AdNews asked industry figures for their assessment of 2022 and outlook for next year
Nikki Clarkson, CMO, SCA
2022 has been a homecoming year where we are in part getting back to ‘normality’ with personal connections and reconnections with our loved ones, teams and industry peers.
It has also been the year of new horizons with innovation, data and technology transformation enabling us to reach new heights. The big question for me is how do these new horizons look for us in the media industry and in particular in an evolving marketing function. And as a result, 2023 feels part exciting and part daunting given we will face rising inflation and a potential recession. And so, as marketers, our courage, bravery and ever-present curiosity will need to prevail. I believe we’ll all need to dig deep and dust off our best resilient selves as we face a year of challenges – again. Hopefully, as we have done in 2022, we will be able to achieve great things.
In order to get the most out of 2023, for me there are three key areas of focus.
Creativity and innovation
The coming together of brilliant creative that’s informed more than ever before by keen data and behaviour insights will be key. Understanding how we can target campaigns and create messaging that leans heavily into behavioural insights to ensure effectiveness is maximised. A balance of exceptional creative with relevant and insightful data will prevail. We must never lose sight of the impact a distinctive and relevant brand idea can deliver to our businesses to drive enduring connections and memorability that data crunching on its own can ever deliver.
The digital transformation strategy at SCA has inspired the development of our owned and operated LiSTNR platform and its extraordinary success has exceeded all expectations and is now at the centre of SCA’s future. To ensure all our teams can take LiSTNR to the next level, in 2023 our focus will be to ensure we provide the best outline possible articulating what our newest brand, LiSTNR, stands for in the hearts and minds of our audiences. This is where data and creativity will again come to the fore. I am really looking forward to seeing digital audio mature and LiSTNR continue to deliver audiences an even greater digital audio experience.
The importance of original, premium content and data
Our content teams – across live broadcast, audio and podcasts, are creating more premium and compelling content than ever before, bringing audio storytelling to life in new ways, with new talent and new ideas. Our ambition is that in 2023 our single customer view and greater clarity of audience segmentation will contribute to the creation of successful and highly engaging audio content. Ideally, we will also see our growing ability to automate some of our marketing efforts via personalisation technology, adding to our ability to successfully target and amplify our content, thereby growing our known audiences at scale.
Backing your team
The talent crisis has hit the industry hard this year, but I am proud to say that we have a diverse team and culture at SCA that has led to an enviable retention rate and the ability to promote from within this year. We know our teams have a heighted sense of job security and confidence in the leadership at SCA. This provides us with foundation to ensure our teams continue to feel a high level of engagement and the confidence to take risks and try new ideas so we can test and learn and in doing so, contribute to our peoples’ career development and the company’s success.
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