Data, emerging tech to fuel advertising in 2023: Industry heads

The pandemic-induced lockdowns and lull saw the advertising industry rejuvenate itself and channelise creativity through digital mediums. It also made the industry realise and believe in the power of technology as an integral part of any communication. 2022 saw creativity holding the hand of technology with an approach of practicality, conscience, and teamwork to reach the hearts of audiences. Experts now say that in the upcoming year this will only go a notch higher.

We reached out to industry experts to share what they thought made news in the creative word this year, and what were they looking forward to in 2023.

2022 Wrapped 

Purpose/Cause-Driven Advertising: Prasoon Joshi, CEO & CCO of McCann Worldgroup India, said, “People are talking about sustainability, women empowerment diversity, and inclusion. There are certain global issues that the whole world is focusing on and these are going to be there for a long time. Even after a decade, we will be talking about these issues – equality, sustainability, diversity, inclusion, and empowerment.”

He further said: “Due to the pandemic, people have lost connections, and this was well reflected in the campaigns this year.”

As for Ramanuj Shastry, Co-founder and Director at Infectious advertising, “The biggest trend in 2022 was that every brand joined the ‘causes’ bandwagon. No one just sells chocolate anymore. Everyone is out saving the world or making it a better place.”

Partnerships: According to Kainaz Karmakar and Harshad Rajadhyaksha, Chief Creative Officers at Ogilvy, the partnership of agency and production has expanded. “As far as advertising trends go, I believe this has been the year of new partnerships. The age-old partnership between the agency and the production house has expanded to partnerships between agency-tech, agency-data, social media-production houses-PR, and more.”

Audaciousness: According to Hemant Shringy, Chief Creative Officer at BBDO India, audaciousness was the key trend in 2022. “The ‘I cannot believe they did that!’ pieces were the ones that really stood out this year. Be it Change the Ref’s The Lost Class, Vice Media’s Unfiltered History, Honduras’ Morning After Island.”

Forgettable Advertising: Due to social media and many brands in the market, it is becoming key to come up with content that stays with the consumers. Viewers might remember it if they made any noise due to some reason. Validating this, Shastry said, “It is impossible to recall a single piece of work that made me go ‘wish I’d done that.”

What the future holds?

Seamless integration of creativity-data-and-emerging technologies will rule the world of advertising in 2023, experts opine.

Increase in integrations and partnerships: According to Karmakar and Rajadhyaksha, the future is all about partnerships and seamless integrations. “Integration has become seamless and imperative for us to walk into the next phase of advertising, which may or may not be called advertising.”

Augmented reality: According to Consumer Insights published by Google, one of the key trends that advertisers and the advertising industry should look out for, is how they can reach audiences through augmented and virtual reality. Talking about the same, Stephanie Horton, Global Marketing Director of Commerce, Google, recently said, “The pandemic saw a surge in online shopping. This made it even more important for brands to be innovative in offline environments. In 2023, the customer experience provided in-store should add unique value. It’s all about encouraging physical footfall alongside online shopping.”

“Augmented reality (AR) and other immersive experiences have become key to achieving this. And the rise in the use of AR technology means consumer demand for immersive experiences will become even more mainstream in 2023. In fact, more than a third of Gen Z are predicted to be shopping with AR by 2025.”

Horton suggested advertisers start creating and testing immersive experiences with smartphones today.

Mobile-first approach: With mobile devices becoming easily affordable and the internet being easily accessible, Shastry suggests that the industry will have a mobile-first approach. Content is accessed through smartphones and that's where advertising will be. “It’s the device of choice so all creative assets must be designed to be accessed through the smartphone. The art and copy teams must be trained and enabled to make this happen.”

Ads without sound: How many times have you turned the volume down while an ad is playing? Shastry hopes that the advertising industry should engage the audience without sound. “The day of the ‘Audio-visual’ is numbered. I hate it when an ad starts playing at full volume on a page I am visiting. I am assuming I am not the only one who feels this way. So, we will have to find a way to engage without sound.”

Humour to make a comeback: The past two years have been heavy for everyone across the globe. People became utterly sensitive and hence the birth of cancel/boycott culture. Brands were cautious to try out humour and hence they took the cause-driven campaigns route. But as things are coming back to normal, Pandey is hopeful that humour will make a comeback in the advertising world. “I think and hope there will be a release. We saw people being very conscious. The use of humour will increase. In the times that we were living in, people are more sensitive and more vulnerable. Creators are very conscious too. There will be a release and light-heartedness will come back.”

As for Karmakar, she hopes 2023 brings even more fame, success and respect for India, as a destination to create work that’s best in the world.