Paul Sigaloff - VP, Head of APAC at Yahoo
As we look forward to 2023 it is clear that there is a lot more uncertainty in store for marketers across the spectrum. From identity challenges to transformed consumer behaviour and a lack of visibility, here are a few key challenges we’ll see in the next 12 months.
Finding faces in spaces (identity)
Up to a third of digital adverts across APAC are being served in environments where identity markers have already disappeared. That’s billions of impressions being served blind everyday. It’s one of those rare cases of progress being turned back, as less targeting means less effective advertising.
The obsession with when just one company is going to cut its third party cookies may be holding the industry back from addressing a problem that’s already very real. New privacy laws in different jurisdictions will also have an impact on how advertisers use data, and the ability to target people could be impacted even more, as some current identity solutions won’t stand up to the rigorous tests being placed on them.
But 2023 will be the year when identity takes a leap forward and the industry gets serious about treating people as, well, people to be marketed to rather than demographics and data on a spreadsheet. Privacy-first solutions like Yahoo’s Connect ID, which uses verified and ethically sourced data to find customers in these anonymous environments are going to give marketers a bigger edge in terms of ad effectiveness and delivery.
The new normal will actually inspire action (fragmentation)
The days of five days per week in the office are well and truly over - 2023 isn’t going to see that creeping back. It means people are just far less predictable than they were.
Overlay this with strained economic times, I believe marketers are going to be working harder to modernise their media plans to reflect these new audience behaviours. That means using more omnichannel technology to understand who has been exposed to that billboard and retarget them online, or buying more Connected TV because people working from home are taking time to catch up on their favourite shows at lunchtime.
Hoping that mass media exposure is going to do the job for you is going to leave your brand at a disadvantage. The technology is there to do this already - it’s just a matter of shifting mindsets to be more active and not passive.
Measurement that matters
Making advertising dollars work harder is going to be front and centre for most marketers in 2023. Put simply, the vanity metrics which have crept into the industry in recent years aren’t going to cut it when finances are under pressure and every cent needs to work harder and show a return.
Fortunately we’re already seeing a revolution in the ability to understand and measure different channels together. This includes TV, which for the first time is being directly compared with digital channels thanks to the way Connected TV is being bought. This is being facilitated by things like Yahoo’s groundbreaking partnership with Samba TV allowing us to access data from hundreds of thousands of households to fill the gaps of existing measurement solutions.
There’s a way to go, but this fuller view of the funnel is going to help eliminate the old quote that 50% of marketing budgets are wasted.
The importance of being agile
Given all the changes I’ve laid out above, from macroeconomic conditions to consumer behaviour, agility is going to be the superpower of 2023. These conditions all add up to create conditions of volatility, and volatility is the cryptonite of the micro-planner.
Many businesses are reluctant to plan too far ahead at the moment, which means more budgets and resources are going to be kept in reserve for more tactical or timely activity.
So learning to take a flexible and agile approach and mindset into your work will be essential. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable, if you’re not already.