2022 will be the year of “I.M.P.A.C.T.” Marketing

The digital marketing and advertising industry has grown consistently over the past few years. Digital ad spend is expected to dominate the market and continue to gain the brand’s overall share of advertising expenditure. The key stakeholders in this ecosystem had their fair share of fears and opportunities in 2021; fear of getting consumed in this mammoth ecosystem of consolidated media networks, and the opportunity to leapfrog by leveraging digital technologies and experimenting with newer ways to differentiate and engage the audience. Brands have been trying to learn about customers’ evolving behaviour across physical and digital channels with a renewed focus. With customers getting wary of their data, storage, usage, and yet expecting personalized experiences, brands are preparing their strategies for winning in a cookie-less world. 

The year 2022 is likely to witness continued innovation at an intersection of digital channels, content formats, and more authentic brand messaging. We suggest that brands look at the following six key trends to craft impactful marketing and advertising strategy in the new year. 

I: Inclusive Marketing.

This is an essential aspect for brands.

According to the Deloitte 2022 Global Marketing Trends report, 68% of consumers believe they have the power to force corporations to change, and 86% of people expect CEOs to speak out on societal issues. Consumers are more aware and concerned about issues such as sustainability more than ever before; this pronounced shift is resulting in authentic, inclusive, and sustainable marketing strategies. Brands are starting with organisational “ethos” and then refining through stakeholder values – for CMOs to connect purpose and customer experience, an enterprise-wide alignment is required to communicate how the companies are living their purpose themselves. 

Thoughtful Advertising has been on the radar for quite some time; conscious efforts to align marketing strategy with the brand purpose, social causes, and weaving in diverse messaging from the under-represented will be key. Focusing only on utilitarian metrics such as price, discounts, and quality may not be sufficient. 

M: Move from Funnel to Flywheel

Requires changes in overall strategy, internal org structure, and metrics.

The traditional marketing funnel concept that assumes linear customer engagement is fast being replaced with a flywheel model – where market leadership is achieved by gaining momentum that is generated by happy customers across buying journeys and beyond. Embracing this philosophy requires reimagining overall marketing strategy, performance metrics and the organisation structure. 

A two-pronged approach to remove friction-generating elements and tapping on emerging trends would be the strategy of winning brands. In addition to leveraging the already mainstream strategies to fuel customer advocacy, brands should make it easy for customers to consume and share content as per their likings – that is, use of short-form video ads, Outstream ads owing to their preference of watching videos without sound by default and Interstitial and reward ads (especially for mobile gaming apps). 

P: Party with 1st Party Data.

The most effective way to have customers join your party

Newer platforms and approaches have started to become mainstream for capturing and enriching 1st party data, as cookies have started to disappear systematically. 61% of high-growth brands are shifting to a strategy based on 1st party data, a report by Deloitte on 2022 Global Marketing Trends suggests. It is important to note that maintaining a higher level of transparency while communicating the intent behind capturing data with the customers significantly helps build mutually rewarding relationships. 

Three levers that brands should activate as they start and iterate their data strategy – creating a virtuous network where greater value is exchanged with more complete customer profiles, building a deeper relationship with ecosystem partners amplifying the impact of collective data, and finally, rethinking analytics to focus on cohorts versus individuals. 

A: AI led Marketing 

It is pervasive – from content creation to targeting

Brands’ ability to weave in AI across marketing strategy will have an exponential impact on outcomes – starting from programmatic advertising, intelligent bidding, creative innovation and even tapping virtual worlds (metaverse) can be a game-changer for marketers. 

Building analytical capability to identify “influencers”, who can potentially become “creators” and drive value beyond just product reviews, will become a differentiator for high-performance brands. This is an area that brands must focus on to build internal muscles to master in the longer run. 

C: Commerce Advertising

Integrated Commerce, Integrated Marketing

The pandemic has made customers’ buying journeys more “phygital” and an increasing number of shopping transactions are influenced by Digital. The convergence of building awareness through engagements platforms and driving buying actions is fast creating opportunities for newer business models and Ad earnings. 

Brands should look for ways to intuitively integrate commerce marketing for relevant scenarios and customers, offering exciting new ways to explore and shop their products. 

T: Talent Trio 

Technology, Creative, Agile

The right mix of skills integrating creative and technology aspects will be key to the effectiveness of the marketing function. In 2022, brands must focus on building an intelligent creative engine – a model suited for the future that offers required agility. Institutionalizing such a model will require bringing together the right skills in the right organisational structure. 

To summarise, the year 2022 will see brands relying on the convergence of macro forces of sustainability and technological advancements in the field of experiences, data, channel, and content formats; organisations that can hit the sweet spot at the intersection of these will likely reap benefits of supreme customer engagement and increased mutual value.