What’s Next: Five Industry Trends for 2017

 

By Shae Geary- Senior Communications Strategist

Industry trends are always a great place to mine for story ideas, especially when working with travel and hospitality clients. Some trends, like Pokemon Go! getaways, are short lived. Others, such as eco-travel, tend to define a whole generation and can change the nature of the industry forever. As the year draws to a close, we can’t resist looking ahead and seeing what’s in store for 2017. While none of us claim to have a crystal ball, here are a few trends (W)right On is keeping an eye on for the new year.

People in social networking Free Vector

Smart Technology: Mobile technology will continue to play a significant role in making travel more convenient and streamlined. Smart companies are embracing the technology and enhancing the visitor experience by putting decision making in the palm of your hand. Expect activities such as checking in to your hotel, controlling the temperature of your room and booking activities all from your phone to become the new “normal.”

Digital Detox: While technology may be making travel more convenient, there’s also a backlash to the digital overload of daily life. The response? Innovative programs and services that allow travelers to get off the grid for a while. Wellness-focused offerings such as digital detox spa retreats, as well as activities like forest bathing, which encourage visitors to completely disconnect and revel in the natural world, will give travelers the peace and rejuvenation they seek.

Hipster Holidays: Thanks to the millennial generation, more travelers are choosing to explore lesser known cities and destinations. Along with the desire to go to unique places, this group also seeks authenticity and genuine, local experiences. While not a new trend for 2017, hyper-local activities and edgier, undiscovered venues will continue to appeal to this highly influential, independent traveler.

Glass pint tankards Free Vector

Beer-cations: Craft beer is having a moment. For the travel industry this has meant an increase in travelers who specifically seek out destinations with a strong craft beer vibe. Taprooms, beer events and other tasting experiences are the cornerstone of the beer-cation experience. However, look for the theme to show up in unexpected ways, too. On your next vacation, don’t be surprised if you are tempted by a beer-infused spa treatment or a “beer-tail” that features a unique blend of craft beer and traditional cocktail ingredients.

Solo Travel: At a recent media event, I was surprised when not one, but two female writers admitted that they enjoyed camping alone. It turns out that this may not be as surprising as it seems. According to Lonely Planet, a recent survey of 300 travelers indicated a majority of respondents planned to take a solo holiday in the coming year. Easy access to travel planning resources and the ability to stay connected while on the road are thought to be key influences in this current travel trend. Solo travelers like that they can set their own itinerary and feel that the experience enables them to more easily meet new people and immerse themselves in the local culture and surroundings.

What travel trends have you noticed that seem to be gaining in popularity? Drop us a note and let us know!

In Communications, the Constant is Change

Extreme_Crystal_Ball

by Grant Wright @grant_wright

At (W)right On, among our Values is to ‘embrace and lead change’. We keep current with and help define new best practices in communications. For example, in 2012 I wrote of smartphones surpassing PC sales for the first time and the rise of the Virtual Web. With consumption occurring from smaller and smaller screens, this has important bearing on how we might design a Client Partners’ website, for example. Jump to the present, and as I just tweeted about Apple selling 34,000 iPhones an hour, 24 hours/day for every day of the most recent quarter, we’re well on the way to a smaller-device world.

A year ago, Molly Borchers predicted six trends headed our way: pay-for-play social media, branded journalism, wearable technology and the Internet of Things, collaborative economy, anticipatory computing and super fan marketers. I’d argue she’s six for six.

So with 2015 well underway, in this first of a two-part post here are my crystal ball thoughts on how things might unfold in 2015.

Facebook ‘Dampening’

FB thumbI almost said ‘decline’ and maybe I should. As I talked about last March, with Facebook’s algorithm now rendering organic views to about 5% of the potential audience, it’s become harder for businesses to find their way onto people’s newsfeeds. For businesses that have, say, 8,000 followers yet only 300 of them interact, it’s much less worthwhile than before to invest the needed resources for good content absent a comprehensive communication strategy. A Facebook spokesperson said, “We’re getting to a place where because more people are sharing more things, the best way to get your stuff seen if you’re a business is to pay for it.” However, I think businesses will pay-for-play of Facebook posts less and less.

This leaves non-business Facebook use, and while Facebook is a behemoth, the next generation seems less enthused about it. In his social media analysis paper, a University of Texas student sums it this way, “Facebook is something we all got into in middle school because it was cool. But now it’s seen as an awkward family dinner party we can’t really leave.”

While it may currently be the most used platform, people aren’t interacting on Facebook at the rate of other social networks. While my evidence borders on spidey sense, I think Facebook may well become a MySpace to an alternative, any alternative.

YouTube ‘Dampening’

With the proliferation of video across other platforms like Facebook that no longer require content to be hosted on Youtube, I believe the site could take a serious hit this year.

As Business Insider notes, “In November, Facebook’s share of video posts uploaded directly to Facebook Facebook-Video-Hand-Pressing-Playovertook YouTube’s videos on Facebook for the first time.” The upside of this is that Facebook video views drive more engagement than Youtube, but then more of something that could be on its way to a nothing (as we know it today) for a new generation still gives me pause.

“Social Media Expert” Goes Dodo

My third premonition is that the title, “social media expert” will disappear as the proliferation of platforms makes it increasingly difficult to be an across the board expert. Instead, we’ll begin to see specialist experts as platform use continues to fragment and businesses become even choosier as to which platforms they expend energy. Relating to this, we may also see a resurgence of businesses strengthening their owned online presence including websites and blogs as this remains the only way to truly own one’s audience.

Increased Conversations

As 2015 progresses, brands will continue to move from thinking of social media as one-way flow toward a two-conversationway flow and relationship building opportunity. And for reasons touched on earlier, the framework for this interaction will increasingly necessarily be through paid visibility. I hope when this happens that we see a more organic conversation between brands and their audience. This is beneficial for both parties, although it takes more commitment on the side of the brand to maintain a conversation.

Facebook and YouTube dampening, specialist experts and increased conversations via paid infrastructure are among the things I see in the year to unfold. Stay tuned next week for Part Two of this post in which I see three more potential trends swirling in my ball.

Four PR Trends

trendsLooking at past trends in an evolving industry can be a poor predictor of future trends—whether you’re talking about the stock market or the PR field.

Witness Facebook (a 9-year-old), Twitter (a 7-year-old), Instagram and Tout (both 2 year olds). These are among only a few of the game changers that disrupted the publishing industry. Each is a relative toddler by traditional business standards, and not that many years before their existence I don’t recall anyone predicting them. But their global impact on the human condition is already established.

The trend impacting the PR industry, therefore, is not which new social tool will take off, but that game changers are now the norm. Expect and anticipate them.

Here are four things (among many) I see near through long term impacting PR.

The Story Stays

We like a good yarn. Stories have been told throughout human history and they’re not going away anytime soon. So while the delivery method may continue to break speed records in the unprecedented data age we’re now in, if there isn’t a compelling story to whatever the communication is, it won’t leave the station.

In creating your communications, think about your story. How compelling is it or could it be, and why should others care? And if you don’t have one, then either create one or rethink your communication strategy for most effective resource use.

Multimedia Explosion

multimedia

We are a sensorial species, and with the written word there’s a terrible lack of engagement of the senses. True, imagination can help make up for that. However, the way I imagine Utopia and you do can be very different, meaning there’s a significant control loss of the intended message. But what if I could not only tell you a story, but also engage you in it by your five senses? Instant communication around the planet is now possible with video covering sight and sound that will only increase. But I think it’s only a matter of time before technology allows for an online cook ‘book’ to not only convey with what and how something’s made, but also how it should look, feel and even smell and taste.

Additive Manufacturing

3d printing

…aka 3-D Printing will change everything, and this means for PR too.  I think 3-D printing is trul yRoddenberry’s Star Trek replicator come to life like the cell phone, and why I see it profoundly impacting PR is that currently the world’s societies are built largely around traditionally manufactured goods and related services – shoes manufactured in China are consumed in the USA; medical implants created in New York are used in Canada; an airplane is created and assembled from many different places; etc. Things today are still made for us and we don’t make things for ourselves. PR supports all of this ‘traditional’ world commerce that in the next decade will dramatically change with the advent of 3-D printing for the masses. Like intangibles such as information value decreasing with increased accessibility, so will the value of physical goods change. As it does, PR will change as well, becoming less about conveying a compelling call to action to buy consumer products, say, and more about strategically helping communicate things like B2B opportunities, services expertise, key events, experience opportunities, and political and societal agendas.

Local & Smaller

It’s well established doctrine for good communication to know thy audience, and reach them where they are. With billions of us now having our heads buried in our smartphones more than we’d like to admit, guess where audiences are? Sure, we’re still driving down the freeway ready to notice a billboard, pouring over that quaint thing called a newspaper at Starbucks occasionally, and watching commercials whip by as we watch our favorite DVR’d show.  But increasingly we’re more interested in our immediate environs – our local neighborhood – than otherwise. So as opposed to a broad shotgun approach, PR will increasingly need a precise rifle approach tailored to local geography and interests. And in doing so rely less on large real estate like a full magazine, in-depth television reporting or a regional newspaper spread, but instead plan for consumption to be increasingly on a screen just four or five inches wide—that if it’s showing a picture of a rose, soon enough will probably smell just as sweet.