When it comes to marketing in 2020, Marty Kihn, the Senior Vice President of Strategy for Salesforce Marketing Cloud said it best:

“This was both a cultural shift and a consumer behavior shift, then also an economic shift. Advertisers had to react to all those changes in consumer behavior, the channels that people were consuming ads on, and then the economic pain behind the scenes, which affects advertising. Advertising is very much driven and tied to GDP in general. So I think that you saw tons of stuff that Ph.D. thesis will be about written for years to come happened in 2020 and how advertisers reacted.”

While 2020 threw society a major curveball, and we’re all still working our way through certain things, the business world carried on, and it adapted at a pace unseen before. We welcomed Marty back to Marketing Trends to dissect some of what happened in 2020, including the ways marketers were forced to pivot. Plus, Marty also explains why digital channels have altered the marketing landscape for good and how influencers rose in importance.

• The March to May: From March to May, not only were consumers trying to grapple with their new reality, but brands were trying to figure out the best ways to reach consumers. Overnight, digital advertising and social engagement saw major upticks. Brands needed to figure out how to react to their new normal and it really took between March and May for brands to settle in.
• The Rise of Digital Transformations: Companies realized they needed to digitize fast, regardless of if things went back to how they were prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. This means companies that had gone digital needed to scale their technologies. But companies that didn’t have a robust digital strategy were forced to accelerate their digital agendas at an accelerated pace.
• Influence This: Influencer marketing saw a dramatic rise in 2020. As more and more consumers engaged with digital channels over the course of the year, influencers became more important. With brands trying to send less messaging to their consumers, the ability for influencers to mix products and services into their daily lives became a valuable strategy for marketers.

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