The year 2021 was one full of readjusting and adapting to the new normal, bringing in a lot of drastic changes in every area of life; from post-COVID new normal adapting and businesses trying to get back up again to the significant movement towards understanding and improving equality in the workplace in terms of gender, race, and nationality. But this is not the only aspect where we have seen big changes. 

Marketing had its fair share of new trends and novel concepts being introduced. Accordingly, it has become integral for corporates, businesses, startups, and even individuals and entrepreneurs to keep a keen eye and capitalize on these new trends to be part of the new wave of change, and more importantly to stand out from the crowd.

There has been a big buzz on several ground-breaking news and announcements, for instance, China banning crypto trading 18 times. But that’s just not everything, we’ve witnessed several trending concepts in marketing that created quite the hype in 2021 and have become the talk of the globe, questioning how it will change marketing as we know it. In this article, we will talk briefly about these trends and more in detail over the coming two months.

For instance, and taking advantage of the lockdown situation, the concept of ghost kitchens has grown rapidly, which refers to restaurants that solely depend on fulfilling online orders and do not offer a dine-in experience. According to Hospitality Insights, the digital revolution has made it to the hotel industry with ghost kitchens which actually saved them from the big hit they received after lockdown. From this point, it is expected that Ghost Kitchens and online food ordering would be worth $94 billion in 2024 as stated by Statista.

Then, there was also the big news about zero-party data, which as mentioned by Tech Crunch has become the biggest buzzword in marketing and digital advertising, which unlike third-party data collected through ad platforms and cookies, is collected directly through customers. This being said consequently paves the gateway for a new cookieless era. 

Another significant moment that is not be ignored in 2021 is the time when Mark Zuckerberg revealed the Metaverse which in its arrival opens the doors to future of NFTs through which users will have full ownership of intangible assets, in other words, anything we create or publish on the internet, and even virtual lands, venues, and spaces. According to Forbes, the Metaverse is going to be the next best thing for marketing. Marketers and businesses will be flocking to the Metaverse especially to keep millennials and Gen Z up-to-date and engaged, let alone how connecting virtually has now replaced real-life communication after the pandemic.

All this we’ve talked about is just a drop in the ocean, and so, over the next months we will delve in the depth of more global marketing trends to keep an eye on such as: