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Everybody talks about the need for disruption and how brand owners are looking towards creating a whole new definition to brand preference. That being said, what really is disruption?

Simply put, this is the alteration of activities, processes or events.

Every brand manager has a history of researches carried out around his/her target audiences. What kind of platforms interest them? Are they predominantly male or female? Do they really have the purchasing power? etc… These are questions that shape your marketing ideas and campaigns. However, this is rapidly changing at an alarming rate. I mean, you are more likely to see someone who can barely afford to spend 5,000 naira every week, using an Iphone6s. This change is happening rapidly. It can be attributed to different factors:

Online Access to Information:  The internet contains the largest amount of information in the world. Online users are most sophisticated than ever. The social media has totally changed the way in which we consume information. So rather than go to search for information, we simply wait and information just come, hitting us straight in the face. This has changed behavioural patterns as people now believe they have the power to make a choice and make their voices heard.

Lower Attention Span: No one pays attention to a brand message anymore. Every online user understands that brand messages are just a waste of time and wouldn’t want to dwell on them. So, as a brand manager, if you constantly push out brand messages, don’t ask why the online space isn’t generating great returns on investments. You just haven’t been innovative in your approach.

Having mentioned these, your target audience of today was not the same target audience 5 years ago. They are not the same target audiences of 10 years ago. Technology and information has changed their behavior. Now understanding this, what is the current behavioral pattern of your target audience? Answer: There is no behavioral pattern. They are unusual. They are unpredictable. They are disruptive!

In order to get their attention, your brand has to be disruptive. Do unusual things to catch their attention. Perhaps developing a fashion campaign for an FMCG brand or a music concert for an oil and gas marketing firm. These may sound absurd, but they may capture your audiences faster than you think.

Monitor: Always make sure that you keep an eye on your ‘target audience’ daily. What do they like? What are their interests? How did they react to a certain story or content? Our monitoring service captures all these behavioural patterns effectively and in real time. Read more about our monitoring service here.

The bottom line is to be very fluid in your marketing campaigns. Status quo works but it isn’t as effective as before. Also, if you don’t try, you may never know.

There obviously will be a lot of talk as regards what to expect – either as a digital entrepreneur or a brand with an eye for digital engagement. Here are our observations:

Online Monitoring: 2016 will spark the rise of online monitoring in Nigeria. As a brand, you are constantly looking to spend less and gain optimal value from campaigns. This further buttresses why online PR is very important. It’s becoming glaring that understanding what your customers say about you and where they say it solves about 50% of your brand issues. It’s an outright win. You save costs by taking out the unnecessary spends and focus on what and where will get you more conversion. Nowadays, customers do not tell you if they have an issue with your product, they tell their friends – who could also have been ‘potential customers’. Read more

I have had quite some people ask me about this question – Will people click on my banner ads? While it’s very easy to answer, it’s not that straight forward. Of course what comes to your mind is – if it’s quite attractive and informative, people will click. However there is a massive decline in ad clicking. It almost seems that online users (identified by contextual targeting) are not interesting in clicking on your ads. Read more

So, Facebook is trying really hard to initiate real-time conversations and discussions with their recent update to mobile users. Bear in mind that this feature is still in its early stages and not yet fully out on all mobile phones. A few users have been selected for testing. Read more

We have had lots of people asking us why a certain post did not appear at a certain time on their news feed on Facebook. Really! It can be annoying and frustrating. But Facebook doesn’t see it as such. The News Feed runs on an interesting algorithm as recently upgraded by Facebook. It was discussed at a special event at its Menlo Park, California, headquarters on Tuesday. Read more

Most Social Media professionals lack a very important and key aspect of Social Media; Crisis Management. The Social Media is an informal platform for bonding with fans and customers, and consequentially, bringing about increase in sales of goods and services. But Crisis Management is a dark part where most Nigerian brands and Social Media professionals have failed in. Read more

If you still belong to the school of thought that believes that the Social Media is still widely used for fun, we advise that you should have a re-think. Facebook has just announced yet another huge milestone in terms of mobile/desktop usage. 819 MILLION Users access Facebook via mobile phones and 1.15 BILLION users via desktop every month. This was recorded as a 51 percent increase in terms of usage from last year. Read more