Digital trends outlook 2022- 2023
Quick Take
- Video content has become economical and easier to create at scale. It is also considered one of the most engaging mediums and holds a special place in every marketer’s 2022- 2023 playbook.
- AR has entered the beauty and lifestyle market and is expected to cross $50B by 2024. Experiential marketing is a relatively new and exciting space, with promise for opportunities for branding.
- Influencer marketing is at present one of the fastest and most efficient ways of marketing and with the rise of micro-influencers, it is becoming easier for marketers with low budgets to integrate them into their strategy.
- Audio-social apps like clubhouse are gaining new popularity as they feed the need for social connection without the fatigue of video calls.
- Brands are going to bet big on targeted ads in 2022-2023, making the content, creative, format, and platform more personalized for their audience.
You are here
It’s 2022 and without a doubt, it is the year of innovative digital formats. In 2021, we saw Facebook turn into Meta to spearhead the movement to Metaverse and mixed reality platforms. However, a complete transition from the internet we use today to mixed reality will take a few years due to its dependency on virtual reality viewing gear, Augmented and Virtual Reality content production, superior graphics, amongst other factors.
One thing brands and marketers agree on this year is that privacy and data protection need to be kept in mind for a customer-first approach to build trust.
Data gathering and analytics are likely to get more refined as we move forward, with major brands realizing the importance of data from various touchpoints in a customer’s interaction with the brand instead of just relying on the point of purchase data. This is vital for delivering better brand experiences throughout the conversion funnel. While data is the new oil, this data will need to be shared more transparently with marketing teams to create true synergies with sales and to enable them to create dynamic storytelling as per the audience persona, stage in the funnel, and past experience with the brand.
On the social media front particularly, brands that take a more conversational approach to storytelling will thrive as content consumption grows and organic engagement rates dwindle for brands that fail to develop 2-way engagement online.
With the growth in time spent online over the last two years, digital ad rates have also gone up as brands continue to bid higher for the potential customer’s attention. Many companies started to experiment with platforms last year, such as ads of ready-to-eat foods on Linkedin and work from home devices on Instagram. It will be interesting to see the traditional lines between these platforms blur further depending on audience feedback.
Digital marketing by its very nature is dynamic and we will be witnessing bigger shifts in 2022-2023 owing to not just updates from the digital platforms, but also how the audience interacts with them. What will give brands an edge is the ability to identify and nail relevant emerging trends in real time. The trends that we do foresee basis learnings from the past few years are covered below.
Video Marketing
Video marketing is one of the most effective ways to engage with the modern audience. An average viewer is watching about 12 minutes of video on Facebook every day. We have all seen Instagram Reels take over the short video format content creation and it is here to stay. It’s a great way to increase engagement and build trust with your audience thus more and more brands are leaning towards it. Video marketing is indispensable for all successful and top-notch brands in 2022-2023. You’re going to see a lot of Live stream videos, animated videos, and shoppable videos this year.
Did You Know?
Each week 92.1% of global internet users aged 16-64 watch video content.
Experiential Marketing
- Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, literally: Make-up brands let you take a picture on your phone and try on different lip shades before you purchase them, Sephora being one of the first few to do this a couple of years back. Due to the high volume of beauty and lifestyle content, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, amongst others, have also been testing an AR integration on the platform to create a better experience for influencers and their followers.
- Mirror mirror on the wall, or on the door: Furniture and décor companies such as IKEA, and recently Flipkart Furniture have 3D and AR-enabled apps that let you visualize a new couch in your living room and then order it in select locations.
- I like to move it, move it: Fitness brands send you real-time updates on your phone/ smartwatch/ wearable.
All these touchpoints are digital in nature, which can be experienced through a smartphone. But there are event led and in-store experience zones as well, where you can create a better connection with the customer than just step in, choose, buy, leave.
Did You Know?
$50B is the estimated global AR Market value by 2024.
71% of global consumers say they would shop more often if they used AR.
Influencer Engagement
Unlike other trends that come and go, influencer marketing is growing in a unique way. It’s a trend that continues to become more popular than ever. The majority of businesses are opting for it because of strong returns on investment. It is an effective way to fuel a conversation about a brand using trustworthy content and it is a human tendency to be drawn towards media personalities because we are always curious. Hence, influencer engagement effectively executes the word-of-mouth method of marketing. Integrating this with Reels, Shoppable ads, etc. will provide more avenues for brands to interact with potential customers.
Did You Know?
26% of video content watched each week by global internet users aged 16-64 is influencer video/vlogs.
25.1% of internet users in India aged 16-64 follow influencers and other experts on social media.
Audio Social Apps
The demand for audio social apps has surged tremendously during the lockdown as we humans yearn for social interaction and that is what audio social apps provided us, without the need for looking at a screen. Several businesses are experimenting with these as it provides a one-on-one interaction with your audience which makes these apps very effective. Such a great way to build customer and prospect relations. With the internet giants such as Google investing heavily in audio search, and platforms like Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces driving curiosity in 2021, we will be seeing a lot of social audio content in 2022-2023.
Podcasts are also picking up in popularity, with major news portals also providing their articles in audio format for people to listen on the go. Business-related podcasts are still led by these media houses in terms of listenership, while independent audio content creators are focused on topics such as entertainment, short stories, health and lifestyle, politics, comedy, and so on. In India and globally, the non-fiction podcasts outnumber fiction podcasts.
Personalisation
Modifying your content according to your customers will be a major strategy in the coming years. All top-notch brands are customizing their marketing according to their consumers’ needs and wants. Personalized campaigns see a higher rate of engagement than those for a wide unspecified audience. Customers want to feel special, and personalised content helps execute that. The key to producing personalized content is to map their interactions with the brand and do in-depth research of the audience. Customers will also continue to value brands they believe have a larger purpose and are there to listen to their needs. This calls for a mix of defining long term branding and short term tactics that will appeal to audiences in different stages of the purchase journey.
Users who see your retargeting ads are 70% more likely to convert to your online platforms.
Digital Storytelling as a differentiator
Digital storytelling is what differentiates a company selling products or services from a brand people like and relate to. There is a need to create stories that engage, and these should not be focused on getting product information out there, but instead focus on how the brand can solve a particular problem for the consumer. 2022-2023 will be about quality over quantity when it comes to content production, and rightly so, going by the plethora of content out there by competing brands.
In a nutshell,
an omnichannel approach to marketing is the way forward.
Customers are channel-agnostic. They expect businesses to be available on any channel that’s convenient for them and this means more groundwork on the marketer’s end to understand shifts in behaviour and engagement.
The importance of offline interactions cannot be denied as customers crave human meetups and experiential brand discovery. Still, the reality of a hybrid work environment where the audience is juggling more than one thing at once stands as of now and it is critical to ensure a seamless experience across both online and offline touchpoints to build a consistent brand narrative throughout their interactions.
Digital Storytellers (DS) is a unique full services digital firm that operates with a single-minded objective to make the brand stories work for the businesses. We are passionate about discovering stories. Stories that connect and inspire. We will find effective angles to your brand and product stories.
Ours is a team comprised of people with varied industry experience with leadership exposure to marketing technology, content marketing, global-level social media engagement and management, cutting-edge online reputation management and dealing with social media crises.
Digital Storytellers’ innovative approach to looking at digital communication is backed by full-stack digital marketing and content capabilities which DS offers to its clients
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