GroupM's TYNY 2022 report sheds light on the drivers of growth for the next generation

GroupM released TYNY 2022 report on Tuesday, suggesting evolving consumer traits and marketing trends for the coming years.

Here are the trends that GroupM listed in TYNY 2022 report:

Shifts in organisation structure and work cultures open up new opportunities:

Due to the pandemic, people are more inclined towards the “desire for flexibility” identified by the “new Normal Tracker” in 2020 leading to an increase in shift of jobs. This is slated to grow at a CAGR of over 17% for the next 3 years. Content creation as a vocation will move towards Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) and the advent of 5G will power this trend. This could translate to shifts in business models, with fluid, specialist team structures, measurement-based entirely on outcomes and a revamp of remuneration and recognition models.

Consumer sensitivity and sustainability impact brand marketing

India gained tremendous traction with the trend of sustainability and inclusiveness over the past 18 months. GroupM’s “new Normal Tracker” shares some insights on this growing trend:

a. Sustainability is a stronger driver than ever before - the Q4 2021 tracker has over 80%

respondents agreeing to the statement “I am more aware of the impact my actions have on the

environment” – up from 73% in Q4 2020.

b. 81% agreed that the progress being made on gender equality was a “Source of Happiness”.

c. 78% felt that media platforms & content should be more inclusive of underrepresented

communities (LGBTQIA, differently-abled, etc.) and 84% felt that brands need to do more to make their products more accessible to the differently-abled communities.

d. We have also seen a marked rise in interest and conversation around Plant-based proteins,

electric vehicles and a more sustainable lifestyle overall.

This growing consumer trait has translated brands and marketers focus on sustainability & inclusion – be it in terms of Carbon credits, recycling, use of ethically-sourced ingredients and supporting inclusivity through actions and messaging. This has implications for media as well, with a focus on sustainable or carbon-neutral media plans. This trend is already in line in markets like the US and UK and will involve strong partnerships between agencies and media owners to drive this. Inclusivity and sensitivity will also play a stronger role in the choice of media platforms and influencers going forward.

The next generation of digital experience will be driven by decentralization

With the Web3.0, Metaverse and NFTs making headlines with pundits and promoters using these terms to communicate visions of a decentralised and virtual-first future. Fundamentally, these emerging technologies are harbingers of a developing cultural shift that may unfold over the next decade as a generation of consumers who live primarily in virtual worlds comes of age.

Web 3.0 - users won’t distinguish between physical and digital experiences. They will expect work, friends, goods, and experiences to be connected virtually. This interconnected, live, persistent virtual world is also popularly known as the Metaverse. Brands would start leveraging this virtual world as well as components powering the virtual worlds to build brand experience and assets, drive the consumer to connect, associate with the cause, build loyalty, own a moment or drive real or virtual sales. GroupM has already helped three brands to participate recently in the first Metaverse wedding and integrated brand experience and narrative.

Privacy-first leveraging of data to build stronger consumer connections

On January 25, the Google Chrome team announced that they were replacing the FLoC Privacy-

Preserving API proposal with a new “Topics” API proposal, which presents an updated approach to supporting interest-based advertising via the Chrome Browser. Google’s pivot from FLoC to Topics indicates a key shift in Chrome's approach to enhancing their privacy-preserving advertising solutions. The report says that the way the data comes together is evolving in terms of technology and techniques used to combine various signals. The multiple privacy-preserving solutions that help create a more responsible advertising ecosystem, including Chrome’s Privacy new initiative – there’s no single solution to manage Cookie deprecation. Marketers have already dialled up focus on first-party data and broad-based use cases emerging out of first-party data. The role of panel-based data will grow as it will bring unique and differentiated signals to the mix.

Commerce becomes all-pervasive, powered by persuasion

Across town class and cohorts, powered by KOLs, Content, influencer and Social Media, the creator ecosystem from small towns has gained exponential traction. The report talks about the moment of truth when the consumer encounters the product, but the zero moment of truth today is when he/she encounters the brand experience first through creator/influencer content across platforms. This is actually as much a Tier II & III phenomenon as it is Tier I, and this phenomenon is driven by three important forces – one is the brand-led focus, driven by the D2C initiatives that brands are undertaking. Second is the community-led commerce which is driven by group buying models that are growing at a great clip and finally, the KOL-led social commerce models which include creator-led content to commerce. Hence overall, commerce as a component of content will become more integral and not just an exception anymore.

Transformation of the creator ecosystem

The report said that creators will be able to monetise their content directly through platforms like Substack and podcast subscriptions – something that platforms like Spotify are piloting successfully globally. What this will do is to decrease the dependence of the creator on algorithmic advertising models and help them with sustenance even before they hit scale. This subscription-based model is a big change from the YouTuber era of advertising-based revenue models for creators. In the coming days, both these models will grow simultaneously and with synergies, the report said.

Boom-time for sports business in India

a) 2022 is expected to create history in the Indian sports media rights landscape. IPLs media rights are expected to be announced followed by announcements from ICC and BCCI. Improved mobile internet infrastructure and increased consumption of OTT platforms has made this sector extremely competitive and hence they also are on the driver’s seat for these media rights. Today live sports remain unique and most sort after considering its promise of appointment viewing and sustained audience interest. This has also caught the attention of the global private equity players and you can now see the PE money coming into the world of sports in India.

b) This year esports debuts in the Asian Games, we will have our own India contingent competing and the international level which will keep the audience interest alive and add to the current base. The last two years have seen a massive scale-up in the world of gaming. Going forward gaming and esports will see increased investment and physical events will add flavour and excitement to the viewer experience and overall product offering.

c) What started in 2021 will continue taking shape in 2022 as well, the world speaks about NFTs, fan tokens and digital collectables passionately. Platforms and rights creators will continue testing different ownership models to determine the optimal balance of fuelling consumer demand and maintaining intellectual rights. There will definitely be a lot of moulding and remoulding but it is only going to make it exciting for brands and open newer avenues for consumer engagement.

Advanced Intelligence to counter digital fragmentation

The report suggested that with the receding impact of cookies and rising data privacy laws; Advance Intelligence is the saviour in this digital marketing and advertising data explosion. Also, humans are unable to process the huge amount of marketing and digital data points that are hitting them every second, in volume, variety and velocity.

The use of AI and ML will lead to advance data processing capabilities bringing excellence in execution by automating, auditing, reporting and analysing digital campaigns. Marketers will accelerate the use of the algorithms to find numerous permutations and combinations to deliver performance/ROAS. Customers demand relevance and resonance from the advertising they see. AI-ML will be used to predict personalisation. Automated Content Recognition will be required to understand what content works for what audiences to what is trending in the marketplace on all types of public content.

Performance orientation powers the full funnel of marketing

Performance marketing historically has been attributed to last-mile conversion and metrics. Marketers only focusing on the lower funnel and not appropriate weightage on top and middle funnel; have already seen the performance numbers drying up or not scaling.

The report said, in 2022, many advertisers will move away from last-click/mile attribution models; and ensure that media money spend on Top and Middle funnel are accounted for performance, on how it influences conversions or outcomes. Performance marketing will continue to hold its sway – to convert, conquest in-market audiences; but awareness and engagement spends will have to show the outcomes that lead to that performance. A full-funnel performance marketing approach is more than a campaign. It’s a combination of brand building and performance channels through interlinked teams, measurement systems and joint KPIs. Consumer journeys are not linear anymore, but funnels are. Through the full-funnel approach, marketers can have one view of their customers – moving from the nascent digital adoption stage to an interconnected multi-moment one – where Life-times Value, Hyper localisation, Hyper-Personalisation, Federated learnings, New Customer Funnel can be improved.

Evolution of offline media organizations with fluid content, formats and new business models

The dramatic shift in media consumption behaviour with simultaneous use of multiple screens is leading to a rapid evolution of what used to be known as “Offline media”

Some of the insights the report has thrown are as follows -

a. Growth in the OOH industry will largely be powered by Digital OOH, which is currently ~5% of all OOH but projected to grow to ~ 25% over the next few years. This is further accelerated by the rapid expansion in infrastructure – airports, metros, tech parks, and the return to mobility.

b. Print networks will further leverage their core strength – high-quality content – by expanding their digital presence. Moving beyond web editions and apps, we will see more podcasts and usage of AR in delivering immersive content.

c. Radio is also undergoing a major evolution with social integration, podcasts, and phygital events.

Moreover, there is a significant evolution in the business models with outcome-linked accountable deals – while this started with Print, it is now extending to all other offline media, the report said.

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