Rewind 2022: It was a year of the agile, innovator & challenger in digital

It’s time to review the most significant industry developments as the year 2022 draws to a close. Adgully is reviewing the year 2022 for the M&E, advertising, digital, marketing, PR, and communications, along with leading names in the industry as part of our annual Rewind series.

Recapping the year 2022 by taking insights from industry specialists and understanding the key developments in the Digital space in 2022, as well as how the digital industry has become a turning point for the brands.

Shantanu Bhattacharya SVP, Media Planning Strategy and Client Success, LS Digital:

For brands and retailers, the holiday season is one of the few constants in the shopping calendar. Through pandemics and inflation, you can always rely on consumers to splurge over the festive season. Tech has been adding another layer of communication to festive marketing for a few years now.

The promise of 5G has captured the attention of business leaders, policymakers, and the media. With the first true high-band 5G networks already live, we set out to take a realistic view of how and where connectivity could be deployed and what it can enable over the next 10 years. Existing connectivity technologies are expanding and evolving, with new standards that boost network performance – and they are much less capital-intensive. Building a more connected world could create substantial economic value, mostly enabled by advanced connectivity.

Companies have the focus on different stages of the marketing funnel – from acquiring new customers to retaining existing ones. Moreover, it made them invest more in social media (47%) website/ content marketing (44%), and advertising more on retail apps and websites (43%). You can strategise your budget as per your audience.

Angad Singh Manchanda, CEO & Co-founder, Chimp&z Inc:

Metaverse is the talk of the town. It will decentralise the monopoly that tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Instagram have enjoyed. Empowering the user and giving them more control over their data will require advertisers to work harder to ensure their message reaches the right audience. AI and ML will open new doors for brands to hyper-customise their messaging while cutting costs. This will eventually enable them to develop a genuine relationship with their customer, benefiting all the parties involved.

On the human side of things, influencer marketing is catching on in India. With the boom of user-generated content platforms continuing in the age of Web3, creators will get due credit. The popularity of micro and nano influencers will persist as macro influencers gravitate more towards sponsored collaborations and endorsements. Consumers have always hated being marketed at, so the smaller following of smaller influencers will be seen as more authentic and will have a sizeable impact. When you merge genuine content marketing efforts with short-form videos on almost every platform, you get a robust plan to take your brand to new heights.

Vivek Kumar Anand, Director - Business & Innovation, DViO Digital:

2022 has been a year of rapid change and adaptation in the marketing world. AI and ML-driven marketing platforms such as Google’s Performance Max campaigns and Meta’s Advantage+ shopping campaigns use AI and machine learning to improve your advertising strategy and reach valuable audiences with less set-up time and greater efficiency. The shift has been from intent-based buying pattern to discovery commerce.

It was a year of the agile, the innovator, and challenger. And brands and companies had always-on-plan to pivot won big. We as an agency scaled massively this year, and so do our clients such as Meesho, PhonePe, Excitel, Manipal U next, Aster online, and all others.

Zaiba Sarang, Co-founder, iThink Logistics:

2022 was a turning point for the logistics industry towards an efficiency-led industry. With the announcement of NLP, the government is focusing on building an integrated logistics infrastructure to improve seamless connectivity for all transportation modes. The new policy aims to increase the competitiveness of the industry by creating an ecosystem conducive to adopting modern e-commerce businesses and emerging D2C brands. The logistics industry is one of the most integral parts that will help the Indian economy achieve the $5 trillion mark. As we transport 65% of our goods and 80% of our passengers via roads, we needed MMLP to bridge the gap between inefficiencies in logistics and infrastructure. There were some bumps in the beginning, but with all these developments, we can expect steady growth and a directed path.

Rithesh R, Co-Founder, Deepsense Digital:

Digital marketing has always been the fastest growing industry. Today, with brands shifting from traditional marketing to digital marketing, in 2022, there was significant growth in the industry. In recent years, the use of the Internet has expanded, it is considerably more accessible and affordable to its target audience. This has in some way increased the demographic of digital marketing and given it a big edge. Influencer marketing is one of the most successful digital marketing trends that has seen a huge interest in the industry in the last couple of years. It has become a very effective marketing campaign for brands as it is not only effective and successful, but also affordable if we compare it with other digital marketing trends.

Ramya Ramachandran, Founder & CEO, Whoppl:

The year 2022 has been a game changer in the influencer and content marketing ecosystem, with more influencers getting added each day and creating content regardless of the region in India. Influencers/ creators are also turning entrepreneurs by building brands that align with their ethos and personalities; it is expected to grow multifold.

The recent implementation of influencer tax has further legitimised the monetisation of brand collaborations, despite ASCI guidelines regarding influencer mandates.

Vipul Kedia, Chief Data & Platforms Officer - Affle | Head - MAAS Platform India:

Digital advertising has been growing year-on-year, and particularly in India we see a growing appetite among brands to include digital channels in their media mix. Mobile-first behaviors that emerged in the last two years shaped the advertising ecosystem in India as digital transformation of the users catapulted demand for certain app verticals and usage of connected screens increased. 

Many companies which didn’t invest as much in digital channels changed their strategy during the pandemic and drove adoption, which has continued well into 2022 as well. Those businesses that operated in the offline space also were quick to adopt the online models through web or mobile apps This has further fueled the growth in ad spends that went in digital channels.

Year 2022 was also a watershed moment for marketers in India to realize the importance of connected user journeys. While the world may have started to re-open, some of the digital behaviors we saw in the pandemic such as mobile payments, quick delivery of grocery, shop online and collect in store, are here to stay. So emphasis on personalization and omnichannel marketing becomes hard to ignore for today’s marketers. There is a lot more focus to know what happens after an app install or how the connected journeys of a user can impact conversions. Therefore, we see a lot more focus today on incremental measurement so that marketers can optimize and focus on what’s effective.