Stephen A. Smith.
Skip Bayless.
Joe Scarborough.
These are a few names commonly associated with the art of the “hot take.” As if a dragon were broiling its dinner at 500° Fahrenheit, these guys are known for giving you their opinions in the most over-the-top way possible, loud and often.
Unfortunately, in the marketing space we don’t have such luxury. Marketing is an industry driven by data, consumer insights and strategic decision making. Things are questioned, then questioned again. That all makes sense to me, for I am a marketer. But if you’ll excuse me and my colleagues for just a few moments …
You see, I wanted the content and social team to give a few hot takes for 2018. I told them don’t hold back. Fire away. Give me everything you got and make sure it’s something I haven’t heard before. Here’s what we came up with, our “hot takery” if you will.
Jessica DiLuglio: “Scott Rogowsky, the host of HQ Trivia, will be knighted in more countries than one. His action as a royal family member will be to encourage marketers across the world to pursue more ‘real-time’ apps and games, building off the popularity of HQ Trivia’s success in developing an uber-engaged audience.”
Justin Dusett: “Instagram will continue to get worse, because they just don’t get it. You cannot appease people in the short term by destroying the feed. In life, there are only a few certainties. Death, taxes and wanting to digest information chronologically. Instagram, I cannot stress this enough, stop overthinking it and fix the feed.”
Michael McGinnis: “Get your subscription services pants on. Netflix, Spotify, MoviePass. They are taking over. By the end of 2018, everything will be subscription-based. For content creators, they’ll need to latch onto where the audience will be. Netflix? YouTube? Where are you? Heck, maybe even our friendship should be subscription-based.”
Adam Sisson: “The world will come up with a better word than infographic. It’s overused, just like the phrase ‘The Patriot Way.’”
Me (Andrew Knoblauch): “Wasting ‘paper’ won’t be acceptable for marketers. Sorry, but you can’t justify spending money just to spend it anymore. If it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense. The team can check me on the pop-culture references, but you get it, right?”
Boom. Those are some steaming hot takes. Despite all of the flamethrowing that happened today, here’s one guarantee: Things that ring true about social media in early 2018 will not likely remain the same at the end of 2018.
Do you agree with these takes? Have a few of your own? Tweet them to us @DixonSchwabl.
Andrew Knoblauch is a content marketing and social media supervisor who understands how content works across the vast range of platforms people use to consume it. Follow him on Twitter or contact him at andrew_knoblauch@dixonschwabl.com.