Media Megatrends in a Post-Pandemic World

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© 2021 dentsu | all rights reserved
Media Trends
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The world is recovering from the pandemic and adapting to new ways of life, both in changed habits
and behaviours, but also new rules for businesses to navigate to continue to prosper.
Necessity is the mother of invention. Times of crisis and recession have been, in retrospect, times of
enormous opportunity and innovation, and times of growth for those who make the right decisions.
Technologies and ways of working that might have seemed an interesting experiment in other times
have become essential.
In this report we look at three megatrends that are helping to define the recovery, each with smaller
manifestations or sub-trends, with major implications for brands.

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We see three Megatrends, each with smaller trends or
manifestations
• OmniChannel Everything
• New Ways to Buy
• Virtual Worlds
• Secure Scarcity
• Fans of Flexibility
• The Responsible Rebuild
• Sustainable Marketing
• The End of Anonymity
• Beyond the Cookie
• Value Exchanges
The Prolonged
Pandemic
Brand Citizenship Identity
Megatrend #1 Megatrend #2 Megatrend #3
01 02 03

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Covid is lasting longer and having a greater impact than almost
anyone initially thought it would. It has changed how billions of people
live, work, shop, and learn. It has driven years of innovation in
months, as companies adopt new technologies and new ways to work.
Vaccines help, but variants hinder; we are likely to see additional
disruption and lockdowns, especially in the winters.
The economy will change – how many cinemas, shops, hotel rooms do
we now need?
We are highlighting five specific trends that Covid has accelerated.
01
The Prolonged Pandemic
MEGATREND

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Omnichannel Everything
Hybrid models are emerging in many industries, allowing consumers
to choose how they interact, letting them adopt the most convenient
and appropriate channels.
We have seen this with commerce for many years with the rise of
click & collect and stores as showrooms that people visit before
buying online, but now this is moving into many other areas.
Entertainment - Some films are being released simultaneously online
and in cinemas. Disney’s Cruella was released in cinemas and on
Disney+ in May 2021, with a box office of $224m globally by
September 1st, and an estimated $30m in streaming revenue in the
first weekend.
Netflix is creating physical experiences for the fans of its shows, with
ticketed events planned for both Bridgerton and Money Heist.
MEGATREND #1 – The Prolonged Pandemic

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Events – Conferences, festivals and events like fashion week now
have real world and virtual elements, often becoming more
accessible as a result. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival took place both
online and in venues in August 2021. There were approximately
1,000 shows, with 60% live and in person, 10% live online, and
30% online on demand.
Work – People who can work remotely will often continue to do so
for part of the week. Companies are adapting their offices,
introducing booking systems to secure desks, and travel companies
are introducing new season ticket options.
Health – New practices are emerging, including reporting symptoms
online (like the Covid Symptom Tracker), and video consultations.

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As we move through the decade we expect these to extend into
other areas.
Consumer-focussed brands will adopt a ‘flexibility first’ approach.
New brands will emerge built around the new business models and
cost structures.
Established brands will try to control more of the experience from
manufacture to sale, including buying or partnering with companies
with capabilities that they need.

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Implications
Act as trusted guides during times of uncertainty and change.
Adapt to new patterns of living, taking new footfall patterns and
media usage as cues for omnichannel media planning.
Explore new audiences who may enter the market as a result of the
new models – for example, those living in different countries who
can now become customers under hybrid models.

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New Ways to Buy
Lockdowns accelerated development and adoption of new shopping
services and technologies.
On demand grocery shopping from companies like Weezy, Getir and
Gorillas can deliver in less than 10 minutes within some metropolitan
areas.
Food delivery apps are now entering this space, and other companies
like the German ‘Arive’ are offering phones, fitness equipment and
other goods at similarly rapid speeds.
We have also seen an acceleration in innovation in shopping from
mobile and even TV screens.

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New Ways to Buy
More time spent at home, and particularly the rise in screen time for
mobiles and connected TVs have driven innovation.
Live Video shopping or ‘Shoppertainment’, long popular in China,
arrived in the West particularly through Facebook, Instagram and
Alibaba’s AliExpress.
TV has also started to become shoppable, like YouTube’s ‘send to
mobile’ tests, Amazon’s shopping within videos, and local market
tests like LG and ITV in the UK.
YouTube even started testing product detection in videos – if you are
watching a baking video the technology could identify food mixers,
and recommend them to you in future, in the same way that it
recommends relevant videos to watch.
This adds vital context to viewing, and could also be an attractive
technology to streaming platforms like Netflix.

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New Ways to Buy
Many of these services are currently limited to small areas – for
example on demand grocery shopping, or to early adopters.
However their expansion can be fast.
The rapid rise of Uber is an good example; it went from launch to
300 cities in just 5 years.
The growth of augmented reality use is another; Snap and Deloitte
estimate that 1.5bn people will use AR in 2021, and that 100m shop
with AR both online and in store. New innovations include virtual try-
ons, on platforms that store sizing information.
Levels of friction will be reduced – fewer taps to buy, fewer devices
in the chain. Amazon’s move into making TV hardware also makes
sense under this framing – it will give more control.

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Implications
New Ways to Buy
Experiment with new ways to sell, testing in the most advanced
markets to be ready for broader roll-out and adoption.
Target shopping and payment messages around these new contexts
and keywords, rather than simply targeting page categories.
Include strong, brand-based messages, to balance with more
shoppable ads.

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Virtual Worlds
There is great interest in the idea of online virtual worlds – ‘The
Metaverse’ – and there are signs that virtual reality use is finally
starting to take off.
While adoption of VR is tiny compared to video conferencing, it is
growing faster than ever before, and may be at the point where new
use cases could quickly increase take-up further:
• Socialising – e.g. attending events together
• Fitness – e.g. FitXR
• ‘Real’ events like VR arcades and eSports

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Virtual Worlds
This trend has been accelerated by Covid. People started to spend
more time playing games, effectively meeting and socialising within
platforms like Fortnite and Roblox.
Many workers got used to the idea of working in virtual teams, not
physically being in the same space as their colleagues.
Technology got better, faster and cheaper.
Facebook has stated that in the near future it will be seen as a
‘metaverse’ company rather than a social media company, and has
unveiled new VR ‘spaces’ for work and socialising called Horizon
Workrooms and Horizon Home.
It is conceivable that it will transition into more immersive worlds as
successfully as it has transitioned into mobile.

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Virtual Worlds
We are starting to see robust economies develop within virtual,
digital spaces – ‘Direct to Avatar’ rather than ‘Direct to Consumer’.
Established brands like Vans and Balenciaga are the latest to sell
clothing within virtual worlds – Roblox and Fortnite respectively –
with Balenciaga selling items like hoodies in game and ‘IRL’.
We see huge developments in this area - More brands, more drops,
more partnerships, and more physical/virtual crossovers.
Brands are also emerging in games, offering clothing for characters.
The Fabricant, Tribute Brand and Hanifa, have all created and sold
virtual fashion lines.

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Implications
Virtual Worlds
Incorporate virtual and in-game elements into existing campaigns;
virtual should be part of an omnichannel strategy.
Experiment with the idea of avatars as an audience. Explore ways to
target based on new, virtual and in-game metrics.
Evaluate any applicable lessons from social media that could also
work in virtual worlds.

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Secure Scarcity
One of the issues within the digital economy has always been the
ease of copying content and assets.
Paywalls and subscriptions have taken off in the past few years, but
it is still comparatively easy to copy an article to send to friends, or
forward a paid for newsletter.
NFTs are changing that. NFTs - non-fungible tokens - are the second
big use of blockchain technology to capture the public imagination,
after crypto currencies.
The market has grown from $13.7m in 2020 to an extraordinary
$2.5bn in the first half of 2021, with high profile sales including nine
CryptoPunks at Christies for $16.9m in May, and a set of 101 Bored
Ape Yacht Club NFTs for $24.4m at Sotheby’s in September.

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Secure Scarcity
The growth of NFTs is down to both improvements in and
understanding of the technology, a greater focus on the digital
economy thanks to the pandemic, and some high profile / very
hyped sales.
Not surprisingly brands are also testing the water.
Several, including Taco Bell, Coca-Cola, Campbell’s, Budweiser,
Microsoft, Nike, Marvel, and Warner Bros have produced NFTs, either
for existing campaigns, or as one-off activations, for example raising
money for charity.
In September Bacardi released a single NFT around the launch of a
new limited edition rum, with proceeds going to "Backing the
B.A.R.," Bacardi's partnership with the NAACP to help black-owned
bars.

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Secure Scarcity
Burberry recently created an exclusive set of characters and
accessories for the game Blankos Block Party, and sold these as
NFTs.
Fans could buy items ranging from characters within the game for
$299.99 to arm bands for $24.99, with a total value of $395,000.
All items sold out; the characters sold out within minutes.
NFTs can also grant access – The Kings of Leon sold NFTs associated
with their new album in March.
Six of these served as ‘Golden Tickets’ giving the holders the right to
attend any of the bands’ shows in the future.
Given that NFTs live in people’s mobile wallets, they can be used as
proof of purchase or identity.

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Implications
Secure Scarcity
If relevant to your audiences, identify the superfans, willing to pay or
items or experiences connected to the brand, and develop strategies
to appeal to them.
Partner with platforms and intellectual property that will appeal to
the fans, or already have a strong crossover in audience.
Start small, test, and scale.

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Fans of Flexibility
People in some jobs now have more choice about where they work
and live, now that work is likely to be much more flexible.
However new rules need to be established to make flexibility fair for
both companies and people.
Research by Stanford University found that many people saw the
ability to work from home equivalent to a $10,000 pay rise.
Google is proposing to pay employees who do not come back to the
office less than people who do, because their living & commuting
costs will be lower.

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Fans of Flexibility
Technology has allowed increasing numbers to work remotely,
leading to a rise in the number of freelance workers over the past
decade, using platforms like Fiverr.
The pandemic has accelerated this, forcing millions more to work
from home, and many found that they became fans of flexibility.
Thailand is offering 10 year visas to affluent foreign workers,
providing they buy property and earn over $50,000 a year.
However, what many are likely to find out is that ‘you can work from
anywhere’ can also mean ‘someone from anywhere could do your
job’.

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Fans of Flexibility
Businesses will emerge to offer products and services to help these
people manage and maximise their lives, including travel planning
and storage.
Employers will try to optimise how they use staff based on what
needs to be done, which time zones are best for which roles, and
which sort of work needs in-person interaction.
Some may even start to pay a premium for those who are able to ‘be
there’ in person whenever needed.
Travel is becoming harder, but greater workplace flexibility means
that people could go away from longer, and work from a different
location.

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Implications
Fans of Flexibility
Target globally if regional and national boundaries will mean less for
some consumers.
Clarify the attributes of existing customers and targets: affluent
audiences traditionally seen as urban may have become more rural
in the past two years.
Be conscious that not everyone will have this flexibility – this could
create new economic and cultural divides.

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Brands are increasingly showing their human side.
The rise of social media has meant that many consumer-facing brands
now have a more human tone of voice, used to share news and to
reply to consumer queries, and now many are acting in a more human
way, showing a more empathetic and caring side.
The twin shocks of COVID-19 and BLM protests in 2020 have helped
companies to refocus on what they stand for, and increasingly become
involved in causes, including climate and equality.
There are many examples of companies trying to do good and set a
good example to their customers, their peers and governments.
We will now look at two aspects of this trend.
02
Brand Citizenship
MEGATREND

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The Responsible Rebuild
MEGATREND #2 – Brand Citizenship
Businesses will emerge to offer products and services to help these
people manage and maximise their lives, including travel planning
and storage.
Employers will try to optimise how they use staff based on what
needs to be done, which time zones are best for which roles, and
which sort of work needs in-person interaction.
Some may even start to pay a premium for those who are able to ‘be
there’ in person whenever needed.
Travel is becoming harder, but greater workplace flexibility means
that people could go away from longer, and work from a different
location.

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Both the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in
2020 focussed the minds of individuals and companies, particularly
those targeting younger consumers.
In April several brands including Colgate-Palmolive, Coca Cola and
Unilever joined AB InBev’s sustainable supply chain accelerator to
support early stage companies that are working to make
manufacturing more sustainable.
PepsiCo is aiming to expand its regenerative farming estate to
500,000 acres by the end of 2021, and build it to 7m acres by the
end of 2030.
More brands are becoming B Corps, meeting a set social and
environmental performance, including Ben & Jerry’s, Danone North
America, and Patagonia.

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Greater action by brands will normalise the issues that they are
supporting.
Tiers of businesses will develop, based on how active and positive
their actions are.
New business models will emerge based around a more sustainable,
circular economy.
Brands that do not adopt these practices will increasingly be called
out on social media and in other channels, especially if they are
targeting younger consumers.

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Implications
Understand where your consumers stand on issues and work out
how you can align with them, or set an example.
Clearly articulate messages to explain the benefits of what you are
doing, and recruit relevant influencers to help explain actions.
Develop packaging as media, offering tools and experiences to
explain and demonstrate changes in supply chains or traceability.

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Sustainable Marketing
The 2021 Advertiser Perceptions’ Trust in Advertising Report, reports
that the percentage of advertisers that apply corporate responsibility
and brand values to media spending decisions has increased more
than 20% from a year ago to 82%.
Unilever has introduced a new marketing philosophy based on three
principles:
• ‘Get Real,’ which focuses on data and empathy to solve real-
world problems;
• ‘Do Good,’ which continues the need for each of its stable of
brands to serve a purpose that drives positive change; and
• ‘Be Unmissable’ that spurs them each on to be culturally relevant.
Coca Cola launched its new 100% recycled bottles with a campaign
that gave buyers a code for a free ride on an electric scooter if they
pledged to recycle.

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This is part of a long term shift within the marketing industry,
accelerated by Covid and greater awareness of diversity and
inclusion.
Coca Cola is putting a percentage of its budgets into minority-owned
media channels.
Agencies like dentsu are making it easier to measure the impact of
their campaigns with tools like DIMPACT, a collaboration with Bristol
University and other media companies that measures greenhouse
gas emissions associated with serving digital content.
Green The Bid offers tools and techniques to make creative
production more sustainable, including distributing left over food,
and donating props and sets that have been made.

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There will be greater pressure on the marketing industry to become
a leader in ‘doing good’.
Brands will increasingly fund PSAs as part of their communications
strategies, as Pepsi is doing to educate on recycling.
Digital marketing will become more sustainable in energy sources,
energy usage, and supply chains.
However there will also be pushback, particularly on the way
priorities are chosen.
For example how do companies square ethical goals on climate
impact with strategies to pay less tax?

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Implications
Focus on communication objectives first, but ensure that budgets
also support sustainable values through messaging and supporting
channels that also want to create a sustainable world that is fair and
open.
Move budgets into more sustainable channels, using market power
to help new technologies and BAME-owned media to grow.
Test new techniques and channels to ensure that more sustainable
marketing does not mean less effective marketing.

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The pandemic has created a new need for an easily provable digital
identity, at the same time as more concerns about how personal data
can be misused.
To put it another way, it is now easier for someone to prove who they
are; but harder to advertisers to know they are.
‘Vaccine passports’ are starting to be introduced in some countries for
some purposes, like travel or attending events.
Some big companies are making it mandatory to be vaccinated to visit
their offices.
There are three important elements of this trend.
03
Identity
MEGATREND

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The End of Anonymity
MEGATREND #3 – Identity
A greater need for a provable digital identity means that we are
seeing an end to anonymity.
Services like Facebook always pushed for ‘real names’, and many
platforms like Google expect you to be signed in before you are able
to use their services.
Even Amazon’s ‘Fresh’ stores require customers to produce a QR
code on their phones to enter and start shopping.
Identity is also coming to the metaverse. Facebook’s virtual work
space depends on people having avatars that look recognisably like
themselves.

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Proven identities make life easier and safer for both individuals and
brands.
Amazon’s Fresh stores also take this approach: Once you sign in as
a known Amazon member you can just grab what you need and walk
out.
Tinder has just introduced (voluntary) identity verification to give
members extra peace of mind. There is always likely to be an
element of mystery in online dating – blind dates – but it is very
useful if ‘someone’ knows for sure who a prospective date is.

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In the future we will see even greater need to use a verified digital
identity to access public services (& maybe even voting).
This will bring simpler shopping both online and in-store, and much
easier loyalty bonuses for regular customers.
However there will also be pushback for things to be anonymous –
think of how Snapchat gained its initial fame by introducing
messages that disappeared.

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Implications
The end of anonymity should benefit trusted brands over new,
unknown ones.
Stress trust and verify messaging, particularly on platforms where
people sign in for peace of mind.
Build partnerships with other trusted brands and platforms.

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Beyond the Cookie
The end of 3rd party cookies in advertising campaigns will give fewer
opportunities for ad personalisation, remove the ability to frequency
cap across platforms, and remove a lot of tracking data, including
view-through conversion data.
Advertisers, publishers and technology companies are looking for
alternatives to ensure that advertising remains effective.
Solutions are emerging that use contextual targeting based on cues
like page content, ‘Tribes of interests’ helped by AI, location & time
of day, all of of which do not use data that can be tracked back to an
individual.

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Beyond the Cookie
The need for new solutions come from renewed action by
governments, tech giants like Apple and Google, and consumers all
pushing for greater data protection.
Many of the world’s leading economies including the US, EU, China,
Japan, India and Brazil have either implemented or drafted privacy
regulations to protect consumers privacy.
Leading web browsers are moving away from 3rd party cookies, and
Apple is making it increasingly hard to track users of its devices.
Across the globe, 91% of consumers are concerned about the
amount of data companies can collect about them.

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Beyond the Cookie
Developments in understanding context and audience cohorts will
lead to new ways to target. The ability to process large data sets is
providing innovative solutions. A study by GumGum and dentsu
showed that contextual ads could more cost effective than audience-
targeted ones.
Peer 39 is able to analyse existing audience-targeted campaigns, see
the context of the pages that worked best, and re-map the campaign
as a contextual one.
Dynamic content optimisation platforms like A Million Ads are able to
serve ads personalised to the context including time of day,
approximate location, weather and more to give the ads more
impact.
Influencers are increasingly in demand by brands and platforms, who
want them for the audiences they can bring based on their content.

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Implications
Beyond the Cookie
Use these changes as a unique opportunity to rebuild trust between
brands and consumers around data.
Invest in first party data, as this is the key to future ID-based
solutions and increasing lifetime value of your customers.
Use contextual targeting to address users’ motivations and
relevance, and as a way to drive new traffic to your own domains.
Use more unblockable channels like dynamic out of home, and be
smart about anticipating where cohorts of people will be, and what
they will be doing.
Work with influencers and content partnerships to be present in
places that audiences will want to see.

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Value Exchanges
Brands are increasingly creating and hosting content and tools as a
way to attract traffic and encourage consumers to agree input their
data and agree be targeted in exchange.
A few years ago this sort of activity was taking place on social media
to boost likes and follows, more content, events, and competitions
are now being hosted on their own domains to collect 1st party data.
Lays’ Messi Messages gave fans a tool to create AI generated
messages from ‘Lionel Messi’ in multiple languages, all hosted at a
dedicated site.
Bud Light’s Summer Stimmy was a programme to provide free
festival and concert tickets to adults in the US, providing they input
their email address and agreed to give the brand certain
permissions.

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Value Exchanges
There has always been an implicit value exchange within the ad
ecosystem. ‘You get exposed to advertising messages in return for
free content’.
Now that it is much harder for brands to target through 3rd party
cookies and identifiers, these value exchanges have had to become
more explicit both in how brands ask consumers to share their data
and give permission to re-target.
While to marketers some of these campaign metrics may seem
pretty transparent, done properly they can feel like personalised
‘velvet rope’ experiences for customers and prospects.

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Value Exchanges
In future more brands will create more content, potentially leading to
clutter, and increasing the need for creative ideas and budgets to
promote to guarantee audiences and data.
Content will be created in cycles to get visitors to return regularly to
renew contact and permissions.

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Implications
Value Exchanges
Create compelling tools and content, and support them with relevant
channels including paid media, social posts, and PR.
Build in repeat use and loyalty elements to ensure that permissions
given don’t expire.
Innovate with ideas, test for resonance.

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© 2021 dentsu | all rights reserved
About dentsu international
Part of dentsu, dentsu international is made up of six
leadership brands - Carat, dentsu X, iProspect,
Isobar, dentsumcgarrybowen and Merkle, all of which are
supported by its specialist divisions and scaled services. Dentsu
International helps clients to win, keep and grow their best
customers and achieve meaningful progress for their
businesses. With best-in-class services and solutions in media,
customer experience management (CXM), and creative, dentsu
international operates in over 145 markets worldwide with
more than 45,000 dedicated specialists.
www.dentsu.com

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