A Year in Review: Digital Marketing in 2021

December 29, 2021

2021 was another tumultuous year. People continued adjusting to the “new normal” caused by the coronavirus pandemic, families and friends reunited as vaccines became widely available, and new variants emerged. Throughout the ups and downs of navigating the past year, people took to social media to express their thoughts, anxieties, and to be creative. Many social media platforms released year in review articles that reflect both the hardships and victories we all experienced in 2021. Here’s a roundup from the most popular platforms.

GOOGLE’S YEAR IN SEARCH

In an emotional two minutes, Google’s Year in Search for 2021 centers around healing. Encapsulating the anxieties felt by many about, well, everything that has happened in the past two years, the recap also features moments of hope and community. Climate change, racial justice, and mental health are all at the forefront. The tech giant also created an interactive timeline on their website where you can scroll through trending searches month by month.

Top Ads on YouTube

At the end of 2020, Youtube announced that they would not be creating their annual “YouTube Rewind” compilation due to the unusual nature of the year. On October 7, 2021, YouTube confirmed that they decided to cancel Rewind for good, but are planning to introduce “a different and updated kind of experience.” Instead, to celebrate the end of 2021, YouTube created a year end wrap up of the most popular ads on the platform in the US. Coming in first was Amazon’s Big Game Commercial: Alexa’s Body, followed by another Super Bowl ad, T-Mobile’s Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski commercial. Movie and TV show trailers, Peloton’s Beyonce Classes, State Farm’s Drake From State Farm commercial, and more rounded out the top 10.

2021 #OnlyOnTwitter

Twitter also compiled the most popular Tweets, Retweets, Emojis, and more in their #OnlyOnTwitter recap. Unsurprisingly, politics were a recurring theme, with number one being “It’s a new day in America.” from President Joe Biden. The second most liked Tweet was from K-Pop singer, JungKook, from BTS, with a kissing face emoji. Third was Twitter’s “hello literally everyone,” during the infamous Facebook and Instagram outage, followed by a Tweet from Barack Obama congratulating Biden, and then Kamala Harris celebrating the beginning of a new term.

Facebook Year in Review

Facebook (or Meta, as they are in the process of rebranding) had a bit of a rocky year. Between political tensions and the pandemic, the dangers of online misinformation and hate were brought to the surface throughout 2021. In October, whistleblower Frances Haugen told Congress that Facebook harms children and fuels division in the US for profit. Right after the hearing, Facebook experienced a significant outage that lasted over five hours, resulting in users fleeing to Twitter. Shortly after, Facebook renamed itself Meta, and announced that they plan to create an immersive digital experience for users.

Spotify Music Streaming Recap

Spotify’s very popular “Spotify Wrapped” was released again this year. It allowed users to see their most popular songs and artists in a story format, making it easy to share their statistics on multiple social platforms. 

The streaming service also shared an article showing what the world streamed most in the past year. For the second consecutive year, Bad Bunny was the most streamed artist in 2021, receiving over 9.1 billion streams without even releasing a new album. In second place was Taylor Swift, unsurprisingly, following the re-release of her 2012 album, Red. After Swift was K-pop group, BTS, followed by Drake and Justin Bieber who both released albums in 2021. Spotify shared the most streamed songs globally as well as the most streamed albums, with up and coming pop star Olivia Rodrigo taking the first spot in both categories, with “drivers license” and SOUR respectively. For podcasts, The Joe Rogan Experience was number one for the second year in a row, followed by Call Her Daddy, Crime Junkie, TED Talks Daily, and The Daily. Other notable trends included the increase in throwback albums (released more than 20 years ago), an increase in plant and gardening-themed playlists, and over 42 million streams of vaccine-related playlists.

Year on TikTok

TikTok, the app which took off in 2020 as people were stuck inside looking for distractions, continued to grow in 2021. Over one billion people were on the app this past year, and to celebrate, TikTok released a list of “trends, moments, and movements'' that included categories like fyfaves, powered by joy, the playlist, breakthrough stars, only on tiktok, voices of change, and more! Some highlights were Noodle the pug, gymnast Suni Lee celebrating her Olympic gold, and the Please Don’t Go trend. Creators like Olivia Rodrigo, Anna Sitar, and Emily Mariko were also featured for their popular content and large followings.


Does your 2022 digital marketing strategy need some revamping? Contact us and we’ll reach out to see how we can help!

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