5 trends no marketer in APAC can ignore
As the digital marketing ecosystem is moving from resilience to resurgence, we realize more than ever that change is the only constant and staying ahead of the curve is vital for any marketer and thinker alike.
After a truly disruptive year of technology and innovations, what are the market movers making inroads into the APAC digital marketing ecosystem that are predicted to have a major impact through 2022 and beyond?
Augmented reality
Augmented reality, a path breaking technology that facilitates the melding of the physical and the virtual, which seems to have been around for a while (because it has been!), is finally coming of age and finding real-world applications. The past year saw AR take a giant step towards mainstream when major retailers such as IKEA and Nike adapted immersive technologies such as AR/VR to be a part of their customer shopping experiences.
Early adopters of 3D and AR have already begun to reap the benefits, but there is more to come; 2022 might be the year when AR becomes a defining feature in the future of digital marketing and commerce, both online and in-store.
Neobanks
Neobanks are a kind of virtual bank without any branches. Rather than being physically present at a specific location, neobanking is entirely online and bridges the gap between the services that traditional banks offer and the evolving expectations of customers in the digital age.
Neobanks are financial institutions that give customers a cheaper alternative to traditional banks, with their key focus of offering smooth customer service. These banks are faster, cheaper, and work in a single platform with the entire financial portfolio.
From lower costs to convenience and speed, neobanks offer an opportunity for even the unbanked and underbanked to get digitized. And that’s what truly sets them apart from the traditional banks. At a time when brands are scrambling to retain the new online shoppers, and keep them shopping and transacting digitally, neobanks and their customer centric features and applications will be a key factor.
Social commerce
Over the years, social media has showed us it has a way of progressively adapting and evolving to changing consumer trends. And social commerce is its latest supplement, which is bringing about the next global shopping revolution.
What social commerce does is basically keeping the audience where they want to be by enabling social media users to get what they want and shop while they are catching up with friends, watching videos and reading the news all in one place. Although China remains the most mature market for social commerce, the highest growth will be seen in developing markets such as India and Brazil.
OTT & CTV
According to eMarketer, in 2020 all APAC countries saw exponential growth in digital video viewers, and that momentum will continue through to 2024. Findings by Nielsen revealed that the amount of time spent with CTV devices rose with people quarantining at home, showing an 81% increase year over year, which amounts to nearly four billion hours of CTV use per week.
Of the almost 2 billion digital video viewers this year, more than half (53.1%) will be subscription over-the-top (OTT) video service users. Subscription OTT video service users will surpass 1 billion in 2021, a year earlier than expected.
In this context, it is thus essential that brands engage consumers on these devices through advertising.
In-game advertising
APAC is the largest gaming community in the world – gamers here spend $12 bn yearly on mobile games. Unsurprisingly, in-game advertising grew massively over the past few years selling ad spaces within mobile games as a monetization strategy.
According to an InMobi report, 74% of Indian gamers prefer to watch ads over in-app purchases when looking to progress in a game. This type of ads also boasts of a high ad recall, with 60% being able to recall an ad seen in or during the game.
The rise of 5G adoption across APAC, which by 2024 is forecasted to account for 65% of global 5G subscriptions, will be a boon for this type of advertising and a great opportunity for brands to reach new users through consistent digital marketing efforts.
AR, FinTech, Social Commerce, CTV & OTT, and in-game advertising are only 5 out of the 25 big trends that will affect the APAC advertising industry in 2022. Read the M&C Saatchi Performance APAC Market Compass report to discover them all.
