New year, new trends. As we enter a new year, our team is expeditiously working to identify new trends in digital marketing, graphic design, and public relations to deliver extraordinary value to our clients ad their programs. To be successful, we have to keep our fingers on the pulse and continue generating bold ideas that are on the cusp of the latest trends and research in our field.
Our three departments worked in unison to unlock the 2023 ideas that would wow our clients:
Digital Marketing
1. Zero-Party Data & Form Building
Ain’t no party like a … zero-party? Everyone is familiar with the terms first-party, second-party, and even third-party data — but what does zero-party mean, and what does it have to do with digital marketing?
Zero-party data is information from customers they voluntarily and deliberately share with you. It can be acquired through quizzes/polls, website activity, customer profiles, customer messages, and others. It can then be used to build personalized and specific product suggestions, interactive experiences, and targeted marketing for each customer at scale. This provides large opportunities for marketing agencies to help brands develop their audience database and collect the most valuable data available to businesses.
However, Apple is leading the charge to increase device privacy and reduce the amount of third-party data that can be used for targeted digital advertising campaigns. As a result, in 2023, it will become essential for brands to procure and utilize their customer data by collecting and utilizing zero-party data. This process allows for more personalized digital marketing and acts as a failsafe in a digital world, allowing less audience targeting information.
How can you start collecting? Building sophisticated contact forms on your website or app is the first step. These intuitive tools will allow you to gather valuable audience insights and information which can be used for targeting in digital marketing campaigns.
2. Voice Search & SEO Optimization
“Hey, Siri, what is voice search?”
Everyone is familiar with voice search. Whether we are talking to Siri or Alexa, this technology is changing the way consumers search for products and services. Google reports that 27% of the global population will use voice search on mobile devices in 2022, which will only increase in 2023. Research from PwC says that 61% of those aged 25–64 who already use a voice device intend to use it more in the future.
Tequila brand Patròn is an example of a company that’s seen massive success from tapping into this trend. Smart speaker users can ask their digital assistant to “ask Patròn for a cocktail recipe.” This helps increase brand awareness and visibility and enables users to buy the product directly from the recipe results.
So, how can you optimize your website for voice search? Use more extended, more conversational phrases on your website and try to answer questions directly. Combining these search engine optimization tactics can help make your website more visible to voice searches. This has the bonus of making your content more likely to be picked up as a featured snippet or found at position zero on Google.
Graphic Design
3. Inclusive Visuals
The importance of inclusive visuals continues to be at the forefront of 2023 design. From representation to accessibility, consumers are seeking brands that value diverse experiences. Inclusive visuals encompass all shapes and body sizes, skin colour, hair style and texture, clothing styles, expressions and emotions, and people who require additional accessibility support, to name a few. These visuals can be represented in many ways, such as illustration-based design, photography, and abstract shapes used to represent people. Another important aspect is ensuring brands are hiring a diverse marketing team who can share their stories authentically. Illustrator and artist Thaddeus Coats, is capturing diverse narratives through “luminous and thought-provoking graphics in innovative ways to amplify Black voices. By placing diverse representation and optimism at the forefront of his work, Coates shows his viewers that they, too, belong in all facets of art.” Coates has recently worked with Kellogg’s on a cereal campaign and new characters for the Cartoon Network.
Colour is an essential part of a design that has the power to amplify a brand’s recognition, but its impact is only as strong as how people perceive the colour. Colour Vision Deficiency (CVD) affects 4.5% of the world’s population, and Adobe has developed a tool for designers to ensure their colour selection is accessible and impactful for everyone. The Contrast Checker and Colour Blind Safe tool is one tool the Blue Door design team utilizes to select an accessible colour palette in which the colours are different enough from each other and have high contrast when used together. When a colour palette has little differentiation, a very colourful graphic can look monochromatic to others.
Our team is constantly researching new tools and training material to guide Blue Door design methodologies and approaches to deliver inclusive design systems. Here are a few examples of additional resources and tools that have been useful for our team:
- Leonardo Colour Tools for Design Systems
- Inclusive Design Principles & Examples
- The Inclusive Design Guide
- Accessible Design vs. Inclusive Design
4. Augmented Reality (AR)
Augmented Reality (AR) has changed how consumers shop online, engage on social media platforms, and appreciate art. We are only scraping the surface of AR’s capabilities. According to Market Research Future, the AR Market is projected to reach 461.25 billion USD by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 41.50%.
With the spike in online shopping behaviour, AR has played a large role in bridging the gap between seeing the item online and how it would fit into the purchaser’s everyday life. According to Google's 2019 AR Survey, “66% of people are interested in using AR for help when making purchasing decisions.” Ikea has launched a "Preview" feature on its app that allows customers to virtually place furniture in their homes and visualize its scalability before making a large purchase. As Blue Door continues to develop e-commerce websites, we must consider the shopper’s virtual interaction with the product, such as including 3D product renderings and interactive spaces.
We are familiar with social media filters, but brands and creators are taking the concept to a new level utilizing AR. Miami-based artist Morel Doucet and digital artist Isabelle Udo developed an immersive learning installation about climate change utilizing AR filters. The content creator and photographer David Suh visited the installation during Art Basel 2022 and documented his experience with the immersive world in which the filter turns a flat mural into a 3D space. Tetragrammaton is another creator who uses filters to bring life to his artwork. A still painting becomes animated simply by looking through your phone camera when the filter is activated. Blue Door can incorporate this concept to add a new dimension to client events, influencer campaigns, and out-of-home advertising.
From a brand perspective, AR filters are affordable investments that lead to brand loyalty and higher engagement. Brands like Nike, Gucci, and Coach are great examples of successfully developing branded filters which will continue to be a trend in 2023.
Public Relations
5. Be Real About Social Responsibility
