9 communications trends to watch out for in 2013

2012 was a mixed bag of highs and lows. Despite a sluggish global economy, humans continued to surprise with their endeavor and ambition to go where no man has gone before.

In October 2012, Austrian Felix Baumgartner successfully completed the highest free-fall jump at 24 miles, breaking the sound barrier at the same time. The British Royal Family continued to win hearts and minds through a stellar reputation rebuilding programme and Lance Armstrong spectacularly fell from grace, proving once again the old crisis adage – the cover-up often inflicts more reputational damage than the original crime or misdemeanor.

Outlined below are nine trends and observations for communicators in Asia to consider in 2013.

1. Authentic engagement rules
2013 will be the year when reputation really matters - when organisations begin to examine the gap between how they want to be perceived and what consumers actually experience.

The bigger the authenticity gap between expectation and experience, the more companies should focus on what is necessary for true authentic engagement with stakeholders.

Key to this will be identifying the reputational drivers that are important to their stakeholders - whether they be society outcomes, such as caring for the environment and for employees, or management behaviours, such as communicating credibly and performing consistently, or customer benefits such as innovation, better value or customer care.

Companies that understand what drivers are important to them and act to close the gap will be 2013’s reputation winners.

2. The little things matter
Companies should make sure they are doing the little things right. The latest innovation may not be as important for customers as saying thank you for their business, showing them the appropriate respect and reducing the risk of the new. For communicators, this means a couple of things:

• Consumers, particularly in emerging markets, will be lured by bite-sized brand offerings that reduce the risk for them of trying something new.
• There will also be a convergence of PR and customer service as companies start to try to manage better the micro-interactions that occur.

3. Glocal with a conscience
Euromonitor’s “Top consumer trends for 2013” predicts consumer rejection of large-scale commercialism. Localisation will gain momentum which will lead global brands to court local culture, relevance and tastes.

4. Mobile on the move
One thing everyone seems to agree on is that 2013 will be the year of the mobile. All companies need to be thinking about a mobile communications strategy – not only for their customers, but for their employees.

Globally, mobile users are expected to outnumber desktop users in 2013. And we are spending twice the time on mobiles than we spent just two years ago, so employees will increasingly expect companies to provide information “on the go.”

5. Wechat and Weibo gain global traction
2013 will be the year where homegrown channels such as Sina’s Weibo and Tencent’s Wechat start to gain global traction. The figures speak for themselves:

• Weibo has 424 million users globally and 42.3 million daily active users
• WeChat has over 300 million users globally adding 100,000 in the last four months alone

6. Content is King
From a digital perspective, we will see a greater focus on content. Companies now have the channels but many do not have the content strategy, nor editorial resources, to make full use of them.

For communications professionals, this means a continuing focus on fresh, compelling, personalized content. Content curation will be a new string to people’s bows. And those who can tell stories that engage yet instruct, and adapt them to different channels, will be in high demand.

7. Marketing Dichotomies abound

Marketing dichotomies will continue to challenge us in 2013. The tension between: 

• Rational/emotional
• Analytics/big ideas
• Words/visuals

The successful communicators will be those who recognize it’s not about either analytics or big ideas, either words or visuals but and/and, albeit in different proportions than before.

Consumers still want facts, but they need to be attached to ideas for them to resonate. Analytics will be the most powerful tool in a marketer’s arsenal, but if the insights don’t lead to big ideas that transcend channels, then consumers are no better off.

The more we can help consumers interpret complex data through metaphors – both visual and verbal – the better.

8. CEOs will really start to embrace social
This is the year that CEO’s will really start to embrace social. Even the pope has faced up to the inevitable, sending his first tweet in December 2012.

In Asia, CEOs are behind the curve in their use of social media channels. Educating them on the benefits of social to reach their stakeholders and helping them develop an authentic voice for the digital age will be a key challenge for communicators in 2013.

9. The human touch will become ever more important
This year it will be important for communicators not to forget the human touch… Face to face meetings will still matter, fronting up in person will still be important, real interactions versus Facebook will be most memorable…we shouldn’t forget what makes us intrinsically human after all!