Content, commerce and community emerged as three key trends that will dominate the media landscape in 2023, according to Dentsu International. For the second year running, the agency has collectively gathered and published the insights and predictions of all its global media agencies (Carat, DentsuX and iProspect) into the 2023 Media Trends guide for marketers worldwide.
In terms of content, the agency states that the speed of the shift to digital platforms shows no signs of slowing down especially in the video on demand and gaming sector. The changes in the general economic landscape will lead consumers to evaluate the number of platforms and associated costs linked to subscriptions.
Therefore, ad-funded video platforms are set to overtake subscription channels with time, as major streaming platforms are adding ad-funded tiers. Gaming is becoming mainstream. Games are becoming increasingly prominent on content sites to drive repeat users. Interest in attention is growing as brands look beyond metrics of reach and viewability to assess consumer engagement and make more effective decisions.
When it comes to commerce, digital commerce continues to evolve, both in importance and diversification of sites, apps and platforms. The challenge for brands is to engage directly with consumers whilst at the same time planning and adapting for a cookieless future and respecting data privacy. Consumers can shop anywhere and anytime. As a result, retail sites are evolving to content sites and commerce sites are changing to media sites.
Another trend is that retail platforms and sites are turning themselves into advertising platforms and becoming attractive propositions for brands due to retailers’ huge wealth of first-party data.
There will be rise of super apps that are evolving and continue to build ecosystems offering a wide range of services, to anticipate and cater for user’s needs. Brands continue to navigate a cookieless future and advertisers will explore and test the solutions working best for their brands.
In a bid to build to communities, brands and platforms are increasingly using the ‘go live’ functions to build a community to create interest through live events. Not only to bring consumers together, but also to encourage live, active, engagement. Communities are emerging through a common emphasis on brand responsibility. Platforms are opportunities to share relevant content and increasingly measure impacts of campaigns. Social algorithms give users what they don’t know they want – It is not about who you follow in as much as what social media platforms want you to see.
Peter Huijboom, global CEO, media and global clients, Dentsu International said, “This year we witnessed a very different geopolitical landscape and a new and challenging economic outlook, which has forced brands and people to really stop and re-evaluate many things. Through all this uncertainty, we’ve been able to see the emergence of new consumer behaviours, exciting tech innovation and the spark of profitable new media opportunities for brands.”