Morning Brew
· 4 min read
We know you just can’t bring yourself to log off for the holidays before seeing the results of our (third annual) reader survey on 2022’s overlooked and overhyped trends. So let’s get into it.
This week, Meta reaffirmed its commitment to the metaverse. In a blog post, its CTO said the company will continue allocating 20% of its costs to Reality Labs, the division dedicated to its metaverse ambitions.
Marketers don’t seem as bullish, though. At least the ones who read our newsletter. According to our survey, which more than 450 of you answered, 50% selected the metaverse as the year’s most overhyped trend out of 12 options. Among the reasons shared:
Zoom out: Like we recently wrote, it seems like a lot of brands aren’t sure what to do in the metaverse quite yet or how to approach it. “The headwinds are where you have these terms—metaverse, crypto, Web3—they’ve all been kind of blended together. And that has caused confusion and some problems,” Jeremy Cohen, Publicis Groupe’s SVP and head of Web3 investment, told us.
On the other hand, marketers do seem excited about something that’s a little less technological: direct mail. About one-quarter of respondents chose direct mail’s comeback as this year’s most overlooked marketing trend, handing it the most votes. Only 2% described it as overhyped.
Rewind: This summer, Polly Wong, president of Belardi Wong, an agency that specializes in direct-mail marketing, told us it would help more than 80 brands work on their first direct-mail campaigns this year.
Here’s what you said:
Otherwise, there didn’t seem to be much of a consensus, especially when it came to social trends.
For instance, while 12% said organic marketing on TikTok is the year’s most overhyped trend, 14% chose it as the year’s most overlooked. But roughly a quarter of you described it as the trend you think will be most important next year. 🤔
Looking back: Small businesses like Nice Shirt. Thanks! and Sani told us earlier this year about how they found organic success on TikTok. Ritika Shamdasani, co-founder of Sani, told us at the time that TikTok accounted for about 50% of the brand’s organic revenue.
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Marketers also seem torn on the value of BeReal; while 10% said that brands on BeReal was 2022’s most overhyped trend, another 10% also agreed that it was the most overlooked.
“I think BeReal is the next big social platform and if brands can make it work this early on, then that is huge since it doesn’t have traditional features for advertising,” one respondent said, while another said they “don’t see realistic growth happening because of BeReal. It seems people join because they want to escape consumerism, not have more of it.”
Nearly a quarter of respondents said that ad-supported streaming tiers will be next year’s most important trend. On the whole, several of the trends we listed didn’t seem to spur much of a reaction one way or the other. Many of the 2022 trends we listed—like fractional CMOs, retail media networks, and in-game advertising—received fewer than 10% of votes on both sides (overlooked, overhyped).
And which ones did we miss? Below are some of the 2022 trends you wrote in.
Overlooked:
Overhyped:
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Reach new heights. What do you get when you pair premium streaming inventory, precision targeting and a performance marketing machine? MNTN Performance TV. Add the power of Connected TV advertising to your marketing mix for 2023 (and beyond). Start here.
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