2020 was quite a year as we all experienced and the media industry had to adapt super quickly (while also being nimble of immediate changes thereafter).

Last year, the team predicted what would happen in 2020 in the realms of social media, advertising and production. Little did we know that those hot tips could be turned on their heads thanks to COVID-19.

Did any of our predictions come to fruition? Actually, yes!

• Digital was favoured over traditional media in 2020 as populations were locked down in their houses and spending more time online.

• Tik Tok exploded into the mainstream and became a huge marketing consideration.

• The U.S. election swamped our feeds for months, particularly in Oct and Nov with a very, very satisfying result! 😉 #ByeTrump

• Authentic and relatable content became the norm and preference on social media, with unfiltered content that audiences connect with being very popular.

• Crisis capitalism continued throughout important events this year. We saw this during the Australian bushfires and Black Lives Matter periods where brands took a stand for important causes.

So, what’s next for the media world? The team predicts the trends that will rule 2021:

Jo: I'd say we're going to see more and more Tik Tok style content as Instagram borrows more and more of their video editing features. We're also going to see a lot more e-commerce posts in newsfeeds as more and more brands come online after they saw the importance of it in 2020 – and that's coupled with Facebook adding more e-commerce features to the platform.

Cici: Personalisation has the potential to become a key trend. This can be anything from algorithms getting more and more attuned to serving hyper-personalised content, to personalised experiences via other mediums such as chatbots.

Em: More traditional FMCG brands who don’t have much of a social presence, or don’t think they need one, will up their social game in 2021. As the world goes in and out of lockdown, I still think this homebody economy will last a few years and will continue to increase online social activity. It will be a no-brainer for brands to put more spend in social.

Josh: I think in 2021 “social commerce” or “shopping” integration on social media will continue to evolve to allow Australian customers to check out on the social media platform, rather than leaving to make the purchase on the website. Brands have rapidly improved their activity in this space, so they’ll continue to deliver better content in new formats to more relevant, qualified audiences.

Kylie: Social media platforms are going to be held more accountable by their audiences and the platforms will be forced to react. After significant criticism, particularly in the last year, of social platforms facilitating and failing to act on hate speech and misinformation, we have seen a real change already in 2021, whereby a world leader has been banned from multiple channels for disseminating misinformation and exacerbating political violence.

It’s safe to say the audience will have more control in 2021 about what they want to see, and what is acceptable to them. Privacy changes have already been announced by Apple which will significantly impact Facebook’s data collection ability in a bid to “stand up for their users”… This is just the beginning!

Soph: I think virtual try-on softwares will become much more prevalent in 2021. Instagram has already rolled out their own version which is available in their ever-growing Shopping tab. Especially in a post-COVID world, consumers will be more wary of product testers, particularly in the beauty space, and virtual try-ons are an accessible solution.

Bea: Advertising on Tik Tok is completely under-utilised. The Tegan Phillipa/ShopBack example from last year, where they got her to create a Reel to promote Holiday shopping, is now being used for promoted ShopBack posts on Tik Tok. Super versatile content and an effective way to spend influencer budgets.

Steve: For design, since the 20% rule (Facebook’s former restrictions on text in an image) is no longer a thing, people will push the boundaries with having text on images (in a design way, not just slabs of text). There will be a lot more illustrations and design elements in posts and on top of photographed images this year.

We’ll check back in a year’s time to see what came true! No doubt 2022 will come around as quickly as this year did with plenty more to talk about.