As 2023 starts to gather its stride for another sprint around the sun, we asked industry leaders to offer up their take on the year passed, and what they predict might be on tap for the year ahead.
Next up is Mary Knickrehm – Founder & Director of 402 Marketing Collective.
Looking ahead to 2023, Knickrehm talks about ads being out and campaigns being in, the evolving influencer marketing trends, and a balance between performance and brand marketers.
Looking Ahead – Three trends I see in 2023
1. Ads are out, campaigns are in
The attention span of today’s consumers continues to shrink and every day the volume of content competing for their attention across a growing number of channels increases. While brands (and creatives) love the idea of creating a brilliant ad, the reality is that no matter how brilliant and well-produced that ad is (or at least you think it is), most of your target audience won’t pay any attention to it, and the ones that do will forget it as soon as they saw it because they are already looking at something else.
To make an impact, brands will need to resist the temptation of going all in on one ad or single activation and focus on developing campaigns that tell a compelling and consistent message through a variety of touchpoints. This approach will help brands to stay top-of-mind and deliver a stronger ROI.
2. Influencer Marketing will continue to evolve
Influencer marketing has continued to grow and 2023 will be no exception as nearly 67% of marketers plan to increase their influencer marketing budget this year. However, for brands to see the value of their investments in influencer marketing, they will need to be more authentic in their approach.
“To make an impact, brands will need to resist the temptation of going all in on one ad or single activation and focus on developing campaigns that tell a compelling and consistent message through a variety of touchpoints.”
My advice on influencer marketing for 2023: Remember that if something looks like an ad, consumers will know it’s an ad – and they’re probably going to ignore it. So instead of using influencers as human billboards, brands should look to work more collaboratively with their influencer/creator partners, allowing them to put on the hat of creative director to truly create authentic content that resonates.
3. Performance and brand marketers will take lessons from each other’s playbooks
In the past, companies have tended to overemphasize either performance marketing or brand marketing. However, in 2023, we will see a trend toward balancing the two.
Performance marketing at the cost of brand building results in quick-win sales growth that is just that – quick. It needs to be balanced with careful efforts to build brand affinity, loyalty, and stronger customer relationships that translate into long-term growth.
Likewise, I think we’ll see brand marketers looking to drive performance in their campaigns as pressure increases to show return on advertising investment.
Looking Back:
Your favorite trend of 2022:
Jennifer Coolidge – she had a major moment and I loved it.
Favourite campaign of 2022:
I am very much like the forgetful consumers I spoke about in one of my earlier answers so I will be honest and say that none caught my attention enough to remember. 2022 seems like 100 years ago already.
But right now I am loving Food Panda’s “Live Like a Panda” campaign with their cute brand ambassador, PauPau. He is an adorable little champion of laziness I can definitely get behind.
What was your 2022 New Year’s Resolution? Did you keep it?
Quit smoking – thankfully I did.
