Part 1 of an 8-Part Series on Marketing Trends That Will Disrupt Your World in 2017.


Swarm Agency is constantly leading, learning, and leveraging new technologies and trends that will play into our long-term marketing strategies for our clients. Why wait until December to get the conversation started? Let’s get an early jump on 2017 and offer some predictions about where we see marketing heading.


Marketing and Technology Are Blending


We’ve already seen marketing and IT becoming more unified across a variety of technologies related to websites, content management systems, analytics, mobile, and the cloud. This continuing evolution will challenge marketers to know technology—and non-technical marketers will find themselves at a disadvantage. IT professionals will also find it useful to learn more about the fundamentals of marketing and analytics.

Next year, we need to look out for the following martech disruptions:

  • Wearable technology. DMA predicts that 25% of U.S. consumers will wear devices by the end of 2016. That trend will only increase in 2017. If you’re only thinking smartphones for mobile, then you’re limiting your thinking. Companies such as Under Armour have already helped revolutionize fitness with apps like MyFitnessPal and technology embedded into fabrics and footwear. And Apple Watches are just the beginning of wearable payment devices.
  • An explosion of mobile retail sales. Retailers will inevitably see more mobile retail sales as they continue to optimize their sites, create and mature their apps, and improve their mobile agility. iMedia references a comScore 2016 Future in Focus report that indicates “people spend 60 percent of their digital shopping time on smartphones, yet spend 16 percent of their digital commerce dollars via mobile.” That’s going to change in 2017. The gap between mobile sales and brick and mortar sales will continue to close, approaching more of a seamless experience for consumers. We’re excited for clients in 2017 because the promise of omnichannel marketing—fully connecting offline and online experiences—will start coming to fruition.


Check back next Tuesday for our second blog post about marketing predictions that will disrupt your world in 2017.