AdNews asked industry figures for their assessment of 2022 and outlook for next year
Dan O'Connor, Sales Director APAC for Quantcast.
2022 has been a year of turmoil, with the world emerging from COVID only to plunge into further geopolitical chaos. Who could have foreseen that the end of the year would bring sky high inflation rates not seen for some 40 years, influenced by the Russia and Ukraine conflict? Nor did anyone expect the recent big tech crisis to manifest as the world prepares for a recession.
Ultimately, with the world the way it is, it’s near impossible to have a clear and definitive answer for what will happen in 2023. Theoretical physicist Richard Feynman summed it up beautifully with the simple statement: "It’s okay to say ‘I don’t know’ – there is no shame in that; the only shame is to pretend we know everything."
Despite the continuing uncertainty and volatility, we are starting to see some new behaviours and trends emerge. For the advertising industry, these represent change but also opportunity. These are some of the things I see happening in the upcoming year.
1. Recession… but not as severe as feared
Many economists are tipping a recession in Australia, which in turn can lead to reduced marketing budgets, which is never good for our industry. However, I am a glass half full kind of guy, and I am steering towards the notion that inflation pressures will ease in 2023, Australia won’t face the same magnitude of problems in other parts of the world, and the media industry will continue to thrive.
Regardless of how the economy goes, now is not the time to step away from marketing and slash budgets. Studies show that brands which continue to market themselves during tougher economic times thrive coming out the other side.
Virgin Atlantic, for example, pushed ahead with brand marketing during the 2008 recession, even as oil prices rose and passenger numbers fell. It ended up seeing an ROI of £10.59 for every £1 invested. Brand spend should be seen as a strategic tool to weather the economic storms and drive performance results.
2. Marketers will need to get closer to their audiences
When the macro discussions from economists are all said and done, one thing I can predict with certainty is that marketers will continue to want to be close to their audiences. Because in a changing digital world, it’s going to be more important than ever to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time.
Expanding privacy regulations, the devastating data breaches Australia has recently experienced, and the forthcoming end of third party cookies have made this increasingly challenging.
As McKinsey notes, we are now in a "privacy-first" world. Reliable, first party data is critical as well as setting up the right metrics and attribution. Marketers will require the best technology to deliver their message to the right audience and generate desired outcomes. That means technology that is easy to use, delivers upon campaign goals, and offers insights that can be digested for future success.
3. Digital metrics translated into meaningful measurement
When it comes to "outcomes", we need more than soft digital metrics. We need proper brand and/or performance metrics so we can measure how the dollars spent are meeting business objectives. Strong numbers may not translate into strong results if the wrong metrics are used. Ultimately what matters is the bottom line and how effective a campaign was in impacting it.
Using clever tech, such as our Brand Lift Live product, advertisers can see the true effectiveness of all of their ad dollars being spent on connected TV (CTV), display, online video, etc, not just the direct response or performance media buys.
As well as these predictions, I have three hopes for marketing and adtech in 2023:
- As an industry we will be more comfortable with measuring success for digital activity outside of just traditional one-to-one identifiers. This is not to say that these identifiers are not as important but combining that with scaled probabilistic data is going to be imperative to successfully measure digital effectiveness at scale.
- Marketers will focus on what's most important for their business and what is going to secure them the best return on their advertising spend. There has been a lot of noise around innovations such as blockchain, NFTs and the Metaverse. This has taken the focus away from what should be the cornerstone of brand building: customer experience, ease of use, engaging advertising and helpful creative messaging, to name a few.
- CTV will realise its true potential with the advancements of data and technology in this space. It’s not exactly breaking news for someone to say that "CTV will continue to grow". This is obvious. But what I hope is that marketers will start pushing tech providers for more innovation and lean in on leveraging data, audience insights and measurement for their investment in CTV.
Ultimately, no-one has a perfect crystal ball to see how exactly 2023 will play out. I am, however, excited to see what happens next. And I’m confident that our industry will continue to thrive and innovate despite whatever comes our way.
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
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