and forms before your purchase is complete.
#firstworldproblems, amirite? In 2015 more social networks will
adopt BUY NOW buttons on promoted content that are linked
to your money somehow so that you can make lots of rash and
impulsive spending decisions (and hopefully some good ones,
too.) With Apple Pay, Venmo and Snapcash already making a
dent, it’s probably not that far away for Facebook and Twitter to
jump in next. If you can buy something right then and there, it will
change how we look at and value ads on social in a huge way.

10. SOCIALTRENDS2014 Data, Ice Buckets and A Look At the Future
SONY AND QUITE A FEW CELEBRITIES will tell you
that if they learned one thing in 2014, its to secure
your files. To most consumers, data security isn’t a big
priority. But as we become more and willing to transmit
sensitive data through our devices and social networks,
it’s a growing concern. In 2015 I think people will be
more willing to go the extra mile for security, possibly
choosing one social network over another if one has
better privacy and security. This will become even more
true if we start doing one touch buying through social ads.
WHAT ARE YOUR
PREDICTIONS FOR
2015? LET’S US KNOW!
Private
eyes
hopefully
are not
watching
you