Marketing Consumer Insights

Trend - Shoppable short-form video content and ads are becoming increasingly prominent digital strategies among brands across industries. This content merges traditional ads with modern tech habits--offering customers more engaging and convenient forms of online shopping.

Insight - The ecommerce industry's growth has been heavily influenced by the convenience of shopping online. However, what's kept brick-and-mortar relevant is that it lets customers test, sample, and see products in person--reducing hesitancy during purchase and making consumers more confident in what they choose to buy. Now, consumers are turning to brands with platforms that offer the convenience of online shopping, while using interactive tech to more effectively showcase product features.

Trend - Retailers are seamlessly integrating text message shopping services into their business models. This allows customers to browse, purchase, and pay for products directly through a text message rather than using a mobile storefront application or website. This reduces online order friction.

Insight - While many consumers are familiar with mobile storefront applications, these apps often present barriers to customers that aren't intimately familiar with the technology. Additionally, navigating and shopping on small phone screens is difficult for these groups as well. As a result, retailers are offering seamless shopping services via SMS messages, allowing customers to interact with chatbots that will navigate the online shopping ecosystem, reducing friction and increasing retention.

Trend - Brands are using blockchain tech as a way to bring nostalgic products and aesthetics into consumers' contemporary tech habits. Everything from retro art to classic children's books are being adapted into NFT formats that balance both novelty and nostalgia.

Insight - North American consumers have been in a more reflective state as local and global issues became more visible— or worsened—over the pandemic. This offers a partial explanation for the current prevalence of 90s and 80s nostalgia. With the rapid changes that happened seemingly overnight over the pandemic, many consumers are finding themselves especially connected to the comforting and familiar habits of their childhoods.

Trend - The current 90s revival in pop culture has extended to toys that were once central in the childhoods of Millennials and Gen X. Brands are now re-releasing classic 90s toys, or using them as inspiration in new products—evoking nostalgia while still appealing to young consumers.

Insight - The Y2K revival in fashion, tv, toys and other culturally infuenced trends has appeal for a wide range of consumers--either Gen Z who view 90s and early 2000s' trends as aesthetic inspiration, or Millennials and Gen X who remember these trends from their youth. When it's effectively done, evoking nostalgia either creates emotional connections with customers, or appeals to consumers who romanticize the past.

Trend - As metaverse platforms gain popularity, various brands are integrating virtual out-of-home (VOOH) ads into their campaigns. Like traditional out-of-home advertising, VOOH formats consist of billboards and signage. However, with VOOH, these ads are on display in completely virtual worlds.

Insight - While the metaverse provides new opportunities for direct-to-you marketing, the kind of ads associated with these strategies can feel invasive and overwhelming for consumers. Because of this, brands are testing out VOOH ads, as these formats mimic the passive style of real-life billboards and signage. In doing so, they are catering to consumers' desire for less intrusive digital advertising while introducing a novel — and appropriately "meta" — tactic for capturing attention.

Trend - Businesses and institutions are increasingly incentivizing sustainable consumer habits with programs that reward them when they make eco-conscious decisions. These programs are linked to everything from recycling to shopping.

Insight - The convenience of today's consumption culture has had an enormous impact on the environment, but also makes it difficult for consumers to extract themselves from the cycle of buying products just to throw them away not long after. Making sustainable choices comes with costs and challenges, and consumers are increasingly turning to brands that help incentivize sustainable purchase decisions to make it easier to be eco-friendly.

Trend - Traditional fast food restaurants are increasingly having to compete with the healthier QSR options that have become so popular, and reward programs are helping them better engage customers and grow loyalty.

Insight - The convenience and affordable costs that were once a draw for traditional fast food restaurants are now being offered by QSRs that also prioritize health and dietary restrictions. As consumers increasingly turn to new, healthier fast food options, brands in this space are having to adapt and offer more incentives to bring in new customers.

Trend - Sustainable-sourced, fiber-based packaging is a newer packaging solution that's being used in the food industry. Everything from produce to canned beverages are now being packaged with these more eco-friendly packaging options.

Insight - The food industry has an enormous impact on global pollution--from production processes and packaging to food waste. Climate change and pollution become greater concerns for consumers, more are trying to be mindful about their purchase decisions and turn to brands that help them make eco-conscious choices.

Trend - NFTs are presenting future-forward opportunities for brands to reward loyal customers. These digital assets are being incorporated into companies' loyalty programs--offering customers access to digital experiences while providing them with blockchain-backed proof of membership.

Insight - NFTs and the metaverse have begun to pique the interest of the general populous. This includes everyday consumers who now, more than ever, expect to foster digitally-oriented relationships with their favorite brands. As a result, companies are leveraging NFTs as rewards to offer customers a form of free and exclusive entry into the burgeoning Web3 space.

Trend - The influencers' creative shorts on TikTok have global influence, and the brand is expanding its reach by collaborating with other business in the creative industry. TikTok's creative collaborations and programs now extend to everything from film to radio.

Insight - Social media's influence on consumers is far-reaching, with users now able to view and create any type of content they're interested in. The creative elements that come with new social media platforms has resulted in more consumers experimenting with the content they view and create--allowing them to engage with their hobbies in a way that also aligns with their digital habits.