Last Updated on: 16th October 2023, 08:14 am
It’s that time of year again. The RTB House Team is closing the door on 2022, and our marketing team has been enthusiastically sharing their predictions about 2023. Fortunately, our writing team was there to take diligent notes and turn them into some useful marketing trend insights!
So grab yourself a warm beverage, and let’s take stock of where we ended up in 2022, and where marketing trends are going in 2023.
In this article, you will discover:
- What we got right in 2022
- Our MarTech predictions for 2023:
- Deep Learning helps us remain relevant in an ever-changing market
What we got right in 2022
2022 was a tough year for marketing professionals. We were just coming out of the COVID lockdown, and predicting how consumers would react to their newfound freedom was a little tricky. That being said, many of the MarTech trends we saw coming have held true.
Google did release a new iteration of FloC, and while the march towards a cookieless future has been delayed somewhat, privacy-focused advertising did come into the spotlight over the course of 2022.
The team also correctly predicted that video content would become a consumer favorite. We’ve seen really strong internal results for video ads, and this matches broader industry studies on the issue.
Finally, we were spot on about the rise of contextual targeting. With the shift towards privacy-friendly ads, contextual targeting has become an important consideration in branding campaigns, and this doesn’t look to change any time soon.
Now that we’ve established our MarTech futurist credentials, let’s take a dive into our top ten MarTech trends for 2023.
Our MarTech predictions for 2023:
#1 Brand safety will become king in 2023
Brand safety has become the primary concern of almost every major brand. Consumers now expect brands to not just deliver quality products, but to take a stance on a range of cultural and ethical issues. To maintain a coherent and safe brand image, companies need to spend countless hours carefully curating not just their content, but where their content is displayed.
Fears about losing control of brand placement have already come to the fore in 2022. Most visible was the war in Ukraine, where brands were concerned about appearing to be profiting from the situation if adverts for products appeared alongside news about the situation on the frontline or efforts to organize humanitarian aid.
It wasn’t just global news, but even business changes caused headaches for brands. There was an exodus of advertisers from Twitter after Musk’s acquisition, largely driven by fears that poor moderation could lead to brands being shown alongside controversial content.
This challenge is only going to accelerate in 2023, and we predict that the majority of companies will consider Brand Safety a core product offering and a deciding factor when selecting marketing partners. We have long been aware of this issue, and we have developed sophisticated Brand Safety AI tools that help to keep the companies that work with us safe.
#2 Personalized video content will continue to gain pace
Another key trend is the rise of video content. In 2022, 82% of all online activity involved some form of video content, and this behavior translates to marketing as well. 96% of consumers will watch video explainers before purchasing a product, and advertisers find that video ads get significantly higher click-through rates compared to static ads. However, there is a catch, over 80% of videos are skipped, particularly those videos that are over 15 seconds. This is why RTB House focuses on ensuring a higher VCR rather than just a large number of views. We believe that this approach will help providers gain a significant competitive advantage.
This is why we predict that short-form personalized video ads will become a key marketing trend in 2023. Users tend to be more willing to engage with content that is under 15 seconds, but if you can personalize an ad, then you can increase completion rates to an average of 85%.
This means that solutions that dynamically select and display content based on user preference, like our personalized video marketing tools, will help brands engage users with video content.
#3 Contextual targeting will become an increasingly important strategy
The cookieless future may have been delayed, but it’s not going away. The third quarter of 2024 is the next deadline for Google Chrome to phase out third-party cookies, but 60% of web traffic is predicted to be cookieless by 2023.
This means that brands are looking for new, privacy-friendly ways to reach users, and many are turning back to an old friend with some new tricks: contextual targeting.
Novel new techniques, made possible by AI, and Deep Learning in particular, are making it easier than ever for brands to predict what content visitors to specific sites and publishers are likely to want to engage with.
#4 CTV devices and in-game ads will be key
Marketers need to ensure that they reach users where they are, and that’s a constantly moving target. For example, 84% of users are now turning to the Open Web when looking for information on brands, as demonstrated in our recent incremental reach study with Nielsen. Another major shift is the consumer preference for on-demand content.
This has led to a rise in the number of Connected TV (CTV) devices in people’s homes. These smart devices are used to browse a number of Over-The-Top Media services, such as Disney+ or Netflix, and are where users increasingly spend their leisure time. With the addition of new ad-supported tiers on Netflix and Disney+, advertisers have a great opportunity to reach customers in a fun and engaging way.
Additionally, advertisers should pay attention to other forms of digital leisure, particularly gaming. In-game advertising represents an opportunity to present your brand to curious audiences with a relatively high purchasing power compared to the general population.
#5 The rise of the chatbot
Customers are beginning to view brands as entities that they can have a real conversation with. Whether this is via engagement on social media, or through chatbots, users increasingly want to interact directly with the brands they love. This became particularly visible during the pandemic when the volume of interactions with company chat platforms increased by 250% in many industries.
We predict that conversational marketing will tap into this trend and provide users with that engaging experience they’re looking for. A huge part of this will be opening new lines of communication to customers, particularly on Messenger, WhatsApp, and Slack.
Fortunately for brands, this won’t require hiring thousands of people to constantly monitor chat lines. Instead, they can leverage sophisticated AI-powered chatbots, like the explosively popular ChatGPT that can answer many user questions with little to no intervention on the part of the brand! This market is expected to grow to $32.62 billion by 2030.
Deep Learning helps us remain relevant in an ever-changing market
How many of these predictions coming to pass will depend on a lot of outside factors, but one thing is certain: the way brands market is changing faster than ever before. This can make it difficult for brands to know what to focus on, and makes flexibility a deciding factor in how successful a business is.
That’s why RTB House has put such a strong emphasis on Deep Learning research and development. Our team firmly believes that companies with an eye to the future are the ones most able to not just survive change, but thrive in it.
If you want to discuss how your brand can prepare for 2023, or just share some predictions of your own, reach out to our team today and let’s talk!
