Technology trends that will hold on to the digital marketing space in 2023

The new year is upon us and so are some emerging trends in the digital marketing space. Our guest author sheds light on some of them.

Every year brings something new and exciting for consumers and marketers in the rapidly evolving world of digital trends. 2022 witnessed many of these phenomena, from audio advertising and video advertising to technologies like Metaverse and Web 3.0 used in gaming to target audiences. These trends have revolutionised how we function in our daily lives and enhanced the speed of digital transformation in the market beyond what was expected by the experts.

Considering digitisation, technology evolution, and its usage in consumer’s life, in 2023, businesses and marketers need to strategically execute their operation and revenue plans. They will also have to determine how to best use their data to evaluate the opportunities with these emerging technologies.

With that, we believe these upcoming trends will take the digital marketing space by storm in 2023:

Commerce Media as the 4th wave of advertising

The world has evolved into a realm of constant commerce, where every time spent online may become a shoppable moment. Marketers need expertise and accuracy to engage customers in meaningful ways at these moments. This brings in the role of Commerce Media, which is often misinterpreted to be the same as Retail Media. However, it’s much broad.

Commerce Media lies at the intersection of Performance Advertising and Commerce Audiences, resulting in the optimum Buyer Outcomes. Its where Artificial Intelligence meets Retailer Data and delivers the much-awaited promise of personalised, relevant, and privacy-safe advertising to the right person, at the right time, on the right device, rewarding the consumer for sharing their data by extending to them an experience that is helpful, relevant, noninvasive and even rewarding.

Commerce media enhances marketers' capacity to reach, acquire, engage, convert, and retain consumers with first-party data activation and advanced AI — all while achieving closed-loop campaign monitoring to ensure accountability for every advertising penny invested. Hence, Commerce Media is said to be the 4th wave of advertising.

Retailers and publishers will emerge as partners

In conversations about retail media, there is a lingering misconception that retailers and publishers are now in competition. Yet, through commerce media, retailers and publishers can partner to create curated commerce experiences on publishers’ sites, resulting in a win for all parties. A recent survey by Verint shows that less than 36% of consumers under 40 prefer to engage with shops in-person, which highlights that consumers will increasingly engage in online buying, and digital marketers must work towards making this experience more enjoyable and interactive. 

Through the convergence of content, commerce, and first-party data, publishers can serve as a point of discovery, while retailers help enable easier consumer transactions. This creates a win-win scenario for retailers building their media capabilities and publishers looking to drive commerce through paid platforms. 

Video Advertising: Fastest growing digital trend

Video has proved to be one of the fastest-growing digital trends in recent years. Emerging technologies have paved the way for engaging video formats such as 360-degree experiences, ephemeral videos, and shoppable videos.

Platforms like Over-the-top (OTT) and connected TV (CTV) have shown the highest levels of active attention and increased personalised content, helping brands reach their target demographic. To better understand consumer behavior, OTT is also making certain data available to track the current trends with the help of AI and bots.

Similarly, CTV advertising uses advanced technologies like automatic content recognition, geotargeting, and shoppable ads to entice advertisers. According to a recent report by GroupM, advertisers are looking to spend about $86 million on connected TV (CTV) advertising in India in 2023. Although Connected TV advertising is still in its nascent stage in India, brands have started to advertise on the platform for not only measurement but also planning and optimisation. 

Mobile commerce is the new opportunity for marketers

While experts had predicted a slowdown in the post-pandemic e-commerce market, consumers continue to purchase online despite the recovery of offline footfalls. According to a report by India 2Brand Equity Foundation, the e-commerce market in India is expected to become a $350 billion opportunity by 2030. The emergence of branded shopping apps, 5G wireless and social media shopping has encouraged consumers to shop on their phones.

With the use of mobile commerce, marketers can now target customers based on their location, service provider, device kind, and several other factors. Consumers too are increasingly favoring mobile commerce as their preferred shopping method. It helps them save time, through mobile commerce automation which has benefitted them in consumer sales, satisfaction, and loyalty.

For marketers and consumers alike, the upcoming year will be all about maximising the value of everything they do and spend. For consumers, this includes using their purchasing power to ensure they are getting the most mileage out of the money they spend — and marketers will look for the most ROI out of their advertising activations. While there are no absolutes about the future, in 2023, with these digital trends, tech, and Adtech to come forward to provide this functionality to marketers in digital retail and e-commerce site leading to more capabilities and agility to adapt to consumer behavior and market changes. 

(The author is the Managing Director, SEA and India, of Criteo.)