2016 Marketing Year in Review

January 10th, 2017

by Dan Gibson

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You’ve probably noticed the vast amount of discussion around how terrible 2016 was. We lost several renowned actors, musicians, entertainers, artists, leaders, and innovators in a year that was also filled with many tragic events, and an intense, closely covered controversial political race.

Did someone say downer? While we agree 2016 was rough, we want to take a look back at the bright side of 2016 from a marketing perspective, and kick 2017 off on a high note by sharing some milestones and exciting happenings the AMA West Michigan Chapter experienced. We also want to mention several marketing headlines, hot topics, and trends from that past year that we envision will continue to strengthen in 2017.

AMA West Michigan Chapter Headlines:

  • Welcomed our new President, Jen Wright, along with several new talented board members.
  • Added several new members to our rapidly growing chapter.
  • Several VP’s and board members attended the AMA national convention and returned with a new found passion and enthusiasm.
  • AMA West Michigan participates in early rollout of refreshed AMA brand.
  • Announced new luncheon event venue, The GRAM!

Marketing Industry Headlines:

  • Twitter takes top seat on internet shares.
  • Pokemon GO launched and set records (Who’s still playing though?).
  • Mobile Payments saw a significant increase in usage.
  • Mobile users become significantly more likely to provide their location, increasing the need for localized marketing efforts and creating good user experiences.
  • While mobile has been an emphasis for the past couple of years, the announcement of Google’s “mobile-first index” will greatly increase the need for brands to focus on mobile in 2017.
  • Google removed right side ads, introduced expanded text ads, and launched algorithm updates that include real-time learning.
  • Story telling as a strategy in marketing and PR holds strong as a fundamental tactic for businesses of all sizes.
  • Social media outlets continue to expand options and improve features for users to interact with brands.
  • Instagram added a story feature and Facebook launched it’s new, “Live” feature.
  • Snapchat continued to increase it’s number of active users and provide creative and fun ways for marketers to connect with their audience.
  • Having a strong SEO and content marketing strategy remain key to reaching customers online and building a strong brand.

So there you have it, MOBILE and SOCIAL in your face! Shouldn’t be anything too surprising, but mobile continues to become more and more essential to marketing. At this point it’s basically grab on or get left behind.

It’s a great time to be a marketer in West Michigan and we invite you to consider becoming a member of our talented group or joining us at our next luncheon or networking event. There’s plenty of exciting and interesting trends to look forward to that will continue to become more relevant in 2017. Let’s get it!