The most overhyped and overlooked marketing trends of 2021, according to our readers

To cap off the year, we asked marketers which industry trends were overlooked and overhyped in 2021. We also asked readers, and hundreds of you answered—668 marketers, to be exact.So, what’s the verdict? Turns out, many of you are pretty bullish on out-of-home advertising: 16.3% said its resurgence was this year’s most overlooked trend, followed by nostalgia marketing (14.2%) and marketers going freelance (12%). Breaking each trend down:OOH advertising did enjoy a comeback this year after last year’s massive hit. And DTC companies like swimwear brand Andie have been leaning into it lately.Throwbacks were big in 2021; Pizza Hut brought back Book It!, Uber Eats revived Wayne’s World, and Domino’s Noid returned. Some marketers think 2021’s rush of nostalgia is tied to the pandemic: Agency executives told Digiday that “showing people a time prior to Covid-19 can remind them of when they were potentially happier and thereby help brands to reconnect with them.”ICYMI, we recently wrote about why many marketers are opting to go freelance. For some, back-to-office mandates spurred them to leave their corporate gigs.+1: Nearly 12% of survey respondents picked “concerns about consumer privacy” as this year’s most overlooked trend.And what about overhyped? Lots of platforms are investing…
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