Wavemaker India launched Spotlight 23, a report that highlights on top 23 strategic focus areas in digital and emerging technology for the year 2023. These focus areas include big tech, e-commerce, AI, cloud computing, Web3, digital payments, and some potential disruptive technologies which may impact the industry and business, at large. Here are some key takeaways.
Big Tech and Connected TV
Meta’s ad business experienced its first-ever year-over-year revenue decline in Q2 2022. While Meta remains a profitable media business, with Facebook app in decline it will turn to Reels for growth. Reels has 140 billion plus Reel plays, in Q3 2022, 50 percent higher compared to 6 months ago as per Meta.
Meta has opened its WhatsApp Business API to all businesses and launched a partnership with Salesforce, providing more companies with access to business messaging tools. Meta already offers an NFT programme and an Avatars Store where users may purchase virtual apparel for their customised avatar. The company is now promoting its Creator Marketplace as its primary creator monetization tool.
What does it mean for marketers?
Major brand communication pieces could be Reelified. WhatsApp could become critical for brands, which want to engage consumers through lead gen, content, contest. It will be easier for brands to create partnerships with creators or launch NFTs. While Meta is invested into metaverse as we know it, 2023 might be the year, where Meta would add extra layers in shaping their version of metaverse.
Apple – The new ad company?
Apple launched privacy rules last year that disrupted the $400bn digital ads market, making it difficult to tailor ads to Apple’s 1bn-plus iPhone users as per FT.com. The Privacy rules by Apple would force its competitors to rebuild their advertising infrastructure; and at the same time provide an opportunity for the company to fill the void. Apple has plans to double its work force on ads platform teams. Apple owns all of this user data and doesn’t have to rely on third-party cookies or permission to obtain it via hardware (phones, tablets, computers) or software (Safari, The App Store, Apple Maps, Apple TV, Apple Arcade). When it comes to monetisation, Apple currently relies on display and search ads with its own app.
What does it mean for marketers?
Brands which use Apple ads for app downloads could potentially have scale with the increase in advertising opportunities. To create impactful communication on Apple Ad platforms, a better understanding of Apple consumers will be important. While Google, Facebook have established credentials in delivering ROI, Apple Ads needs to demonstrate similar capabilities in driving ROI for increasing revenue from ads.
Jio – Tech Giant or yet another Walled Garden
Reliance Jio claims to have 450mn+ users across connectivity (Jio, Jio Fiber, hatchway), Entertainment (Jio Saavn, Jio Cinema, Network18, Viacom), & omni channel Commerce (Reliance Digital, Jiomart, Zivame). Jio also has the digital live streaming rights for IPL and other Live sports (over 32 mn plus audience tuned to watch the FIFA final and 110 mn plus users for entire FIFA world cup in JioCinema).
AI, gaming, healthcare, agriculture, IT, and SMEs. This is largest multi-state rollout of 5G services in India till date. Jio with its Meta partnership has created an end-to-end shopping experience on WhatsApp. Within WhatsApp, Consumers can browse the JioMart catalogue, add products to their cart and pay.
What does it mean for marketers?
Jio Ads has the potential to emerge as one of the top advertising platforms in the country. Jio could accelerate social commerce and brands could look at potential partnerships Jio could create interesting consumer engagements for IPL. Live streaming, which brands could leverage as sponsors.
Connected TV: Bringing the best of both worlds – TV and Digital
Connected TV (CTV) is one of the fastest growing segments in India currently. There about 20-22 mn Connected TV homes, which is approx. 10 percent plus of TV homes. This is estimated to grow by 2X by 2025 in the next 2 years.
Growth of CTV is due to the changing consumer behaviour (growth of cord Cutters, CTV first homes), Smart TV sales increasing (India’s Smart TV shipments grew by 38 percent plus in Q3 2022) and growth of players who are offering faster and cheaper broadband (ex – JioFiber).
Currently the audience who consume CTV are affluent audience, metro skewed, with more premium lifestyle preferences. The programming consumed is remarkably comparable to Linear TV consumers, with a high skew toward Romance, Comedy, Action, and Live Sports. CTV becomes a very important touch-point to reach to the difficult to reach, media cluttered affluent audience.
What does it mean for marketers?
CTV to become important element in the integrated video planning and needs to be considered for all TV plans for brands which target the NCCS AB audiences. Brands would need to make creative for the CTV ecosystem with far more personalisation and interactivity, unlike linear TV.
The rise of social commerce
Social commerce will become even more popular for online shopping in the future. Statista estimates social media sales reached $992 billion in 2022. By 2026, social commerce sales might exceed $2.9 trillion. Innovations on social storefronts to deployment of Conversational AIs have fuelled the expansion of social commerce by removing friction from the customer journey. The focus will be on creative storefronts, personalized experiences, influencer collaborations, and conversational AI.
What does it mean for marketers?
Influencer activations and collaborations will expand more rapidly due to social commerce. However, brands will seek to measure ROI of such activations. Brands will need to become more creative on the Social Storefronts. Live shopping will continue to expand, and brands will strive to provide consumers with a more enriched and personalised experience. With AI advancements, chatbots could help automate call centres, improve customer experience while reducing costs.
AI for all – AIaaS (AI as a Service) and no-code environments continue to democratise AI
Infrastructure investments and the inability to find and train skilled workforce have impeded the widespread use of AI. The rise of AI as a service (AIaaS) and no-code/low-code AI tools and platforms are addressing these barriers and making it easier than ever to get started with AI. AIaaS (Artificial Intelligence as a service) refers to off-the-shelf AI solutions that enable businesses to implement and expand AI strategies for a fraction of the cost of an in-house AI.
Cloud-based AI tools such as Amazon Machine Learning, Microsoft Cognitive Services, and Google Cloud Machine Learning can help businesses discover the full potential of their data. Second, no-code/low-code environments allow users to construct AI applications without having to write technical code. Sway AI can to develop enterprise application with no code, Akkio can do predictive analysis with no code, and other applications such as Amazon SageMaker, Microsoft Lobe, and Google AutoML are examples of tools that aim to make the AI revolution accessible for all.
What does it mean for marketers?
There could be an increase usage of AI in product development, market research, campaign optimisation, churn prediction and smart consumer engagement. Businesses could quickly use plug-and-play mechanisms at nominal costs to see what works and allows for scaling before committing. This will increase the need for businesses to eliminate data silos, as lack of data is another significant barrier to AI.