The creator economy will grow at a 25% CAGR: Piali Dasgupta

The year 2023 has started on a rollercoaster note, with an accelerated adoption of generative AI, AI chatbots, and digital innovations. This is bringing in new operational efficiencies, stronger strategies, a far greater emphasis on building deep bonds with various stakeholders and consumers. In keeping with the current market ecosystem, technology and a human approach are seen as going hand in hand.

As part of our annual TRENDING NOW series, Adgully has been approaching key industry leaders to Crystal Gaze into 2023 to highlight the major trends and developments that they see dominating the industry in the year ahead.

In conversation with Adgully, Piali Dasgupta, Senior Vice President – Marketing, Columbia Pacific Communities, speaks about the use of AI and ML to automate Marketing processes, how to engage to the millennial and Gen-Z audience, building world-class senior living communities in India, and more.

Key trends dominating Marketing in 2023

The key trends dominating 2023 and the years to come are the use of AI and ML to automate Marketing processes, increase efficiency, and augment customer experience through the customer lifecycle. It would be about optimising human talent to work smarter, better and faster.

As far as marketing media and channels go, we will see a sharp increase in the adoption of audio media channels, as people start stepping out and head back to work and commute time increases. Podcasts, audio blogs, audio books, audiograms would be used by brands to create native content and advertise their products and services.

India’s growth story will lie in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. With higher Internet penetration will come greater awareness, and that will in turn fuel aspirations and demand. Brands in the fashion, lifestyle, fitness and wellness categories, particularly in the D2C space, will benefit from this demand.

And finally, the creator economy will grow at a 25% CAGR. This would mean that a large share of marketing budgets earmarked for traditional media will now be diverted to create branded content with creators that tell a story, create excitement about a product without hard selling it to a millennial and Gen-Z audience that are prone to blocking ads and averse to “sales-y” messaging.

Major expectations from 2023

The real estate sector will continue to grow steadily in the coming year, with the sub-sectors of affordable housing, student housing and senior living gaining prominence. Budget 2023 declared an investment of Rs 48,000 crore to complete 80 lakh houses this year under the PM Awas Yojna, which will boost growth in the affordable housing sector. Much of the growth in the real-estate sector in general and senior living in particular will come from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities – a result of the fact that during the pandemic a lot of the workforce in the larger cities went back to their hometowns opting for remote working.

The size of the Indian senior living sector is more than $10 million, with a growth rate of 10% CAGR.

There will be higher demand for senior living communities within integrated townships, where seniors can be amidst people of all age groups along with increased demand for rental options in senior living for those in the age group of 80-90 years that do not want to invest in properties.

Key focus areas for Columbia Pacific Communities in 2023

In 2023, we will continue to focus on remaining the most preferred brand in the category by creating clear differentiation in our services and building world-class senior living communities in India. We will expand our footprint this year by adding more communities to our portfolio and serving more seniors and help reduce the massive need gap in this category.

A key focus area would be to strengthen our brand promise and purpose of “positive ageing”. Positive ageing is a simple concept that propounds that one is as old as one feels, and age is just a number. It is the philosophy of helping seniors live healthier, happier, more connected, and better lives for longer and ensuring that they don’t look at age as a deterrent to anything they wish to achieve in life, but only an enabler. Equally, it is about smashing ageism and age-related stereotypes that exist in society.

And finally, we will work towards changing age-old perceptions around senior living and enable higher adoption of the category, which is at a nascent stage in India. The inherent stigma that is attached to this category, likening it to the dreaded image of “old age homes”, needs to be banished through effective and cutting-edge narratives.