The team at Chrysalis have come up with our predicted trends for the digital sector in 2014. Regular interaction with some of the leading digital agencies has given us a great insight into what they believe will be huge this year.


       1. A lot of emphasis was placed on the importance of content for 2013, this theme is set to roll into 2014. With everyone preaching the importance of content, it will be even more crucial to produce quality content. Rather than forcing the brand down the consumers neck, they will look to offer genuine help and offer value outside of the brand. Three's "Silly Stuff Matters" went viral last year and proved a huge success, proving that content doesn't have to be brand related. The fact it was visual was another factor, we've seen the rise of apps such as Vine and Snapchat, along with the popularity of infographics. It's said that a post including a picture receives 94% more views!

       2. More brands will look to take advantage of real time marketing, Oreo stole the show with its promoted tweet referring to the light failure at the NFL Superbowl. Users are regularly engaging with two (or more) screens while watching or participating in events, brands will look to take full advantage and try to stay at the forefront of the consumers mind. Jonathan Mildenhall, senior vice president of marketing communication at Coca-Cola, say's their "major trend in terms of content marketing will be the move towards real-time marketing". Implementing real-marketing effectively involves specialized teams focusing purely on this, but the rewards are more relevant and engaging material for consumers.

       3. Another theme continuing over from 2013 is Mobile. 40% of YouTube videos are now served to mobiles, with this set to increase companies can't afford to not be incorporating mobile into their marketing plans, and optimising their websites. A focus on mobile links nicely to location-based marketing; this allows you to deliver multi-media directly to the user of a mobile device dependent upon their location via GPS technology. This is a growing trend due to the fact that 91% of adults have their mobile phones within arms reach 24/7. With Google Glass to be released to the general public in 2014 can anyone seriously overlook mobile?

       4. 2014 should see a greater focus on CRM, in particular social CRM. According to Gartner, social CRM is expected to grow by 28.4% annually until 2015. Organisations can use the information to plan social media activity, measure effectiveness and record the online behaviors of prospects. Expect more organisations to implement automated software that compliments their current CRM systems. Social Media is becoming a more integral part of marketing plans, and rightly so, as Experian Hitwise noted searches 
conducted on social sites and forums, have exceeded search engine traffic since 2010.

 Just a few ideas of potential trends for this coming year, let us know your thoughts and share with us any trends that you predict to make an impact this year.