We are in the final 5th part series on how to grow a business in 2022.

To start, we have to acknowledge a paradigm shit in digital businesses & advertising. Brands that seek to discover and maximise trends in technology+design are well poised to find more customers or increase online and local sales for the years to come. Here, we wanted to share a case to understand the significance of trends in design and technology in businesses.

We had to dive deep into our client’s projects to know what worked, what triggered the conversation and where the brand is now!!! We compared our efforts in brand promotion on all previous years VS in the year 2020+2021+2022 (considering the current year’s plan). We also reviewed grand decisions that complemented customer outreach efforts and other KPIs.

“For a long time, we were aware technology is becoming an enabler, that is what it meant to be, but then we see the design taking over the driver’s seat to deliver next-gen customer expectations.” – Vijayanand, ValueAdvert

Conclusions

In all previous years, conversations with the clients would be about adopting and creating the digital business. The focus was on digital presence more than on design and social trends. Fewer of our brands had a sharp focus on innovation or maximising additional aspects of building a better customer-product experience.

We know at first technology is in the driver’s seat, then eventually the brand with evolving audience behaviour is now focused on design to win over customers against the competition.

Let us expand this thought and consider a well-known case study.

Introduction of UPI Payments in India.

Today UPI Payment gateway fulfils more than half of all digital transactions in India. In October 2019, India’s UPI system crossed 1 billion transactions and over 100 million users, merely three years after its launch.

Aftermath, we saw the launch of many other payment apps. Every vendor and device abled individual had at least two payment apps enabled. Here, technology was winning the race with a focus on project deadlines.

Then we see prolonged user behaviour, install all and utilise non. Until the realisation hits a new user’s behaviour, we call it “customer’s choice”. The user forges multiple reasons to keep only one app that does it all, looks better on a mobile device and is easy to use. Here, design is taking precedence over delivering user experiences, customer engagement, and retention. Now technology has become just an enabler.

Cadbury Silk – #HowFarWillYouGoToMakeThemBlush – an excellent ad campaign to define how brands maximise technology and design trends.

Direct Link to video – https://www.youtube.com/embed/EFL7sa8YZkQ

We also see a growing need for multiple brand engagement opportunities & efforts towards the intended placement of messages where the audience is more receptive. Today, when we browse through the calendar, we see an increase in design assets’ creation and reviews /discussions than any previous year. Suggesting preparing brand messages for paid or organic posts has also become a priority.

So we make it a point to share all such insights and recommendations with our clients while discussing projects. Below, we have noted a few highlights to keep in mind while planning trends this year.

1. Brand managers must subscribe to engage with the community to discover trends in technology and design.
2. Select and prioritise essential tech to develop, test and deploy. Update platforms and plugins with new features.
3. Build deeper relationships from one-on-one conversations to large scale campaigns that are trendy and meaningful to your business.
4. Adopt tech that allows your brand to reach more people. Switch gears to scale up. Discover more ways to build awareness with trendy design and work towards other goals with a plan.
5. Seek. Discover. Adopt. Technology. Design trends to connect with new people by presenting a better product experience.

Successful agencies depend on data-driven insights to understand and plan a pathway to maximise results. Agencies have been doing it for a long now. Successful brands marketers are discussing trends for product and brand improvement, which will ensure brands stay in the minds of their customers.

Conversations that we are having with our client show brands want to maximise the trends in design and technology to grow a business in 2022.