This CMO.com presentation, “Top 11 Marketing Trends for 2014” contains some stuff you could predict, or might just take as obvious. However, item 10 may be worthy of some thought:
More Maker Fairs And Meet-Ups
As consumers get overloaded and begin unplugging and masking their identities online, marketers will need to create more events and situations to give them a reason to interact with their brands in the real world.
When an ecosystem is under pressure and splits open, it?s known as ?squealing,? and consumers will ?squeal? in 2014, explained Sarah DaVanzo, chief cultural strategy officer at sparks & honey. More consumers will ?hide? online via encryption and emoji-speak, such as glyphs and new typographies that confuse text recognition tools, as well as offline with surveillance-jamming wearables, cloaking fashion, and make-up and goggles that fool facial-recognition systems.
?Consumers are expressing a weariness from being online all the time,? DaVanzo told CMO.com. ?This debate will gain momentum in 2014. This will drive renewed interest in pure offline analog experiences, such as old-fashioned, human-to-human real-time interactions from meet-ups to maker fairs.?
I can see the implications of the in-person models in various frameworks. The Design and Construction Network (mydcn.com) started as an online LinkedIn group but one of its success keys has been local in-person events, where individuals form various disciplines could match their online personalities with real faces and names. Conventions, conferences and other networking events have not lost their lustre (though I sense conventional consumer and trade shows have some uphill challenges if they are pure selling events.) Some marketers will assert these developments indicate that hard-rock and intrusive strategies including telemarketing and door-to-door canvassing still work effectively, though I think these methods turn off rather than attract most potential clients.
Nevertheless, at some point, sooner or later, I think you will want to think how you can build some in-person connecting within your marketing/sales models. Lets start making things together, in person.
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