We hope you had a cheery holiday season with lots of laughs and time to relax. The Tubular team is entering into 2022 fully recharged and ready to hit the ground running. With that, we’re spilling the biggest social video trends we expect to see this year.
We’ve put together a two-part series of our most exciting social video predictions for 2022. In this first part, we’ll discuss:
- How to cut through the clutter of paid ads.
- How to create pockets of community in your audience base.
- How to co-create products with audiences.
1. Expand Beyond Paid Ads
Paid ads will remain a marketing staple, but we predict that companies will focus more on advertising dollars partnerships, and beyond. To stand out from the rest, innovative brands have gone even further than influencer marketing and sponsorship and created some remarkable content.
After KFC created a short Lifetime film with Mario Lopez, the Olay beauty brand followed in their footsteps and created their own short holiday film. Rather than have their products reviewed by influencers or placed in a film, they are actually creating their very own narrative through branded content. The ability for a company to control even the most minute details such as costumes, set designs, and actors means the entire piece reinforces its brand identity and connects with viewers.
Tubular’s DealMaker intelligence indicates that Technology and Electronics are two of the three most sponsored categories on social video today and we expect to see more exciting branded content opportunities emerge this year.
Influencer marketing is a strategic way to go beyond traditional advertising, expand audience, and reinforce brand identity. However, we are enjoying seeing brands act as creators, themselves, and come up with truly inventive branded content that serves to entertain and connect.
2. It’s a Small World, After All
The internet is so vast that it can be easy to feel lost. Audiences are exhibiting a desire to slim it down. We’ve seen platforms like Spotify open up chat rooms, Twitter provides Spaces, and Clubhouse establish rooms where people can have a focused community.
These common interest spaces allow for more meaningful connections rather than relying on newsfeed algorithms to cater to viewing preferences. Some of these groups will be content-centric, and others will be creator-centric.
Look for creators who are fostering tight-knit communities. Oftentimes, these communities take a significant amount of work to maintain momentum and many would be willing to fund that work through partnerships. Participants within these groups are far more trusting and loyal to the creators, as they’ve taken proactive steps to engage and join.
This year, more brands will consider how to create their own offshoot groups. For example, the InstantPot brand has a massive international community who shares recipes in their Facebook group. National Geographic has a niche group called “Women of Impact” that celebrates world-shaping powerhouses! These groups help foster brand loyalty and give you direct access to your audience.
3. Co-Create Products with your Audience
You don’t have to guess what consumers will want to buy next, Tubular Intelligence can help you understand how audiences are talking about and using your products on social video. This year, we saw several brands engaging with audiences to refine their products, bring back classics, and provide customized editions.
Isle of Paradise, a brand known for their tanning drops, exploded on TikTok when a creator put their tanning water product into a continuous mister bottle she bought online. After the trend went viral, Isle of Paradise came out with their very own reusable continuous misting bottle, and recognized the creators too. The product sold out at Sephora in under 24 hours of launch.
Barbara Kristofferson revived an oldie-but-a-goodie when the fashion creator featured the classic vintage brown GAP hoodie in one of her videos. GAP hoodies were a staple of every youth’s wardrobe throughout the 90’s and early 2000’s until their popularity eventually faded and hoodie production ended. But after over a decade, GAP has begun making their iconic hoodies once again. #GapHoodie reached over 8.2M views thanks to Barbara’s post featuring the product.
Influencers today are creative, inventive, and insightful. Tubular helps brands and agencies find influencers who want to be involved in the creative production side rather than just posting product reviews. These valuable players can provide companies inside access to younger generations and emerging trends and we anticipate more brands tapping in to these networks when making big decisions.
Insights to Actions:
- Consider ways to cut through the clutter with truly innovative branded content.
- Quality, engaged communities have much higher purchase affinity than the unengaged masses. Find creators who are proficient in hosting niche communities or create your own.
- Stop trying to guess what products Gen Zs and Millennials want to buy, just ask. Open your company to one of its key values on social media — collaboration.
If your company is interested in learning about Tubular can help you refine your content strategy, contact us here.