When last year’s Digital Report was released in early 2020, the word ‘pandemic’ was far from the thoughts of most people around the world. We were all in store for a rollercoaster of a year – we just didn’t know it yet.
Brutal public health outcomes accompanied major economic and lifestyle shifts, including the switch from classrooms to virtual school; from international travel to Zoom calls; from office work to telecommuting; from shopping malls to Amazon and Lazada; from social get-togethers to food delivery at home; and so on. Thailand has fared well compared to many countries, but it will be nice indeed to get back to normal.
Still, this switch to the virtual world has rapidly accelerated society’s embrace of all things digital – and the Digital 2021 Report therefore makes for some fascinating reading. Double-digit user growth in social media around the world (led by those older than 65), vastly improved connection speeds, the rapid rise of e-Commerce, and other changes to our digital universe are creating new conditions that today’s businesses simply need to understand.
In this multi-part series, our digital marketing agency in Bangkok will walk you through the biggest insights and recommendations from the report.
The shape of the digital world to come
COVID-19 forced businesses to either adapt or perish amid a strange new environment. But what will be the prevailing themes of digital success as the dust settles on a post-pandemic world?
The Digital 2021 Report offers a combination of data analysis and social prediction to lay out clear recommendations for companies looking to get ahead. From stylistic suggestions, to prescriptions on how to enter the public conversation, to advice on how to manage cross-channel marketing, the report delivers valuable insight into what digital success looks like in 2021.
Of course, you could read the report directly – but there is a risk of getting lost in so much data. The global report is 299 slides long, many of them packed with statistics. Individual country reports are likewise lengthy, and much of the accompanying text may not be well suited to your company’s needs.
That’s why our digital marketing agency in Bangkok is putting together a new series, entirely devoted to the report. We’ll be picking out the most interesting parts, and presenting them here so that readers in Thailand can take away the key lessons with minimal effort.
Has mobile phone use dropped, now that more people are staying at home? Is Facebook still the king of social media, since TikTok and others have gained so much ground? Is Thailand still near the top of the list in terms of time spent online? And how should companies talk about their goals and values, in a world so seemingly polarized as the one we now live in?
Stay tuned for the rest of our series, which addresses these and other questions as we move closer to a post-pandemic world. Above all, remember that disruption and adaptation were by no means restricted to 2020.
As technology and society continue to move forward at breakneck speeds, businesses should recognize that change is more the rule than the exception. Our analysis will go a long way towards preparing you for the digital world in 2021, and beyond.
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