Every new year brings a long list of must-read predictions and new game-changing digital trends popping up in inboxes and newsfeeds around the world.

News to no one: Leading brands and smart marketers alike must constantly learn and adapt to new tools, platforms, technologies and more, to navigate through the increasingly complex and competitive digital marketing landscape.

We could talk for hours about the latest technologies, devices or trends we think will or will not shape marketing in 2016 … but remember: digital trends aren’t really the point. Smart brands will spot the opportunities.

Instead, let’s look at a far more fundamental driving force … more powerful and empowered than ever – the Consumer. Today’s consumers expect and demand more. Consumers want more personalised experiences seamlessly integrating with their lives. They are becoming less forgiving of brands that disappoint them. They vocalise their opinions and views. In 2016, consumers will embrace digital services that offer smart solutions: Save me time! Save me money! Make me a better person! Make everything easier for me!

Digital marketing in 2016 will thus be about understanding the motivations, emotions and behaviours of the consumer at every touch-point in their complex purchasing journey. To steer your business forward, you will need to adopt a contextual approach — delivering real value when and where consumers demand it — to meet consumers’ demands for more meaningful engagement while meeting your own business needs.

Here are 7 key takeaways from the very interesting TrendWatching’s Trend Report 2016:

1. Put Your Customers To The Test: Only The Worthy Will Be Served

We all know that today’s consumers have shifted their desires away from ownership and towards experiences.

In affluent consumer societies, whether people acknowledge it or not, status is the number one motivator driving much of what they do. In 2016, brands will show customers that real privileges (the only true status that remains) must be earned on merit. Consumers will embrace a new form of exclusivity that demands to prove skills, creativity, good taste, and so on. In other words, prove their worth to the brands they desire.

2. Centre Of Youniverse: Personalisation Beyond Product Customisation

In 2016, empowered by technologies and driven by a fundamental desire to unlock deeper personal truths, consumers will seek out personalisation that can reveal more authentic, often subconscious, aspects of their personalities.

Saturated by social connections and digital-fuelled instant encounters, consumers will also embrace playful experiences, events, products and services designed for them to enjoy … alone!

3. Betterment: Leveraging Digital Technologies For Self-Improvement

Digital technologies not only offer convenience but also, more importantly, paths that can lead consumers to achieve a better version of themselves. In 2016, expect rising expectations around the use of digital technologies and virtual reality for personal growth and self-improvement. What form of self-improvement would consumers turn to your brand for?

4. Contextual Omnipresence: Meeting All The Moments Of Needs

Focus on the customer needs and wants rather than the technological possibilities. Don’t limit your product, service or experience distribution to traditional channels. Customers – not businesses – decide which channels will succeed. Put yourself in the shoes of the users, and ask where they’re most likely to be struck with a need that you can meet. Create a new channel and get there before your competitors!

In 2016, consumers will embrace smart brands that use new channels and nuanced contexts to be there, as and when they’re needed.

5. Key Social Influencers: Blurring The Line Between Creators And Fans

New technologies and the digital revolution have led to the emergence of new breeds of influencers and new-style creators, sometimes more popular than full-fledged celebrities. Reaching massive audiences and engaging with them at a whole new level (their fans want instant connection and special treatment), they are driving a vast economy that incorporates new products, services, digital tools, live events and more. There is an opportunity for you to partner with them, empower them – and profit!

6. Human Brands And Better Business

Digital has fundamentally changed the way brands behave. Many have started to neglect a key factor: to truly connect with people in the digital age, brands must be human. Consumers will intensify their search for those brands innovative enough to create relationships and authentic connections that go beyond the superficial and transactional. In 2016, the right internal culture becomes an external asset.

7. Informal Content and Participative Livestream To Cut Through The Noise

Our attention span is more fragmented than ever before. Conditioned to expect seamless connections (constant alerts, notifications, messages), consumers tend to see the world through their smartphones and other digital devices.

To cut through the noise, brands will need to speak the language of customers: fast and informal, easy to understand, use and share.

In 2016, demanding active, real participation in order to watch or unlock content will be a way to grab the attention of the distracted.

Now: Get Going And Win!

Trends are just a means to an end. We hope these consumer trends have inspired you to take action, in the coming days, weeks or months, to better serve, delight, surprise and build stronger relationships with your customers.

And finally … here’s to a successful 2016!

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