Introduction
With 2022 quickly coming to an end, many of us may describe the last few months in digital advertising to be marked with fierce and hectic change: cookies are on their way out, consumers are demanding privacy, new media environments are cropping up and consumers are completely fed up with poorly integrated and disruptive ads on their screens. But, we must remember that digital media is young - it’s just finding its legs and with that, giving us huge opportunities for growth and success in the future. Isn’t that exciting?!
We would argue that the best years of digital marketing are still ahead of us. In this blog post, we will highlight the top 3 trends for 2023 to help direct your marketing efforts, leverage the full potential of digital advertising and maximize your ROI next year and beyond.
Context Will Rule in the New Attention Age
The majority of advertisers we spoke to agree on one thing: context converts customers. To develop successful marketing campaigns in the future, advertisers must invest in gaining access to deep and comprehensive contextual insights that will inform their marketing strategy, determine their creative direction and make sure the right message reaches the right audience to drive success for their business.
Instead of trying to measure low-fidelity signals such as impressions and clicks, contextual technology has grown by leaps and bounds. Now, technology can read and understand audio, video, images and metadata to build a complete contextual picture of any webpage. Pairing this full contextual understanding with relevant and dynamic ad creative will help advertisers deliver the brand messaging in suitable, safe digital environments that are aligned with people’s interests and do not rely on any personal data.
Plus, context is doubly important at a time where attention is scarce. With users seeing approximately 6,000 ads per day, it is important to make sure that your ads are integrating within the messaging of the page, enhancing user experience - not disrupting it.
In-Game Advertising Will be a Game-Changer
There are more than three billion gamers spending upwards of six hours in virtual environments all over the world. That is one engaged audience! Marketers should develop strategies to leverage this highly diverse and compelled audience by seamlessly integrating brand messaging within online games. Plus, early adopters will get the added benefit of an uncluttered media landscape and thus, vast and unprecedented scale to inspire the next generation of consumers.
GumGum x Frameplay’s recent in-game campaign significantly increased ad recall for the Johnsonville brand. Frameplay served the Johnsonville ad across a number of contextually relevant game genres, including sports, casual and simulation games. GumGum and Frameplay utilized Comscore to measure overall campaign performance through a brand lift study:
Results:
- 13.7 point lift against “Likely to purchase Johnsonville Sausage”
- A consumer is 35% more likely to remember the brand after seeing a GumGum ad.
These results surpassed industry benchmarks for each category, helping Johnsonville achieve their campaign goals and proving the untapped and coveted potential of Intrinsic In-Game advertising for the future.
CTV Will Remain Unstoppable
Connected TV (CTV) will continue to be a force to be reckoned with - only gaining speed next year. CTV spending rose 57% last year to $15.2 billion and is projected to more than double over the next few years. CTV will grow to become a permanent fixture in video advertisers’ media budgets because it provides access to creative formats and data that is not available within linear TV.
A recent MAGNA Media Trials study proved the power of CTV overlay ads over traditional video ads. The research found that:
- CTV overlay ads were 4X more memorable than video ads and drove 72% more savings for advertisers.
- Overlay ads offered more inventory, didn’t disrupt playback and were successfully delivered in contextually relevant environments.
- Overlay ads also resulted in a more fruitful ad experience for the most attentive, and in-market audiences for the product.
Advertisers that move away from tired pre-roll ads will see increased success for their marketing campaigns within the CTV space. With ever-evolving innovations in AI, advancements in contextual intelligence technologies and more widespread availability of non-linear ad formats, CTV ads will become extremely popular as a means to leverage an already strong streaming audience. Furthermore, with Netflix and other premium streamers adding advertisements within their content, there is absolutely no stopping CTV advertising.
For more great insights on how to direct your marketing efforts for next year, please check out some of our latest blog posts here.
