How marketers learnt to navigate uncertain market conditions in 2022

After two years of severe disruptions caused by the global Covid pandemic, markets as well as consumer sentiments looked up in 2022. As restrictions were lifted and market conditions returned to near normal, brands and marketers increased their spends and were bullish on consumer outreach.

Here’s a look at how some leading marketers navigated the new normal successfully in 2022, setting the base for a stronger 2023, as well as learning to operate in uncertain market conditions.

Prerna Uppal, Chief Partnership Officer, KidZania India:

“All-in-all, 2022 was a good year for KidZania India. The parks, both Mumbai and Delhi NCR, witnessed a significant increase in footfalls. Furthermore, the year also saw KidZania partner with notable brands like Toppscholars, Laughing Cow, Sony YAY, Kinder Joy Natoons, and Kruti Parekh’s Magic Academy to introduce super exciting role-play activities for children and families. In addition, we hosted numerous school excursions and birthday parties.

This year saw marketing initiatives to connect with families, schools, and brand partners. We conducted several engaging events, such as the India Kids Summit and the KidZania Mommy Zummit, where several remarkable panelists and parent bloggers discussed issues relevant and relatable to most parents and their children.

We also marked the year by bagging a hat-trick of awards at the BW Applause & Experiential Marketing Awards, the Mid-Day International & Lifestyle Icons, and the Franchise India - Indian Education Awards. The awards in categories like Best Edutainment Program, Best Innovative Attraction, Excellence in Edutainment, Master Franchise of the Year, Best Experiential Marketing Platform, and Best Edutainment Concept have pushed us to continue making KidZania one of the most loved family destinations. Over the years, KidZania has received global recognition for its unprecedented offerings.”

Sunil Agarwal, Director, Vinod Cookware:

“As the Indian economy captivates major attention, the retail demand is forecasted to rise multifold in the next 10 years. The year 2022 has exhibited significant transformation across the retail industry, from inflation and workforce challenges to fluctuating consumer behaviour. However, the retail industry is one to hold the fort during such turbulent times. With a shift in consumer patterns post-pandemic, Vinod Cookware saw a profitable increase of 20% in 2022, compared to last year’s sales.

With a strong foothold in the offline market for five decades, Vinod Cookware is now working towards extending its market share in the online market.  A combination of the two will help Vinod Cookware keep up with the competition induced by technological advancement and a net increase in demand. Top market players, like Vinod Cookware, are allocating resources for overall digital expansion.”

Appalla Saikiran, Founder and CEO, SCOPE:

“Start-up funding has dipped to $24.7 billion in the January-November period of 2022, registering a year-on-year (YoY) decline of about 35%. High inflation and hikes in interest rates by central banks globally have stoked fears of a recession, nudging investors to assume a cautious posture and steer clear of risky bets like start-up investments. Driven by a lull in late-stage funding, the total number of funding rounds also saw a significant drop of about 30%; the count of investment rounds decreased to 1,841 so far this year from 2,647 games seen in the January-November period last year. Late-stage funding, which means investor capital attracted by established startups, dipped 45% YoY to $16.1 billion during this period. Local late-stage start-ups are largely dependent on external funding for growth.

Edtech had cornered most of the start-up funding through 2020, and 2021 has also seen a dip in fund flow as students got back to classrooms with the improvement in the Covid situation and spent less time on edtech platforms.

Big start-ups like Zomato and Oyo have recently resorted to layoffs as tech companies get conservative in terms of expenses and gear up to navigate a period of uncertainty.

At the beginning of this year, some term sheets had been withdrawn and valuations were renegotiated. Right now, the situation is still comparatively better.”

Harshit Jain, MD - Global CEO and Founder of Doceree:

“The year 2022 was a testament to our comeback after the pandemic and our ability to convert it into an endemic. Looking at the marketing trends in the healthcare and pharma industry, these trends were significantly catalysed towards digitisation, as the year marked discoveries like hyper-targeting of the audience – from programmatic marketing to AI-driven solutions – all saw a major boost and adoption in 2022. The new-age communication tools and platforms are expected to rise further in the coming year. We, at Doceree, eagerly look forward to 2023 and are prepared to introduce some breakthrough marketing solutions for the India, APAC, and GCC markets in the year ahead.”

Rajat Verma, CEO & Founder, Lohum:

“The outlook on the EV sector is positive, and we will be seeing growth in scale and quality simultaneously. Last year, we saw a significant level of growth, which is set to continue due to more efficient technologies, comprehensive EPR and BWMR implementation, and the continual growth of EV charging infrastructure. We will see a pathway open up to indigenise the supply chain as India’s potential cell production capacity becomes clearer, Fame-2 extends, and circular economy policies take shape with the help of leaders with clear missions and credentials.”

Meet Jatakia, Director of Branding and Marketing, Cossouq:

“With efforts for Digital India at the forefront, and a pandemic that altered consumer behaviour drastically, the demand for e-commerce and an online marketplace in general, is increasing steadily. India being such a huge market, we were yet to harness its full potential, a great challenge being the lack of connectivity.

The Open Network Digital Commerce (ONDC) initiative by the Government of India to develop open e-commerce will be a massive step for customers and retailers alike. Along with empowering the customer with innumerable options to make an informed decision, it will level the playground for all the sellers in the market, big or small.

Consumers have become more conscious of the brands and the causes associated with them, Cossouq, an inclusive online marketplace with the most competitive pricing is sure to turn heads. With extraordinary values, serving people of all ages, colors, genders, and body types, we see for Cossouq, a dazzling future ahead.”

 Taranjeet Singh, Managing Director, SEA and India, Criteo

Commerce media is considered to be the next wave of digital advertising, as technology has made it possible for consumers to shop at any moment. This has led to a new era of addressability and commerce outcomes, and in 2023, we can expect to see a significant impact on the industry due to advancements in digital marketing technology trends. These trends include commerce media, as well as audio and video advertising, mobile commerce, and more. In 2023, both consumers and marketers will focus on maximizing the value of their actions and spending. Consumers will seek to get the most value out of their money, while marketers will aim to get the highest return on investment from their advertising efforts.

At Criteo, we are looking towards the rapidly-advancing commerce media space as a way to streamline the work of marketers and media owners. We will also focus on a transformational product roadmap by investing in first-party data and new ways of doing addressable targeting. In addition, we are paying attention to retail media, which has seen significant growth in recent years due to the global e-commerce boom. Our world’s leading retail media platform connects seamlessly with our larger Commerce Media Platform through first-party datasets, which allows us to deliver superior targeting and is crucial for the future of the advertising industry.

Renitaa Keswani , COO at NoFiltr Group:

"We can see a trend of consumers getting much more smarter when it comes to receiving information from a source. Brands have also started reacting to this and have recognised the need for better PR & marketing. A lot of brands & sectors we haven’t seen in the past have now joined the space and are trying out the influencer marketing approach.

PR & Word of mouth is seen to be a more reliable source of information. Consumers are now more aware about upcoming trends and news, social media playing a pivoted role in this. Brands too, are moving towards a more integrated style of marketing to stand out and be more relatable amongst their consumers, and who better than one amongst the crowd who can help them reach there.

Looking at how unconventional brands are also tapping the market and the scope of work is expanding, we’ve only seen a growing graph when it comes to the number of budding creators entering the market. Creators have also found the need of right PR in order to distinguish themselves from the rest of the crowd. Recognising that it is not just about numbers, nofiltr has been able to tap the correct chords to support the growth of its creators."

Dhruv Warrior, National Creative Director,  FoxyMoron 

The story of 2022 has really been one centred around data, emerging technologies and pushing the boundaries of creativity through exploration. A quick glance back and we see the rise and fall of crypto. Crypto currencies, played a key role in driving brands and creators towards embracing new tech and new platforms. Everyone was excited about the potential earning power of crypto despite its volatility. Infact crypto's influence was so strong that it has changed governance at the national and international level. These kinds of conversations and changes are necessary if we are to keep moving forward. And this is also reflected in the clear move being made towards web3 and a cookieless future. Data has really been a trending topic for some time now, but we are seeing it being harnessed in exciting new ways. Brands are embracing transparency when it comes to telling consumers how they use their data but is it enough? And since decentralised data systems are the future of the world wide web, the question is, how are we going to use the data we do have access to in the future to create amazing brand experiences that are centred around the consumer in the web3 world. NFTs have been in the spotlight and have been brilliant in illuminating a whole new world of creators and creative expression. Brands and agencies have made moves in the right direction in embracing the power of NFTs but in my opinion, as an industry we are just scratching the surface of how we can use NFTs to create new communities. And new communities and consumers are going to remain the key part of the digital world and its web3 evolution. We see this in the moves being made towards new(ish) platforms where people hang out, like twitch and discord, and brands and agencies alike are discovering the new rules of engagement. The biggest creator conversation for me this year though has been around AI. From creating stunning images, to reimagining your avatar to cutting a video or writing a 1500 word speech about data in 3 minutes, it seems like AI has the capability to do it all. And do it extremely well. Like at a level of proficiency that's enough to have artists and creators worried about what their role in the future is going to be.