Brands that enhance the quality of emotional connections between consumers will benefit greatly in 2012. The desire for self expression in the home and especially in the kitchen is the key for many shoppers who want to their personal style to shine. Content that empowers shoppers together with the expanding smartphone usage and lifestyle sites such as Pinterest and will be setting new standards for self expression.

Self expression websites and applications were the darling of 2011, and come with some pretty staggering numbers. Some of the most popular include Instragram, Pintrest and Tumblr.

Instagram – An iPhone only application that allows users to share photos across social networks

• iPhone app downloads: 15 million (3)
• Daily page views: 10 million (3)
• Monthly page views: 300 million (3)
• Voted #1 iPhone app of 2011 by Apple

Pinterest – An online pinboard where consumers pin related topics and pertinent photos from any web page

• Topics include: Cooking and baking, home décor and fashion amongst others
• Monthly page views: 421 million (4)
• Unique visitors: 3.3 million

tumblr – A microblogging platform

• Monthly page views: 6.5 billion
• Monthly visitors: 15 million+

The main characteristic of these sites is that they rely heavily on visuals, are extremely social I natures and are all based around interest. Iconoculture says this about Pinterest, but can also be applied to any of these sites:

“Pinterest successfully rejiggers social media by giving it a visual and content-centered focuses, providing short-attention span consumers with a new way to seamlessly connect and curate.” (5)

What this means for marketers

The brands that will be successful in 2012 will be the ones that provide personalized content and empower content curation. People want to look at things and have a feeling of interest, desire and intrigue therefore increase their willingness to purchase and evangelize the brand.

“For hundreds of years we’ve been carefully curating our appearance, clothes, jewelry, cars and houses for visceral impact. 2012 will be the year these emotions come online full scale. They will change the way we interact with each other, the way we buy things and change our online experiences.” (6)

As we always like to say when it comes to social media, it doesn’t matter what the channel is it’s the content. Will the switch be flipped overnight and people will abandon Facebook? Absolutely not. Facebook should still be at the base of any social media plan as a recent report by Nielsen states that “64% of people on Facebook (more female) use it as a creative outlet.”

Moms could be targeted meal solutions from food brands or with a simple, unique and different way for their kid’s snacks.

Millennials who are cooking and baking more could be influenced with recipes and interesting ways of presenting it. These could come from kitchen brands who help celebrate accomplishments rather than focusing on machine specs or a celebrity endorsement.

Regardless of the brand or the channel, 2012 will be seen as the year where self-expression, creativity and individualism cuts through the clutter and will shine. Just ask Instagram.

Tags: Digital, Digital & Mobile, Insights, Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Social Media, Trends

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 19th, 2012 at 5:59 pm and is filed under Digital & Mobile, Owned Media, Social Media, Trending & Insights, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.