How Current Societal Behaviour Influences Marketing

Video Marketing

Video marketing is like a one-way hug. It’s a content format that compels people to engage in an auto-play function on most social media platforms (i.e. Facebook and Instagram), while still allowing them to enjoy the interaction. Moreover, it garners more engagement as compared to photos or stationary content, making it an addictive trend.

Many marketers utilise video to revolutionise their customers’ search intent. Trending video formats encouraged brands and content creators to shift away from hard selling, and to move towards educating its respective audiences instead.

Photo Source: Shane The Food Range Stephanie Soo Fornite Clips

According to Tubular Labs Intelligence, here are some trending video content styles in 2018 so far:

1. Switching Lives (Involves swapping clothes, cosmetics or any other items or elements with another creator to create more valued content)
2. 24-hour (i.e. “A-day in the life of X” content)
3. Food Fanaticism (i.e. Mukbang and Street Food videos)
4. The Anti-tutorials (i.e. What not to do during a break up)
5. ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response – where people feel soothed and comforted with different sound effects such as: someone biting into crispy fried chicken, the sound of squeezing sponges, and the sound of nails tapping on wood etc.)
6. Fortnite Funny Moments
7. Funny Videos
8. Evolution of Dance
Other than content, the type of video formats used on social media makes a big difference. Vertical video formats have recently been rising in popularity and are even on par with square video formats. The viewership rate for this new vertical format is only expected to rise, with speculations of TV-series reruns being played on IGTV. Mobile users are subconsciously eliminating distractions on screen and combating their 8-second attention span by not scrolling down.

Recommentations:

Brands can hop on the vertical video format train and publish content around trending themes, either as an engagement content on IGTV, or as canvas ads on Facebook.

Collectiveness & Community Indulgence

Photo Source: Goal of Dancess Akiddos Lipi.Ghandi Ghetto.Spider Zona_info Aphangvanvan

At the time of writing, the ‘KEKE Challenge’ is what every youth is grooving to – except the choreography is done after jumping out of a slow moving car. One of Drake’s songs – “In My Feelings” was recently made popular by Shiggy, who started the KEKE Challenge. Netizens have shown an exponential increase in dance mob participation over the years, and many other social media challenges such as the “What The Fluff” challenge, the Backpack Boy dance, or older examples from the past such as ‘The Cinnamon Challenge’ and the ‘Harlem Shake’.

Watch Malaysians do the ‘KEKE Challenge’ here, and check out these 35 YouTube Trending Challenges (by July 2018) here.

All these are driven by a need to belong; whether through a shared interest, a community, or around a current trend. Physical communities may not be able to unite everyone, but with internet communities, there are no barriers.

Recommendations:

Brands could probably do the ‘KEKE Challenge’ with their fellow colleagues or brand communities, depending on whether it’s a B2B or B2C marketing. Besides that, brands could also explore or create other community-based memes that are trending.

However, Malaysia has recently advised youngsters to stay off the roads while doing the ‘KEKE Challenge’ to avoid the possibility of any serious accidents. So Malaysians: dance safe, and stay in your vehicles!

The Rise in Competitiveness

Photo Source: eBay Play-Asia

The craze for Battle Royale games like Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) are taking over millennials and Gen Zs – together with everybody’s favourite childhood role-playing game, Maple Story, when it made a mobile version comeback in 2018. From that, we saw a rising trend in competitiveness beyond the average ‘gamer’ demographic, both internationally and locally.

Focusing on Battle Royale games, the PUBG hype in Malaysia rose to fame when the mobile version was launched, especially among non-regular gamers and females (where their gaming market share is known to be much smaller than males). Meanwhile, Fortnite was propelled to fame by a Twitch and Youtube streamer, Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins, with an average of 120K viewers during his streams. Ninja is also the fastest to reach 10 million subscribers on YouTube, roping in celebrities like Drake for a live stream with him.

The phrase “Winner Winner Chicken Dinner” from PUBG was popularised when the game started gaining massive player communities. It has even become a meme – the phrase is said whenever people are competing in real life or online, or when someone is about to have dinner or chicken for dinner. This phrase is widely used among Malaysians, even by people who do not play PUBG. In Malaysia, the meme-worthy phrase is used across social media platforms and daily conversations or in situations where challenges are accepted. Even some local chicken-selling hawker stalls jumped on the bandwagon to include the phrase on their mastheads and banners.

Recommendations:

What does this mean for brands? The success of Fortnite and PUBG created the opportunity for brands to engage with a wider audience through gaming influencers. Brands relevant to the e-sports industry can generate sales leads from online streaming platforms, or capitalise on digital and offline marketing gearing towards competitive consumers who are familiar with these aforementioned games.

Expect brands to sponsor gaming influencers with their products and services for in-stream product placements, or advertise directly during Twitch streams on banner ads, rolling ads or small videos.

Additionally, with PC turned-mobile games spiking the increase of gaming across a wider audience, it could lead brands to ride on the video game trend. Companies could match marketing messages to memes or popular elements within the game in order to gain more awareness and improve engagement. Brands in Malaysia can look into Maple Story M especially, while the app is still on the rise from iOS and Android downloads.

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