2023 advertising thoughts

With ears this big you’d think I’d get more elf-related acting gigs at this time of year, wouldn't you?

These impressive flaps of flesh are, however, 'all the better to hear you with' and so despite a distinct lack of leading elf roles, my ears have been doing a lot of listening this year.

After reflecting, I have come up with a few thoughts and observations for 2023 and I thought I'd share them with you. So here goes, in no particular order ...

Remote working:

In my experience, a one-size-fits-all approach that is set from the top can frustrate people when it doesn’t fit in with what makes sense to the individual on a day-to-day basis. That can lead to frustration and a lack of motivation in some cases.

It's obviously a lot easier for a company as small as Six Sells, but my idea is that our people work 'whenever and wherever' they like, as long as our clients are happy. The ‘as long as our clients are happy’ is the North Star here.

As just one example, I sometimes wake up at 3am, and decide to do several hours of work at that time while my brain is whirring, and then grab a cat nap later in the day - a practice that would be impossible in a typical 9-5 office environment. In an office environment, I would have spent the time from 3am until the alarm clock went off tossing and turning, desperately trying, and failing, to fall asleep again, and then later that day in the office I would be exhausted!

I think that being able to plan your own calendar into chunks of time that are flexible and make sense for both your work-life, and your personal-life simultaneously is liberating, and to me it just makes sense.

I would like to see more companies take a similar approach, but I suspect that a one-size fits all approach will be the norm, possibly in part due to a lack of trust that people will work unsupervised, and partly because it is easier to measure & manage. A certain number of mandated days in the office appears to be the front-running strategy from what I am hearing, with 2-3 office days appearing popular.

Attention metrics in advertising:

AIDA is a model that has been used in both sales and advertising - it stands for ‘Attention, Interest, Desire, Action’ and it was invented in the 1800's, which is a clear sign that attention is nothing new as a concept.

However, technology has enabled us to measure actual human attention to advertising, via eye-tracking and brain-scanning technology, and I think this will continue to have huge implications to the way advertising is planned, bought, and measured in 2023.

Industry leaders such as Karen Nelson-Field and Michael Follett warn us that dwell time, scroll speed, and time-in-view are not reliable indicators of attention, and I am sure that is true, but those metrics are scaleable, which makes their appeal endure.

Many people have argued, for many years, that the CTR is a poor metric for digital advertising, but its ubiquity makes it a popular choice, to this day.

So, I think we will see marketers continue to work with the likes of Lumen Research and Amplified Intelligence, who will continue to play a vital role in helping marketers to understand attention. However, I think that work will evolve into studying which scaleable metrics are the most reliable indicators of attention, so that they can use those metrics at scale to optimise live campaigns, while also using eye-tracking studies to measure and course-correct along the way. A 'test and learn' approach will be important, with eye-tracking measurements at regular intervals.

Growth in digital:

Despite the gloomy economic forecast, all the research I have seen leads me to believe that there will be an increase in digital ad spending in 2023, albeit at a slower rate than we have been used to. This will lead the bolder CEO's to continue investing in both their brand and their people, so they can continue to grow, and come out of the other side of this financial squall in a stronger place.If you are standing still, you’re going backwards in this industry, so I think cutting back is a risky strategy. If revenues are likely to be the same, or slightly better than this year, why not continue to invest in growth?

Context + sentiment in advertising:

As far as I am concerned, the revival of contextual advertising is long overdue.

Great advertising has always been about delivering the right message, to the right person, at the right time. During the 3rd party cookie years, we became overly focused on the right person, and lost focus on the right time. Where advertising appears matters, and with hindsight, choosing to advertise on ‘crap dot com’ just because it was cheaper, and the user you were targeting had also visited ‘premium dot com’ at some point, was probably not the best strategy for brands. We all know that the 3rd party cookie is going away, and that has forced us to re-appraise how we work. While contextual (the right time) is making a huge, positive comeback, we have also seen the pitfalls of this approach.

As one example, I saw a leading bank brand advertising next to an article that was a) about banking and b) mentioned the advertiser by name. Great contextual targeting spotted in the wild you might think? Alas, the article was scathing about banking in general and the advertiser in particular. With that in mind, and with brand safety a primary concern, brands will continue to invest in contextual advertising that works in tandem with sentiment data. While the contextual data seeks to match the ad creative with the content, the sentiment data simultaneously ensures that the content is positive in its tone, and therefore safe for the advertisement to enter.

For more on this topic I can recommend listening to Heather Lloyd from Nano on The MadTech Podcast by Exchange Wire. Heather has both agency and adtech experience to draw upon, and talks very eloquently on the subject.

Brand-response:

During an economic downturn, CMO's are under more pressure than usual to justify marketing spend, so brand budgets - (which work over the longer-term, with little short-term, measurable ROI) - can end up being reduced.

CMO's know this is a mistake, but with a lack of any short-term ROI data to fight the brand-building fight, often they are left in a vulnerable negotiating position when working with the CFO on budgeting. I think these are the times when brand-response comes into its own.

Brand response advertising does exactly what it says on the tin - it delivers a brand message, while also offering a call to action in the same creative. Brand-response strategies need bigger formats, or more engaging formats such as video, in order to deliver a brand story and a call to action, and vitally, they need those formats to be delivered in an environment where the consumer is attentive. Too much video advertising tries to tell a 30-second story, with the video only viewable for 3 seconds, which is clearly not going to work.

I think CTV, mobile gaming, and VOD streaming services will continue to grow because the context of the consumer is ideal at the time the advertising is delivered. Perhaps we’ll also see more brand-response campaigns on cinema and TV as well?

People-shaped marketing:

When you see B2C brands advertising on television, you often see characters, or people, front and centre of the story. This is because people like people, and pay more attention to the thoughts, feelings, and actions of other people than they do to ‘faceless brands’

More and more CMO’s in the media and advertising world are waking up to the realisation that their senior people get more attention on social platforms than their brand. Leading towards your brand from your people is a powerful lever that marketers can pull in order to increase reach, frequency, attention, awareness, familiarity, trust an interest in their brand and its products and services.

At the end of 2021, Edelman and LinkedIn conducted a survey, which spoke to 3,500 B2B decision makers, and they found that 67% wanted to see thought-leadership content from ‘an identifiable author’ rather than a ‘faceless brand’.

I think we will see more B2B marketers leverage the power in their people, with more people-shaped content, and increased social media activity advertising execs in 2023 and beyond.

Privacy-first:

There is no doubt in my mind that we must plan all of our business strategies based on the fact that we are fast moving towards a privacy-first world. However, a recent study by Usercentrics found that a staggering 90% of mobile apps in Europe are still not compliant with privacy regulations, and with the size and frequency of the fines only going up and to the right, we must all get our privacy house in order, and fast. It will be really interesting to see if CTV circumvents the privacy issues online advertising faces or not. My thoughts are that it will, and perhaps online will be able to learn a thing or two along the way.