Crowdtap Releases Comprehensive Guide to Brand-Building in Marketing's Increasingly People-Powered Future

New Report Outlines Trends Driving Marketers to Adopt More Open Models for Product Development, Consumer Insights and Engagement & Offers Best Practices for Brands

New York, NY (May 10, 2016) — Crowdtap, the People-Powered Marketing Platform, has released a new report that explores marketing’s increasingly ad-free future and outlines best practices for brands vying to move to more consumer-centric models.

More than 200 million people worldwide are utilizing some form of ad-blocking software, representing a 41 percent growth year-over year (Source: Adobe & PageFair). Yet, as consumers are increasingly ignoring, skipping and blocking ads, they are sharing their own experiences with brands in social media.

While traditional forms of advertising are failing to resonate with Millennials and the generations that follow, younger consumers value brands more than their predecessors. In fact, they are the most brand loyal generation (Source: Elite Daily & Crowdtwist). The challenge for marketers: reaching consumers and building enduring brands in an increasingly ad-averse environment.

Key Takeaways

• With ad-blocking on the rise, marketers should recognize the opportunity that lies on the flip-side of this trend: Consumers are capturing, curating and sharing more content than ever before – and this includes conversations about brands.
• Word-of-mouth continues to be the most effective marketing channel: A multi-brand study found that a word-of-mouth impression drives at least 5X the sales as a paid media impression.
• The key to building a brand in the digital age is building relevance. Per a study of 2,000 Millennials, the best way for brands to be relevant is to be willing to change and adapt based on consumer feedback.
• Measuring the impact of consumer-centric marketing efforts requires a new approach. Brands should consider the added value of quicker insights and repurposable user-generated content as they weigh the full impact of their programs.

“Marketers are well aware that the media landscape has changed. It’s more complex, more fragmented and – most importantly – more democratic than ever before,” said Sean Foster, CEO of Crowdtap. “The next logical step is to put this mindset into action by making the operational and strategic shifts necessary to adopt a people-powered model.”

Crowdtap’s “Marketing Beyond the Impression” report can be found here.