• by Michael McLaren , Op-Ed Contributor, June 16, 2021

With each passing day we enter a new stage of our "next normal." It’s been remarkable to watch how marketing has evolved over the past few months to meet new habits and demands of consumers in a hybrid world – one that takes omnichannel strategies to the next level.

After a dormant year, the travel industry predicts domestic travel to bounce back in the third quarter to pre-pandemic levels. For marketers looking to get back into out-of-home (OOH) advertising as lockdowns end, digital-out of-home (DOOH) presents additional opportunities to reach target audiences. It’s no surprise, then, that “networked digital signage” was a trending topic last week among marketers, as measured by Bombora Company Surge — pointing to a growing interest in DOOH advertising, which empowers advertisers to create immersive, memorable, and often interactive campaigns. As people emerge from the pandemic and travel begins to fully take off, digital out-of-home can take the benefits of traditional OOH even further through improved metrics and better targeting.

I’ve written in the past about how the lack of in-person events and communal activities has led to a continued rise in online social networking and apps. This week, I would like to turn your attention to “social business” or “social enterprise.” Defined as, “a business created and designed to address a social problem,” intent data show “social business” experiencing a dramatic rise in interest among brands recently.   

Anyone with a smartphone has experienced firsthand the powerful role social media has had in our everyday lives from the economy, politics and entertainment to civil unrest and everything in between. But what happens when social and business are intertwined, and influence becomes the real currency? Widespread use of ethical practices such as impact investing, conscious consumerism, and corporate social responsibility programs mean that now is an opportune time for brands looking to make the leap to social impact by tapping the next generation of digital talent. 

“Advertising solutions” was another key search term among both agencies and marketers in recent weeks, after experiencing a dip in interest in late May. 2021 has been a year of transition, and with that come extreme growing pains in nearly every sector. One of the hard-learned lessons of the pandemic was to prioritize people’s rapid learning, which is why today’s fastest-growing companies are building agility, mastering adaptiveness and operating around outcomes. Rather than build operations around a defined customer journey, channel, or product life cycle, marketers must focus on meeting customers’ real needs – and collaborate across the enterprise to anticipate shifting customer behaviors, and recalibrate offerings, value propositions, and experiences accordingly.