94% marketers expect business revenues to increase as compared to 2021, which is a good sign for the adtech and martech industry, as per the Drivers of Growth survey report.
The ‘Drivers of Growth’ survey report was launched on day one of ad:tech 2022. The report is the second edition of the annual survey conducted by ad:tech and tyroo.
The survey, which was conducted on more than 60 senior marketing leaders in India, intended to understand how they are navigating through uncertainty and planning for business growth in 2022.
Influential marketers, decision-makers, took part in the online survey about changes, challenges and areas of growth for 2022.
Some of the key insights of the report include subjects like increase in marketing spends, marketers focus on creating a better customer experience, spends on traditional marketing channels, paid search, digital OOH, social media and email marketing, martech capabilities, investments in metaverse, programmatic priorities, cookie-less future and a lot more.
As per the report, a majority (84%) of the marketers feel they are prepared for the cookie-less future and 59% of them are looking forward to investing in the metaverse, but most of them have limited knowledge of the platform.
The report stated that while marketers will focus more on changes and challenges in 2022, the capability building part will include areas like automation, gaming, metaverse & beyond, programmatic priorities and ecommerce priorities.
The four major trends that will dominate 2022 are evolving media, branded purpose, increase in e-commerce and work from home.
Whereas, top concerns for marketers in 2022 will be customer engagement and retention, increase in investments around e-commerce, m-commerce and social commerce, phasing out of third-party cookies, adjusting plans to keep up with new trends like gaming, CTV etc, alternatives to walled gardens and data protection laws and increased concern around privacy.
The report further stated that 47% marketers reported a significant increase (more than 30%) in their marketing spends from 2021. While 38% marketers reported a moderate increase in marketing spends as compared to 2021 and none of the marketers have reported any cut-backs in budgets.
With digital taking a lead in marketing media mix, areas that are getting more attention include digital marketing, taking the lead followed by programmatic, traditional – TV, print and radio, immersive search and audio advertising respectively.
Within digital, paid search tops the list with 94% increase in investment followed by email marketing with 90% increase in investment, digital OOH with 87% increase, CTV with 64% increase and audio marketing with 52% increase in investment.
Further, the report highlights that 84% marketers are keen on building new capabilities and will be investing to acquire new tools and resources in 2022.
Coming on to the programmatic advertising, the report states that mobile marketing, e/social commerce and digital OOH are the front runners under programmatic investments.
With cookie less world becoming the next big thing, the report says that first party data will take the centre stage.
The winning strategies for e-commerce will be Social Media Marketing, Search Engine, Influencer Marketing, Video Advertising, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, User-generated content, Chatbots, Native Advertising, as per the report.
When it comes to the most important online marketplaces majority of the marketers still rely on giants like Amazon, Flipkart and Paytm. Though platforms like Shopify, Meesho and Twitter are catching up.