GroupM's TYNY 2023 report sheds light on key growth drivers for brands this year

Attention planning, the rise of regional sports and competitions, are some of the key emerging trends that brands should look at keenly in 2023, as per GroupM India’s TYNY report.

GroupM India has released its TYNY report, highlighting the emerging trends for 2023 that will impact how brands engage with consumers and drive growth.

Here’s a list of the key new trends and their impact:

Moving towards attention planning 

The report stated that with the acceleration of digital media and shifting experiences of consumers, it’s important to understand the impact of attentiveness of the consumer as they engage with media/media assets.

"We have enhanced our understanding on exactly how many impressions for a single medium or multimedia lead to cross-channel optimisation. What we haven't been able to capture is the viewability impact of each impression on intent and purchase," the report said. 

The way forward is an “attention response curve”, which allows for new planning and pricing discussions. New measures like quality cost per thousand are beginning to be explored and traded. We need to ensure q is measured in a way that represents real quality. 

Sporting nation in the making

"We see a strong move towards localisation of sports, encouraging local/regional players and providing opportunities for the nation to become a playing nation rather than just a “watching” one," the report read. 

“While top dollars are being committed at the top of the funnel with IPL and ICC Media Rights, we see apps/platforms democratising sports broadcast space at an amateur level by providing streaming platforms to local sports tournaments and amateur games. It’s essentially developing smaller cohorts of sports enthusiasts who play, watch, support and enjoy their friends and family performing on-field at local, community events. With more Indians becoming fitness conscious and participating in active sports, we see this medium developing further, creating and catering to a niche audience and corresponding set of advertisers,” the report further stated. 

Content breaks boundaries and creates new opportunities 

OTT platforms themselves are becoming popular enough to be licensed into products and promotions. From a marketing and promotion standpoint, brands are looking at leveraging platforms like Netflix and Prime Video across their portfolio to create campaigns using multiple shows, movie libraries and even popular music from some shows.

According to the report, one can see audiences embracing content from multiple geographies and languages. A Kashmiri from Srinagar is watching and appreciating Malayalam or Telugu content. 

"We all have seen the audience pan-India celebrate RRR, Pushpa or KGF. We have content in abundance to suit consumption patterns for eclectic/niche audiences as well as the masses," the report read. 

"Likes of Post Malone (Feeding India), Russ (India Tour), Imagine Dragons and Jackson Wang (Lollapalooza) have come to India in the last 12 months and on the other end we have Diljit Dosanjh performing at Coachella 2023 as part of the festival's expanded global line-up. We will see more of this in 2023," the report further read. 

The myth that’s getting broken is the belief that typically Indians don’t pay for content and experiences. These events highlight that Indians actually do pay and they are willing to pay a premium for curated experiences.

From an advertiser POV, these are highly engaged, high-spending audiences, making these events a perfect platform to capitalise on, it suggested.

Rise in retail media

Retail media in India is expected to double by 2027. With demand for accountability on every single rupee of ad-spend, retail media offers an end-to-end solution from discovery to shopping, with the ability to connect data between consumers, the online marketplace and brands.

For publishers, monetisation via retail media amplification with the fusion of data and power of programmatic will be a growing demand channel.

In India, the rise of ad spends on digital retail media will depend on how the retail media networks are able to demonstrate the value by complementing search efforts and not competing with them.

Usage of effective hyper-localised and personalised creative at each stage of the funnel of retail media will be critical in realising the full potential, it said.

While retail media will be used primarily for CPG, it will also be leveraged by non-endemic clients to find audiences with relevant category usage. Challenges will continue to exist on measurability beyond end level attribution.

Visual search goes mainstream 

Visual search delivers instant relevance to a consumer search. It allows users to get exactly what they want rather than a lookalike.

Visual search also allows for conversion of interest in one specific product, for example

apparel, to the entire collection – expanding the shopping cart. 

It leads to a huge edge on SEO and how one can enhance the marketing ROI. While tagging for search typically needed real people to tag individual products, with visual search the images are SEO ready and increase the chances of discoverability, the report stated.

More importantly, marketers can tap into consumers' state of "What I didn't know I want" and increase the ARPU, the report read. 

New dimensions of omnichannel 

The dramatic shifts in consumer behaviour during the pandemic saw most agile brands shift to multichannel retail, with ecommerce getting a huge surge. 

The report says that post the pandemic a further shift in consumer behaviour is being observed. While ecommerce continues to grow, the rate of growth is slowing down.

“We are witnessing re-emergence of physical trade, with high street rentals moving up and consumers opting for the joy of physical shopping, touch and feel, etc. We see a rise in “Experience centres” across both traditional and new age brands. The emergence of Metaverse and the growth in AR/VR will power new shopping experiences for consumers."

Brands will go beyond multichannel to deliver a true omnichannel experience. The first step is to recognise consumers across physical and online environments and then give them a seamless, consistent and rewarding brand experience at every touchpoint, the report suggested.

Democratisation of commerce with ONDC 

Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is promising to be the new jewel from the India stack, as per it.

The momentum gained in 2022 will lead to larger participation from brands and marketplaces to be enabled on the ONDC network. Currently over 22,000 plus sellers are on this open network.

With transparency and level playing field for all partners at the core, ONDC will help businesses have more choices, larger demand spectrum and avoid search bias.

To build trust in an unbundled and democratic environment, setting up key elements such as Issue and Grievance Resolution, Scoring and Badging, Reconciliation and Settlement, Cataloguing Services will become important.

In 2023, TYNY predicts the emergence of hyperlocal marketplaces. Birth of ecommerce services companies will increase as India’s share of GMV online increases across categories. 

"We see exciting times ahead with screen-to-door commerce enabled by ONDC," the report stated. 

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