As we near the end of 2021, we have started to look towards 2022 and what this new year will bring. So, we’ve dusted off our crystal ball to look at which areas we predict will be key for content during the next year.

Virtual and Augmented Reality

Facebook has been dipping its toe into different types of virtual reality for a while, but back in October they put their attention directly on the Metaverse! Through a rebrand the company, now known as ‘Meta’, shifted their focus from a social media platform towards virtual social experiences. With such a big technology player now setting their sights so firmly on virtual reality, we predict that the rest of the industry is likely to follow suit.

According to Meta, the Metaverse will feel like a hybrid of today’s online social experiences, sometimes expanded into three dimensions or projected into the physical world. The aim is to allow users to share immersive experiences and do things with other people even when they can’t be together — something that will be of great interest to many people since the pandemic.

Meta plans to explore the Metaverse beyond social connection, to entertainment, gaming, fitness, work, education and commerce. Although the company launched new mixed reality experiences on their Quest 2 headset, we predict that it is AR where the true growth will happen during 2022 thanks to the advancements in Web AR.

Senior Animator Tim Wickham commented, “I’m really excited by the advancements in Web AR recently. These have enabled the use of augmented reality without an app, meaning any user can have an augmented reality experience through a simple QR code.

This means AR truly is open to anyone! Web AR has provided the ability for brands to get involved in AR without the need for developers, opening up this type of content massively and providing greater opportunities to businesses and consumers. Here at PinPoint Media, Web AR has allowed us to create augmented reality experiences for our clients and ourselves.

At the moment you can’t do everything in Web AR compared to what you can do in an app, however I predict that Web AR will advance massively during 2022.”

Voice Search

Last year we didn’t have voice search as one of our 5 main areas of growth, but we did have it on our list of things to watch and with good reason, as it was estimated that during 2021 50% of all online searches would be by voice.

As voice search technology is improving everyday, more and more consumers are using it in their everyday lives, and during 2022 we expect to see a rise in the number of casual voice searches. This means that now when producing written content, businesses need to think about catering for voice searches as well as SEO.

The best way to cater for voice searches is to ensure you are using simpler and conversation-like language in your written content during 2022 and beyond. Because this is a new way of approaching copywriting, we predict that there will be an increase in specialist copywriters and businesses catering for this need to ensure everyone can take advantage of this new way of reaching customers.

Managing Director Oliver Bruce said, “Here at PinPoint Media we are starting to use voice more and more for our clients and ourselves. So it’s no surprise to us to hear that businesses globally are now seriously starting to look at voice optimisation and voice search as part of their ever-growing artillery of marketing tools.”

Personalisation (through AI and ABM)

Everyone wants content that is relevant to them, so personalisation will always be an important trend in marketing. Last year we mentioned personalisation through AI as one of the areas to watch and 2022 is where we predict we will really see this take off. But we also think this is due to be linked to account-based marketing (ABM).

ABM sees the marketing and sales teams working together to target best-fit accounts to turn them into clients. Rather than developing broad ads in the hope to appeal to a larger audience, this technique concentrates on a focussed approach to win over specific target companies.

An integral part of this approach is centered around quality outreach and fostering relationships to capture relevant data in order to produce custom content for these specific audiences. With the recent changes in Apple’s privacy policy and those due to come from Google, first-hand data is more important than ever before and any technique which invests in collecting first-hand data is a smart move.

Gathering data directly from your customers is often more accurate than other sources, and can be used in conjunction with AI to harness the power of big data and machine learning algorithms to automatically customise offerings to those customers. Combining AI and ABM, combines the power of machines with the power of humans in order to create and deliver the most relevant content.

ABM isn’t just about targeting potential customers, it’s also about ensuring that you deliver the relevant information and content to current customers too, helping you to develop beneficial relationships that will last long into the future.

Podcasting

We included podcasting in our big 5 to watch last year and we predict that its growth will continue in 2022. Podcast Insights have estimated that as of 2021 there are roughly 2 million podcasts and more than 48 million podcast episodes, however so far many businesses have still not taken advantage of this type of content.

Podcasts like our Success Is In The Mind, which are targeted at entrepreneurs and business owners, are a great way to share information with your target audience in a different way. With the demand for educational podcasts already increasing, we expect many businesses to start podcasting during 2022 and the amount of B2B podcasts increasing in particular.

Here at PinPoint Media we are already starting to see more of our clients adding podcast content to their content strategies and we predict this will only skyrocket during 2022.

Head of Content Strategy Ian Smalley commented, “In today’s frantic digital world, often full of push messaging, the use of on-demand Podcast content continues to grow. This has been enhanced by the investment from large brands such as Apple & Spotify and through the growth of smart speakers.

Podcasts enable brands to connect and engage with their target audiences in almost a unique one to one environment, be that during exercise, a drive or simply in downtime. As the exponential growth continues, Podcasts will be an essential part of any brand’s content strategy and communication channels moving forward.”

Nonfungible Tokens (NFTs)

According to a report by DappRadar, the trading volume of NFTs skyrocketed in the 3rd quarter of 2021 to $10.67 billion, a 704% increase from the previous quarter. August in particular was a record-breaking month with over $5.2 billion in trading volume.

The interest in NFTs can generally be pinpointed to one of the following; either purchasers see them as an investment opportunity and/or a visual representation of social status. But what’s important is that many NFT investors fully believe in the tech that sits behind NFTs and believe that this will appreciate over time.

The core element of this tech is a decentralized digital ledger called a blockchain. NFTs are represented by code on this digital ledger and this allows for the ownership and validity of each to be tracked as they are bought and sold. This new technology is incredibly innovative, making it an exciting space for tech-savvy investors.

One area where NFTs are already particularly popular is in video games, where users can buy virtual items like skins or accessories to be used in blockchain-based video games. In these games and other online spaces, owning NFTs also offers a form of social status in the crypto community.

Although NFTs have already risen in popularity during 2021, we foresee that there is a large market of individuals who may not yet have bought NFTs but who are likely to in the future as they start to understand the versatility of this type of technology.

Designer Victoria Bramwell said, “It takes a while to get your head around the world of NFTS, but the best thing about being an NFT artist is, you get royalties for your art for life. So, if you sell a piece of art for £50 and in a year it sells for £5,000, you get a percentage of that sale. It’s great that NFTs reward artists in this way.

More and more brands are now jumping on the NFT train, so I predict 2022 is going to be huge for digital art and virtual spaces. I’d advise making sure you are up to date with this type of content and both YouTube and TikTok videos have useful guides on the world of NFTS to help you get started.”

Conclusion

So, those are the 5 content types that we expect to see have massive growth during 2022. Although we predict these areas will see the most growth, there are some types of content such as video and User Generated Content where we believe the growth that we have already seen is likely to continue into next year.