The metaverse. NFTs and cryptocurrency. TikTok. It’s pretty easy to spot the industry trends marketers spent a lot of time talking about this year—they’re draped across hustle-culture Twitter and sad agency pitch decks alike. What’s perhaps more difficult is identifying the trends that were overlooked in 2021—the ones that might have deserved a little more fanfare than they got.

That’s why we asked a few marketers to identify which 2021 trends the industry didn’t spend enough time on. Below, they make their cases.

Partnerships

With Apple’s new privacy regulations restricting reach on popular platforms like Facebook and Instagram, advertisers had to get creative in 2021. Apparently, partnerships are one of the less sexy (but still effective) ways to regain some of that reach, a few advertisers told Marketing Brew.

“The dramatic changes in iOS 14’s privacy permissions have upended the digital media landscape,” explained Carla Dunham, CMO of upscale food-delivery service Foxtrot. According to Dunham, people have spent a lot of time focusing on what Apple’s changes mean for digital-buying media strategies, but not as much on the resulting movement toward other, more traditional opportunities for reach—like partnerships between brands.

Instagram Reels

Other marketers cautioned against treating Instagram Reels like TikTok’s ugly stepsister. “I really think people are underestimating...the power of Reels,” marketing strategist and course creator Taylor Loren told Marketing Brew. Because Reels are pushed to users regardless of if they follow an account, Loren described them as an “effective feature for growth,” especially since it’s become more difficult for marketers to have the same amount of organic growth on the platform as they used to.

Loren, Girlboss’s former head of marketing, said she was able to start and grow an Instagram account to 70,000 followers in about six weeks using Instagram Reels. “I don’t think people are giving Reels the credit it deserves,” she said, noting that results are particularly potent for small businesses struggling to grow organically on the platform in other ways.

Micro-influencers

Fun fact: In Marketing Brew’s 2020 overlooked/overhyped survey, when asked which trend would be most important in 2021, 34.1% of respondents answered “micro-influencers gaining prominence.” Yet some marketers think micro-influencers, which Hubspot defines as individuals who have between 1,000 and 10,000 followers on social media, were overlooked this year.

Lola Bakare, CMO advisor and inclusive marketing strategist at her brand be/co, told us that micro-influencers are often overlooked in practice and not leveraged to their full potential. Specifically, Bakare said brands could have a lot of “two birds, one stone moments” if they started thinking about their customers as micro-influencers. “I think there are a lot of people who sit in that sweet spot of being both a customer and also having a large enough audience to be relevant,” she explained.

Read the full story here.—PB

ICYMI, former Facebook advertising lead Carolyn Everson announced Friday that she will step down as Instacart president at the end of the year. The news comes…about three months after she joined the company.

Almost simultaneously, Instacart came out with its “Year in Groceries” report highlighting how social media trends have impacted grocery-buying this year.

• Instacart surveyed more than 2,000 US adults with The Harris Poll, finding that 44% of Americans tried making a social media food trend in 2021.
• More than one in three Americans (36%) surveyed said social media has changed how they approach cooking at home, “including the methods they’re using for cooking, the types of meals they’re making, and how they choose which recipes to make,” per the report.

Zoom in: The report also looked at which three viral TikTok recipes resulted in the largest spike in Instacart orders that included their main ingredients.

• Jenni Häyrinen’s “baked feta pasta” came in at purchase-driving trend no. 1, with a 106% increase in the number of Instacart orders with the top ingredients from the dish during the week of February 7 (when Instacart says the trend peaked) versus the week before.
• Emily Mariko’s “salmon rice bowl” saw a 97% week-over-week rise during the trend’s October 3 peak.
• And Sherwayne Mears’s “nature’s cereal” orders were up 94% the week of March 15.

Bottom line: “With viral food trends making a noticeable impact on Instacart grocery carts this past year, we expect consumers to look for more connection points between social media inspiration and how they cook at home, which includes grocery shopping,” wrote Laurentia Romaniuk, Instacart’s trends expert, in the report.—PB

2022? In this economy?! We kid. Welcoming the new year doesn’t have to feel so daunting, even if you’re already dreaming of the half coma the industry slips into between Christmas Eve and New Year’s.

Last week, Marketing Brew editor Minda Smiley chatted with Instagram’s global product marketing manager, Patrick Sofen, and Mindshare’s executive director and solutions officer, Sean Clayton, about how they’re planning for the year ahead, what they’re keeping their eyes on, and a look at some trends they believed were overhyped and overlooked in 2021.

Check out our recap of the event, or watch the full thing here. Below, see which marketing trends each exec thinks were overlooked + overhyped this year.

From Sofen

• Overlooked: Per Sofen, Instagram believes that creator monetization has been overlooked, so naturally, it’s trying to be the platform for creators to earn a living on. “We’re investing over a billion dollars by the end of 2022—through a number of different programs, including production of Reels content—back into the pockets of creators,” he told the audience.
• Overhyped: Social audio. No kidding.

From Clayton

• Overlooked: Web3. “If you’re not considering it as part of your brand, or as a marketer...you’re way behind,” Clayton said.
• Overhyped: The death of the third-party cookie. “We went a little crazy at the beginning of the year...it was a little overhyped in my opinion.” We regret nothing.—RB

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

Insta: Marketers should expect these six things from the platform in the new year.

Storytelling: Read about the three types of stories founders should be telling others (and themselves) about their brand.

Hashtags: Find out how to strategize for hashtag holidays in 2022 here.

Gather round: Whether you’re hosting a virtual meeting for 50 or an online conference for 50,000, Hopin is the all-in-one event management platform you need to know. Get the unique event of your dreams with Hopin.*

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Nothing says “Christmas spirit” like a gin ad from 1978.

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