Current Marketing Trends – Image-Based Communication – Picture Your Company

John Vachalek - 3.6.2012 4:02 AM

“A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words.”  We have all heard this expression, but today this notion is perhaps more true than ever before.  I don’t have 100% proof of this fundamental swing, but a huge part of my job at Webolutions (going on 18 years) is observing, identifying and bringing to light new trends in sociological behavior. Over the past few months, I have been seeing a real tipping point in information consumption behavior that is worthy of noting to the savvy business owners and marketers that read our blog.

Image-Based Communications is the term I am using to use to describe this growing preference and notion that more and more people are quickly and more effectively communicating via pictures and imagery, than through the written word. While imagery has always been used in effective communication, it has been used to supplement associated written information.  However what we are seeing in many communications today is that the imagery is the communication and the written word is being used for clarification.   

Factors Contributing to Image-Based Communications

1)     A trend towards far less formal written communications. New words are being created and accepted faster than ever before. Punctuation and sentence structure in many communications has become far less formal. Of course it is still important in professional communication, but on an individual-to-individual basis, this is definitely happening.

2)     Access to all information (well, just about) via the internet has changed the way that people consume information.  We all tend to skim more, look for key points and get through information faster today.

3)     Shorter communications are often preferred. Twitter with its 140 characters is a perfect example of this. The phase, ‘less is more” seems to be in vogue. I have had many people tell me to give them a “one pager”.

4)     We are now two+ generations into everyone watching TV. Huge parts of the workforce have grown up watching TV and being exposed to millions of images.

5)     More Cameras.  Almost everyone today has a camera with them at all times. It is easier to live in a visual world when anyone can take a picture of anything at any given time and share this with the world.

6)     Texting, although it still uses the tools of language has become more and more image-based.  A “?” when texted to someone means, “I have a question.”  A J has several meanings depending on how it used in the conversation. Arguably these items act more like a visual communications icons than as punctuation.

Evidence of the shift to Image-Based Communications  

1)     One of the more accepted marketing trends in the 2012 is the use of Infographics (Information Graphics).  In newspapers, infographics are commonly used to show the weather, as well as maps and site plans for newsworthy events, and graphs for statistical data.  Some books are almost entirely made up of information graphics, such as David Macaulay's The Way Things Work.  More often complex information is being converted to more easily consumable Infographics.

2)     Pictures and Videos are the most shared online content.  This indicates that many people find this content the most useful and wish to convey it to others

3)     The rapid growth of Pinterest is a huge testament of people’s preference to communicate via images as opposed to formal written stories. This relatively new social media channel allows users to “pin” images of things they like into different areas of interest and share these with their online network.  Pinterest launched their beta version in March 2010 and by January 2012 it had 11.7 million users, making it the fastest site in history to break though the 10 million unique visitor mark.

How to use this Information

As the trend towards Image-Based Communications continues to emerge and grow, all businesses and organizations should review their communications and do their best to incorporate infographics and other visual elements.

You should ask yourself, what are the visual representations of my company, organization and brand that best represent the messaging that I want to convey to the world?

You should begin a focused effort to show your story instead of telling it!

We would like your feedback on this trend.  Are you starting to see this in your business?  What are some examples of the way that you are showing your story instead of telling it?

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