What are the top trends to watch in Advertising in 2022? Here are the top five things I'm looking for in the New Year with Digital and New Media Advertising, both on a local and a national level:

1.) Social Media Advertising: it's a pay-to-play world, end of story! In 2022, businesses will bite the bullet and start putting real money behind their "organic posts" in order for their followers to even view an average post. The days of organic posts carrying a company for free are long over, but 2022 will be the final nail in that coffin. Companies would be better off reallocating dollars from the "in-house social media person" to paying an agency for an actual ad campaign on social media that targets new and potential customers. Organic posts can continue, but the burden of using them to "grow" the company will be lessened.

2.) Advertising on Streaming Services will continue to baffle most businesses. Here's what you need to know: every service (Hulu, Netflix, You Tube, Amazon, Apple, etc.) has their own "silo" of data and customers. Each silo is proprietary so there will not be a lot of cross-pollination. What does this mean for advertisers? You want to advertise with a service that can find people across a variety of these "silos", IF ad space is even available. Or, if you are dedicated to one channel, like You Tube, then you can run an ad campaign just on that service. But, expect this arena to get more complicated than ever in 2022. That said: you will WANT to advertise on streaming services, and you will need professional services to get that done for you!

3.) Video Advertising will continue to grow in 2022. Here's the challenge for a small business: you now have to pay to have video content created, and, you now have to pay to advertise in the digital space with a trusted provider. That's a double-whammy for a small business that may be used to free social media advertising! When it comes to killer campaigns, 2022 won't be for the feint of heart. For the more aggressive businesses and those willing to take some risks, 2022 video advertising is the avenue to use to have an incredible year of sales growth. Time to up your marketing and advertising budgets going into the New Year!

4.) Influencers and Content Creators will continue to be the buzzwords of the year as smaller businesses start to look at ways they can use them in their own businesses. Think: LOCAL! Who can your company use that's local that can tell your company story? If you want to hire someone to "run" your social media accounts, hire a "content creator" who will "influence" their followers. In Charlottesville, we have a golden opportunity being right next to UVA and hundreds of NCAA Athletes in the college. These athletes are now able to promote a business.... and they live on Instagram, and Tik Tok. This is an amazing opportunity for any creative business owner who lives in Charlottesville and surrounding areas for advertising in 2022 to work with a local influencer or content creator.

5.) Creative Advertising will make a comeback! Digital advertising made it easy for companies to get a little lazy with their creative work: "Throw up a banner ad and walk away, and look for clicks. Schedule a mediocre post on social media, and you're good for a while." While advertising mediums have changed dramatically over the last 10 years, the basics of advertising have not: Every advertiser needs to make an ad that is: compelling, meaningful, draws emotion, hits a pain point, and makes the viewer want to learn more. Just because it's on a digital medium doesn't take away from the campaign needing to make people FEEL something. In 2022, ads that make people FEEL will help businesses grow. We are fighting apathy now. We aren't even fighting our competitors! People are overwhelmed with digital content, and yet, it's where advertisers need to be. Being really creative with ads is going to become a hot topic again, in 2022. Once you get that great content, you need to hunker in and give it a lot of time to work. Too many companies nibble and don't bite when it comes to their advertising!

Those are just a few of the topics on the top of my mind as we head into 2022. It's a fun and exciting time to be in the advertising world, and businesses that really go for it and see advertising as a tool to grow, and not an expense that is a burden, will see amazing success in 2022 and beyond.

Cheers to the New Year ahead!!