Virtualization defines the transformation of digital.

As the world opened back up, an era of digital transformation gave way to the transformation of digital. By this, we mean virtualization: a set of new audience behaviors, cultural norms and technology paradigms resulting from 30 years of digital transformation, hyper-accelerated over the past five years. Virtualization, covered in our report earlier this year, marks a revolution in consumer behavior as people demand more from the digital platforms they engage with, which implicates the ways they look at digital experience, community, ownership and identity. For example, the design of ComplexLand, a virtualization of the hype-fueled annual event ComplexCon, was built around the insight that today’s fashion trendsetters are becoming just as invested in their digital identities as their corporeal ones.

The Social Innovation Lab, who explores up-and-coming trends in social, delved deeper into what motivates some of these behavioral changes in The Search for Meaning. By exploring how technology shapes the ways consumers find and make meaning in their lives, the Social Innovation Lab uncovers how brands can adapt to the new era in digital.

Experiments in the metaverse drive real success.

One of the biggest manifestations of the virtualization trend has been the rise of the metaverse, which many brands have experimented with this year to find their footing. Duolingo celebrated the birthday of its lovable (and persistent) mascot by hosting a game jam in Roblox and building larger-than-life public artwork in Decentraland. Logitech for Creators reinvented the awards show format by building the first music awards show in the metaverse, the Song Breaker Awards.

The fashion industry in particular has found a lot of success in the space. Liam Osbourne, Global Client Partner at the FLUX.Monks, our dedicated fashion and luxury team, shared with Vogue some insight on how the metaverse is an opportunity to become more inclusive. For brands exploring that question and more, the FLUX.Monks have authored a quick bulletin on why the metaverse matters.

As the metaverse continues to take shape, now is an excellent time for brands to continue experimenting in the space, which was a large part of a discussion shared between SVP Web3, Metaverse & Innovation Strategy Catherine D. Henry; Chief Innovation Officer Henry Cowling; and Mike Proulx, VP and Research Director at Forrester as part of our Meet Me in the Metaverse series. Eager to get started experimenting in the metaverse yourself? Our map of the metaverse can help you find the right home for your brand within this quickly evolving space.

Web3 and other emerging tech begin to mature.

In addition to the metaverse, other emerging technologies have fueled transformative digital experiences—most notably Web3. We showed up at NFT.NYC, the biggest Web3 conference on this side of the screen, with an immersive installation for Cool Cats that blurred the boundary between virtual and the real. Meanwhile, Gucci opened the virtual door to an immersive gallery space used to host an auction of NFT artwork.   

More than just a new tech infrastructure, Web3 marks a foundational shift in brand-consumer relationships, a topic covered in a bulletin we released in collaboration with Salesforce this year titled Web 3: The Future of Customer Engagement. For those wondering how to begin making moves in Web3, check out insights from our In a Monk’s Opinion series, which lays out everything you need to know about NFTs and the blockchain. One tip from the Labs.Monks: be sure to make your NFT projects sustainable.

Speaking of the Labs.Monks, our R&D team has continually released missives on the bleeding edge of tech throughout a year of innovation. Their most recent report on generative AI explores the potential of AI tools like Dall-E and Mid Journey that have captured creatives’ imagination (and people’s social feeds). One example of what the tech can achieve: unlocking efficiencies in animation and other production needs.

Creativity and media go hand in hand.

Throughout the digital era, it’s been tempting to focus attention on vanity metrics. But as CMOs invest more dollars into media (and face increasing budget scrutiny with a possible recession), they will benefit from transforming their approach to a more holistic strategy that blends media and creative to optimize their spend. Speaking to Digiday, Media.Monks Global Head of Media Melissa Wisehart unveiled how our integrated media pillar is designed to help brands make this leap.

Uni's relaunch campaign demonstrates this more holistic approach through the development of both the creative and media placement by one partner. With three creative variations and four measurement initiatives, we ensured the creative rolled out across today’s most relevant channels according to their purpose within the brand ecosystem.

When it comes to creative optimization, wellness brand Hatch found great success—and shared some of their secrets in an episode of In a Monk’s Opinion featuring Hatch’s VP Growth Marketing Holly Elliott. Many brands that rely on digital platforms for their marketing face a series of challenges: rising acquisition costs; a limited ability to manage their performance, attribution and audience targeting; and the risk of losing brand authenticity. Hatch assuaged these concerns by striking a balance between creative and performance. In the episode, Holly and our creative performance experts offer insight into how historical performance data can fuel further creative iterations.

Brands prepare for the oncoming privacy era.

While media optimization and performance may be top of mind now, budget conscious CMOs are also eyeing another obstacle on the horizon: overcoming their reliance on third-party cookies as attitudes in privacy shift and as Google aims to sunset third-party cookies with the Chrome browser. And speaking of cookies, VP of Data Services and Technology Doug Hall recently shared ways marketers can rethink cookie consent and management using the Privacy Sandbox platform.

Add to the mix that Google is sunsetting GA360 to make way for its new GA4 platform, meaning brands have plenty of adjustments to manage in the near future. Thankfully, GA360’s sunset was postponed to July 2024, meaning they have more time to perfect their migration strategy. Our data experts put their heads together to create a short guide on how to maximize your move to GA4 before the deadline.

We’ve also got some inspiration based on how other brands have future-proofed their data strategies with great success. We began our partnership with Molson Coors in 2021 with the goal to bring more of its digital media in-house. By taking an ambitious, holistic approach focused on modernization, we’ve since helped the brand future-proof with a robust, in-house digital media team: a data transformation that ranges from data acquisition, data activation and enrichment, and optimization.

And in the commerce space, leadership from Canadian retailer Reitmans shared the role cloud computing played in building a single source of truth throughout its entire organization, joining online consumer behavior with data from over 400 brick-and-mortar locations. Check out the episode of IMO to learn how a strong data foundation helped the brand adapt at speed.

Speaking of data foundations, emerging technologies like Web3 offer new ways of connecting with consumers and strengthening relationships. In an episode of Meet Me in the Metaverse, Ashley Muscumeci, our Director, Go-to-Market, sat down with Jordan Cuddy, Chief Client Officer at Jam3, and Avanthika Ramesh, Senior Product Manager, NFT Cloud at Salesforce, to explore how building a resilient data foundation will help brands get a head-start into the Web3 future. One key insight: despite being a new space, the same rules apply when it comes to user consent. “Even if you are bridging Web3 and Web2 data to bring all these identifiers about a consumer together, it’s really important that the user opts in and provides consent to merge these identities,” says Ramesh.

Commerce goes social and creators go virtual.

In recent years, creators have expanded their digital footprint into new spaces—like gaming and social audio—and have even adopted new content ventures to translate audience engagement into revenue for brands. So, what does the intersection of content, commerce and entertainment look like today? The Social Innovation Lab launched a report earlier this year, The Year of Digital Creators, to explore the state of the creator economy in depth, available in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

One example of how creators have transformed the consumer journey is through the rise of live commerce, the subject of a recently released Social Bite from the Social Innovation Lab. Live commerce blends communities and real-time connection to offer entertaining, interactive and personalized experiences for audiences, and the short deck offers a glimpse into the live commerce journey and how brands can activate audiences every step of the way.

What’s next in the realm of digital creators? Expect more and more virtual influencers in the form of CGI-rendered fictional characters or avatar alter-egos of real people. With the rise of the metaverse and more accessible motion capture technology, virtual influencers are primed to become a more common presence in brands’ influencer marketing strategies—and if you’re curious about the role one could play in your own marketing, check out another Social Bite about how virtual influencers are coming alive.

Here's to a new year of innovating!

With so much innovation in the last year spanning experiences, content creation and optimization through data, there’s a lot to celebrate as we cap off 2022. Looking ahead into the new year, these trends will continue to shape brands’ strategies as they seek to engage with hyper connected audiences in the new digital era.

Where will you begin? Reach out to start your 2023 journey with confidence.

Inspired by these trends, our Social Innovation Lab teamed up with the Phenomena.Monks, a community of strategists providing exploration of social phenomena, to explore this trend further and summarize their findings in their latest report: “Social Commerce Commences.” ​The resource investigates the different influences—including user behaviors, retail, platform features and more—that have made social channels the place to open up shop, and provides brands with some strategies and insights they can use to meet their audiences more effectively across the digital customer journey. The report is also available in Spanish and Portuguese.

How Social Shapes Shopping

Social commerce is all about meeting people where they are through platforms that provide a unique and evolved experience for shoppers. When the pandemic confined people indoors, mobile usage skyrocketed. At first, people turned to marketplaces to buy products that met their basic needs. Now, most feel comfortable buying almost anything on social platforms—even cars—and spending their time in virtual flagships. 

But although the pandemic played a pivotal role in the expansion of ecommerce, it wasn’t the only factor leading to this phenomenon. Successes in China, where social and live commerce are commonplace, as well as the rising influence of creators have both set the stage for everyone’s favorite new way to shop. With each come new ways for brands to differentiate and better meet the needs of their audiences everywhere they show up.

Mindset (R)evolution 

What we considered to be a “full customer journey” has been flipped on its head. Social commerce ecosystems have set the stage for brands to provide an immersive and frictionless shopping experience. Users are no longer passive customers, rather, they have evolved into creative agents. The “TikTok made me buy it” trend, featuring sometimes offbeat and quirky products that have gone viral on the platform, is an excellent example: social audiences now frame their self-expression by curating their virtual identity and consumption. 

With audiences online becoming a greater influence in the purchases of their peers, social commerce represents a shift in power from retailers and brands to people. This new dynamic suggests brands reexamine how they create meaning in each stage of the purchase journey across almost every product category. 

New Platforms and Spaces

Platforms have evolved from being a top-funnel involvement category to a high-interaction experience category. Consumers understand this, and are raising their expectations for technology’s role in their shopping journey. 

For users, social commerce is not a one-size-fits-all experience—so it shouldn’t be for brands, either. For platforms, the race to become the go-to social commerce destination comes down to powering more effective interactions by understanding their customers first. For example, WhatsApp helps brands meet consumers’ growing expectation for 24/7 customer service through a 1:1 chat interface, while Snapchat’s sophisticated AR lenses give people the chance to engage with and learn more about a product or brand. Aligning platform-specific features with the needs of your audience is the key to connecting with audiences on a meaningful and authentic level.

The report goes deeper into the changing role of communities, creators and platform algorithms in brands’ social commerce strategies, though retail stores are in the midst of a significant transformation of their own—one that runs in parallel to emerging social commerce trends as people rely on technology to fill gaps in the experience. For instance, the concept of “phygital” experiences happen when you mix offline (physical) and online (digital) experiences through technologies like mixed and augmented reality. The future of retail is multidimensional and omnichannel, with stores increasingly taking on the role of community hubs and spaces for brand building.

Above and Beyond: The Next Iteration of Social Commerce

Social commerce is thriving. Even though the key forces and players behind its growth are all operating as independent silos and platforms, their impact on consumer journeys and the decision-making process are still shaped by independent influences. When it comes to the future of social commerce and what drives change for these players, recognizing the adaptability of business models, technologies and the evolution of how trust triggers are designed will remain key to success. Social commerce is dynamic. It's fast-moving. And it requires all players to build out processes and tools to help brands and businesses adapt. To that end, our report will help you strategize to lay the foundation for more meaningful, consumer-centric experiences whether in feeds or in the shopping aisle.

This month we look at how social commerce is playing a role in the holiday shopping season, the influence of TikTok on social app development, and more. Find a quick look—and a link to the insights in full—below.

Brands canceling social media as a statement 

While it seems like everyone is on social media these days, some brands are intentionally absent. We take a look at the decision of Lush to deactivate its social media profiles as a statement on mental health. 

Baby Boomers and Gen X as the newest generation of social users 

The hottest audience on social media might not be who you think it is—Baby Boomers and Gen X. COVID-19 has accelerated digital adoption within both generations, presenting new branding opportunities for marketers in 2022. 

Holiday live-streaming and changing social commerce landscape 

This holiday season, many marketers are looking to shorten the path to purchase. Social commerce and live-streaming opportunities present new purchase opportunities across social platforms. 

The influence of TikTok on social media app development

TikTok has taken the social world by storm and other platforms have taken notice. The latest updates across Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube look to take a page out of TikTok’s short video playbook.

Increasing interactivity on Instagram with ‘Add Yours’ 

This month Instagram launched the ‘Add Yours’ sticker aimed at increasing interactivity between users. We look at how this new feature has been received. 

Social Innovation Lab is a weekly show hosted by Claudia Cameron, our Head of Social in Amsterdam, in discussion with the smartest minds in social. The series features digital experts across disciplines and borders to provide a wide-reaching (but snackable) view into what’s happening on social media right now—and where things might be headed next. So from episode to episode, we’ll tackle different platforms, visit different regions and review high-level considerations to inform your ongoing social strategy.

We’ve hit the ground running by launching the first four episodes already, which you can find on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or your favorite podcast service. Below, I’ve pulled some of my favorite insights from each—but don’t let that stop you from listening for yourself, as each episode offers even more to explore.

Why the Future of Social Is in Asia

In our first episode, Claudia sits down with Werner Iucksch, SVP of Social in APAC. Werner drops some impressive statistics on social media use in the region: over 2 billion people are on social throughout APAC, and Filipino users spend a whopping 11 hours a day on social. All that time spent online fuels experimentation and innovation unique to the region, like live ecommerce and other locally grown platforms that don’t exist anywhere else.

But the rise of unique platforms and behaviors means western brands can’t copy and paste their existing social content to Asian markets and hope for success. “Facebook is the biggest player in APAC, but the content that works in the US or Europe won’t necessarily work there,” Werner warns. Instead, they must engage with the local culture: Werner highlights our Idioms of Love campaign with Burberry in China as an example, which reinterprets traditional Chinese love stories from hundreds of years ago with a modern twist.

TikTok’s Secret Sauce

TikTok has quickly emerged as a top channel for brands as they seek to get in front of Gen Z and drive engagement. In episode two of our podcast, our TikTok Strategist Aga Domagalska shares how the platform’s unique creation tools, collaborative spirit and algorithm work together to propel viral hits. But while TikTok may have the reputation of being a viral content engine that supercharges reach, Aga advises against taking shortcuts to relevance.

Decoding Social Signals and Human Behavior

In our third episode, Head of Social Strategic Planning Asahi Ruiz demystifies the role of a social planner. His team’s work is all about detecting and social signals that brands can use to remain relevant amidst cultural shifts. Asahi defines social signals as the cues people observe to help them make decisions and react to the excess of information around us.

One fascinating point Asahi raised is the need to develop research tools that resemble the way people collect information online—an idea that inspired his team’s modern and intimate approach to performing focus groups in WhatsApp. “We need to remember that people exchange information in a different way in WhatsApp,” he says. “Now we communicate in emojis and stickers, and this is pretty relevant when people are getting information in a focus group done in WhatsApp.” Decoding these cues and behaviors can help in the creation of work that is entertaining, informative and resonates with culture.

Connecting the Dots of the Consumer Digital Experience

Now that you’ve gathered some learnings, it’s time to put them to use. Episode four is all about how brands can integrate social into their larger digital strategy. Jouke Vuurmans, our Chief Creative Officer, notes how brands tend to think of social as a separate domain, which he sees as an outdated perspective and a missed opportunity. Jouke notes that brands can shift their perspective to view social as an integral connector across the marketing mix, and hits on our “feed the fees” mentality of tailoring big ideas into moments that drive engagement.

Social media is expansive, with each platform offering unique ways to bring people together and drive engagement. With the Social Innovation Lab podcast, we want to help you keep informed on everything that’s happening in social—as soon as it happens. Stay tuned for even more insights from across the internet and around the world!