Marketers, faced with unrelenting social and economic pressures, will in 2023 need to dig in to create deeper, more valuable connections between customers and brands.
Global consultancy Gartner has revealed its top five predictions that marketing leaders must incorporate in their strategies ito drive results and regain the confidence of business leaders.
“From managing misinformation to ensuring effective first-party data collection, this year’s predictions prioritise the trends that marketers and advertisers can no longer afford to ignore,” says Andrew Frank, distinguished VP analyst in the Gartner Marketing practice.
The top five predictions:
By 2027, 80% of enterprise marketers will establish a dedicated content authenticity function to combat misinformation and fake material.
The proliferation of generative AI and user generated content will dramatically increase the volume and variety of content brands must monitor. Proactive reputation management is critical, but scanning for inaccurate or defamatory content at scale in real-time is increasingly difficult in a polarized and high-velocity landscape.
“The advancement in the scope and sophistication of misinformation creates a growing concern for CMOs,” said Chris Ross, VP analyst at Gartner.
“Just as AI and other technologies contribute to the content problem, they will also be part of the solution, especially when complemented with dedicated teams that listen, engage, and escalate brand interests across the digital content ecosystem.”
By 2025, 70% of enterprise CMOs will identify accountability for ethical AI in marketing among their top concerns.
Privacy-related restrictions on data collection, economic pressures, and AI breakthroughs are driving marketing teams to rely more heavily on AI and machine learning to optimise campaign performance and lower costs.
Regulators and advocacy groups are vocalising concerns about manipulative and biased uses of AI through developments such as the AI Act in the EU or the AI Bill of Rights in the US. Several brands have come under fire over their use of advanced technology to influence consumers in creepy and inequitable ways.
“Marketing is uniquely positioned to understand the superior CX AI affords as well as its trust and reputational risks,” says Frank.
“This puts the onus on marketers to address the ethical issues that AI is raising in their practices, and the impetus to do so must come from the top.”
By 2024, 70% of brands will redeploy at least 10% of their media budget to product placement in entertainment content.
Consumers with means are working harder to avoid online ads. Gartner anticipates that by next year, 85% of consumers with household incomes above $120,000 will pay for entertainment subscription tiers, software, hardware or mobile devices that allow them to avoid advertising entirely.
“The game of cat-and-mouse has become very expensive,” says Kate Muhl, VP analyst at Gartner.
“Brands pay top dollar to reach high income consumers via digital advertising, but such impressions become less meaningful as this audience figures out new ways to tune them out.
"Marketers who cling to traditional digital ad formats will increasingly reach an audience composed largely of digital have-nots.”
Instead, brands that shift budgets to product placements in entertainment content such as streaming TV will persevere: Two-thirds of the 301 consumers surveyed in October 2022 said they prefer this format rather than seeing separate ads.
One-in-three businesses without a loyalty program today will establish one by 2027 to shore up first-party data collection and retain high-priority customers.
Loyalty programs are most prevalent in the travel, hospitality and retail industries. However, there are opportunities in other verticals, such as banking and consumer packaged goods. Only 36% of 1,068 brands Gartner analyzed in 2022 had a loyalty program.
Effective loyalty content generally drives higher open rates than non-loyalty emails, improving wallet retention and growth among high-priority customer segments. By 2023, both B2B and B2C companies will increase their investments in loyalty programs as a percentage of their total marketing budget.
“The competition for customers' attention and first-party data will increase as more companies launch and revamp loyalty programs,” says Brad Jashinsky, director analyst at Gartner.
“CMOs running best in-class loyalty programs will elevate their approach beyond transactional benefits and recognize personalisation as a critical differentiator.”
By 2025, organisations that use AI across the marketing function will shift 75% of their staff’s operations from production to more strategic activities.
The use of AI in marketing operations will reduce friction and eliminate redundancy, allowing marketers to shift their budgets and resources to activities that support a more dynamic marketing organization.
For example, marketers can leverage AI in the creative process to automate the capturing, processing, and analyzing of real-world images and videos, improving image quality and developing digital twins.
“AI will continue to refine marketing operations processes to drive more agile, data-based responses to the challenges ahead that have no signs of slowing down,” says Nicole Greene, senior director analyst at Gartner.
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.