Are you ready for 2017?

What does your gut feel say? Well, here’s the deal. No longer is it viable to rely on your intuition to know where your marketing campaign is heading. We are now living in a data analytics world – and if that does not sound as exciting as the material one decades ago, believe us (or at least the trend setters who have studied this growing technology phenomenon) data analysis will take you to the next level.

Analyse it, use it well and be set to soar! But do remember to look at solid (that’s reliable and not vague) data. Garbage in, garbage out, still applies.

Are you talking to me?
Personalise, personalise, personalise your marketing. If you don’t, like a petulant teenager, your customer will tell you to ‘talk to the hand’. A brand is and means so much more than just an object or service to the customers. It’s all about the experience (and yes, you’ll still hear that a lot next year). So, what is your experience, what are you offering your customer, what will they sense and remember and why will they want more? To add to the familiarity it is thus important to make the relationship personal. It’s the move from ‘it’ to the feel of ‘us’, you and we.

And…… action!
For the love of words, this is a particularly challenging one. But, lingo, language and understanding have already changed so much that perhaps it’s time to retire the thesaurus; it just can’t keep up! In our world of short attention spans, video is a brilliant medium to engage your customers – make them laugh, make them cry, make them understand your brand, make them want to be your brand… see where we are going here – experience it, quick quick.

Understated statements
Also, be subtle. Work your way into appropriate social media channels, for example a blog or a tweet – and be retweeted. Consumers are wise. Brashness is as out as the selfie stick (the phone-brella is now in) and it’s the ‘scent’, that you leave behind that will add up your cents. Millennials can spot a sales pitch a mile away and in any case, they do not have the patience for it. They are a wise consumer. They are a powerful consumer. And they can use channels just as effectively as you.

Don’t shout, just play it cool and take the above into consideration when finalising your 2017 marketing strategy. The trick is to make the planned seem unplanned.

For more information on what’s on fleek in the marketing world, you can’t miss Madex 2017, the ultimate marketing, advertising, design, social media, eventing and all the good stuff expo. Madex 2017 takes place on 07 and 08 June 2017 at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg. Visit www.madex.co.za for the details.

Expo expert extraordinaire, Nick Sarnadas is the Madex 2017 event director at Specialised Exhibitions Montgomery. With enough coffee, Nick feels that all things are possible – they might be highly unlikely, but they are possible.

By Nick Sarnadas, event director: Madex 2017, Specialised Exhibitions Montgomery