Over the last 10 months, marketing on a global scale has changed at a faster rate than in any time in the past. It does not show signs of stopping.
Because of shutdowns, every generation alive and people in every nation have become digital natives. While the entire world is going digital, the younger, rebellious, and culture-pushing generations are going off-line and pursuing personal interactions.
During the shutdown here in North Carolina, I noticed something I had not seen since my early teenage years: the cruise. Young adults would get together with their fancy cars and drive around the Charlotte area. And here in our neighborhood, my children know the names of every child within 3 houses from us and a smattering of kids from the entire subdivision: everyone is home and bored of the computers that are now school work.
When you add to that the growth of Tik-Tok as a form of mobile entertainment, and the evidence is strong that digital marketing has faced significant changes in the last 10 months that will have long-term and far-reaching consequences for identifying and reaching your market.
Younger generations are not going to become digital newbies but if you are communicating with younger Millennials, Gen Z, or even generation quarantine (I don’t know if that will stick, but I think it fits), you may need to look for your customers in the parking lot of the local convenience store or on the trails of a local park.
These are just some of my observations on changes we are seeing in marketing for this September, 2020.
~Nathan Paul