Consumer to be the winner as digital media explodes

Who would have thought this time last year that Pinterest was about to have a popularity explosion? Who saw the $1 billion (Dh3.678 billion) buyout of Instagram, which at that time was still a relatively niche application? Did anyone actively seek out the latest musical offering of Psy?

As the majority of the human race embraces various types of digital adoption, it is important to begin with how fast we are actually moving. To predict the future of digital in 2013 is next to impossible given the pace at which it moves but we are sure to see the following trends gain greater momentum and insertion into the ‘digital clutter’ we all inhabit.

While most people think of second-screen as checking Twitter while watching the latest episode of their favourite TV show, we will witness second-screen evolve more into a series-companion for an enhanced consumption experience in 2013. Stories of network series like Game of Thrones have already surfaced with news of exclusive second-screen content being produced in the form of web and native apps that deliver a richer experience to consumers.

If this gains traction, could conjoined ads then follow? If media agencies have anything to do with it, then yes.

Mobile will start to become a real concern for marketers in 2013; but this is far from a revelation. The conversation continues to occur due to the astronomical amount of data pointing towards the adoption and dominance of mobile in 2013. The concern is that a better mobile marketing experience (context driven, adaptive, relevant, aesthetically pleasing) is not being delivered to users.

Mobile needs to register with users on their terms and engage them with something meaningful. This is going to be the digital challenge for 2013.

Omnichannel Stories are going to play a big part in digital in 2013. Being present and available across the user’s behavioural path is critical for any brand. Every potential contact or touchpoint will be integrated with others.

This shift in user connectivity offers an opportunity to interlace our conversations with users into a more coherent story, with story being the operative word. The days of subjecting people to marketing noise are over, integrating experience and fragmented (brand) story telling that users can dip in and out of at any point, should be a precedent for any campaign activity.

This will also be the year of real-time; bidding, consumer engagement, brand-to-follower conversation, online customer service and content to name a few. For better or worse, the Internet has allowed for instant gratification and like it or not, that is what users in 2013 will expect.

Technology can always operate in real-time, but can brands?

This year will see the addition of intelligence into every day, ordinary objects. This is a model change for all agencies that in 2013 should start thinking about physical product development.

Products that are connected so you can tweet to water your plant or push a button to order pizza — it’s all out there and happening and the only boundary for development of devices ‘talking’ and interacting is our imagination.

As arduino kits, Bluetooth parts and SDKs become more open, we will hopefully see some brands applying this to their outbound marketing efforts in 2013.

Social listening and online monitoring were born as an afterthought in 2012, a monthly report would suffice. Did anyone really act on the analytical results? Were campaigns created based on the data? Probably not.

A prediction TBWA stand by is a new strain of online advertising that may be born this year where brands act as facilitators to the needs and conversation of what users actually want and how they react in real-time to online and social-based engagement that is planned from a robust listening and analytical perspective.

The evolution of digital in 2013 should not be an adaptation of print or anything else, it should be a content-rich ecosystem that anyone can inhabit and interact with on their own terms. 2013 is the year of the consumer.

The writer is the head of TBWA\RAAD Digital Arts Network.