2021 Media Trend Predictions

As we look forward to 2021, there are a few trends we anticipate straight out of the gate…

Written by Carrie Dino, Head of Media at Mekanism

As we look forward to 2021, there are a few trends we anticipate straight out of the gate, based on changing marketing regulations, the evolving health and economic landscape, and corresponding consumer media consumption trends.

Here’s what I’m seeing:

1. Resurgence of ad spend in Q1 and Q2 as brands that have survived 2020 look to evolve their creative and media strategy. This is in preparation for consumers’ behaviors to return to a more normal day-to-day existence with the rollout of the Covid vaccine.
2. A renewed focus on Awareness and upper funnel media campaigns. Due to the uncertainty of 2020, many brands shifted their ad dollars to focus on performance initiatives to keep their business alive. Now as we look ahead to the new normal of 2021, brands are pumping dollars back into driving brand Awareness and Consideration to make up for the ground they lost due to media cuts or reshuffling of media campaign objectives.
3. The impending sunsetting of cookies is forcing marketers to think about new ways to target consumers on and offline, there will be a lot of new solutions to ‘cookless targeting’ entering the martech space. This will likely be accompanied by a renewed focus on direct partnerships with digital brands to align with the content and sites that the desired audience visits. The biggest shift will likely be an increase in competition for ad space with partners that have ad supported subscription models (ex. Hulu), or any platform that requires a consumer to login (ex. Facebook, Google, Amazon) to allow advertisers to target consumers based on their browsing behavior.
4. Brands we work with at Mekanism are more focused than ever on producing quality brand content, content that is additive to the consumer experience, and not just content to ‘fill their feeds’. This is demanding that creative and media teams work in lockstep to ensure that the content we are producing and distributing for brands is tailored to the medium where the message is being delivered to maximize the value to consumers.
5. Expecting to see new social and gaming platforms pop up as consumers continue to seek out a sense of community in the virtual world. This will likely be accompanied by innovations in social and in-game advertising technology.