Mirroring the accelerated pace of technological advancement, marketing trends are emerging and taking hold at an increasingly rapid rate. As consumer behavior evolves, smart marketers can use those trends to capitalize on shifting behaviors and expectations. Sullivan Branding’s Account Planning team developed this report to highlight key trends we expect to see across the marketing landscape in 2013.

1. The Marketing Landscape
What to Look for in 2013

2. Overview
Mirroring the accelerated pace of technological advancement, marketing
trends are emerging and taking hold at an increasingly rapid rate. As consumer
behavior evolves, smart marketers can use those trends to capitalize on
shifting behaviors and expectations. Sullivan Branding’s Account Planning
team developed this report to highlight key trends we expect to see across the
marketing landscape in 2013.
Contents
Consumer Trends
Design Trends
Media Trends

3. consumer trends

4. shifting consumer mindsets
As humans, we continually respond and adapt to the changing world around us.
These are some of the potential ways consumers will be adapting their behaviors
as a result of shifting mindsets in 2013:
• Adult play will gradually become more adopted, due to a growing realization
that blocking out unstructured time for imagination and creative thinking is
a competitive advantage.
• There will be a heightened awareness of the significant increase in
stressors around us. As a result, there will be a growing conversation on
how to help prevent and reduce stress, and on the resulting health benefits
that can come from doing so.
• Everyday objects are evolving into tech-infused smart devices. As more
ordinary items become interactive, the consumer interaction with these
objects will get more interesting, enjoyable and expected.
• With consumers’ lives increasingly taking place online, there will be a
premium placed on sensory stimulation. Marketers should look for ways to
engage the senses to take advantage of this behavior.
• Happiness is coming to be seen as a core component of health and
wellness and, thus, will increasingly be a goal for consumers. Happier is
healthier, and vice versa.
• Privacy will become even more important. As living publicly is now almost
the default, people are finding ways to carve out private time and spaces
within their digital lives, all while managing a new notion of privacy.
(JWT Intelligence)

5. consumer behavior online
Moore’s Law still holds true—personal computing power continues to advance
while, at the same time, falling in price. This, in conjunction with increasing
Internet speeds, is pushing consumer behavior online to evolve.
• Access is beginning to trump ownership. The ability to access virtually
unlimited content through the cloud, from varying devices and from
anywhere with a data connection, will continue to dissolve the value in
owning physical copies of music, literature, video, etc.

6. design trends

7. the picture is the story
The rise of photo sharing through social media sites and apps has transformed the way consumers prefer to
receive information. Marketers will increasingly use photos, videos, infographics and animated GIFs to capitalize
on this shift.
• August 2012 marked the first time that smartphone users spent more time on Instagram than on
Twitter since the photo-sharing app launched in 2010, according to All Things D, demonstrating the
power of a picture to tell the story.
• Travelers expect hotels to use high-resolution photos and videos to share their stories.
• According to Google, 57% of people who watch videos online do so for accommodations when
doing travel research.
• Snapchat, an app that allows users to send self-destructing photo messages, sends more than
60 million of these messages each day and added 3.4 million users in December 2012.
(Source: iMedia Connection)

8. Designers love to mine the past for inspiration,
but styles change. Watch for old-fashioned
vintage elements giving way to simplicity and
(Source: Shutterstock)
modernism.
nostalgic
Retro type and vintage textures will continue to be in favor, reflecting designer preference, moods
surrounding the current economic times and a consumer-driven Instagram effect.
CLASSIC
VINTAGE
ANTIQUE
HERITAGE
RETRO

9. luxury printing techniques
Brands will use luxury printing techniques to try to break through the clutter of a digital world.
(Source: Creative Bloq)
geometric
8-BIT
A combination of minimalism, simplification, and
experimentation with basic shape and color have been
dominating editorial work lately, which will only get
stronger in 2013 with the popularity of infographics.
PIXEL ART
(Source: Shutterstock)
DIGITAL
GRAPHICAL
PATTERNS

10. Pantone color of the year:
Most often associated with brilliant, precious gemstones,
the perception of Emerald is sophisticated and luxurious.
Since antiquity, this luminous, magnificent hue has
been the color of beauty and new life in many cultures
and religions. Also the color of growth, renewal and
prosperity, no other color conveys regeneration more
than green. For centuries, many countries have chosen
green to represent healing and unity.
Emerald
PANTONE
17–5641

11. designed typography
A strong focus on typography will continue to influence design across all mediums
but will particularly impact Web design.
• Combining brilliant typography designs and utilizing Web fonts allows
for a lot more creativity and flexibility.
• Brilliant typography can serve as eye-catching images on a Web page, but
the balance of the page’s content design should not be forgotten. After all,
content is really what your audience (and search engines) are after. (Source:
SmashingHub.com)
design with functionality in mind
There will be a rise in design solutions and content delivery systems created
exclusively for screens.
(Source: Creative Bloq)
responsive design
Designers will leverage responsive Web design to create a single page design that
automatically modifies to fit every screen size.
• Responsive Web design will eliminate the problems associated with changing
specifications on browsers and devices because of its ability to respond to
the size of the device being used.
• Thanks to responsive Web designs, designers will not have to make a new
layout for different mobile and desktop devices. A single design will work
perfectly on all devices.
(Source: SmashingHub.com)

12. vertical scrolling
Vertical scrolling will emerge as the preferred navigation choice because of its ease of use and
users’ familiarity with it via mobile.
• Vertical scrolling is user friendly and efficient, and it allows for easy navigation.
• Another trend that is expected to hit in 2013 is vertical scrolling of menus and buttons.
When a user is scrolling down a page, the header menu should scroll down with it so
that the user does not have to go upwards to view the menu again—same goes for
shopping carts and social buttons on a website.
(Source: SmashingHub.com)
parallax scrolling
Parallax scrolling will continue to break out of video games into more mainstream Web uses.
• The parallax effect has been around for years in classic video games, but it became
a trend in the Web design world relatively recently. This cool effect is now commonly
seen as part of the scrolling feature of a Web page.
• Parallax scrolling uses multiple backgrounds that seem to move at different speeds
to create a sensation of depth (creating a faux-3D effect) and an interesting browsing
experience.
(Source: SmashingHub.com)

13. media trends

14. Mobile
1 billion mobile web users worldwide
Mobile devices will become more computer, wallet and manifesto than phone or tablet.
• There are now more than one billion mobile Web users worldwide, and mobile shopping
revenue worldwide doubled in 2012. Those numbers are sure to continue growing;
in fact, the adoption rate of iOS and Android devices has accelerated faster than any
technology in history.
• Online research and shopping will be done on multiple devices—but we’ll continue to
see decreases in traditional desktop and laptop computers, and increases in tablet and
smartphone browsing. Research firm IDC predicts that more U.S. Internet users will
access the Internet through mobile devices than through PCs by 2015.
• iPad use will continue to grow—to more than 70 million U.S. users in 2013, with more
than 25% of the U.S. population using an iPad at least once a month by 2015.
• 43% of consumers use more than one device when planning their travel purchases—
and 90% of those use those screens sequentially (for example, starting their research
on a smartphone, then continuing later on a tablet).
• 70% of business travelers use a mobile device to research travel information.
• “Mobile” doesn’t mean “on-the-go.” According to a recent study from the Harvard
Business Review, 68% of mobile use happens at home.
• Location-based services will grow up. As people become bored with simply checking in,
location-specific experiences will adapt or die. Shopkick is now the fourth-most-used
shopping app (behind Amazon, eBay and Groupon) and the most-used shopping app at
physical locations.
(Source: VFM Leonardo)

15. advertising
In an age where the consumer has complete control, finding a way to wrangle
an individual in becomes more complex than ever before. Creating engaging, attentioncatching ads will be an important job for every agency in 2013.
• Mobile ad spending was projected to hit $4 billion by the end of 2012, up 180%
from 2011.
• eMarketer predicts that U.S. mobile ad spending, including search, display and
messaging-based ads, will reach $7.19 billion in 2013.
• eMarketer reports that Facebook (18%), Google (17%), Pandora (12%) and
Twitter (7%) made up a massive portion of U.S. mobile display marketing in 2012,
with Facebook expected to jump to 25% and Google to 20% in 2013.
• By 2016, mobile advertising will account for 11% of all ad sales.
• A report from AdSafe Media found that fewer than half of all online ads passed a
basic viewability test.
• User enablement will evolve. The act of interrupting users will be largely disliked
and/or ignored. As content consumption becomes more time-shifted and nonlinear, traditional advertising interruptions will become more easily bypassed
(see: DVR, The Hopper). Brands will look to enable user experiences and
provide content they seek out instead of forcing them to sit through ads.
2012
U.S. mobile display marketing
18% facebook 12% pandora
17% google 7% twitter

16. direct-to-consumer
Musicians and comedians continue to make noise by offering content directly to their
fans at a higher speed and lower cost by cutting record labels and media companies
out of the process. The creators are also seeing higher profits, which should lead to
more direct access to content.
brands as digital-service providers
More brands will move to providing services that integrate with their products and add user
value in attempts to future-proof and open up additional sources of revenue.
• Nike is shifting from a shoe company to a personal improvement company that sells
shoes. With Nike+ and Nike FuelBand, the brand has changed a shoe purchase from
the end of the relationship to the beginning of one.
• Ford’s in-car connectivity system now allows for pushed software updates, meaning
their entertainment and navigation systems never become obsolete. Proximity
functionality has also been added, sending special offers to drivers when they’re close
to locations that might interest them. Ford showed record earnings last year, and over
half of buyers cited the system as a big reason for purchase.
• Apple was a leader in evolving core competencies; iTunes brought the company $1.9
billion in second-quarter revenue in 2012.
• Knowing that their core business model was ultimately in the hands of film and TV
studios, Netflix is now creating and distributing its own original content; 86% of Netflix
subscribers said having the access to watch House of Cards makes them less likely to
cancel their subscriptions (slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/02/21/house_of_cards_
netflix_subscribers_say_the_series_will_make_them_less_likely.html).

17. the digital/reality line
further blurs, & the rise
of personal metrics
• Products and services like the Nike FuelBand, Fitbit and Google Glass will continue
to bring digital to everyday life, and vice versa.
• Personal metrics will become more widespread for fitness, diet, travel, productivity
and more.

18. second screen usage & proliferation
Social media will continue to transform TV watching into a more immediate and shared experience, creating a global living
room effect.
• Having a mobile device on hand while watching TV has become an integral part of consumer routines — 41% of
tablet owners and 38% of smartphone owners use their devices daily while in front of their TV screens.
• Not surprisingly, social networking is a top activity on both devices, but people aren’t just chatting
with their social connections; they’re also shopping and looking up relevant program and product info.
Now, when someone is watching a basketball game, they are not simply watching the game — they are
Tweeting, Pinteresting, Facebooking, Shazaming, and every other kind of “ing” you can think of.
• This behavior is likely to expand in 2013 and move away from cable boxes and onto connected devices such as
Xboxes and smart TVs (see: Microsoft’s SmartGlass, Nintendo’s new Wii U console).
• As time-shifted content consumption rises, live events are becoming more buzz-worthy than ever. People are tuning
in simply to keep up with the social (especially Twitter) conversation.
• Social media activity related to the 2013 Super Bowl was three times higher than the 2012 Super Bowl.
Simultaneous TV/Mobile Device Usage
shopping
social networking
looked up an
advertised product
looked up discounts for an
advertised product
looked up programming
information
45% tablet
22% phone
38% phone
15% phone
12% phone
23% phone
44% tablet
26% tablet
24% tablet
35% tablet

19. unique pc visitors, U.S. (000s)
social
People continue to spend more time on social networks than any other category of sites —
20% of their time spent on PCs and 30% of their mobile time.
• Whether through a computer or mobile phone, consumers continue to spend increasing
amounts of time on the Internet. Time spent on PCs and smartphones was up 21%
from July 2011 to July 2012. App time more than doubled during this period as more
smartphone owners entered the market, and the number of available apps multiplied.
• According to Nielsen, when it comes to accessing social content, it’s all about
mobile—particularly apps. App usage now accounts for more than a third of social
networking time across PCs and mobile devices.
• Compared to last year, consumers increased their social app time by 76%, spending
more than seven times the minutes on apps than on the mobile Web.
• While the social media audience via PC declined a slight 5% from a year ago, time
spent increased 24% over the same period, suggesting that users are more deeply
engaged.
• The list of most-visited social networking sites is pretty much the same whether people
are going online through a PC browser, through their mobile Web browser or via an
app. Mobile usage once again proves to be a key component of social media; each of
the top networks, via mobile Web, saw significantly greater growth compared to its PC
audience over the last year.
• In 2012, Pinterest boasted the largest year-over-year increase in both unique audience
and time spent of any social network across PC, mobile Web, and apps.
152,226
58,518
37,033
30,945
28,113
27,223
26,201
25,634
19,680
12,594
facebook
-4% YOY
blogger
-3% YOY
twitter
+13% YOY
wordpress
+10% YOY
linkedin
0% YOY
pinterest
+1,047% YOY
google+
+80% YOY
tumblr
+55% YOY
myspace
-13% YOY
wikia
+20% YOY

20. marketers get memetastic
Smart marketers will continue to play off memes as an effective way to insert themselves in
online conversations.
• One example is the Obama campaign’s response to Clint Eastwood’s “Invisible
Obama” routine, which took place at the 2012 Republican National Convention in
August. The next day, staffers tweeted a picture of Obama in a chair marked “the
President” with the caption, “This seat’s taken.”
• In another instance, PBS purchased the keyword “Big Bird” on Twitter after Mitt
Romney said in the first presidential debate that he wanted to withdraw government
funding from PBS, despite his affection for the Sesame Street character.
• Wonderful Pistachios has played off a number of others, including Honey Badger
and Keyboard Cat.

21. brands get pinterested
Brands will find new ways to leverage the power of Pinterest to drive consumer
engagement.
• Pinterest took brands by storm in 2012 when it became the third-most-popular
social networking site.
• Marketers developed a number of ways to engage fans on the platform, from
contests and puzzles to visual hacks.
• Pinterest users reported a surprisingly high correlation between pinning and
subsequent purchasing: More than 1 in 5 Pinterest users have pinned an item that
they later purchased.
• 47% of U.S. online consumers have made a purchase based on recommendations
from Pinterest.
• 81% of U.S. online consumers trust information and advice from Pinterest.
• Pinterest generates over 4x as much revenue per click (attributable to first touch)
as Twitter and 27% more revenue per click than Facebook.
2012
Pinterest Mobile Web
2013
Pinterest
Mobile Web

22. fan pages get more image-heavy
Brands are investing heavily in image and video creation for the platform, as well as other visually
oriented platforms like Tumblr and Pinterest.
• Data has shown that photos attract twice the number of “Likes” on Facebook that
text-based status updates do.
reddit’s “ask me anything”
becomes a promotional tool
Following the lead of the president and others, more personalities and brand ambassadors will
leverage Reddit’s “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) section as a promotional tool.
• Reddit is a social news and entertainment website where registered users submit
content in the form of either a link or a text (“self”) post. Other users then vote the
submission “up” or “down,” which is used to rank the post and determine its position
on the site’s pages and front page.
• Reddit provides the public with unfiltered access to the famous personalities brave
enough to take it on.

23. brands get a sense of humor online
Brands will use social media to position themselves less like generic spokespeople and more like
people you’d want to hang out with.
• Marketers will capitalize on current events and spontaneous interactions with their followers
to breathe personality and life into their brands and create emotional connections with
consumers.
social care
Social care—i.e., customer service via social media—has become an immediate imperative for
global brands.
• Customers choose when and where they voice their questions, issues and complaints,
blurring the line between marketing and customer service.
• One in three social media users prefers social care to contacting a company by phone.
CHANNELS USED TO ACCESS SOCIAL CARE:
Facebook - company page
official company blog
Facebook - user’s page
29%
28%
Twitter - company’s handle
Twitter - personal handle
15%
14%
13%
YouTube - personal
YouTube - company
12%
non-company blog
11%
11%
(Source: Nielson)

24. social word of mouth
Social media enables consumers to generate and tap into the opinions of an exponentially larger
universe. While word-of-mouth has always been important, its scope was previously limited to the
people you knew and interacted with on a daily basis. Social media has removed that limitation and
given new power to consumers.
social media advertising
Consumer attitudes toward advertising on social media are still evolving. Though roughly one-third
of social media users find ads on social networking sites more annoying than other types of Internet
advertisements, research suggests that there are opportunities for marketers to engage with
consumers via social media.
• More than a quarter of social media users say they are more likely to pay attention to an ad
shared by one of their social connections.
• Additionally, more than a quarter of consumers are ok with seeing ads on social networking
sites tailored to them based on their profile information.
• 17% of consumers feel more connected to brands seen on social networking sites.
• Social media “Likes” are the most common action taken after seeing a social ad and can be
a great way to raise a brand’s visibility.

25. Please give us a call to discuss this or whatever is on your mind.
Brian Sullivan
bsullivan@sullivanbranding.com
Kate Cooke
kcooke@sullivanbranding.com
175 Toyota Plaza, Suite 600 • Memphis, TN 38103 • 901.526.6220
www.sullivanbranding.com