Eight Trends to Watch for Social Marketing in 2015

© 2014 eMarketer Inc.
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Eight Trends to Watch for Social Marketing 2015
Debra AhoWilliamson
Principal Analyst
October 23, 2014

Agenda
Overview: Social marketing usage and spending
Eight Trends to Watch
Key Takeaways
Twitter –#eMwebinar

Social Marketing
Usage and Spending

Social media marketing is nearly ubiquitous
89% of US marketers will use social media marketing next year

Spending on social is rising, particularly for paid advertising
“Across the board, I think we’re looking to increase spending for social.I think there was this mantra that Facebook is free, but the model has changed.”
—Josh Martin, director of digital and social media, Arby’s Restaurant Group

Marketers are allocating close to 10% of budgets to social media
9.4%
Percentage of current marketing budget allocated to social media
13.2%
Percentage of marketing budget expected to be allocated to social media in the next 12 months
Source: Duke University Fuqua School of Business, July-August 2014

But there is still unease over the path to success

It doesn’t help that social media keeps changing
Is it an ad network?
A video distribution platform?
An ecommerce engine?

eMarketer’s viewpoint:
Marketers must be as sophisticated at integrating social media into their marketing plans …
… as consumers are at incorporating social media into their everyday lives.

Trend No. 1
Social Ad Spending Will Increase, But Doubts Will Remain

US ad spending on social networks is exceeding previous eMarketer forecasts
$8.76
$6.92
$7.30
$5.82
2015
2014
Dec-13 forecast (billions)
Sep-14 forecast (billions)
Source: eMarketer, 2013/2014

In the US, Facebook’s share of digital ad spending is outpacing adults’ time spent on the social platform

Action steps: paid social advertising
Get serious about targeting: “We’re able to be extremely specific with social media targeting. We no longer need to waste moneyhoping that our messaging finds its way to the right people.” —KelleeMontgomery, Ford Motor Co.
It’s not a mass medium: “I think marketers hold just as much, if not more, culpability becausethey’re using these platforms with a mass marketing mentalityrather than trying to figure out how to target effectively.”—Scott Monty, SHIFT Communications
Sync up content and media planning: “If brands are separately planning their media spends and their content strategies, then they may be disappointed at the results.” —Matt Wurst, 360i

Trend No. 2
Organizations Will Move Social out of the Silo

Integration is important to a majority of businesses (but it’s also challenging)
69%
Percentage of marketers who agree that integrating social with broader marketing is a priority
17.5%
Percentage of marketers who “completely agree” they have done so
Source: Forbes and Wipro, Aug. 2014; Forrester Consulting and Spredfast, July 2014

Action steps: structuring for social
Streamline communications: “You should have that client quarterback in the huddle, that brand manager telling his internal team and agencies which routes they need to run. In the past there has been either an absence of or too many people calling plays.” —Matt Wurst, 360i
Empower product teams: “Our marketing division reorganized and put more social media responsibility into the product groups.It makes complete sense, because they're the closest to the demographics for those products.”—Scott DeYager, Toyota
Give social leaders budget authority: “The budgets in most organizations still sit with brand marketing teams.The [social] centers of excellence often … are hamstrung because they don't have budget authority.” —Marshall Manson, Social@Ogilvy

Trend No. 3
When It Comes to Content, Less Is More

The pace of growth in marketing content on Facebook is slowing
+146%
+31%
Source: Socialbakers, 2014

Except for Instagram, interaction rates for brand posts on the leading social sites are minuscule

Social is a primary channel to distribute content, but not the only one marketers use

Action steps: content
Segment and target: “We made our strategy more data-driven.We want to understand our audiences. Who are they? What captures their attention? And then we tailor our content to their needs.” —Laura Powers, Cisco Systems
Invest in social listening: “We developed an internal-listening team. We can look at discussion trends and conversations over time, in real time,that we can then align future content with.” —Scott DeYager, Toyota
Act normal: “It’s [about] making sure we’re present in a natural and native waythat feels very endemic to the platform. Like how normal people would actually be on the platform.” —Sydney Lestrud, GE

Trend No. 4
The Key to ROI Will Come from Within

If it feels like we’ve been talking about social return on investment for years, you’re right

There’s good news and bad news when it comes to measurement
80%
Percentage of marketers who measure the success of their social content
50%
Percentage who measure social ROI (up only 10 points since 2012)
Source: Association of National Advertisers, June 2014; Useful Social Media, July 2014

Nearly 40% of marketers worldwide consider their social media measurement capability “poor”

Action steps: measurement
Raise the sophistication level: “Analytics tools are useful for optimizing campaigns, but that’s a long way from demonstrating business value.We have to be more sophisticated in the way we understand our clients’ business objectives, apply them to the social space and develop metrics.” —Marshall Manson, Social@Ogilvy
Value earned impressions: “The media-mix measurement companies have not advanced nearly enough in incorporating earned media into their models. If you don't value earned impressions, it’s going to incentivize an overweighting in paid media.” —Bryan Wiener, 360i
Get input from multiple stakeholders: “It requires a lot of collaboration to determine what certain behaviors and activities are worth. We're finally starting to see attribution models mature.” —Joe McCaffrey, Huge

Trend No. 5
Mobile-First Won’t Be Enough; Start Thinking Mobile-Only

Social activity is already heavily weighted toward mobile
71%
Percentage of US social networking activity taking place on a mobile device
29%
Percentage taking place on a desktop or laptop
Source: comScore Media Metrix, June 2014

Eight in 10 social network users will use a mobile phone to access social networks this year

of Facebook’s worldwide monthly active users are already mobile-only
30%
Source: Facebook, July 2014
Key fact

Action steps: mobile
The mobile experience comes first: “Some companies are sending content out that does not resize well on mobile. They have to think of those users on mobile as a whole different beast.” —Jan Rezab, Socialbakers
It’s easier to grow content designed for mobile than shrink content designed for a computer: “Marketers should be doing mobile-only or mobile-first. And if you do mobile-first, it’s so much easier to scale up than it is to scale down.” —Anne-Marie Kline, DigitasLBi
Capture users in the first sentence: “If we have a huge chunk of text in a Facebook post, it’s not going to show up that way in mobile.We always try to have the first sentence be a capture point where people can learn more.” —KelleeMontgomery, Ford

Trend No. 6
Marketers Will Embrace Video in Social Media, But Obstacles Will Remain

Facebook is challenging YouTube as a destination for viewing and uploading
Facebook delivers over 1 billion video views worldwide per day, over 65% on mobile (Facebook, Sep 2014)
It is wooing producers to upload directly to Facebookrather than link to YouTube
It had more US desktop video views in Aug. 2014 than YouTube:12.3 billion vs. 11.3 billion (comScore, Oct 2014)

It’s not just about Facebook: Teen consumers are gravitating toward Vine

Social video effectiveness has a long way to grow, however

Action steps: video
Think unique: “The mistake brands often make—and we made two or three years ago—was just taking a broadcast commercial and slapping it in social. Now we’re looking at shorter content. It seems like the shorter the video, the better it performs.” —Josh Martin, Arby’s
Professional is good; authentic is better: Social users “want a different type of content. It can’t be overly produced.It does need to be professional, but for social, authenticity is key.” —Laura Powers, Cisco
Find partners: “Brands are … not going to be able to reach their goals by just producing video in-house. They’re going to have to develop relationships with creative influencerswho already have large established audiences.” —Scott DeYager, Toyota

Trend No. 7
Real-Time Marketing Will Be Redefined

Instead of real-time, focus on “right-time”: Personalization can make right-time feel real-time

Marketers are already regularly collecting social data to inform marketing programs

Action steps: real-time marketing
Right-time can feel real-time: “That thing could have happened three months ago, but when you received it, it was the perfect thing for you to get at that time.” —Anne-Marie Kline, DigitasLBi
Measure success by what you do afteryour real-time response: It “isn’t what the brand does initially, but how it responds and reacts. That points to the larger strategic value of real-time:being a dynamic brand operating in an always-on mode.” —Chris Bowler, Razorfish
Look beyond the mainstream: “We like to tap into moments that are less mainstream but more aligned with our marketing objectives. Moments like Inventors’ Day or Gravity Day give us a brand [image] that’s all about invention and innovation and science.” —Sydney Lestrud, GE

Trend No. 8
Planning for Facebook-First Won’t Always Be the Right Strategy

The youth audience is spread among multiple social properties

Marketer usage of Pinterest and Instagram is approaching the 50% mark

Action steps: going beyond Facebook-first
Customize for the platform: “We’ve seen huge organic reach with Vine because that content is specifically created for Vine. It’s not just repurposed from Twitter, or we didn’t just take a TV commercial and shove it into 6 seconds.” —Kellee Montgomery, Ford
Be someone who gets invited: Some social properties “are not public places. We’re going to have to think about how we can earn the right to be invited into a more private conversation with consumers.” —Marshall Manson, Social@Ogilvy
Expect Facebook to learn from its competition: “The new Facebook usually is Facebook,because they continue to buy these new technologies. It's interesting to watch how they're going to integrate them into the existing platform.” —Scott DeYager, Toyota

Key takeaways, part 1
1. Social ad spending will increase, but marketers that do not embrace the targeting capabilities will be disappointed with the results.
2. Social media will become more integrated into marketing, rather than being siloedin its own group.
3. When it comes to content, brands will take a “less is more” approach. At the same time, social media will be just one of many content distribution vehicles.
4. The key to ROI will come from within. Marketers will get more serious about using internal metrics to measure social media success, rather than external ones.

Key takeaways, part 2
5. Thinking mobile-first won’t be enough; marketers should be prepared for the mobile-only social media user.
6. Marketers will embrace social video, but will struggle with developing cost-effective content that stands out in the cluttered feed.
7. Real-time marketing will be redefined; it’s less about being ready with a rapid response and more about delivering a message at the right time.
8. Facebook-first won’t always be the right strategy, as smaller, more private communities gain traction.

© 2014 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.
ADOBE SOCIAL
Manage workflows, scale social, and ensure oversight
1
Engage users one- to-one and respond in real-time
4
Collect and analyze listening, engagement, and attribution data
5
Integrate insights across channels to improve marketing
6
Listen to conversations across the social web
2
Publish content to targeted audiences
3
Adobe Social
Turn social data into social success

ADOBE SOCIAL
Adobe is driving the evolution of social data
DATA COLLECTION
DATA INTEGRATION
DATA AUTOMATION
The ability to capture and act on social platform and listening data to improve social engagement
The ability to integrate social platform and listening data with marketing and conversion KPIs toimprove social impact on business results
The ability to automatically apply social data across all marketing systems to optimize content relevancy, audience targeting, and conversion

ADOBE SOCIALADOBE ANALYTICSADOBE EXPERIENCE MANAGERADOBE TARGETADOBE SOCIALADOBE MEDIA OPTIMIZERAdobe Marketing CloudADOBE CAMPAIGN

ADOBE SOCIAL
F
@SFGiants

ADOBE SOCIAL
Adobe Social
Turn social data into social success
@AdobeSocial
adobe.com

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Debra AhoWilliamson
Eight Trends to Watch for Social Marketing 2015
Social Marketing Update: Eight Trends to Help Prepare for 2015
2014 Programmatic Advertising Forecast: Digital Display Spending Broadening Beyond Open Exchanges
US Time Spent With Media: eMarketer’sUpdated Estimates for 2014
Worldwide Social Network Ad Spending: Midyear 2014 Complete Forecast

Eight Trends to Watch for Social Marketing in 2015

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