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 INDEX

1. Is Your Digital Marketing Core Ready? 11

2. Right Digital Core. What Does It Mean? 14

3. Digital Advertisement In FY 18-19 34

4. Important Digital Advertising Updates From FY 17-18 38-39

5. Search & SEO In FY 18-19 40

6. Important SEO Updates From FY 17-18 44

7. Content & Social Media Landscape In FY 18-19 45

8. Social Media Updates From FY 17-18 50-51

9. 18 Social Media Design Trends To Rock FY 18-19 52

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 DIGITAL IN FY 18-19 Naked truth about Digital in India &
“Do Less, Stay Purposeful, Get More, Build Digital Leadership”
Why DigitalMarketingUniversity.
com was created.
Digital in India grew differently, the early set
of people who worked in digital were mainly
working on outsourced work from developed
countries, the cheaper labour concept, the work
was less strategic, more hour intense. With
the change in digital globally and the growth of
digital in India, the older set became irrelevant.
The demand for digital in India grew much faster
than supply of quality workforce.
The other big challenge was seniors and mentors
in the industry, the numbers were insignificant to
create the workforce. Most of the seniors were
self taught and thus not able to teach the next
generation. To add to the challenge, the industry
keeps redefining itself every few months, making
last year’s books and courses less relevant.
In FY 17-18 (and years before that), we experienced the growth of Digital (digital channels in particular).
A myriad of new features, new platforms, and new tactics were introduced to capture the first mover TechShu mainly recruited fresh MBAs and
advantage. However, in the recent times we saw the charm of vanity metrics being challenged. We saw trained them for last 7 to 8 years, this gave birth
marketers beginning to talk about defining the real attributes of digital in marketing (should it be limited to
Virality?).
to a structured approach of training people. We
extended our training to top B-Schools in India
like IIFT, XLRI etc to international organizations
like UPH.EDU, Setsquare Bristol etc. Now our
courses very matured, we rely on core principles
which are timeless and structured approach,
which enables you to convert the info and
knowledge to wisdom.
We are one of the pioneers in digital marketing
mix, utility campaigns, structured keyword
research to name of few. We are global
thought leaders. Indian digital agencies can
emerge as top contenders for global leaders
as we have the advantage of processing more
digital channels under one roof. We created
DigitalMarketingUniverity.com to help you get
the advantage of structured knowledge.

Marketing & business fundamentals are back to where they “Never Again Struggle For RIGHT Digital
are supposed to be, at the core.

Now, Business/Marketing First

Know How”
Then

Digital
We can help
Messaging
Channels
1. Companies in hiring, training, upskilling and managing digital workforce more effectively.
Tech Tech 2. Allowing universities to create passionate digital workforce
Mar Tech
Digital 3. Allow professionals to stay ahead in the game with structured training and regular knowledge flow.
Channels Communication 4. Consulting and solving the most complex digital issues for your business, we do speak numbers.
Fundamentals

Digital
Business
Our Mission:
Presence
Fundamentals
BUSINESSES
Any business with good business model should never struggle for #TrueDigitalSuccess

INDIVIDUALS
Any Individual with good intention should never struggle for TRUE digital marketing know-how.
FY 18-19 is going to be the defining year for “Purposeful Marketing”, so “Do Less, Stay Purposeful, Get
More, Build Digital Leadership”.

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Workshops, trainings so far:
Jakarta
We have been training
MBA candidates at
Universitas Pelita
Harapan, Indonesia
from last 3 years.
XLRI
We also train MBA
students at XLRI,
Mumbai.
6 | www.digitalmarketinguniversity.com
HP DMD London
Exeter E2Exchange Trained and guided the We organize our own Train full time and
entire digital marketing training workshops part time MBA
team of HP at Chennai exclusively for SMEs (International Business)
In 2017/18 global We are Digital
and Bangalore and have trained over students at Indian
thought leadership Education Partner
locations in the year 1000+ entrepreneurs in Institute of Foreign
platform We are Like with E2Exchange -
2014 and 2018. 5 cities in India. Trade, India from last 3
Minds, Exeter, invited UK’s largest network of
years.
us to speak about entrepreneurs (18000+)
Digital Marketing at
Ideas Festival
People often use “Superlative” to
describe us
SET Squared CII
Natwest, SET Squared In India we speak
and Oracle invite us at several national
to train SME teams, and international
start-up founders and platforms including CII,
business leaders in the Nasscom, Realty Plus.
UK. TiE, etc.
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Core Offerings Current Courses
are still available, use the options to get the
Effective Digital Marketing Team
01 For You
leadership position. This happened in every
developed countries, new leaders were created 06
Digital Marketing Masterclass
for CXOs
on digital.
Hiring & managing Inhouse & External agencies
India’s advertising expenditure is estimated to
(we fill the gap with flexible hiring)
In the industry we have very limited leaders as
grow 13% to 69,347 crore in 2018. For SME A full day session packed with over a dozen digital marketing structures in addition to the
dependency on digital will be 70% and for large following topics:
the digital marketing industry is very new. Digital
enterprises upto 25%. Hence, its time to get
marketing university has come with an in-house,
serious about building a right mix of team which 1. How to understand the big digital opportunity - research impact vs sales, In India various
external and flexible hiring mix to get the right
is highly ROI focused. We experimented with
mix of juniors and seniors for each layer. In most industries are influenced by digital differently, example, car purchases are digitally
several team structures and came up with the
industries the leadership on digital platforms influenced over 87%.
below model that seem to be most effective.
2. The Integrated customer Journey today - What has changed and how to use digital
3. Budget allocation and ROI calculations
4. Team Hiring and dashboarding
5. Team Reviews
6. How to do market and competitor analysis
7. Different KPIs and how to navigate through them
8. How to set digital marketing goals for FY 2018-19
9. What you should do and you shouldn’t, sometimes CXOs are the reason for
failures & Much more.

Who Should Attend:

Customized training for Anyone who recognises the impact of Digital Marketing in their organisation. Trainees are

corporates, institutions and

drawn from a range of job titles from CEO to Directors and Senior Managers and even Mid Level
Managers from enterprize.

professionals: C-Level: CEO, CMO, CIO, Brand Managers, Digital Marketing Managers / Directors, Brand
Directors - Agency
Get your internal team trained with the best of selection & training process designed through SLTS, a
unique approach best of traditional & digital platforms conceptualized by Prof Ranjan Das, IIM & digital For further details, please connect to uttam@digitalmarketinguniversity.com
marketing frameworks by Abhishek Rungta & Aji Issac, Indus Net TechShu and Indus Net Technologies. Also
70% of content is unique to this and has not been a part of any course curriculum.

Digital Marketing Training for

02
Digital Marketing Training for
Internal Teams 03 Institutions

Digital Marketing Masterclass

04 for CXOs 05
Digital Marketing Masterclass
for Professionals

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Launched in 2018 IS YOUR DIGITAL MARKETING

CORE READY?
Get Hired IF FOR ANY OF THESE QUESTIONS YOU ANSWERED NO OR UNSURE,
YOU NEED TO THINK MORE ON THE CORE.
A platform for digital marketing professional
to learn faster, improve their core skills and
get better offerings from the industry.

gethired.digitalmarketinguniversity.com

Q1. Q2.
Who has access to your domain name, Can your website accommodate
Hire Talent is it you?
Yes No Unsure
structural data?
Yes No Unsure

An exclusive platform for business leader and

entrepreneurs seeking to hire best talents in Q3. Q4.
the Industry. Is your website AMP ready? Do you know in your industry what %
recruiters.digitalmarketinguniversity.com Yes No Unsure of purchase is influenced by research?
Yes No Unsure

Q5. Q6.
Do you know the short-term and long- Are you able to track leads & final sales
term ROI for your digital marketing from each channel?
investment? Yes No Unsure
Yes No Unsure

Q7. Q8.
Have you calculated the Lifetime Do you have a 3 month to 3 year digital
Value (LTV) of a customer and cost of marketing roadmap available for your
acquisition percentage? Do you know business?
the acceptable range in your industry?
Yes No Unsure
Yes No Unsure

Q9. Q10.
Have you done the trademark for your Do you know what people search within
brand with Google Ads? your website or with your brand name?
Yes No Unsure Yes No Unsure

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 DIGITAL IN FY 18-19
GETING THE DIGITAL
CORE RIGHT IN 3 STEPS
“In FY 18-19, Do Less, Stay Purposeful, Get More, Build Digital Leadership” In FY 18-19, we will see more changes around features than numerous rises and falls
of digital channels. In this ever-changing, mostly misunderstood, digital domain,
there is gold, pure gold! There are 3 approaches one needs to take.
This year, we urge all to focus on the selective few core areas to build strong leadership that can sustain your
digital growth for a longer period of time. For example, a utility application can give you marketing dividends
over a creative campaign. Your marketing strategy needs to have the right mix of things to stay purposeful.

We wish all a very prosperous and blessed New Year; let this be a defining year for your digital initiatives.

“Thou shall do everything using a structural approach” – Our Strong Belief

2 3 1
Integrate all channels Adapt or be prepared for Build the
and teams to focus on new TRENDS core of digital
Business KPIs

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 RIGHT DIGITAL CORE
WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
Before getting to the trends, let us define the
trunks and branches (core digital marketing
structures) first so that you know where to hang
what leaves ( metrics, channels, and KPIs).
We define digital marketing as “Purchase Funnel
Optimization using 4 Digital Markets”. This has
many dimensions but when it comes together,
it sounds easier than Lego block building.
In short, RIGHT digital success strategy is all
about defining the RIGHT short and long-term
goals, followed by reaching the RIGHT Target
Group (TG) at the RIGHT time, using the RIGHT
messaging and RIGHT channels, to bring them
to the RIGHT digital assets with RIGHT call to
actions. Sounds a little long, no worries, let’s
simplify by understanding a few dimensions and
expected changes FY 18-19.

Dimension #1:
The Purchase
Funnel Changes in FY 18-19

If we remove the product improvement part of marketing, we can define marketing as optimizing the
purchase funnel for the business.

Creating Awareness/Attention multiple times in multiple ways to create Familiarity/Interest that

converts to Connect/Recall which can be used for Consideration that will result in Purchase, Repeat
Purchase, and Referrals

Our Traditional Purchase Funnel (for marketing) was highly brand recall-based using
“Please Remember Me Ads”.

Also, Known As Brand Recall-based Purchase Funnel

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 Be it the Google’s famous Coca Cola’s
1 campaign for hiring 2 “Drinkable Ad”

Mass media or traditional marketing was focused on creating Or

awareness(through celebs, creative memes etc) multiple times which
left a BRAND RECALL in customer’s mind.

Remembering your brand in FY 18-19? What?

Seriously!! That’s too much to ask from your users because they
are consuming a lot more information than what they used to in the
past. Don’t expect them to remember you, they still love you but their
life has changed.

Thinking Beyond “Please Remember Me” ads

Remember Me
Digital can be a different medium; it can act as a strong follow-up for Also, in your industry understand the existence of other “purchase funnels”.
any offline campaign.
Impulse Purchase Funnel: Interrupt, help them
understand, and help them choose.

“Every two days now we create as much information as we did from the dawn of
civilization up until 2003.” Eric Schmidt ( CEO, Google) in 2010

A full 90% of all the data in the world has been generated over the last two years - Discovery Research Choose Purchase
(Source: SINTEF, 2013)
Here is an example for the work we did for one of our clients

Don’t create just plain-good-old kind of “Please Remember Me Ads”; instead create awareness for
connect, engagement or consideration. Creating awareness for brand recall may not give you the
results as it gave in the past. Reason - people are consuming more information than before, it also
means they will flush out information they don’t want to keep including the brand recall created.
Brand recall can support digital consideration, but brand recall alone can’t struggle. Creating relevant
and meaningful connections can help you reach the same audience again at a lower cost.
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A Hong Kong-based publisher came to India with zero digital presence. They had almost a new product for
India, something that majority of Indian consumers were not aware of. A very expensive “early learning” kit
for kids (even for kids below 5). India had almost no search volume for it (no visible want). We used interrupt
channels (FB ads) to reach the early parents and introduced the product. We also created the website to
share important information on development of brain cells in kids, growth cycle of kids etc. Result, people
showed interest, we generated over $133k sales from Indian markets in less than 2 months by spending as
little as $2k in ads.
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 Research-based Buying 4 Digital Markets: To Reach
(for awareness, we use 4
Dimension #2: digital markets with multiple
89% 5 to 7 years back, the brand recall for
data consumption) via Paid
car purchases led to test drives, today & Non-paid Route
it is highly replaced by research-
based calls (89% buying is digitally
influenced) *1

Here is another story that will help you understand the power of research- based purchase funnel over brand
There are 4 digital markets:
recall, “I was searching for mattresses, I am aware of most of the top brands, I am aware of places to go and
test a mattress (the retail store). But I searched on Google and landed up on Amazon, where I saw a new
name “wakefit”. I was not aware of the company, but I liked the reviews & ratings. So, I went to their website, Search (where you Profile (understanding
liked their customization options (as I wanted a different size), liked the company philosophy, and the 100- identify the audience your audience based on
day free trial offering. I purchased it and now I do most of the purchase from there” – Indian customer demographics)
based on what they
If you think this is one-of-a-kind incident, then NO! In the UK and US also, the online mattress market is search)
growing at a rapid pace (it has already garnered has garnered more than 5% of the market and could surpass
10% this year); people are buying newer names without much hesitation. *2
Marketplace (They
Context (understanding the
come to purchase; so,
audience based on what
be in front of them)
they are reading)

Research based-buying will increase over brand recall-based buying; prepare your digital assets
to support research for your industry and for your offerings. Don’t make a transactional website
Think beyond Google as search engine. Think Google’s YouTube, because a lot of research will shift to
supporting the purchase, make a research support website than can support research and follow
video. Build your research-based text and VIDEO inventory for industry.
through with connect or buy CTAs (Call to actions).

Sources:
1. The Auto Gearshift Study 2017 by Google-KantarTNS
The rise of marketplace and dominance of Amazon is going to be the key to expanding your products
2. https://www.forbes.com/sites/amyfeldman/2017/05/02/dozens-of-upstart-companies-are-upending-
across different countries. In last one to two years, we have seen how our Chinese partners are selling
the-15-billion-mattress-market/#615e4c8a7da3
their products across EU, UK and US using Amazon.
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 Digital Investment Framework -
To create awareness/familiarity
we use digital assets. And to
Dimension #3: improvise consideration, repeat
purchases or referrals - we use
enhancers.

CRO
New CTA. Messaging & More
Digital Growth
Step By Step
Campaigns
Paid(PPC), Organic(SEO), Branding

Enhancers
Marketing Automation, CRM, Content, Loyalty, etc.

Infra For All

TGs

Infrastructure Investment
Web-Mobile-Social-Marketplace

Objectives & Goals(OKR Format)

4 TG Goals, POEM Mix, Customer Journey

Right investment on assets will be the key to success. The demand for the RIGHT technical partner will
see an increase in the coming years. Also, architecture for scalability will be more in demand.

Last 2 years were the years of marketing automation in the UK. This will grow further as more
businesses would look for strong integration with marketing automation, CRM, and ERP (for larger
companies).

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 Sherlock Holmes said “what the deuce is it to me?...
you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the
moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference
to me or to my work.”

TRENDS & INSIGHTS:

BUSINESS LEVEL &
DIGITAL MIX TRENDS Fast Forward To This Day
“5 years in now 1 year” What was earlier achieved

IN FY 18-19
in 5 years is now possible in 1 year, including a
lesser known trend to turn mainstream. In today’s
constantly changing digital landscape, it is good
to be aware of the surrounding and milk it at the
right time.

Digital Advertisement
SEO
Content & Social Media To make FY 18-19 more effective, we have jotted down the trends and actionable insights to strengthen
the core digital concept of digital success. This will give you hints about the digital elements which can
Design come in your way of Digital Success.

& Others

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DIGITAL ADVERTISEMENT
IN FY 18-19
In FY 17-18 digital ad spending finally beat TV.
Digital advertising in FY 17-18 grew to $209 billion globally, up from $178
billion in 2016, according to Magna Global. Magna predicts in FY 18-19 the
digital ad spend will grow 13 % to $237 billion. By 2020, the company predicts
that the digital ads will make up 50% of all ad spending.
Google and Facebook control the digital ad landscape ( and will continue doing
so until Amazon or a third-player comes into the scene with a big bang). With
Facebook’s latest changes in the News Feed, it’s expected that the organic reach
will hit zero. We will see a big shift happening - Brands to move away from
spending a significant amount of their marketing budget on gaining fans to getting
space in News Feed. Which means Facebook ad prices to surge higher. Also, we
will see businesses focus more on business metrics than aligning their ad budgets
around vanity metrics.
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Google & Facebook’s
duopoly to continue
In FY 17-18, Google and Facebook, taken
together, accounted for about 63% of US digital
ad revenues, according to eMarketer. Also, in the
developing markets their control on the online
ad landscape remained unchallenged. In FY
18-19, we can see Amazon becoming the third
player in the digital ad landscape.
Another network that’s getting serious about
wooing ad buyers is Pinterest (over 2 billion
searches occur on the site every month). It
launched search ads to advertisers of all sizes
and is quietly working on a slew of new offerings
and additions to its existing features like in-
stream buying.
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AI to have a far-reaching impact on
digital advertising
Better ad targeting and personalization at scale
will be made possible with the help of AI – it can
mine out nuanced insights on the best & worst
performing ads, best calls-to-action, messages
that fit with your audience’s interests, and more.
Though in its initial stages, AI is going to change
the way we work on ad copies. Last year Satchi
LA created thousands of ads & 1000 Facebook
videos for Toyota by training IBM Watson to
write like humans. The AI scraped the web to find
out deep insights about the audience and started
to put the thoughts into sentences. The copies
were vetted by the agency’s copywriters before
they were made live. In future, we will be seeing
more such human AI collaboration to create huge
amount of data-backed ad content in real time.
Improving brand safety
isn’t an option anymore.
It’s a necessity
In March last year, 250 brands including HSBC,
The Guardian, and P&G pulled out their YouTube
campaigns after their ads ran next to questionable
content on the video platform. Although most
of the brands that stopped the campaigns from
YouTube were back on the platform within a few
months. P&G cut up to $140 million in digital ad
spending over brand safety. Chase cut the number
of sites it advertises on from 400,000 to 5,000.
FY 18-19 will be a year of improving brand
safety and transparency. We’re already seeing
platforms like YouTube taking stricter actions
against controversial content creators. After
the Logan Paul’s controversial and infamous
“Suicide Forest” video ( which got the YouTube
star kicked out of Google Preferred ), YouTube
has started manually checking each video for
Google Preferred channel and will be rolling out
a three-tiered suitability system for brand safety.
Facebook also released its monetization eligibility
standards to combat brand safety issues.
Efforts towards
monetizing visual &
voice search
Was Google’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’ ad a
precursor to paid voice search? Though search
giant denied that it was an ad and removed it
from Google Home, but it could give us an idea of
what voice ads would look like. With ComScore
predicting that 50% of all searches will be voice
searches by 2020, Google wouldn’t want to miss
out on the opportunity to leverage the immense
potential of voice search.
Google has already announced a partnership with
Walmart which means that Walmart customers
can also shop using Google Assistant similar
to how Alexa is used on the Amazon products.
Google and Target recently issued the first voice-
activated coupon for Google Assistant.
There are some brands that are already present
on Amazon’s Alexa, through third-party Alexa
Skills. However, they are not ads. Campbell’s,
one of the first brands to launch an Echo Skill in
2015, let Echo users ask for several recipes a day
from Campbell’s Kitchen. Since the launch, the
Campbell’s Kitchen skill has received over 50,000
unique sign-ups and has suggested over 174,000
recipes to its users.
In the beginning of FY 18-19, there were reports
that Amazon will be bringing ads to Alexa and the
ecommerce giant was testing different ad formats
including videos. It was reported that Amazon
was discussing the options with P&G, Clorox and
others. However, the company later in an emailed
statement said it had no plans to add advertising
to Alexa. Nonetheless brands should be preparing
for voice ads on Alexa because voice- activated
shopping will get bigger and the early movers will
have a definite advantage.
Note: CIRP estimates that Amazon has now sold
20 million Echo units since the first device was
released in 2015 and 7 million Google Home units
have been sold since the smart speaker’s debut.
(*1)
Image-based communication is a growing
consumer trend. In FY 17-18, we saw a flurry
of activities to tap into the power of visual
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content including Pinterest bringing its visual
search technology to ads, Google announcing
Google Lens, Amazon launching Amazon Spark,
Snapchat releasing a new intelligent image
recognition capability, and Bing announcing
their new visual search mode. In FY 18-19, aided
by Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence,
image recognition and search will become more
advanced.
Improving digital ad experiences
will be a priority
Most consumers view online advertising as
nuisance – 82% across the globe believes it gets
in the way of what they are trying to do and 83%
believe that it causes the web pages they are trying
to view to load more slowly (*2) With ad blocking
on rise, publishers will be making extra efforts on
making ads better. With Google expected to roll
out its built-in ad blocker on February 15th, sites
with bad ads will see all their ads blocked. Google
will notify websites about the potential blocking
through Ad Experience Report tool. As a result
we will see more focus on producing ad content
( in different formats) that keeps users engaged.
Let’s discuss more on it in the next point.
Different ad formats to keep
users engaged
With AR spending on the rise (it’s predicted
that AR & Virtual Reality (VR) spend will nearly
double in FY 18-19, from $9.1 billion in FY
17-18 to $17.8 billion in FY 18-19) (*3) we are
expecting businesses and marketers to leverage
the power of AR on social media.
In FY 17-18, we saw Snapchat tapping on AR
(Augmented Reality) for revamping their ads.
The company already has rolled out AR Trial Ads.
BMW became the first brand to test Snapchat’s
new AR ‘augmented trial’ Lens to promote its new
X2 model. As a result the users could interact with
a virtual 3D version of the car as they would have
done in a showroom. Also, Facebook’s AR push
(location and object recognition technology) is
expected to solve its near-term ad load problem.
In the first half of FY 17-18, online video ad spend People who watch TV on OTT platforms are
overtook banner ads for the first time in the UK.
(*4) According to Salesforce’s Digital Advertising
more engaged with the advertising that runs
on the platforms. OTT viewers, on average,
2020 Report (*5), 65% of companies increased
their video advertising budgets over the past year.
complete 98% of video ads as compared to ad
completion rates on other devices. OTT is the
Marketers are focusing on both long-form and most popular delivery system for digital videos
super-short digital videos to catch the attention (topping desktops) and 69% of OTT ad views are
of their users. on authenticated platforms. (*8)
YouTube’s 6 seconds online ads (also known as A study titled The OTT co-viewing experience:
bumper ads and which the video giant showcased FY 17-18 by IAB found that 56% of all audiences
at Sundance) gained immense popularity as watching OTT TV discuss the brands they see on
the format is apt for catching the attention of screen with others in their company.(*9)
millennials and GenZ consumers.
Roku, the biggest player in the streaming devices
A Google-led study found that that 9 out of 10 market, controls one-third of the market. In the
bumper ads drove a significant lift in ad recall. first six months of FY 17-18, Roku owners had
(*6) Facebook also announced that it will start streamed over 6.7 billion hours Roku devices and
running 6 seconds pre roll ads on its Watch video Roku TVs (*10), and 43% of those hours were ad
hub from FY 18-19. supported.
According to Scott Rosenberg, vice president of
Monetizing OTT advertising at Roku, “We love being in the market
talking about how premium OTT ads are because
they are running on a 55-inch television and they are
A report by eMarketer released in September,
100 percent viewable...We also like to talk about the
predicted that in FY 17-18 there will be in total of
fact that it’s a shared device because there are more
22.2 million cord-cutters. (*7) As consumers shift
people in the living room.”
their focus from traditional Pay TV options to
OTT, ad-supported OTT will be a strong contender
Meanwhile, the penetration of other devices
for traditional TV advertising. For advertisers,
such as Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, and Apple
OTT means a greater ability to engage with their
TV is increasing. As per eMarketer’s forecast, by
audience because of reasons including hyper-
2021 Google Chromecast will have 64.6 million
targeted advertising (targeting and segmenting
by attributes such as lifestyle); reaching highly
engaged viewers (which include cord cutters,
monthly users and Amazon Fire TV will have 62.6
million.
nevers, and millennial viewers); trackable metrics,
and authentic viewers.
Sources:
1. http://files.constantcontact.com/150f9af2201/581db86c-f741-4ec7-91c2-f8413b2dd5c1.pdf
2. https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/2017-07/Ipsos%20Global%20Trends%202017%20report.pdf
3. https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS43248817
4. https://www.iabuk.net/about/press/archive/online-video-spend-overtakes-banner-ads-for-first-time
5. https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2018/01/salesforce-digital-advertising-2020-report.html
6. https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/products/bumper-ads/
7. https://www.emarketer.com/Article/eMarketer-Lowers-US-TV-Ad-Spend-Estimate-Cord-Cutting-
Accelerates/1016463
8. h t t p s : // w w w. b r o a d c a s t i n g c a b l e . c o m /n e w s / f r e e w h e e l - r e p o r t - c a l l s - o t t - b e t t e r - f o r m - t v -
advertising-167604#.WYIKRaXmni4.email
9. https://www.iab.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IAB_OTT_Co-Viewing_Study_FINAL.pdf
10. https://www.statista.com/chart/10973/ott-streaming-devices-penetration/
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k Important Digital Advertising Updates
Quic s
Read From FY 17-18
1. Negative keyword lists across accounts
can be shared (January, FY 17-18)
2. Data Studio integrated with Google
Search Console. (February, FY 17-18)
3. Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) supports
expanded text ads (March, FY 17-18)
4. Exact match close variants will include
rewording and reordering. (March, FY
17-18)
5. Local information in display ads can
be shown to drive more in-store visits.
(March, FY 17-18)
6. The Adwords default window for view-
through-conversion (VTC) will now be 1
day (March, FY 17-18)
7. Google rolls out AdWords account-
level call extensions. (March, FY 17-18)
8. Bing Ads Editor Now Supports Review
Extensions.(April, FY 17-18)
9. Google AdWords Introduces Company
Based Product Listing Ads to Search
Results. (April, FY 17-18)
10. Google launches fully-automated smart
display campaigns. (April, FY 17-18)
38 | www.digitalmarketinguniversity.com
Must Know for Teams
Quic s
Read
11. View-through-conversions (VTCs) for
Gmail ads campaigns can be measured.
(April, FY 17-18)
12. Google launches Google Attribution.
(May, FY 17-18)
13. Google adds additional reporting and
transparency to the Quality Score (QS)
metric. (May, FY 17-18)
14. Google announces major changes
to Enhanced CPC (ECPC) bidding
(removes 30% bid cap). (May, FY 17-18)
15. Google rolls out similar audiences for
Search and Shopping. (May, FY 17-18)
16. Google introduces Maximize
Conversions: a new Smart Bidding
strategy. (May FY 17-18)
17. Bing Ads pilots in-market & custom
audience targeting. ( June, FY 17-18)
18. New version of AdWords Editor: custom
rules, bidding to maximize conversions,
uploading up to 20 images and videos
for Universal App Campaigns + more (
June, FY 17-18)
19. Bing Ads launches in-line competitive
metrics. ( June, FY 17-18)
k Important Digital Advertising Updates
From FY 17-18
20. Google to stop reading emails for Gmail
ads. ( June, FY 17-18)
21. Bing Ads introduces expanded device
targeting, supports mobile campaigns.
(June, FY 17-18)
22. Google launches Ad Experience Report.
( June, FY 17-18)
23. Google Adwords supports bid
adjustments for click-to-call ads.
(July, FY 17-18)
24. Google AdWords supports remarketing
to YouTube viewers. (July, FY 17-18)
25. Bing Ads shuts down Campaign Planner.
(July, FY 17-18)
26. Google changes how mobile ads show
site links, callouts, and structured
snippets. (August, FY 17-18)
27. Google launches new reporting to show
how often shopping ads are in the top
spot. (August, FY 17-18)
28. Google AdWords launches Search Card
to show how customers search for the
business. (August, FY 17-18)
29. Google AdWords’ call-only ads upgraded
with ad extensions. (September, FY 17-
18)
30. Google AdWords rolls out AMP landing
pages to all. (September, FY 17-18)
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Must Know for Teams
31. Bing Ads rolls out account level ad
extensions. (September, FY 17-18)
32. Bing Ads introduces new URL tracking
parameters. (September, FY 17-18)
33. Google AdWords introduces ad unit for
in-store products. ( October, FY 17-18)
34. Google’s new AdWords opens for all
advertisers. ( October, FY 17-18)
35. AdWords daily budgets can overspend
by 2x, automatically. (October, FY 17-
18)
36. Adwords “Days to conversion” Segment
shows the time between ad clicks and
conversions. (October, FY 17-18)
37. Google Adwords launches promotion
extensions, custom intent audiences
& ad variations for testing.
(November, FY 17-18)
38. Google AdWords makes an important
update called AdWords Data Control to
Data Studio reports. ( November, FY 17-
18)
39. Bing Ads show exact match impression
share. ( November, FY 17-18)
40. Google bans lockscreen ads from Play
Store apps. ( December, FY 17-18)
41. Google AdWords adds targeting by
phone number and mailing address.
( December, FY 17-18)
 SEARCH &
SEO IN FY 18-19
Organic search is still the largest channel;
51% of organic traffic still comes from the organic search. (*1)
We are witnessing a huge shift in media and device habits, as more consumers
are using voice and visual search, particularly on mobile. The wide adoption of AI
digital assistants to search for queries ranging from “What’s the temperature in
London?”, and “Who is Justin Bieber dating?” to “What’s the nearest continental
restaurant?” , is a fair indication of how AI will affect the search landscape and
how marketers will leverage the vast opportunity by creating personalized user
experiences.
Though Google undoubtedly remains the most used search engine in the world,
there are players like YouTube (the world’s second largest search engine),
Pinterest, Amazon, Yelp, OpenDoor, and Facebook which will make efforts
directed towards improving users’ search experience. For instance, Pinterest is
betting big on visual search; last year it rolled out a series of features for Pinterest
Lens and Visual Search making their intention of becoming the most preferred
search engine for visual content pretty clear.
40 | www.digitalmarketinguniversity.com
Mobile-first indexing
– the new norm?
In 2016, Google announced its plan to roll-out its
mobile first index. Towards the end of the last year
Google’s mobile-first search index was rolled out
to a handful of sites. Google in its official advice on
preparing for the mobile-first search index noted
“webmasters will see significantly increased crawling
by Smartphone Googlebot, and the snippets in the
results, as well as the content on the Google cache
pages, will be from the mobile version of the pages.”
In FY 18-19, we will see more websites getting
ready for mobile-first indexing by adding
important, high-quality content to mobile version
of the site, adding structured data and metadata
on both versions of the site, and ensuring servers
are capable to handle increased crawl rate.
According to Google, sites that make use of
responsive web design and correctly implement
dynamic serving (that include all of the desktop
content and markup) generally don’t have to do
anything to get ready for mobile-first indexing.
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Key developments to happen
in the visual search
domain
Visual searches are now commonplace. The
FY 17-18 report by Jumpshot & Moz supports
the popularity of visual search. (*2) Pinterest
Lens, Google Lens, Bing visual search, and visual
search platforms owned by brands – all point to
the growing impact of visual search on consumer
habits and purchasing decisions
A FY 17-18 eMarketer study found that around
three-quarters of U.S. internet users regularly or
always search for visual content prior to making a
purchase. (*3)
In FY 18-19, we will see improved visual search
capabilities helping users to search items in a
more intuitive way. Additionally, development
around analyzing visual content to gain pace; it
will help businesses engage with their customers
in a more effective way.
 Google Featured Snippets
Voice search to have more effect Link building still affects ranking
on content strategy but not at the cost of to grow
According to ComScore, 50% of all searches will be voice searches by 2020. This is a huge shift. Voice has the user experience It’s because featured snippets are useful with
mobile & voice searches (which again are evolving
the power the way people consume information and interact with the search engines. With more and more at a faster pace). Nearly 30% of 1.4 million Google
users shifting to voice search, the focus on semantic search will grow. Content understanding the user This study by Semrush* 4 on different ranking
queries tested in a study show featured snippets.
intent, addressing and answering it the correct way will be more important. With global searches beginning factors found that the more backlinks a domain
*5
with “how to” up by more than 140 % since 2004, content catering to specific answers written in a scannable has, the higher is its position on the SERP. One of
format ( like FAQs) will grow. the challenges for marketers in FY 18-19 will be
Another interesting study found that majority
to create powerful relationships with powerful
of featured snippets are triggered by long-tail
websites. Marketers need to see guest posting
keywords. This study found the words that
Here’s a list of Google’s top “how to” searches from 2004 to 2017. in a different light and have to focus on value-
trigger featured snippets.*6
adding content that enriches user experience
How to tie a tie (sounds archaic), but there are still publishers
How to kiss who are churning out spammy content and for
How to get pregnant them in May FY 17-18, Google issued a warning.
How to lose weight Here’s how Google considers an article violating
How to draw Google’s link schemes.
How to make money
How to make pancakes 1. Stuffing keyword-rich links to your site
How to write a cover letter in your articles
How to make French toast 2. Having the articles published across
How to lose belly fat many different sites; alternatively,
How to write a resume having a large number of articles on a
How to boil eggs few large, different sites
How to draw a rose
How to gain weight 3. Using or hiring article writers that aren’t
How to get rid of fruit flies knowledgeable about the topics they’re
How to tie a bowtie writing on
How to make slime 4. Using the same or similar content
How to love across these articles; alternatively,
How to hard boil eggs duplicating the full content of articles
How to get rid of acne found on your own site (in which case
How to play poker use of rel=”canonical”, in addition to
How to get rid of bedbugs rel=”nofollow”, is advised)
How to save money And it will be keeping a close watch on guest blogs
How to write a check to control spammy content and questionable
How to get a passport links.

Sources:
1. https://www.brightedge.com/resources/research-reports/organic-search-still-largest-channel-2017
2. https://moz.com/blog/state-of-searcher-behavior-revealed
3. https://www.emarketer.com/Report/Visual-Commerce-2017-How-Image-Recognition-
AugmentationChanging-Retail/2002059
4. https://www.semrush.com/ranking-factors/
5. https://www.stonetemple.com/featured-snippets-new-Insights-new-opportunities/
6. https://ahrefs.com/blog/featured-snippets-study/

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k Important SEO Updates from FY 17-18
Quic s
Read
1. Google launches API for its mobile-
friendly test tool. ( January, FY 17-18)
2. Google Image Search launches “Similar
Items”. (April, FY 17-18)
3. Google updates its mobile Test My
Site tool. Introduces more competitive
analysis – it compares your site to your
competitors’ and give you an insight into
4.
how many visitors you’re losing because
of the load time. (June, FY 17-18)
Google image search adds badges.
(August, FY 17-18)
5. Google continues upping its voice
search efforts; adds 30 new languages.
(August, FY 17-18)
6. Google adds video previews to search
results. (September, FY 17-18)
7. Google starts marking HTTP pages with
forms as not secure. (September, FY 17-
18)
44 | www.digitalmarketinguniversity.com
Must Know for Teams
8. Google adds AMP-based featured
CONTENT & SOCIAL
snippets to mobile search results.
(September FY 17-18)
9. Google My Business listings can be
MEDIA LANDSCAPE
directly managed from search results.
(September, FY 17-18)
10. Bing released Bing Visual Search.
(September, FY 17-18)
11. At the SMX East conference, Google’s
Gary Illyes confirmed that Mobile-First
Index is already being rolled out for a
IN FY 18-19
few websites. (October, FY 17-18)
12. Google increases length of snippets in
search results. (December, FY 17-18)
FY 18-19 is expected to be a turning point for content; we will see more
13.
Bing launches new intelligent
breakthroughs in how we interact and consume content. Last year was seen
search features, powered by AI.
(December, FY 17-18) as the dawn of AR & VR content creation and consumption. We saw several
examples (such as Ikea using its AR app to help customers choose the right item
of furniture and GAP’s virtual changing rooms) of how brands are integrating
these technologies with the platforms on which we consume content. We will
also be seeing big names entering the content landscape with bigger budgets.
Brands are slowly coming to terms with content overload and are changing
their strategy to get noticed in the attention economy.
+91-9830828822 | help@digitalmarketinguniversity.com | 45
Focus on content
that encourages
meaningful interactions
With consumers vying for more emotionally
satisfying experiences, brands are slowly moving
away from engagement bait to creating content
that naturally engages them. We’ve identified
some popular content types that marketers have
benefitted from in FY 17-18 and will continue to
create them in FY 18-19 -
Utility-based content
In a research by BuzzSumo (*1) which reviewed
two billion articles and Facebook posts published
last year found that the most shared posts were
videos and the top topics included practical (5 of
the top 10 posts were practical tips) and inspiring
content.
Here’re a few examples of the most shared how-
to content
• How to Get Rid of a Headache in 5 Minutes
Without Pills Shared 1.7 Million
• How to Fix All Your Sleep Problems With Science
Shared 1.6M
• How To Make DIY Weed Killer Shared 999.9K
• How To Make A Succulent Turtle Shared 663.7K
One of the most talked about utility
campaigns of FY 17-18 was Ikea’s AR app
(Ikea Place) that helps customers pick right
furniture items by letting them visualize
how those items might look like in their
own living rooms.
46 | www.digitalmarketinguniversity.com
Reaction – seeking content C) Heineken’s World Apart Ad
Storytelling formats
Examples of content that’ve successfully evoked
to change
emotional reactions from people and have
triggered conversations. as story watching & reading habits
change
A) Nike’s Pro Hijab Content
• Instagram stories: Insta Stories
surpassed the 200 million daily active
user mark, and that too, within a span of
nine months. (*3). By the end of FY 18-
19, it’s expected that nearly half of all
Instagram users will be using Stories.
In FY 17-18. we saw a slew of updates
related to Instagram stories including
viewing Stories on desktop, featuring
‘Story Highlights’ on profile where users
D) #1917LIVE: What if Twitter existed can showcase their most popular stories
100 years ago? beyond the 24 hours limit, and story polls.
It’s expected that in FY 18-19 we’ll see a
lot more updates– the first one of it being
Facebook launching Instagram stories to
WhatsApp.
B) #NuggsForCarter It generated more than
2.5 billion earned media impressions from nearly
1,100 placements (*2) • UGC: Nothing beats authentic stories
and what better way to create stories
than gathering stories from your users.
The facts presented in Mary Meeker’s
Internet Trends Report FY 17-18 (*4)
confirms the effectiveness of user
generated content (UGC).
E) McDonald’s Invented a Fork Made
of Fries. And It’s Called Frork
One of the most talked about UGC
campaigns in FY 17-18 was Tottenham
launching its AW17 marketing campaign
Disclaimer: None of the images used from Pg 30-31 are owned by us.
with the tagline #WeThe12th. Within 4
months of adding product reviews and
Images are used for reference purpose only.
+91-9830828822 | help@digitalmarketinguniversity.com | 47
 the option to upload photos of purchases
to their site, they received photos from
more than 250 users and reviews from
10% of customers.
As businesses are getting more serious
into tapping the power of UGC, we will
see more acquisitions and money pouring
in the UGC marketing technology space,
which has seen a flurry of activities in the
past 2 years. In 2016, Olapic and LiveFyre
were acquired by bigger companies. In
FY 17-18, Yotpo closed $51M Series D
round.
• AR in posts : The number of AR users
is expected to hit 200 million by FY 18-19
(*5) and we will be seeing more brands
leveraging the technology to connect
with its increasing users. One of the most
hyped AR campaigns on social media
from FY 17-18 was John Lewis creating a
Facebook filter that turns users into Moz
the Monster. Another popular example
is Estée Lauder inviting its users to try
out different shades of lipstick from
anywhere in the world through LipArtist,
a Facebook Messenger bot.
Content war
to get bigger & fiercer
If one were to prepare a list of keywords that
dominated the digital landscape in FY 17-18, then
“Original Content” would be in Top 5! There were
487 original programs aired in FY 17-18, up from
455 in 2016, according to the data by the cable
network FX. We will be seeing new entrants in the
content landscape as the battle for consumers’
attention gets fiercer.
• Apple to make its own TV shows. To invest
$1 billion in FY 18-19.
• After Apple’s announcement, Netflix ups
budget to $8 Billion in FY 18-19.
• Amazon spent $4.5 billion in FY 17-18 &
Hulu $2.5 billion.
• Facebook to spend upto $1 billion for
Watch in FY 18-19.
48 | www.digitalmarketinguniversity.com
OTT’s rising popularity to change content
consumption habits As audience gets more
control on how and where they want to consume
their favorite content, their viewing habits are
starting to change.
Content or
political & social
statements?
In FY 17-18, we saw some of the big brands
openly taking a stance on hot-button social and
political topics. For example, Airbnb ran the
#WeAccept Super Bowl ad showing faces of
different nationalities with a caption promoting
diversity and acceptance “We believe no matter
who you are, where you’re from, who you love
or who you worship, we all belong. The world is
more beautiful the more you accept.”
Other brands that conveyed their social and
political stance through campaigns include
Budweiser’s pro-immigration themed Super Bowl
Ad, Jigsaw’s Brexit-Inspired ‘Heart Immigration’
Campaign, and Johnnie Walker’s Citizenship Ad.
We will be seeing more such examples where
brands are aligning their content creation
strategies with their beliefs and what they stand
for.
Edelman’s Earned Brand survey of 14,000
respondents in 14 countries found that 30 %
of respondents say they make belief-driven
purchase decisions more than they did three
years ago. (*6)
Social customer service
from bots to more
In FY 17-18, we saw businesses were all in on
bots. We saw over 100,000 bots being developed
for Messenger – that helped users do everything
from ordering food from restaurants and
checking weather to book hotel reservations.
When it comes to basic queries bots performed
well. In fact, 61% of the users prefer chatbots for
simple requests, according to a report by Aspect.
(*7) However, for queries that require deeper
understanding, bots still need human touch.
A report released by The Information found
that only 30% of requests could be fulfilled by Influencer marketing
Facebook bots. In its annual F8 conference,
Facebook announced a slew of features to be to become more
added to Messenger including Discover (where
users can discover top bots) and letting businesses
transparent
create “Messenger Codes” so customers can
In FY 17-18, we saw FTC issued notices to top
engage with the right bot just by scanning a QR
celebrities like Naomi Campbell, Heidi Klum, and
code. Last year, we also saw Twitter officially
opening direct messages to chatbots.
Victoria Beckham over product posts on their
Instagram accounts without clearly mentioning
One of the trends to look out for in FY 18-19 is
their relationships with brands. Also, FTC settled
its first case against social media influencers,
businesses investing more on Natural Language
Trevor Martin and Thomas Cassell, who endorsed
Processing (NLP) and machine learning so that
gambling service CSGO Lotto in their social media
users get relevant answers to their queries
profiles, but they failed to disclose that they
(regardless of how complicated it is). Also, we will
jointly own the company.In FY 18-19, we’ll be
see more concerted endeavours around making
seeing more crackdown on deceptive influencer
bots interoperable across platforms to give you
endorsements .
a more personalized & seamless experience.
From Facebook and Alexa to Google Home - any
platform you choose, they should remember your
data across platforms.
Video is the
name of the game
Facebook to continue upping its video war –
According to a study by Quintly, Facebook’s
native video gets 10x more shares than YouTube.
It’s one more step by Facebook to make a dent in
YouTube’s position as a leader in the mobile and
web landscape. In FY 17-18, we saw Facebook
rolling out Watch for select creators; this year
we’ll see Watch being rolled out for a wider
Sources:
audience. Also, the majority of the shows in FY
17-18 on Watch didn’t offer anything new and
1. http://buzzsumo.com/blog/the-most-
special that could hold viewers’ attention (videos shared-facebook-content-posts-videos/
on Watch were being viewed for only 23 seconds
on average, according to a research by social
video analytics company Delmondo).
2. www.adweek.com
3. https://www.statista.com/chart/9086/daily-
active-users-instagram-stories-snapchat/
If Facebook is planning to give a tough fight 4. http://www.kpcb.com/internet-trends
to YouTube, then it needs to offer something
5. https://www.statista.com/statistics/282453/
unique in terms of content that users can’t find
mobile-augmented-reality-market-size/
on YouTube. With a $1billion budget to spend on
original content for its Watch platform, industry 6. h t t p s : / / w w w . s l i d e s h a r e . n e t /
is keenly watching how Facebook will up its video EdelmanInsights/2017-edelman-earned-
war against YouTube. brand
7. http://www.aspect.com/globalassets/2016-
aspect- consumer-experience-index- survey_
index-results- final.pdf
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k Important Social Media Updates From FY 17-18
Quic s
Read
1)
Twitter launches Explore.
January FY 17-18
2) Pinterest launches Lens visual search in
beta. February FY 17-18
3) Facebook launches Stories in the main
Facebook app. March FY 17-18
4) Facebook’s News Feed update – lower
prominence to posts with links that lead
to pages with annoying/deceptive ads.
May FY 17-18
5) Snapchat launches Stories search.
May FY 17-18
6) Instagram launches Story Search for
hashtags and locations. May FY 17-18
7) Instagram launches Snapchat-style
Selfie Filters. May FY 17-18
8) Instagram launches mobile web sharing
May FY 17-18
9) Snapchat launches Snap Map, its
location sharing feature. June FY 17-18
10) Snapchat lets users add links to snaps.
July FY 17-18
11) Public Posts Available Off LinkedIn.
July FY 17-18
12) Facebook launches YouTube competitor
named Watch. August FY 17-18
50 | www.digitalmarketinguniversity.com
Must Know for Teams
13) Twitter introduces Popular Articles
Feature. September FY 17-18
14) Share Instagram Stories to Facebook
Stories. October FY 17-18
15)
Facebook launches food order
and delivery service in the US
October FY 17-18
16)
Twitter expands its character
count from 140 to 280 character.
November FY 17-18
17) Facebook Launches Creator App for
Video Makers. November FY 17-18
18) Snapchat Redesign: Splits Friends From
Media Publishers November FY 17-18
19) Facebook launches Snooze Button that
lets users mute people, groups and
Pages for 30 days. December FY 17-18
20) Instagram lets users follow hashtags
like regular accounts. December FY 17-
18
21) Instagram lets users add pics and videos
to Stories that are more than 24 hours
old. November FY 17-18
22) Twitter officially launches ‘threads’.
December FY 17-18
Must Know for Teams
k Important Social Advertising Updates
Quic s
Read From FY 17-18
1) Instagram launches video ads in Stories. 9) Facebook lets advertisers create a
January FY 17-18 block list for a business, ad account or
2) Facebook launches Mid-roll video ads. ad campaign. August FY 17-18
February FY 17-18 10) Snapchat launches Advanced Mode
3) Facebook updates its ad policies for its self-serve Ads Manager ( it’s
to fight against discriminatory ads. much like Facebook’s Power Editor.
February FY 17-18 August FY 17-18
4) Facebook launches Collection. 11) Facebook brings its Canvas ad format to
March FY 17-18 Instagram Stories. September FY 17-18
5) Facebook adds Exclude Categories 12) LinkedIn launches LinkedIn Audience
to control where your ads appear. Network. September FY 17-18
March FY 17-18 13) Facebook ads can now link to brands’
6) Snapchat launches self-serve ad WhatsApp accounts. December FY 17-
manager. May FY 17-18 18
7) Facebook lets advertisers add product 14) Facebook announces 6-second pre-roll
videos, prices to Dynamic Ad campaigns. ad test. December FY 17-18
June FY 17-18
8) Facebook launches Messenger Ads.
July FY 17-18
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 DUO TONE
No rewards for guessing, but yes, as the name
suggests, it is the use of two colour tones. It’s
vibrant, it’s artistic, and it’s beautiful. From a
brand perspective, it’s really effective to create
a stark identity and good recall when you paint
your images with colours picked from your brand
colour palette. Honestly, don’t they look cool?
BRIGHT COLOUR GRADIENTS
Okay, gradients are back! Looks like social media
has had enough of those flat colour tones. Not
that flat colours look bad, but gradients have
more elements of reality in them. The level of
depth and the vibrancy are definitely going to
catch the attention of your audience.

18 SOCIAL MEDIA
DESIGN TRENDS
TO ROCK FY 18-19
FY 17-18 had been a great year for crazy experiments on the design front. And FACEBOOK COLOURFUL
FY 18-19 is expected to get crazier. As more brands will jump on the creative STATUS
bandwagon with trends and techniques that will sweep the audience off their
Thanks to Facebook for introducing this feature,
feet, social media is going to get better aesthetically. which is going to get even more popular this year.
Brands while reacting to a trending topic that has
DOUBLE EXPOSURE to go immediately, will be more inclined towards
using this feature for delivering an impactful
They are abstract, they are surreal, they are message ON a real-time basis.
deep and insightful. And, no doubt, beautiful.
Brands, who are more prone to deliver impactful
messages can resort to this amazing style of art.
Double exposure, which was already popular
among photographers, looks like has finally found
its way into social media design trends.

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STICK CHARACTER
ILLUSTRATION
Stick figures are here to stay! They are funny and
they are popular. They might look thin and weak
but they are very strong in terms of social media
virality. Wouldn’t you like to share this cute piece
of line-figurine?
ILLUSTRATION WITH FLAT
SHADOW
No offence to flat illustrations but they are passé,
so they needed a little makeover. Notice the flat
shadow around the edges that’s giving this image
a new dimension? Isn’t it more eye-catchy, and
cute? Tell us, can cuteness ever go out of trend?
CUTE 3D ILLUSTRATIONS
3D illustrations haven’t yet found their way into
social media, more because of their execution
time. However, with new applications and
techniques their turnaround time has shrunk
a bit. And, we think it’s going to give them an
opportunity to make a foray into the social media
mainstream design landscape.
CREATIVE TYPOGRAPHY
Typography never goes out of fashion and will
hit a new high this year. Creative typography not
only makes the copy visually appealing, but it also
preserves the aesthetic value of the content. It’s
not just a visual or a word, it’s a communication.

PHOTO-OBJECT-
ILLUSTRATION INTEGRATION
Illustrations integrated with real objects are
POP ART ILLUSTRATIONS
ILLUSTRATIONS WITH THICK going to be one of the hottest design trends this
year. Using the right object, the correct colour
OUTLINE combination, and matching typography will
They are typically very bright, colourful and
appealing, and have a retro look. Brands will be VIBRANT COLOURFUL
definitely have many eyes pop out in admiration
Flat illustrations will have a bold stance this able to quickly grab the attention of the audience
year with thick outlines - making them more
of its creativity.
with this pop art culture. TYPOGRAPHY
prominent.
Strikingly bold and effectively lively. Who can
ignore a communication that’s right in the face?
The right choice of colour, font, and text size can
outdo even the best of breathtaking visuals.

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PAPERCUT TYPOGRAPHY
This visual stylization creates a compelling,
dimensional effect that can add a new character
to words and make images stand out. If the
communication is deep, why not make it look
deeper!
TYPOGRAPHY PHOTO
MANIPULATION
Photo manipulation has been popular among
designers for long. This year, we will see it
trending on social media as well. Words or
sentences, when manipulated with photographs
give an abstract yet amazing outcome.
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TEXT IMAGE INTEGRATION
This is going to be a great trick to wow the audience
with big typefaces and integrating character or
objects with it. The end result? Stylish, chic, and
contemporary design with simple messaging.
CINEMAGRAPHS ANIMATED EXPLAINER
Step aside ordinary gifs! While they might still
VIDEOS
continue to be on the platform, cinemagraphs will
Explaining your products or services will be easier
be rocking the stage! Reason? Scan the QR code
than ever. The rising popularity of 2D explainer
below and check out for yourself!
videos has made them a mandatory marketing
collateral for any brand. They are cute, they are
lovable, and most importantly, easy to understand.
WHITEBOARD ANIMATION
How often do you think that it just takes a
marker and a whiteboard to make people easily
understand your plan, your business model or
your services? Whiteboard animation just makes
it easier. They are economical, yet exciting.
They make an innovative way to advertise your
business. And no, you don’t have to put your
hands on the whiteboard at all!
Disclaimer: None of the images used from Pg 37-41 are owned by us.
Images are used for reference purpose only.
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