2015: THE YEAR OF…?
To be honest, I don’t put much stock into New Year’s.
For revelers, New Year’s Eve is amateur night and, save for college bowls, this time of year for me is pretty much like every other week. The work on my plate at the start of 2015 is pretty much the same as it was at the end of 2014, and both myself and Leverage are as psyched about what’s in front of us this calendar year as we were in the past.
The new year does, though, provide a good opportunity to look forward.
Listed below are a handful of predictions for 2015 and possible trends to watch out for, in and beyond the digital marketing strata. While some of these are more likely to come to fruition over others, I think it will be interesting to see how each of the scenarios below pan out 12 months or so from now.
- Marketers in the U.S. will spend more on mobile search — both PPC ads and SEO – than on desktop. According to a new report from digital research firm, eMarketer, less than a quarter of search spend went to mobile last year, and by 2018, the tables will turn. Mobile is expected to account for 76.7 percent of search spending by then.
- The first of the new “Star Wars” trilogy will break box office records. The original three will still be the best.
- Magento will continue to outpace other shopping cart solutions. Last year, they had 26% of the market share and increased by 34% in the Alexa top 1M sites. Magento’s percent share is projected to increase even more as the number of ecommerce sites balloon and other carts also increase in size.
- Adele will put out her first album since “21.” Five million people will purchase it, yet and it will be deemed a failure.
- Ghost buttons will become more prevalent on certain types of websites, especially designs featuring full width images on the home screen and sites using full screen videos.
- The Chicago Blackhawks will, for the third time in the last five years, bring the Stanley Cup to the Windy City.
- Google will experiment on mobile with more left and right swiping motions on SERPS and increasingly novel UI. They will also try and find new ways to expand the paid presence on the mobile SERPS.
- “Better Call Saul” will be no “Breaking Bad.”
- Journalists will rebrand themselves as Content Marketing Specialists.
- Above the fold will become less important than ever as people continue to scroll. If the content works and is engaging, they will scroll. The younger generation has been scrolling on iPads and other devices for years and this is becoming a de facto standard. Having to click to get information can be considered annoying.
- Hillary will run.
- Chris Christie won’t.
- eCommerce advertisers will make Shopping Ads and CSEs the backbone of their online search marketing. This will upstage Classic text.
- Cards design, which is increasingly being adopted by Google, Apple and Microsoft, will become more prevalent. Cards design is designed to present content, images and video in a clean, concise manner.
- “Mad Men,” “Parks and Recreation” and “Two and a Half Men” will end. The internet will be littered with complaints about their finales.
- Expect more search marketers to have to diversify their skill set and thinking more like display marketers. Personas and behavioral targeting will increasingly layer on top of the typical keyword based targeting.
- Courtesy of new coaching staffs, the Cubs and the Bears will reign supreme in 2015.