MarketingDojo#24: Is recession cancelled?
GroupM predicts an advertising spend rebound, Google & Bing run A/B tests, Nikon bets on Natural Intelligence & more.
Hello,
I hope you are having a fantastic week.
Apologies if you received the email twice. I hit send accidentally, and though I tried recalling the mail, it might already be in your inboxes. Oops & lesson learnt!
If you aren’t one of those privileged marketers attending the events at Cannes, take heart. Embracing “the grapes are sour philosophy”; I liked this post on Twitter & screenshotted it to cheer you up.
In this newsletter, we will cover:
🏅GroupM predicts a stellar second half for the advertising industry
🎥Youtube & Facebook are opening their wallets to creators
🦹♂️B2B buyers are seeking the known devil
😡Microsoft & Google’s A/B tests are driving advertisers against the wall
And lots more.
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Media Spends in 2023: From Sluggish to Sizzling!
As per GroupM's mid-year forecast for 2023, global advertising is expected to grow by 5.9% and reach $874.5 billion, excluding U.S. political advertising.
Some other interesting insights:
The growth in advertising revenue is expected to stabilize in 2023 and 2024, with a mid-single digits rate, after the huge 24.8% growth in 2021 due to Covid.
Advertising on Connected TVs is projected to grow by 10.4% over the next five years.
Artificial intelligence is making a big impact on advertising. By the end of the year, AI will be used in 50% of all advertising expenditures.
China is leading the way in Out-of-Home media growth. Advertising expenditure on OOH is set to rise by 12.8%, with China contributing 36% of this growth.
Pureplay digital advertising is still going strong, with 68% of total advertising expenditures now being attributed to it.
In India, GroupM has trimmed its advertising revenue growth forecast for 2023 from 16.8% to 12%, totalling $17.3 billion. Yet India remains the fastest-growing market globally.
The US is the biggest player in the ad revenue game, accounting for 45% of the total ad revenues. In fact, ad revenues from the US are 18 times that of India and more than double those of China.
Creative Excellence: Nikon makes a statement with its Natural Intelligence campaign.
Multiple text-to-image tools like Dall-E and Midjourney are out to eat Nikon's lunch. Nikon took the competition heads on with the new ad campaign in Peru titled "Natural Intelligence".
The campaign features stunning photographs of natural places that are stranger than fiction, captured by photographers using Nikon cameras.
The copy is simple: a prompt that might be used to create a similar image.
Overall, a visually stunning reminder of the value of human creativity and the art of photography.
Oops, We Swiped Your Ad Budget: Google & Bing’s Sneaky Chat Search Trials
Are you curious about how ads will appear on the new chat-based search?
Well, Google and Bing have been busy testing different options to ensure they get it just right.
But here’s the catch - These experiments are being conducted with little or no information provided to the advertisers.
Understandably, some advertisers are hesitant about investing in experimental features that may only be available to a limited number of users. Not knowing which search terms will trigger ads on a chatbot can be frustrating, and not having the option to opt out.
Imagine if your financial advisor decides to invest your hard-earned money into new experimental, high-risk investments without informing you. Would that make you uncomfortable?
I certainly would reconsider the partnership.
The frustrations of the brand around the lack of transparency on how their budgets are used on Google & Bing are quite relatable.
Making New “Paid Pals” - Youtube & Meta Lower the Bar for Paid Partnerships.
Some great news for smaller creators.
YouTube has updated its eligibility criteria for the YouTube Partner Program (YPP), reducing the number of subscribers required from 1000 to 500. Additionally, creators will now need 3000 valid watch hours or 3 million Shorts views, as opposed to the previous requirement of 4000 hours or 10 million Shorts views. These changes will initially roll out in the US, UK, Canada, Taiwan, and South Korea.
YouTube is one of the most lucrative social media platforms for creators, with an estimated $15 billion given to partners in 2021.
The lowered eligibility criteria may divide the YPP pie amongst many players. Still, it could also encourage YouTubers with smaller follower bases to create more content for the platform.
Brand-sponsored content accounts for 70% of a creator's income. On average, Youtube pays $0.018 per view to the eligible creators.
Meta has also lowered some of its payout eligibility criteria.
The Comfort Cart: B2B Buyers Play It Safe
It's a brutal time to be a B2B marketer.
The deals are taking longer to close than usual. It's even more challenging if you are a relatively new business.
The seventh edition of TrustRadius's B2B buying disconnect report highlights how consumer attitudes in B2B have turned in the face of tightening purse strings.
If you are a B2B marketer, this report is a must-read. Here are a few highlights that left me with a lot of thinking to do:
The known devil gets the deal: 51% of buyers are more likely to purchase a product they already know and have experience with.
Less budget, more discussions: The information needed to purchase a technology product has gone up for 43% of the interviewed B2B buyers, but the funding available has decreased by 39%.
Self-serve is still a good idea: Self-serve demos (73%) and transparent pricing (72%) are the top two reasons that increase the likelihood of purchase.
Don't shy away from sharing the prices: Lack of transparent pricing is a deal breaker, with 59% of the respondents citing it as the main reason for not purchasing.
Marketing collaterals are less valuable than one may think: 75% of marketers are using marketing collateral as a tactic, while only 15% of buyers report consulting it. Blogs feature in B2B sellers' top five marketing tactics at 60%—only 5% of buyers report using them.
Is Asia a time machine for the future of Social commerce?
Asia adopts new technologies 8-12 years ahead of the West, making it much like a time machine to the future.
Citibank's report Asia as a Time Machine highlights seven trends that are uniquely Asian.
One of the prominent trends is -Social commerce.
Social commerce is a form of e-commerce that involves selling products and services using social media platforms.
It combines social media (discovery) and eCommerce (purchase), encompassing product discovery, reviews, ratings, sharing, recommendations, transactions, and loyalty programs.
According to Insider Intelligence (formerly known as eMarketer), the U.S. is expected to reach China's 2018 level of social commerce penetration in 2026, indicating that China is roughly at least eight years ahead in social commerce.
If we are wondering what the future of online shopping will look like - clearly, all eyes need to be on Asia.
The other six areas included in the report are super apps, mobile payment, short-form videos, eSports, webtoons, and digital health.
Short Stuff:
Post- yet another Twitter competitor launched its app on iOS last week. (New social media channel on the block).
Uber will provide options to advertise on its apps. (Monetizing attention, paywalled).
McDonald’s, Burger King & now Subway - brands join the bandwagon of using ChatGPT responses in their advertising (Worse idea ever).
That’s a wrap for this week. If you learnt something new from the newsletter, please post a like or comment. It helps makes the newsletter more discoverable.
Thank you for your time and attention. See you in your inbox next week.
Regards,
Garima