With its “2020 Top Communication Trends” report, Evercom, the Digital Communication and Strategy consultancy, analyses the trends that will define this year’s communication strategies for the fourth year in a row.
2020 is the year of purposeful branding, of brands taking an active, leading role in social change. At a time when companies compete within the reputation economy, it is more important than ever to communicate the brand role in the communities where it operates. Communication continues to strengthen as a lever for productivity and improving business results and talent attraction, one of the main concerns of companies facing competition like never before.
When it comes to connecting with the client, companies will have to adapt to new formats that are here to stay. Video will remain the predominant format, but podcasts are becoming more and more popular, driven by the use of voice search platforms and devices such as Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa or Microsoft Cortana. Platforms such as interactive showrooms appear as a highly interesting marketing option, at a time when brands need to display their products in an attractive way and omnichannel is more demanded than ever.
On the other hand, innovation has ceased to be a choice for companies and has become an obligation that is embedded in their DNA. Leading this communication brings increasing benefits in terms of trust and reputation. On the other hand, competition for talent, which crosses sectoral or geographical barriers, remains a major concern of companies, which increasingly opt for employee-centric strategies, which place the employee at the centre of the company and seek to improve their experience at every moment of truth within the organisation.
B2B businesses have already reached a considerable degree of digital maturity that has led them to realise what they really want social networks for and what they expect from them. LinkedIn continues to be at the forefront as the professional network par excellence in B2B communication, where the professional profiles of leaders will be true business assets for brands. These companies will also continue to rely on increasingly abundant data, which will force them to have profiles that can handle new reporting and monitoring tools, in order to understand and make sound decisions quickly.
In the field of Public Affairs, a strong and consistent narrative will continue to be essential to effectively convey the message to the public decision-maker, especially now, at a time when the parliamentary arch is more diverse and complex than ever to reach agreements. The standardisation of the lobbying activity, as one more element in the process of public policy making, will be another of the sectoral trends in 2020.
This will be the year of financial activism. Communication will be defined by the application of European regulations that will have an impact on the relationship model between companies and shareholders by promoting their responsible and sustainable involvement in the long term. Banks will continue to focus on being great content sources and on fighting the dreaded fake news with risk prevention and fact check systems that allow them to act promptly and stop a possible reputational crisis.
By Evercom