MARKETING

2015

MARKETINGTRENDS

MARKETING

CONSUMER

DIGITAL

HEALTH

2015

MARKETINGTRENDS

Our fifth annual series of trends reports includes insights into the

big shifts that are changing marketing, healthcare, digital

experience, and consumer expectations. In this report, you’ll find

the top eight trends in marketing, each with clues into new

possibilities and examples of brands that got there first.

2015

MARKETINGTRENDS

Abigail Schmelzer

Alex Brock

Andrea Evans

Angela Cua

Azul Ceballos

Campbell Hooper

Charles DiSantis

Chelsea Bailey

Duncan Arbour

Eduardo Menendez

Eric Davis

Fred Harrison

James Tomasino

Jeffrey Giermek

Jessie Brown

Joe DeSalvo

John Mucha

Joy Hart

Julie Valka

Kathryn Bernish-Fisher

Kevin Nalty

Leigh Householder

Luke Hebblethwaite

Matt Groom

Mike Martins

Nick Bartlett

Nicole Sordell

Pavithra Selvam

Phil Storer

Richard Martin

Rick Summa

Sam Cannizzaro

Sarah Brown

Sayeed Anwar

Scott Raidel

Stefanie Jones

Zach Gerber

CORE CONTRIBUTORS

At the core of our innovation practice

is a simple idea:

At the core of our innovation practice is a simple idea: Knowing how

people’s expectations are changing lets us capture new market

opportunities, take smart risks and spur innovation.  

We start by uncovering clues. Clues are data points, great stories,

quotes and pictures that shift our understanding of what people want

right now. We find them in practices around the world and in the

technologies, brands, and experiences that doctors and patients

encounter in their every day lives. 

Over time, those clues combine and connect to reveal trends, a new

kind of inspiration for creating experiences in the moments before our

customers realize they need them. And, months and years before our

competitors realize the same thing.

2015

MARKETINGTRENDS

Focus Group Adjourned

*Poof* – Instant Advertising

Amuse Me, Dear Advertiser

Content Isn’t King, It’s the Kingdom

Humble Brands

Teaming Up

Right-sized Video

Local, Now More Local

We’re following eight trends that show how marketers will earn attention and engagement in 2015.

THETRENDS

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

FOCUS GROUPADJOURNED

1.

IN SHORTThe open secret of

high-stakes websites is

quickly becoming the

standard for message and

marketing testing.

THE RISE OF LIVE MESSAGE TESTING

For decades advertisers have invested heavily in

getting every single detail of a campaign right before

launching it to the world. They used focus groups,

quant studies, intercepts and more.

Now big brands are increasingly borrowing a long-

trusted trick from startups: in-market testing of

incomplete products.

The approach randomly divides an audience into two

groups and offers each group a different option. Those

options could be large or small—from entirely different

homepages to a tweak in a banner ad headline. The

option that earns more of the desired behavior wins. At

least until the next test.

Companies whose conversion

rates have improved over the

previous 12 months are

performing on average 50%

more tests than those

companies whose conversion

rates have not improved.

—Econsultancy, 2014

50%

1.FOCUS GROUPADJOURNED

#1 LESSON: NEVER TRUST YOUR GUT

1.FOCUS GROUPADJOURNED

During President Obama’s two election

campaigns, he charged his digital team

with one big goal: turn the website’s

visitors into subscribers—scoring an email

address that would let the marketing

machine kick into high gear.

To maximize that desired behavior, they

broke every page into its component parts

to determine how each could be most

effective, changing images and wording

on buttons to test their hunches.

Had the team listened to those hunches,

to instinct, the sign-up rate would have

slipped to 70% of the baseline. Instead

the A/B testing brought it to 140%. In fact,

they estimated that a full 4 million of the

13 million addresses in the campaign’s

email list, and some $75 million in money

raised, resulted from these careful A/B

experiments.

1.FOCUS GROUPADJOURNED

“Learn More” earned 18.6%

more signups than the default of

“Sign Up.”

CHOOSE EVERYTHING

The beauty of A/B testing is that it lets

marketers choose all of the above. Why limit

the options we give to consumers when they

can better choose what they want? If five

headlines appeal to the brand, data can rule

that final decision by running all five by our

audience, testing them live to see which earns

the most action.

This revolution in research is turning

traditional decision-making on its head. Taking

the call away from the HiPPO—”highest-paid

person’s opinion”—and giving it to the people

who pay us, our customers.

1.FOCUS GROUPADJOURNED

140%

70%

WITHTESTING

WITHOUTTESTING

*POOF* – INSTANTADVERTISING

2.

IN SHORTThe instant-advertising

era gained a head of

steam in 2014 and is set

to earn brand sharing

for years to come.

FROM IN THE CAN TO ON THE SPOT

Advertising typically takes months to produce. It starts

with a creative brief and concepts and ends with a very

choreographed placement in mass media. That’s why

even seemingly of-the-moment advertising like Walt

Disney’s famous post-Super Bowl “I’m Going to Disney

World!” commercials were created well in advance of

the big game. The spots themselves had to be to the

television stations days before kickoff.

Social media took a big step toward changing that

model. No longer did advertisers have to buy television

time or reserve print space to reach customers. That

middle man of mass advertising could be entirely

eliminated.

But it’s a new kind of collaboration between agency and

client that’s really made instant advertising possible.

2.*POOF* – INSTANTADVERTISING

32%

26%

Laptop Smartphones

20%

Tablets

8 in 10consumers use a second screen while watching TV—CEA, 2014

SOCIAL MEDIA RESPONSE

2.*POOF* – INSTANTADVERTISING

During live events, many brands have their agencies

at the ready to seize opportunity. Oreo’s famous

Twitter ad during the Super Bowl power outage took

just five minutes to conceive and produce because

creative and strategy teams were on site, working

together. It published quickly and was retweeted

more than 15,000 times in the first 14 hours because

client teams were on hand, ready to review and

approve just as quickly.

Nissan won over the Internet with a similar rapid

response, joining the worldwide excitement about

the new royals and reaching hundreds of thousands

of drivers doing it.

JOINING A NATIONAL CONVERSATION

2.*POOF* – INSTANTADVERTISING

The secret to instant advertising is context:

being part of a conversation or event people

are already excited about and are actively

looking online for people (and brands) that

feel the same way.

There may be no annual event for which the

fanboy excitement is more palpable than

Apple Live. It’s where the new iProducts are

revealed and the gossip leading up to it is

dwarfed only by the flurry of online

conversation during it. Samsung took big

advantage in 2014 by creating instant ads

that made fun of Apple's glitchy live video

stream and compared new iPhone features

to ones it had made standard years before. Video: engadget.com/2014/09/10/samsung-notethedifference-apple-attack-ads/

AMUSE ME, DEAR ADVERTISER

3.

IN SHORTThe golden rule of content

marketing is coming to

advertising: Make things

people want instead of

making people want things.

WHAT DO PEOPLE WANT? SHAKIRA, OF COURSE.

3.AMUSE ME, DEARADVERTISER

The most shared ad of all

time was “The Force” for

Volkswagen. You

remember it—the cute kid

in the Darth Vader

costume who believed he

was opening the car door

with The Force, promoting

the remote start feature on

the new model.

It was the most shared

until the Dark Empire fell

to yogurt. Dannon bested

the spot with trackvertising

—a spot that is both a

music video and an ad.

They launched an Activia

spot, titled “La La La

(Brazil 2014)” featuring

Shakira, during the World

Cup.

At last count, it had been

shared 5,409,192 times

across Facebook, Twitter

and the blogosphere,

(beating out “The Force”

at 5,254,667 shares). The

bigger spread is in the

number of views. “The

Force” earned 60 million.

“La La La” is at over 330

million and counting.

Kia recently launched

even more brand-centric

trackvertising with Maroon

5’s single “Animal,” and

with Lady Gaga’s track

“Applause.” H&M teamed

up with Beyonce, Fiat with

Arianna; and Evian with

Rizzle Kicks.

3.AMUSE ME, DEARADVERTISER

Shakira “La La La” Video youtube.com/watch?v=7-7knsP2n5w

Volkswagen “The Force” Video youtube.com/watch?v=R55e-uHQna0

FINE PRINT GETS FUN

Every traveler is familiar with these words:

“Now we request your full attention as the

flight attendants demonstrate the safety

features of this aircraft.” We know they’re

required to do it, but the presentation that

follows is so boring that even its could-save-

your-life potential can’t make people tune in.

Delta decided to rethink that fine print and

make the required safety demonstration fun.

Not just for the sake of entertainment, but to

really earn people’s attention. Their new in-

flight videos include their charismatic

president, triplets, a few comedians, and even

a friendly alien we know as Alf.

3.AMUSE ME, DEARADVERTISER

Delta’s Safety Demonstration Videoyoutube.com/watch?v=eduNjwNvcH4

MORE CHANNELS,

MORE OPPORTUNITIES

The fracturing of original programming is

creating even more opportunities for brands to

develop advertainment. Platforms like Hulu

offer brands much more than product

placement: from becoming part of the story

arc, to taking the characters off set, to develop

brand-centered original programming.

3.AMUSE ME, DEARADVERTISER

Kony 2012 Video: youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc

DYKOnly one (Kony 2012) of the most shared videos of all time is not a music video.

CONTENT ISN’T KING, IT’S THE KINGDOM

4.

IN SHORTRumor is that you’re more

likely to climb Mount

Everest or survive a plane

crash than click on a

banner ad. So why do we

keep making them?

CLOSING THE ATTENTION GAP

4.CONTENT ISN’T KING, IT’S THE KINGDOM

Where do people go with their questions about life and

health? 90% of people turn to the Web first for

information about consumer products or services and

72% of people treat their health questions the same

way.

But, only 13% of them choose our product websites for

answers. We do a little better with doctors: 82% are

asking Google for help every week and 21% get some of

their information from our product sites.

That attention gap has a lot to do with our current

approach to content. Our ads and websites are all about

the brand and not at all about our customers.

Consumers want more than those product messages—

and they’re finding it elsewhere.

Consumers are hit by over 5 trillion impressions a year, leaving consumers feeling bombarded by, what a recent Microsoft study called, “irrelevant information overload.”

4.CONTENT ISN’T KING, IT’S THE KINGDOM

14% 2.8%

WE’RE LIVING IN AN ERA OF BANNER BLINDNESS:

Only 14% can remember the last display ad they saw and the product it promoted.

Worse, only 2.8% say the ad was relevant to them.

-Infolinks, 2014

CONTENT FLIPS THE MODEL

4.CONTENT ISN’T KING, IT’S THE KINGDOM

More and more brands—

from American Express to

Merck—are using

content marketing to

fundamentally change that

model and earn more of

their time and attention.

They’re throwing away the

megaphone of push

marketing that interrupts

doctor and patient alike

with yet another

commercial message. And

replacing it with what

people are actively

looking for: compelling,

authentic stories that

create real meaning and

provide real value.

In the American Express

OPEN Forum that means

200 experts giving ~

2 million people per month

ideas, advice, and

connections that will grow

their small businesses and

increase their use of

American Express

products. For Merck it

means self-screeners,

personal planning tools

and deep content

designed to help people

living with chronic disease

stick with treatment and

lifestyle change. Or, said

another way: Be more

loyal customers.

4.CONTENT ISN’T KING, IT’S THE KINGDOM

OUR FIRST QUESTION TO ANSWER IS ONE OF THE BIGGEST: HMDIS

4.CONTENT ISN’T KING, IT’S THE KINGDOM

When people first go online looking for healthcare answers, they have one big question: How Much

Does It Suck (HMDIS)? They want to know what to expect, what side effects might be possible, how

much will it cost, and when they might actually start to feel better.

They’ll return later with much more personal questions to understand if how they’re feeling is normal or

if there isn’t something more they could be doing. The healthcare brands that are making the deepest

connections are delivering three kinds of content to support them along their very personal journeys:

Information: What happens if

you don’t take your medicine,

facts about how the drug

works in your body, about

what life on therapy will be

like.

Inspiration: Disease makes

people feel isolated and

alone. Bring them inspiration

from people who are dealing

with the same decisions and

disease.

Innovation: Curate and

create apps, experiences,

and products that enable

more empowered patients

and physicians + better living

with diseases.

4.CONTENT ISN’T KING, IT’S THE KINGDOM

DATA DRIVEN CONTENT MARKETING DELIVERS RESULTS:

Content marketing earns 54% more

leads than traditional marketing and

costs 13% less per lead.

Hubspot survey of 3,300 business

leaders and marketers around the

world.

—2013 DDCM 54% more effective

Cost 13% less

54% 13%

HUMBLEBRANDS

5.

IN SHORTA surprising number of

brands are trying to carve

out a new space. One that

puts them firmly in the

back seat.

5.HUMBLEBRANDS

“Even very successful brands leverage their humble

beginnings by using a narrative of their history to

help build brand biographies. Tech giants Apple,

Microsoft, and HP each proclaim that they were

started in a garage. In doing so, managers hope to

construct a brand image that can leverage their

underdog status for competitive advantage.”

—Consumer Research, Georgetown University

KNOW YOUR BRANDED PLACE

After a decade of marketers vying to create the next Big

Lifestyle Brand that fans would not only buy, but make

part of their own identities and lives, we’re seeing a shift

to a less assuming approach. More and more brands

are turning the attention away from themselves, letting

the customer be the story and simply pointing to their

small part in it.

5.HUMBLEBRANDS

71%

29%

UnderdogBrand

TopBrand

Overall, consumers were more likely to choose the underdog brand (71%) than thetop-dog brand (29%).

FIRST, THROW AWAY THE LOGO

This spring will mark the end of Abercrombie and Fitch’s

traditional logo-focused apparel line in the US. Teens

who once sought brand names have shifted to fast

fashion that is cheaper and unmarked, from retailers

like Forever 21 and H&M (Hennes & Mauritz). They

want to put together their own individual styles, not

emblazon themselves with a brand.

It’s not just teens. Brands ranging from Louis Vuitton to

Michael Kors to Coach have started to limit logo’ed

merchandise. Once considered among their most must-

have items, products bearing logos have been broadly

relegated to the discount bin.

5.HUMBLEBRANDS

Abercrombie & Fitch is dropping its logo from their apparel to meet a shift in unmarked retail goods.

BE PART OF SOMETHING BIGGER

Who’s behind the largest public hygiene campaign in the world? It’s Unilever. And their ultimate ambition is

to reach 1 billion people. At the center of the effort is the Lifebuoy soap brand. Unilever focuses the

brand’s humble efforts on reducing the number of children who die from diarrhea and pneumonia. They do

it by telling stories about families, not about brands.

And by taking action in communities. Like, stamping 5 million roti with a soap-washing reminder at Kumbh

Mela in Allahabad, India, where 100 million visitors pass through. They’ve also created new ways for

villages to connect around better hygiene, like a clever jump pump designed to bring children together or a

simple test to show children how clean their “clean hands” really are. These humble efforts work because

soap saves lives. Selling more soap builds bottom lines.

It’s a double bottom-line approach to social business that creates opportunities for big consumer brands to

act like service brands, expanding their reach and changing their reputations. Coca Cola and GE are

following suit.

5.HUMBLEBRANDS

UNILEVER, “HELP A CHILD REACH 5”

Unilever has built the largest public hygiene

program in the world and delivered real health

impact—reducing diarrhea by 25%, reducing

respiratory infections by 15%, and increasing

school attendance by 40%.

5.HUMBLEBRANDS

Unilever “Help A Child Reach 5”youtube.com/watch?v=UF7oU_YSbBQ

5.HUMBLEBRANDS

BANK OF AMERICAThere’s no better example of this “humility in advertising” than Bank of America’s storytelling campaign, which takes us into the real lives of its customers with this powerful, but deferential promise: We know we’re not the center of your life, but we’ll do our best to help you connect to what is.

Bank of America “Portraits” Videoyoutube.com/watch?v=efAqCmKZDDI

GUINNESSGuinness’ “Friendship" spot takes a similar approach, letting its consumers be the focus of the story. The 60-second spot is all about six guys playing wheelchair basketball, revealing in the end that only one of the men needs the mobility device to play. After the final buzzer, the group heads into a pub for a few post-basketball pints.

Guiness “Wheelchair Basketball”youtube.com/watch?v=0Vxjh6KJi8E

TEAMINGUP

6.

IN SHORTWhy go it alone when the

perfect sidekick can make

your story so much

better?

MAKING IT CLICK

Today’s partners are getting much more

creative about where multiple brands can fit

into one experience. From the floor of Comic

Con to Central Park to hospitals in India,

these brands are turning away from glorified

sponsorships and figuring out how to amplify

each other’s brands with deeper integrations.

Okay, maybe not all so “deep.” Some of our

recent favorite pair-ups include 3D Systems

and The Hershey Company, joining forces to

chef up printable chocolate. Or Pizza Hut

and the Ninja Turtles, replicated the Ninja

Turtles’ pizza-shooting van and letting Comic

Con fans shoot pizzas from the top of it. Yes!

6.TEAMINGUP

Chobani ran a promotion in New York City

with transportation app Lyft. New riders

received a case of pumpkin spice yogurt

in exchange for booking a car, resulting in

19,000 people who received free yogurt

in two hours, according to CMO and

brand officer Peter McGuinness.

RIDING A TREND

Uber will continue to be the darling of urban riders going into

2015. Which will, of course, continue to make them the darlings

of urban brands.

Lay’s made one of the most memorable moves, with a bold new

Uber-assisted approach to sampling. Consumers could log on

to try one of the new potato chip flavors and—with the right

code—have UberRush quickly deliver them a basket filled with

the chips, two sandwiches from Katz's Deli, fruit and two bottles

of Aquafina water (owned by the same parent company).

Retailers, universities, and the reservation system Open Table

have partnered with Uber to deliver everything from mattresses

to dinners. Expect more surprise services in the year to come.

These early integrations point to a new fast-mover expectation.

The first to make the partnership wins headlines and hearts.

6.TEAMINGUP

Pizza Hut teamed up with the producers of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie to create a real-life Pizza Thrower, a vehicle used in the original cartoon series.

BEST OF TWO VERY DIFFERENT WORLDS

As the walls of traditional institutions—like media and publishers

— continue to crumble, more interesting partnerships are formed

in their wakes. One we’re watching is Amazon—now both retailer

and publisher—and Mattel. Together, they’re bringing popular

children’s cartoon Fireman Sam exclusively to the online retailer.

Across the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and more,

Amazon users will be able to watch the best of Sam, via Amazon

Instant Video, Prime Instant Video, and FreeTime Unlimited,

paired with ready-to-buy merchandise like toys, ebooks, games,

apparel, footwear, and lunch boxes.

These intriguing opportunities to bring new expertise to the

experience are extending into healthcare. Think Eli Lilly and

Disney teaming up to make navigating diabetes easier for kids.

Or, Sanofi partnering with India's Apollo Hospitals to offer diabetes

management services via a chain of diabetes clinics.

6.TEAMINGUP

Disney and Eli Lilly’s “Coco,”a monkey with diabetes, helps kids make living with the disease easier.

RIGHT-SIZEDVIDEO

7.

IN SHORTIn 2014, we said people would

rather just press “play” than read

brand content. In 2015, marketers

are going to make that trend quite

a bit smaller.

“I thought that YouTube was like TV, but it isn’t. I was wrong. TV is one-way. YouTube talks back. TV means reach. YouTube means engagement.”—Eric Schmidt, Google chairman

SCREEN SHIFT CONTINUES

Mobile has swiftly risen to become the leading digital

platform, with total activity on smartphones and tablets

accounting for an astounding 60% of digital media time

spent in the US.

Video is a critical part of that move. Every day, more

than 100 million Internet users watch an online video—

40% from mobile devices.

Advertisers are following suit. US brands are expected

to spend $6 billion on video ads this year, with growth to

15% of their ad budgets by 2017. Leading CMOs are

quick to point out that number will just be the average.

Some brands will be spending up to one-third in video.

—Comscore, 2014; Nielsen, 2014

7.RIGHT-SIZEDVIDEO

60%

Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets account for 60% of digital media time spent in the U.S.

MILLENNIALS ARE THE ACCELERATOR

YouTube reaches more US adults ages 18-34 than any

cable network. It is their TV. The challenge for brands is

that traditional methods of advertising often don't

translate well on mobile — both because of the different

screen size and the user expectation.

Eric Schmidt, Google chairman, said it best: “I thought

that YouTube was like TV, but it isn’t. I was wrong. TV is

one-way. YouTube talks back. TV means reach.

YouTube means engagement.”

People use phones differently than computers. The bar

is even higher to make content quick and seamless,

augmenting—not interrupting—the experience.

- Nielsen, 2014

7.RIGHT-SIZEDVIDEO

What better way to show the power of video than with a video?

Shutterstock and Comscore “Exploration of Video Engagement” vimeo.com/90856165

NEW MEDIA UNITS MAKE IT POSSIBLE

Don’t worry, we’re not about to proclaim that banner ads are

dead (again). Instead, they’re changing and evolving to be

more native in more places.

For example, Google’s new ad units are designed to

overcome the limitations of the small screen and deliver a

truly branded experience—mostly based on user interaction

(there’s one that’s a little more, shall we say, not optional).

One is focused on expanding the reach of their popular video

ads on the TrueView platform by taking it from gaming apps to

all apps. Their approach sets the bar high for brand and

platform alike: advertisers only pay when a user chooses not

to skip their ad. And, of course, consumers only engage with

ads that make sense on the device, at the moment, and in the

media they’ve chosen.

7.RIGHT-SIZEDVIDEO

Kate Spade created mobile lightbox engagement ads that dynamically resize to fit any screen size.

LOCAL, NOWMORE LOCAL

8.

IN SHORTWe’ve watched marketers

make incremental changes to

adjust to the digital world, but

this year marks the tipping

point of our big leap forward:

proximity-based marketing.

iBEACON, DO YOU?

Apple is the biggest momentum driver in the

category, with its clever iBeacon devices.

The small, cheap Bluetooth transmitters can

talk to apps on user’s phones when the

phones comes into range, prompting offers,

content, or interactions.

Beyond the iBeacon, all sorts of technologies

—like NFC and GPS—make distributing local

advertising content to users, via wireless

channels such as mobile devices, easy. And

when we say local, we mean hyper-local,

within no more than 100 meters.

8.LOCAL, NOWMORE LOCAL

iBeacon Bluetooth Transmitter

RETAIL JUST WENT FIRST

8.LOCAL, NOWMORE LOCAL

ABI estimates the iBeacon/BLE market will grow to 60

million units in the next four years. Retailers moved first.

Creating in-store promotions and location-relevant content

designed to compete with stiff competition from hyper-

personalized online stores.

But proximity marketing can change any number of

advertising experiences from billboards to baseball. In

fact, it’s already changing Major League Baseball. The

organization was one of the first to deploy iBeacons on a

broad scale in 28 ballparks around the US. They let users

check in to games to get special offers that recognize their

location in the park and are customized based on offers

they’ve used before. They’re entering phase 2 in 2015

with even more content and interactive features.

As with any big shift, the jury is still

out on the ultimate fate of this

emerging trend. Operational

complexities and opt-in

requirements could stand in the

way of fast upscaling. And the

quality of first experiences could

dramatically impact the rate of

consumer uptake and confidence.

But, right now, this is the next

frontier of advertising: interactions

delivered only in the moment

they’re most likely to be relevant.

BULLISH ON BEACONS

8.LOCAL, NOWMORE LOCAL

63%

Consumers who feel a coupon is the most valuable form of mobile marketing

62%

57%

53%

Consumers who share local deals with friends

Consumers who are more likely to engage with location-based advertising

Consumers that are willing to share their current location to receive more relevant advertising

2015

MARKETINGTRENDS

To discuss this report live, request another module, or schedule a

presentation of trends, please contact Leigh Householder at

614-543-6496 or leigh.householder@gsw-w.com