Marketing technology 2022: 616 predictions from 463 CMOs

Every December I do a massive survey of CMOs, CEOs, and marketing executives and build out a set of marketing technology predictions for the coming year. This winter is no different.

This time I asked no fewer than 463 CMOs and other leaders what they thought was the most important technology, topic, or space for marketing in 2022. And while you do get some PR executives saying PR, or some push notification companies saying push notifications, most of them are from brand leaders with good insight.

The full report is here on Singular’s blog; the Forbes post is here.

The top seven predictions for marketing technology in 2022:

Privacy
Story (video/audio)
AI
Metaverse
Web3
ESG
Marketing fortress

Get all the details at the links above, and thanks to all who contributed to it.

Quotes from many of the contributors

Not everyone got quoted at Forbes or even in the full report at Singular (sorry!) so I’m going to share their insights below. It will be a bit ugly and unformatted (sorry again!) because I can’t format literally 30-40 pages of quotes. I also had some input via a survey which is not fully represented here, and many additional quotes and insights from executives via Help A Reporter Out which I didn’t transfer to my personal docs.

Privacy

Pat McLean, SVP & Chief Marketing Officer at Walgreens
In 2022, marketers need to prepare for the evolving data and privacy landscape as the move towards a “cookieless world” is imminent. Therefore, marketers must be prepared to invest and get the right tech in place to develop its first party data while continuing to keep the customer at the center of everything decision and interaction. It’s the customer engagement strategy that will continue to differentiate brands moving forward. This is exactly how Walgreens has differentiated in the marketing via our mass personalization strategy and myWalgreens platform as we know this is core to our future growth.

Susan Somersille Johnson, CMO, Prudential Financial
All of us have to be mini data scientists in today’s tech-driven world.

Arun Kumar, Chief Data and Technology Officer at IPG

“Data and identity underpin all advertising and marketing, and they’re what make the digital world and all its innovations, even new ones like the metaverse, possible. Data is how marketers understand people, while identity is how they connect with people. When this happens, everyone benefits – better experiences for people, better results for brands. When brands get it wrong, they risk losing valuable customer relationships forever. To a customer, you’re only as good as your last interaction.

As a society, we have chosen to live in the digital world, and that means global marketplaces that can anticipate and react to real-time interactions. Scale is no longer an option, it’s a necessity. Technology is the critical third leg of the data and identity stool.

The advertising ecosystem is undergoing seismic changes and has a collective responsibility to create data and identity solutions that are respectful, transparent, and flexible. Data and identity cannot be the domain of the few, but rather must benefit the many, working for advertisers, publishers and people alike. While they can often feel like a technical subject, the supporting actor instead of the star, it’s what makes the whole thing work. If data and identity aren’t done right, quite frankly, nothing else matters.”

Tom Butta, CMO, Airship
The impending demise of third-party cookies, increasing data privacy regulations, and changes from Apple and Android regarding app tracking all give consumers greater transparency and control over their personal information. It’s imperative that brands transition to first- and zero-party data strategies to create direct customer relationships, improve their customer understanding, and provide more opportunity to create greater mutual benefit.

Sara Spivey CMO Braze
“As Apple and Google continue in their arms race on privacy, its resounding impacts have stretched far beyond compliance standards and into a marketing selling point. Marketers should not approach privacy as a dark cloud, because privacy-first approaches can offer new ways to engage with potential customers. Recent research from Braze shows that consumers are still open to sharing data with brands if the opportunity allows for an equal value exchange, where they also see a real benefit for providing this information. In a privacy first world, the use of third-party cookies is declining and first-party data will be the new currency for marketing success.

(The link to the aforementioned research is here: https://www.braze.com/resources/articles/retailers-winning-holiday-formula)”

Genesys CMO Joyce Kim
Third party cookies have been fundamental to digital marketing for many years, however they are set to be phased out by 2023. This transition to a “cookieless world” provides marketers with an opportunity to build out newer and more powerful approaches to understand audiences better as individuals — not just the devices they use — and drive more specific targeting and greater personalization. As a result, this elevates the customer experience and experience orchestration to a broader C-level topic. Marketers need to start preparing for how they can enable their businesses to prepare for this new digital landscape. Marketers should start with these tactics to get ready for the transition:

Revising/reaffirming business objectives, target interactions, and how users interact with a brand across various platforms and touchpoints.
Increasing first-party data collection via enhanced progressive profiling and data enrichment across the business as well as your ecosystem.
Using this opportunity to rethink the marketing tech ecosystem, including implementation of a Customer Data Platform (CDP) and clean rooms (secure platforms for aggregating anonymized data from multiple sources).

By prioritizing first-party data in particular, organizations will be set up for success in a cookieless world, since they are better equipped for predictive modeling, in which AI scrutinizes a consumer’s information to predict their next steps. Equipped with this data, brands will be able to provide consumers with advertising and marketing that appear more personalized and relevant specifically for them – a game changer when it comes to delivering a positive customer experience. For example, a recent report from Genesys on the current state of the customer experience from thousands of executives and consumers found that 59% Of CX leaders say predictive analytics is a top-three feature for transforming the customer experience.

Consumers are most likely to engage with a company when they are able to provide an elevated customer experience rooted in greater customer trust. Those who are prepared for a cookieless world will have a better opportunity to gain that trust.

Matt Gerhing, CMO of Dutch

We are already seeing the adoption of more consumer privacy first policies by large tech firms (Apple and Google leading) that are completely changing how brands target, acquire and retain customers. This is causing multiple ripples across attribution, media mix, segmentation and technology powering all the platforms we use.

Also likely coming on the horizon is more states picking up GDPR and CCPA approaches. iOS 14/15 and loss of 3rd party data reduces brands ability to target customers as well as provide a more personalized experience. A large majority of consumers are choosing not to track within apps, impacting the efficiency of ad dollars being spent on various platforms like Facebook. It looks like it is not impacting how much is being spent but is increasing costs for brands, as well as making creative and targeting optimization a lot more difficult. Facebook is having to completely alter their algorithms to try and find the right customers from a prospecting perspective as well as provide contextually relevant retargeting ads.

James Taylor is Founder and CEO of Particular Audience and SimilarInc.com, operating an AI platform built on 100% anonymous real time eCommerce data. Here are three predictions from James for marketing in 2022:
Context Aware, 100% Anonymous Personalization. Privacy, permission, security and data ownership are at the centre of the digital marketing debate. The existence of digital push marketing is stake. Customer Data Platforms, Email Marketing Platforms and SMS Marketing Tools are all likely to peak in 2022 as marketers scramble to own and control as much first party customer data as they can before privacy laws, opt-ins and the demise of third party cookies make their jobs a lot harder. The future of marketing is controlled by the customer. Customers opting only for relevant, timely content that matches their real-time context and does not compromise their personal data. The days of spam filled inboxes are starting to come to an end, and convenience through anonymous peronalization will begin to dominate.

Advertising is Dead, Long Live Retail Media. With the demise of third party cookies, the death of advertising as we know it on the internet is fast approaching. Without the ability to track or measure cross-site, we predict that advertising budgets are going to see a major shift to platforms where eyeballs are accessed through 1st party, contextual and 100% anonymous means. Retail Media, which netted Amazon over $26 billion last year, will emerge as a high margin incremental revenue stream for the rest of retail, and a key method for brands and companies to reach in-market consumers at the point of purchase.

The Scales Begin to Tilt in Favor of the Consumer. Web3 Wallets are paving the way for digital ownership and portability of personal data, and customers will increasingly have the ability to own and control access to their data, meaning you will finally have the power choose who you share your data with and how long you consent to do so. We predict that we will start to see traditional websites and eCommerce destinations following crypto, gaming and metaverse destinations in enabling Web3 accessibility and engagement.

Alex Farr, founder and CEO of AI company Zammo:

“As we move toward a cookie-less future and a dearth of third-party data, first-party and zero-party data will become of incredible importance to marketing practitioners. This reality will implore brands to build new digital tools to capture data to make smarter offers to customers. Zero-code technology, which allows tech novices such as career marketers to easily build digital tools, will be used more and more in 2022. Zero-code technology is going to be a game-changer.”

33Across CEO and Co-Founder Eric Wheeler

Programmatic Predictions: What’s In Store for 2022

Everyone is All-In on Cookieless. Today the majority of publishers depend on third-party cookies for revenue and non-premium publishers have as much as 80% of their revenue at stake with primarily cookie-based monetization. When Google announced that cookies would live on until 2023, the industry didn’t just take a pause. In fact, we’ve seen a massive amount of innovation in 1st party, contextual, deterministic, and probabilistic solutions from both the buy and sell-sides to bridge the pending, massive revenue gap. In recent years, major browsers have forcibly placed themselves as the intermediary between publishers and consumers. In 2022, we’ll see publishers take a portfolio approach to monetization with more investment in identity solutions and contextual targeting that will disintermediate the browser role from monetization.

Steffen Schebesta, CEO and VP of Corporate Development at Sendinblue

With Big Tech’s push for privacy changes in the past year, from Apple’s Privacy Report to Google’s plan to phase out third-party cookies, there is a clear indication that data privacy will be top of mind for marketers in 2022. In fact, based on results from our global survey, 68% of consumers revealed they are more concerned with online privacy now than before the pandemic. In 2022, brands must adapt to new restrictions and maintain data transparency in order to establish consumer trust, or risk losing customers to brands that are more privacy conscious.

VP, Global Head of Marketing at Klaviyo, Kady Srinivasan.

“Between Google delaying its cookie block until 2023, Facebook’s updated in-platform reporting data and Apple’s new privacy updates, digital advertising has changed as we know it. As marketers rethink where they put their time and money and how to build a brand that withstands customer data privacy changes, more and more leaders will turn to what I like to refer to as ‘flipping the funnel.'”

“Flip the funnel essentially says, ‘Throw out your classic marketing training and the playbook of the past. Instead, start building your business from the bottom up.’ Focusing on the bottom of your funnel as the first part of your growth strategy will ensure you’re collecting first-party data from your users, you’re nurturing relationships with them, you’re being authentic to your brand, and you’re building a sustainable base of business. The best part? You’re building your brand the way you want—not through tiny pixel ads that do nothing to create a highly personalized, long-lasting customer experience.”

Abhishek Shrivastava, Senior Director of Product, LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Privacy – privacy changes will make B2B advertising better. Right now, with all of the privacy changes underway, B2B advertising can feel like an uncertain climb. With the introduction of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency framework and the future deprecation of cookies, it can feel daunting not knowing how you will reach your prospective buyers and measure the success of your campaigns. And, things may get harder before they get easier—that’s okay. The privacy changes we’re undergoing are going to make B2B advertising better. Despite the massive uncertainties that lie ahead, there are bright spots—such as harnessing first-party and zero-party data—that will be critical to future success. B2B marketers are charting a new course—one built on a foundation of privacy-first technologies—that will have us delivering even better results for our organizations.

Ryanne Laredo, Chief Customer Officer, Smartly.io
Brands will open the data privacy dialogue, helping consumers make more informed decisions

Brands, and our industry as a whole, have done a poor job of having conversations with consumers about how they’re using technology to make online experiences better and easier. When consumers click “opt-in” or “track cookies,” they typically don’t understand why. The result is a one-sided point of view, where consumers end up perceiving that there is more bad behavior from advertising, because of what they hear and due very little or no context. This has led to a hysteria around data privacy. In 2022 and beyond, smart advertisers will change this.

New privacy regulations have sparked the opportunity to have open conversations with consumers about their data. To do so, brands will take a newfound ownership over what they’re doing with consumer data, and more importantly, give consumers transparent insights, education, and resources to realize what their data is being used for and why.

As a result, we can expect organizations to start hiring more people that know how to converse with consumers in a helpful, easy to understand way. This will then drive consumers to make more educated decisions around their data – including what a simple click opting in or out will mean for their online experience.”

Joshua Grandy, Director, Global Communications, Adjust
PREDICTION: The future of measurement will leverage aggregated data driven by machine learning, and built on transparency and trust

“”Privacy is the way of the future, and as innovation progresses, so do user privacy issues. Scrutiny and regulation will only continue. Predictive KPIs — leading with predictive LTV (pLTV) — will help anticipate growth opportunities within aggregated collections of SKAdNetwork and consented user data.

With the help of advanced machine learning algorithms, aggregated (vs. user-level) data — which is safe to leverage for insights — can enable marketers and developers to build fully customized conversion models driven by the unique needs of the app’s industry vertical or business. The accuracy of pLTV will allow advertisers to make sense of where these users are coming from and how much value they’re adding.”””

Philip Pasma, Founder of Asterisk Marketing
Every government is now more protective than before.

David Bitton, CMO, DoorLoop
In 2022, we can expect marketers to shift away from unverified
data that they do not own or govern, focusing instead on first-party data
acquisition and contextual advertising.

Metaverse/AR

Anna Znamenskaya, Chief Growth Officer at Rakuten Viber

Metaverse
“Tech enthusiasts tease us with words like Web3 and the metaverse, which might likely become the next universal interface, but the question is when? The future can take a very long time, the mobile internet, which is now everywhere, didn’t take off outside Japan until a decade after the first development. It might take up to 10 more years before we see the first metaverse mass adoption come to life.”

Fintech and Payments
“The public might be excited about VR, but the practical disruption is now happening in the payments and personal finance space. Next year would bring more fintech innovation and disruption in cross-border payments under the influence of novel regulatory efforts and new market players. Emerging markets are leapfrogging advanced economies with these disruptive technologies, and the main territories where we see a spike in mass adoption are Asia, Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa. More people in regions outside the USA are gaining access to the mobile internet and latest payment tools, which will be growing quickly due to the low base effect.”

Augmented Reality (AR)
“Another important trend I’ve seen through my work is the growth of the AR space, with more popular brands and organizations unlocking the power of Viber Lenses and seeing value in immersive interaction with users. For example, with the World Wildlife Fund, AR Lenses have opened up new opportunities to create engaging and truly unique campaigns for its organization. Dozens of global and local companies have already launched their own Viber AR masks, including FC Barcelona, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Rakuten Davis Cup.

Businesses are looking for ways to boost engagement with users and increase visibility among a wide audience. For example, in 2022, we’ll start seeing AR masks and filters as engagement options that bring in various levels of complexity: with partial animation and simple audio effects, as well as masks with a complete transformation of the object, geo-targeted elements tied to specific locations, and complex 3D effects.”

Tony Zhao, co-founder and CEO of Agora,
Connectivity between metaverses: The way current metaverses are set up isolates each on their own digital island, but next year, real-time engagement technology will enable connectivity between metaverses and create a more connected and engaging experience for users. It will also reduce the barrier to entry by simplifying access to the metaverse to something as ubiquitous as a web browser.

James Whitemore, CMO of NetApp

Will blockchain, AR, or VR play a major role in marketing next year?
Marketers are in constant pursuit of ways to create engaging experiences that delight audiences and compel them to act. Emerging tech like blockchain, AR and VR will continue to cross the chasm from niche implementations consumed by limited audiences to more mainstream and consistently used technologies as our overall sophistication about these tools and the power they bring to marketing efforts grows.

What role will the metaverse have for companies’ ad spend in the future?
We’re already seeing a huge amount of attention from marketers in establishing compelling brand presence in the metaverse – and it’s not relegated solely to B2C companies. Everything from experiential events to product discovery to customer demos are ripe for implementation in the metaverse. If you’re not considering metaverse as part of your marketing mix in 2022, you’re already behind.

Anton Giuroiu, an architect, CEO and Founder of Homesthetics

With the metaverse becoming the newest buzzword there is on the online
space, it is expected that marketing efforts next year are going to touch
on this one way or another. As a result, both small and large businesses
will make it a point to state that they are, at the very least, open to
embracing this new technology. Companies should be able to demonstrate
through their marketing campaigns that they are not closing their doors on
this new technology if they are not yet ready to engage in it.

Sharon van Donkelaar, CMO, Expandi.io
The pandemic isn’t over yet and we’re most likely to face a new lockdown. VR and AR will help bring the products to the customer while keeping them safe.

Web 3, NFTs, Crypto

Joanna Lambert, President and GM, Yahoo:

2022 will be the year of everyday Crypto for businesses and consumers

While crypto is still so new to businesses and consumers, it could become further integrated into our daily lives in 2022 with 60% of the population demonstrating interest in cryptocurrency investing next year. We see businesses like Microstrategy, Square, and Tesla making large investments in cryptocurrencies, while other companies create crypto opportunities for consumers with the marriage of credit and debit cards and expanded use cases of NFTs for both digital and physical items.

The tides are shifting as the crypto market trends near $16 trillion, Congress builds a new regulatory framework around crypto, various industries expand their applications of the technology, and general interest in crypto continues to hit new highs. Yahoo Finance, as a trusted resource for the active investor, has seen large growth in crypto interest over recent years, and we expect crypto curiosity and investments to continue on this growth trajectory. As people and enterprises invest in cryptocurrencies, seek expert advice, and conduct research to ensure that they’re making wise investment decisions, crypto is set to impact everyday businesses and everyday people alike.

Atif Kazmi, fractional CMO (website: http://www.atifkazmi.com).

While the metaverse quickly became the hot topic of 2021, how it blends
with social commerce will be something we’ll all need to wrap our heads
around come 2022. Balenciaga, adidas, and a host of luxury brands have
already started experimenting with Web 3.0, but it remains to be seen how
these virtual interactions can become more immersive, more sticky, and how
they potentially translate to sales.

I have a founding investor of one of the fastest-growing decentralized art projects in the world, the Billionaire Zombies Club <https://billionairezombies.club/>. Among the first decentralized projects to have launched on the fast-rising Ethereum Second Layer called Polygon powered by The Matic Token, the BZC ranks among the top projects on the Polygon Blockchain Chart on OpenSea <https://opensea.io/collection/billionairezombiesclub>, one of the biggest digital art marketplaces in the world.

In a matter of 12 days, the BZC project has sold more than 10K unique pieces of digital art <https://opensea.io/collection/billionairezombiesclub?tab=activity> and generated more than $500,000 in revenue, surpassing $1,000,000 in total trade volume in about two weeks of trading.

Nathan Sieminski, Marketing Manager, Perch
Brands will stop using NFTs for silly limited edition tokens of corporate greed cashing in on hype, and, instead, start using them for their real use-case: authenticating ownership of a brand’s digital assets. What does this mean? Most brands have hundreds if not thousands of product images online via eCommerce listings. One of the most common black hat tactics is to steal your competitor’s digital assets, fraudulently claim copyright infringement, and get them delisted. NFTs can automatically verify the authenticity and ownership of that asset, and prevent this fraud from happening. It’s digital asset insurance.

Andy Jennings, Head of Marketing, Perblue
I don’t know if NFTs will be the biggest and most important change but they’re the most exciting growth opportunity for the whole space. They have the potential to change up how games work in a significant way. Everything else either feels to early or too small to create a big change in 2022.

Robin Parton Pate, Chief Marketing Officer, Green Point
Blockchain Technology. While it isn’t new in 2022, the level of sophistication has been amplified significantly and use cases in marketing are numerous.The proliferation of NFTs and their use as marketing tools to drive loyalty + the ability to fine tune every step of marketing and supply chain operations to better serve a customer at every point in the marketing journey will all be center stage next year.

Keith Kawahata Head of Games AppLovin “Crypto, NFTs, Web3 infrastructure and protocols present exciting opportunities for virtually every industry. At the intersection between crypto and gaming we see early signs of a new business model of play-2-earn and on-chain virtual asset ownership. It’s still very early for these new business models however, investment into and the community around the space is growing exponentially. Much as we saw in prior business models and platform evolutions we expect crypto to increase audience, transparency and inclusion. The market can expect several contenders to fight to be the ‘back-bone’ of the play-to-earn ecosystem, making it highly fragmented to start, but likely to consolidate and standardize over time.”

“Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) will grow bigger in gaming, becoming a mainstream alternative to centralized and custodial ownership of virtual assets. This is already providing opportunities for players, creators and developers within gaming the ability to monetize and collaborate in new exciting and decentralized ways. According to nonfungible.com, more than $2 billion was spent on NFTs during the first three months of 2021 alone, marking a 2,100 percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2020. We expect to see this growth continue in 2022, with gaming acting as a first mover to build functional utility and technological advancement across the web3 ecosystem.” — Keith Kawahata, Head of Games, AppLovin

Matej Lancaric Independent UA consultant lancaric.me In 2022, UA managers will be trying to figure out how to bring players to the new hypetrain called blockchain games. These games are currently only web/browser based which brings a new challenge for “younger UA managers” who don’t remember the good old days of Google Adwords with Search, GDN and Youtube separated from each other. Seems like we are going back to 2013-14 … Good luck everyone!

Contextual targeting

Haley DeParde, Account Director at Booyah Advertising.

With the death of cookies, advertisers will revert to more contextual targeting, which is incredibly effective at increasing traffic and sales, to find their target audience. As a result, we’ll see more advertisers using CRM lists, given the changes in tracking and privacy across the digital landscape. These lists enable advertisers to personalize the ad experience to users. Additionally, incorporating tools, like Google Analytics 4, allow brands to understand multichannel and multitouch impacts better.

Video is part of every digital marketer’s toolkit, but it comes with some big challenges that need to be tackled, hopefully in the year ahead. The space is fraud-ridden and can be confusing to buy with a lack of standardization in the space. At the same time, the shorter the video, the more effective. Short, catchy videos draw in more consumers and long video ads will result in losing the money to produce it for minimal results.

33Across CEO and Co-Founder Eric Wheeler
Don’t Bet Against the Market. Today, programmatic partners are fighting for a chance to monetize the same pool of Chrome inventory- creating inefficiencies and high media costs which will only continue to worsen as the cookie pool shrinks. On the other end of the spectrum, cookieless inventory is a huge swath of quality impressions with little fraud that we can now reach, target, and measure at a much lower eCPM since there’s little competition. Expect to see a major shift in market behavior as programmatic demand moves spend to non-cookied inventory en mass. Competition and media spending will dramatically increase to reach consumers on previously unreachable browsers – scale, efficiency and the lack of competition will be the big drivers.

Katie Jansen Chief Marketing Officer AppLovin
Consumer behaviors, particularly their use of apps on mobile devices to conveniently conduct and enjoy all aspects of life, coupled with the proliferation of content creation platforms, are creating greater opportunities for marketers to more easily monetize and market to defined, engaged audiences.

Mateusz Jędrocha, Head of Upper Funnel Solutions Development at RTB House comments:
“As we head towards more privacy-focused advertising, contextual targeting has become one of the main viable ways to reach a target audience. And thanks to technological advancements, the solution has become much more scalable.

“As a result, we’ve already seen many of the major programmatic advertising companies add this targeting method to its marketing mix. But whilst some might be working with their own solutions, others are still fully reliant on partnerships with services like Grapshot by Oracle. The key to success will be how well these contextual tools are integrated within the entire programmatic ecosystem.

“With the countdown to the cookieless future ticking, marketers must be pushing their partners to ensure they are maximising the technology now available to optimise their advertising budgets, performance and reach.”

Łukasz Włodarczyk, VP of Programmatic Ecosystem Growth & Innovation at RTB House comments:

“2022 is set to shape the future of ID-less advertising across the industry, with several key industry-shifting developments on the horizon. To start with, we expect to see a new iteration of FloC that will evolve to be more privacy-preserving. It is likely that this will see Google move away from the term ‘cohorts’ in favour of ‘topics’ and it shouldn’t come as a surprise if this comes with a rebrand and new name. From a consumer perspective, this will help users to understand what they are being assigned to, but from an advertising standpoint, advertising efficacy challenges may arise.

Amanda Malko | CMO | G2
“Building and finding audiences in new ways. As we move to a more privacy-first future and away from third-party data, we’ll see marketers double down on building their own audiences and communities, and embrace new types of data like intent-based solutions. We’ll see more of an emphasis on actions and signals versus personal information like demographics and interests. Marketers will have no choice but to test new strategies to prepare for the future, which will lead to a lot of experimentation and testing.”

Lotame COO Mike Woosley

Even though third-party cookies will disappear (we won’t be predicting whether Google will ever land on a final date), that doesn’t mean third-party data will. The reality is that third-party data will continue to stick around because the alternatives that will crop up in its absence aren’t feasible for smaller publishers. First-party data or contextual targeting can’t be the solution for publishers who don’t have enough data to scale. Contextual data works only inside one’s own domain, which for small publishers is, well, too small. Plus, marketers are less willing to engage with sites that don’t have as many monthly visitors as the larger ones. The industry as a whole seems to have forgotten about smaller publishers since they’re pushing ideas that won’t work for them, instead of ideas that will work for everyone. In 2022, the screams of these publishers will be better heard.

Content fortresses, marketing fortresses, adtech revolution

Lotame COO Mike Woosley
Privacy changes at tech giants will usher in a new reality for social media marketing, as constrained app monetization begins to cut into growth. Investors traditionally expect these companies to grow 10-30% annually, but in 2022 we predict a 5-15% shrinkage.

Irina Marciano Director of Corporate Communications Payoneer
The result of this rapidly increased digitalization has been a merging of digital environments, as evidenced by tech giants like Facebook and Instagram launching shopping capabilities, and social platforms like TikTok rolling out their own marketplaces. In this super-app, omni-channel, omni-device environment, marketers who focus on user experience will find themselves able to push ahead of competition.

FatTail CEO and Co-Founder Doug Huntington
Explosion of retail media. Brick and mortar retailers, who lost billions of dollars during the pandemic as they helplessly watched inventory obsolesce on their shelves, sit on treasure troves of first party data. A heightened desire to future-proof revenue combined with the opportunity presented through increased regulatory and social pressure on the use of personal identification and profiling as a means to target advertising, is driving retailers to more fully monetize this often underutilized asset. As reliance on first party data becomes mission critical for marketers, retail media spend will burgeon.

FatTail CEO and Co-Founder Doug Huntington
Impending social and eCommerce platform competition. Social sites continue to grow and multiply. A high and increasing percentage of buying decisions are made on them. Their commerce capabilities are getting stronger. Consumers who cut their teeth buying on Amazon, now expect to be able to buy anything, anywhere, and anytime. Suppliers in pursuit of new, less cluttered distribution channels, are being increasingly drawn to social commerce sites and the corollary benefits they provide, such as enhanced engagement and precision targeting. eCommerce platforms seeing the writing on the wall, will begin mounting competitive responses, including increased M&A activity.

Tony Zhao, co-founder and CEO of Agora
Unbundling Zoom and Discord accelerates: More and more apps will be adding voice and video to their native experience such as Figma (unbundling Zoom) and Wildlife (unbundling Discord).

Demographics/global/overall change

Abhay Singhal, Co-Founder and CEO of InMobi Marketing Solutions

Reaching Gen Z: “As digital and social natives, Gen Z will have more influence, faster on the economy and media landscape than many may have expected. They’re in their formative years with building brand loyalty and, over the next four to seven years, they will begin to fully realize their earning and spending potential. They’re going to different places to consume information; I doubt The New York Times ever thought they’d have to use TikTok to share the news. It will soon be the same for retail and politics – if you look at data, Millennials will take over with purchasing and voting power in 2024 and Gen Z will be right on their heels. They will drive how we think about products and ad formats and how we build Web 3.0. Both advertisers and publishers that have platforms and audiences will have to really work to deliver engaging content that provides value to the audience beyond just advertising. Content development will be bigger and more important than it used to be; brands will need money and investment needed to create content that is sticky and to keep up with the pace.”

Craig Brown, Head of Delivery at Incubeta US
“It’s likely that travel will return heavily in 2022 with life moving back towards ‘normality’. This will generate a complementary increase in travel advertising, which is in turn likely to increase the cost of impressions across many mediums. Because of this, we’re expecting to see a continued increase in the price of digital media as budgets for more traditional media flow into digital. With these increased costs, businesses will need to look at their customers differently. They’ll need to narrow their focus on creating a lifetime customer by providing additional value – for example, improving customer experience via an omnichannel strategy – to make the most of the media investment and for long term growth.“

Connected TV/ mobile

Rajat Wanchoo, Vice President of Market Development for Telcos and OEMs, InMobi

Mobile is the New CTV: “Since 2018, the promise of connected TV has never been fully realized and now mobile is poised to move into pole position, offering advertisers better scale and addressability. With ad fraud increasing exponentially on connected TV and more consumers than ever using their mobile devices to cast or stream rather than using their television UI to watch programming, connected TV is increasingly becoming a black hole for advertisers trying to reach consumers. A recent study in eMarketer shows that 55.5% of US internet users ages 25-34 stream TV and movies on their mobile device and that percentage rises to 57.7% for ages 35-44. With far better scale and reach, mobile can be a backdoor for advertisers trying to solve for connected TV and makes TV truly addressable.”

Big tech

33Across CEO and Co-Founder Eric Wheeler

Expect More Regulation. Since 2018, Google and Apple have positioned their marketplace standards under the guise of consumer privacy, when in reality they’ve created an unfair market advantage. Since they control the largest internet properties and are the monetization conduits, we’ve all had to follow their lead. Stepping back, Big Tech leading any sort of industry regulation is akin to the fox guarding the henhouse. Aside from the GDPR in the European Union and state-level regulation in the United States, government legislation has been lacking; however, the Department of Justice’s recent probe into Big Tech and educating itself to see just how much control they have over the industry shows definite movement. There will be more changes in 2022 but this time, from a more left-leaning U.S. government.

Improving Industry Inefficiencies. Almost everything we know and love about today’s programmatic advertising infrastructure is tied to the cookie – that includes measurement, tracking, retargeting, frequency capping, and much more, many of which accrue costs that impact publisher margins. It will take some serious effort for the industry to re-engineer cookie-dependent systems to be agnostic, but in the long run, applying our learnings will improve operational margins. In addition to tackling the cookieless infrastructure, we need to also automate processes to service customers and automate workflows to free up human capital. Just as critical is doing this in a way that does not add incremental ad-tax into the equation as cookieless inventory is already lower-priced and undersold.

Content/audio/video … live shopping

Richard Williams, Commercial Director, A Million Ads

“Audio consumption is rapidly increasing, with the growing popularity of streaming and podcasting dramatically switching the pendulum for advertisers. And those who prosper will be the ones who move quickly to ensure their advertising is contextually relevant”.

Carly Brantz, CMO of DigitalOcean

Continued investment in content marketing. First, deeply analyze your
target audience with market research, measure brand sentiment, make sure
you’re receiving both qualitative and quantitative data points, etc.
Keeping a pulse on what your prospects/customers need and providing
specific resources to help them is critical to starting your relationship
off on the right foot. Whether it’s a technical product-agnostic tutorial
or sharing a research report with data to empower their next business move,
providing fresh (SEO-optimized) content is a way that marketers can keep
their brand top of mind.

Gayle Troberman, Chief Marketing Officer, iHeartMedia
If you’re listening closely to the signals, Audio Ad Tech is set to explode in the year ahead. Consumers now spend 1/3 of their media time with audio. With wireless headphone and smart speaker growth, audio is now the most accessible medium. Our ears are on the grid 24/7. And marketers are waking up to the massive potential of audio to deliver highly engaged, targetable audiences at scale. That means all of the data, ad tech, measurement and innovation tools developed for early digital will be needed for audio to maximize the power of sound seamlessly across the mass reach of broadcast and the 1:1 power of streaming and podcasts. The year of audio is here.

Matt Gerhing, CMO of Dutch
On the media mix side, the loss of some of the data signal and direct tracking of some channel specific spend is opening up where brands are spending. I am especially seeing this with large brands taking up activities in typical DTC channels, like podcasts. You also have another resurgence in the influencer/creator space, especially among brands trying to target GenZ customers.

Jena Joyce, Founder & CEO, PLANT MOTHER

Brands who have jumped on the live shopping bandwagon are 3Xing their sales
goals during these live streaming events in addition to increasing their
social engagements and follower counts.

Social shopping is coming to all platforms –
FB, IG, TikTok, Pinterest (among others). Social media is definitely
changing how people shop. In just a few short weeks of opening an Instagram
shop in November this year, we’ve seen a 100 percent increase in revenue
from the channel and a massive 1,280% increase in Instagram referral
traffic to our website. Being a new brand who can’t compete with large
beauty companies with hefty advertising budgets, Instagram shopping is
becoming a profitable alternative to paid ads.

Identity, personalization

Bryce Boothby, Sr. Manager, US Loyalty at McDonald’s
<https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryce-boothby-97b46331/>

“Personalization is more than just knowing a customer’s name; it’s about leveraging customer data to build relationships with consumers that deliver relevant and compelling experiences. Consumer’s busy lives mean that they have less time to search for products and information – by providing the most relevant content at the right time allows companies to keep their products top of mind.”

As consumers, I believe we build the deepest relationships with brands that personalize their outreach and experiences. Meaningful personalization at scale is perhaps the biggest challenge and opportunity for brands today. – <https://www.linkedin.com/in/leogriffin/>https://www.linkedin.com/in/leogriffin/> Leo Griffin<https://www.linkedin.com/in/leogriffin/>https://www.linkedin.com/in/leogriffin/>, Vice President, Technology & Global Head of Consumer at Hanes B

Personalization used to be a nice to have but now it is a have to have. It is an expectation of the customer that they receive relevant offers to them. We are tasked with knowing what they have told us and what they haven’t told us but done in order to personalize their experiences.” – Erin Levzow<https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinlevzow/>, Vice President of Marketing & Digital Technology, Del Taco Restaurants Inc.

COVID-19 accelerated adoption of digital technology and enhancements in technology across several industries. It has resulted in notable changes in consumer preferences and elevated their expectations on receiving relevant and customized experiences. Simply put, they expect that brands know what they want based on their preferences and data collection. These consumers will naturally gravitate towards brands that recognize their need and deliver experiences seamlessly. – <https://www.linkedin.com/in/anjali-k-iyer/>https://www.linkedin.com/in/anjali-k-iyer/>Anjali Iyer<https://www.linkedin.com/in/anjali-k-iyer/>https://www.linkedin.com/in/anjali-k-iyer/>, Director Insights, Strategy & Analytics at Marriott International

Dee Anna McPherson | CMO | Invoca
“The pandemic has changed the customer experience, and their brand impression starts from moment zero. Today, companies are collecting more data from consumers than ever before so, in return, people expect top-notch, interactive experiences. A recent PwC study found 32% of customers said they would stop doing business with a brand they already love after just one bad experience. While consumers have been patient with brands as they pivoted to a digital-first or hybrid experience (like buying a car without going to the showroom), the CMO will be increasingly responsible for ensuring a seamless experience in the coming year as patience wanes. For example, if you’re able to collect data across the entire buyer journey, you end up with a more complete picture of your customer’s behavior and intent and can then create a more personalized and positive customer interaction that results in a sale. In 2022, eCommerce sales will continue to skyrocket, the overall customer journey will shift even more online, so CMOs will have more responsibility to get it right. Customer experience will make or break a brand in the coming year.”

Michelle Hulst, COO, The Trade Desk
With Chrome abandoning third-party cookies in 2023, marketers will need to ensure the Internet remains free for users. As businesses spend 2022 preparing for this change to the Internet, they will need to find new solutions that provide a more relevant ad experience, which funds the amazing free content we get to enjoy, while also being privacy-friendly for consumers. This will become even more important as user privacy regulations continue to take hold around the world.

Paige O’Neill, Chief Marketing Officer, Sitecore
Customers don’t owe marketers their data. It’s not a right. As consumers become more privacy-sensitive, marketers must enable customers to take charge of – or be a part of – how their personal information is collected, stored, and acted upon. From there, brands must build a solid foundation using that data.

Technology must capture, unify, and activate omnichannel strategies that morph marketing outreach into personalized experiences based on each customer’s unique wants and needs. Of course, without third party cookies or other surreptitious data sources, marketers will need to make a compelling case – and be prepared to provide real value – for access to “want” data like past purchases, favorite brands, color preferences and sizes. For example, if a customer gives a retail brand the green light to store her shoe size and favorite brands, she should expect a discount code in her inbox immediately, and an email every time Louboutin’s are on sale. If that consumer gets irrelevant marketing or no reward, there will be no relationship.

Metaverse/VR/AR

MANSCAPED’s Founder and CEO, Paul Tran

“In 2022, we’re watching how adtech is combined with the metaverse and how ads play in this new space. As Facebook builds out AR and VR, we’ll have our eye on new VR ad units in particular. It will be interesting to watch the convergence of ads for the physical and virtual world and how it will be deployed in the metaverse.”

“As a consumer brand with significant marketing power and spend, our focus is on how we continue to reach our core demos within this new ad space. As some of the first advertisers on TikTok, and with our finger on the pulse of the metaverse redefining advertising as we know it, we are sure to be early adopters and players in this new digital wave.”

25% of our customers are already strategizing about the best ways to leverage Metaverse and create captivating content and experiences for their customers.*
Nishant Patel, CTO, Contentstack

Amazon as a platform

Raunak Nirmal, CEO and co-founder of Acquco, an Amazon acquisition company. Acquco buys Amazon businesses and helps them scale. The company recently raised $160M in funding.
Raunak has launched and successfully exited numerous multi-million dollar Amazon brands and continues to execute on his passion to help grow Amazon brands. He is also an ex-Amazonian and has originated and led implementation of projects with +$1B annual revenue impact. He can highlight what sellers can expect from Amazon in 2022, including:
Amazon fees will keep rising: Sellers will need to account for 1-2 increases next year to offset Amazon’s continued expansion efforts and rising labor costs. It’s important to note that UPS, FedEx and DHL are all raising rates as well for 2022 (at an average rate of 5.9%)
Sellers will leverage Amazon data as a CDP: Last year, two-thirds of shoppers started their product research on Amazon and we expect this trend to continue to increase as e-commerce continues to thrive
Acquisitions of Amazon businesses will continue to grow exponentially, but with fewer players: Since 2020, not only have valuations for Amazon seller businesses doubled, but there have been a flood of new aggregators in the space. The market cannot help but get to an inflection point as:
Most aggregators do not have the necessary expertise to grow brands
Undisciplined aggregators are willing to pay inflated multiples with unrealistic break-even expectations
While there are millions of third-party Amazon businesses, the most lucrative only represent the top 1%
Amazon will continue to insulate against supply chain disruptions: Amazon has been building it’s global delivery infrastructure, accounting for 21% of U.S. parcels – just over half of USPS – in the past 5 years. Recently they have also expanded to making their own shipping containers and this is positive news for FBA Amazon sellers, who rely on Amazon’s infrastructure to run and grow their business
The “eCommerce bubble” is anything but…: The pandemic was a pressure cooker for ecommerce, generating five years of growth in just over a year. While many are waiting for this growth bubble to burst, what actually happened was consumers were conditioned to become more comfortable with buying products online – this doesn’t mean that they won’t shop in store, but I think we’ll continue to see sustained growth due to this habit change. Since Amazon currently accounts for approximately 40% of U.S. eCommerce activity, this will be good news for sellers, who can continue to expect strong consumer demand on Amazon marketplaces

AI, automation

Konrad Feldman, Co-Founder and CEO of Quantcast
If marketers don’t adopt AI-driven adtech or martech solutions, they will be left behind.
AI may be one of the most hyped technologies in recent years, but from where I sit, it is one of the most effective technologies to determine future behavior. According to Forrester<https://www.forrester.com/blogs/predictions-2022-advertising/>, brands will flock to AI-powered audience solutions, fueling 20% of media and advertising category growth in 2022. With AI and machine learning, marketers can gain insights in real time and at scale, providing them with the ability to better understand their audience, what they need and where they’re looking for it. This empowers them to create better online experiences, improve business performance and build brand trust through true relevance. If a marketer or advertiser is not using AI-driven solutions to enhance their campaigns, they are missing out on insights, new audiences, and productivity gains. Those that embrace AI and machine learning now will gain a long-term competitive advantage.

Leslie Osman, Director, Marketing, IncredibleBank
Data & AI. Yes, buzzwords, but CMOs should be hyper focused on this as it will truly be the differentiator between those that can adapt and those that get lost. Consumers expect that brands know them based on their activity and reward loyalty in real time. Netflix, Google, Amazon have this down and consumers expect others — no matter the size — to keep up, especially post pandemic and most consumers have become accustomed to it. And, outside of customer experience, data and AI should be a key component in making better strategic decisions involving product development and customer experience. Marketing should be a leader and key player in the development and analysis of all of this.

Jason McClelland, Chief Marketing Officer, Algolia

AI-based search and discovery adoption will create a larger disparity between ecommerce leaders and the pack

The chasm between online retailers using AI-based search and discovery to optimize customer experience, conversations and personalization, and those that don’t have this technology in place will continue to widen. The pandemic accelerated the digital transformation interest and the intent to invest in these tools, however, the pace of this investment from smaller retailers has been slow. AI-based modern search and discovery tools are the most natural entry point for integrating this technology in a way that has a tangible benefit to a retailer’s bottom line. This will be a defining factor that helps small and mid-sized retailers better compete with industry giants.”

Noa Kind Data and Machine Learning Product Manager monday.com “Marketers are managing a whirlwind of challenges heading into next year — a flood of data from more and more sources, tracking and measurement limitations in the era of privacy, machine learning models and algorithms that help make optimization more accurate but may be more difficult to understand, and a workforce that is increasingly feeling more burnout largely due to unmanageable workloads.

It’s never been more important for marketing teams to be fully synced and, in 2022, automation will become a true competitive advantage.

By streamlining and automating repetitive operational tasks, marketers can reduce silos, create transparency across the entire department and free up employees to shift focus to more productive activities, such as high-quality analysis and decision making, performing tests and improving the metrics. Through an automation platform, marketers can automate core activities including behavioral tracking, personalization, email marketing, lead generation, lead management, analytics, content marketing, CRM and more — saving employees up to 3 hours per day. Plus, by automating the data harmonization process, marketers can better create and understand relatively complex models and more effectively use artificial intelligence to increase ROI.

David Council CEO and Co-Founder Drift “For 2022 and beyond, it’s going to be all about AI and chatbots — the delivery of conversational AI. We’re going to see adoption ramp up quickly for a number of reasons. AI is helping marketers accomplish what was long feared it would replace: Meaningful human connection. Because AI isn’t just a lead driver, it can help boost revenue by giving customers the types of experiences they crave. Personalized, timely, relevant experiences that they’ve been getting from their favorite consumer brands for years, but B2B has been failing to deliver. And bonus, AI can deliver these human experiences online, 24/7/365. Everything starts with a conversation and AI is helping both marketing and sales teams have the right conversations at the right time with their buyers.

Bottom line: AI isn’t going anywhere, but up. It’s going to be a cornerstone tool for marketing teams, and it’s going to pay huge dividends to buyers and sellers, alike. As The Great Resignation has shown us, teams are overwhelmed and overworked — desperate for some sort of pressure valve. For digital marketers, AI can provide some much-needed relief, and become the workforce in driving revenue, developing relationships, and eliminating gaps in customer technology. And best of all, AI can do it all in the background, without putting added pressure on teams. This means marketing teams can now get some breathing room, extra time, and energy to focus on what matters most — delivering a stellar experience for their customers.

Eli Chapman CMO Celtra “In 2022, the most important trend will be the emergence of technologies that fuel diversity and inclusivity in marketing. Marketers are looking for solutions to help them understand bias behind the scenes – in the briefing, ideation, and production of work – and in the media and algorithms that serve it. Why? Because culture is demanding it. Agencies like IPG have already committed to investing a minimum of 5% in Black-owned media channels across their clients by 2023. Startups like Arize have built out platforms for assessing and evaluating Machine Learning Model Bias. Media and algorithms are just the beginning. People want more inclusive experiences – but they will not be satisfied with surface-level change – and that’s the huge opportunity in 2022 for marketers and technologists.

Lanny Geffen, Director of Customer Experience & Head of Strategy at FUSE

“For a number for years, we’ve been excited by machine learning, AI, and more natural interfaces (e.g. Siri). One of the characteristics for the next phase of these technologies is not only do they improve in terms of functionality, and ubiquity in our environment(s), but they become more “sensitive” to us. In the not too distant future, your car will have “character,” will sense your mood, anticipate your needs, and may initiate or respond to your emotional and physical needs beyond core functionality – they’ll try to influence your feelings in positive ways.

Can you imagine: your car pumping you up before that big presentation at work, or your kitchen knowing you’ve had a rough day, serving you ice cream and talking it out with you. Personally I don’t mind – as long as they keep it all private.”

Measurement/attribution

Frost Prioleau CEO and Co-Founder Simpli.fi “Digital Style Attribution Replaces Traditional Panel-Based Delivery Metrics for Many Advertisers who are Moving Budgets from Linear to CTV

While some Linear TV advertisers will wait for a better panel-based solution to come along before they switch budget over to CTV advertising, many others will get tired of waiting and move to measuring their CTV buys like digital performance advertisers. This type of measurement will have a heightened focused on measuring the effectiveness of ad campaigns with various Cost Per Action (CPA) measures such as Cost Per Lead (CPL), Cost Per Visit (CPV), Customer Acquisition Cost (CPC), Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), and more.

Darcy McGilvery, Chief Marketing Officer, Simpli Home
We’re currently watching the sun set on the performance-marketing golden
age. What was promised didn’t come true—that marketing would become an
undeniable algorithmic-bank machine for those brands who drank the
performance-marketing Kool-aid.

In reality, CPMs are up, conversion rates are down, and cookie-based
marketing is hanging by a thread. If modern marketing is all about the
numbers, the numbers are getting worse.

Although the new era comes with the inevitable performance-marketing
hangover, there is hope. The power of brand will be on showcase in 2022 and
beyond, as companies that show value to humanity (and not bots) will be
rewarded handsomely. Marketing execution will again return to the
fundamentals: relevant products, strong messages, and ad placements based
more on human synapses than trackability.

Uncategorized

Konrad Feldman, Co-Founder and CEO of Quantcast
Marketers will become more intentional with their advertising budgets.
With brands like Patagonia doubling down<https://www.wsj.com/articles/patagonia-is-boycotting-facebook-urges-other-companies-to-do-the-same-11635514110> on their decision to stop all paid advertising on Facebook (Meta), we will start to see more marketers taking a thoughtful and intentional approach to how and where they invest their marketing budgets. Recognizing that their spend supports and sustains the voices and viewpoints that directly impact billions of people around the world, we will see increased scrutiny of precisely what that spend is funding and who benefits from it, with an increased focus on investing in businesses that align with corporate values and societal issues. This will see more brands tapping into the open internet to reach the diverse audiences it enriches and being intentional in aligning with publishers that represent diverse backgrounds.

Penry Price, VP of Global Sales, LinkedIn

Although brand awareness is not anything new, in 2022 and beyond we will
find buyers that are less focused on buying a specific product and more so
looking to invest their dollars in a brand they trust, believe in, and that
aligns with their core values. Given that only 5% of buyers are in-market
<https://www.marketingweek.com/peter-weinberg-jon-lombardo-95-5-rule/> to
buy a product at any given time, organizations need to spend this year
focused on how they are going to stay top-of-mind for the 95% of buyers who
are not looking to make a purchase. Elevating brand awareness, developing
an active community, and building trust as opposed to pushing product
updates and approaching your marketing in a self-serving manner will be
critical if you want to close the deal in 2022 and beyond!

Jeff Mains, CEO of Champion Leadership Group

Voice search adds a set of obstacles and a slew of fascinating
possibilities. Even if your company isn’t yet prepared for voice assistant
advertising, your website content must be optimized for a voice search
system. Voice searchers approach quests differently. It is more common for
them to use lengthier, more conversational inquiries *Thus, tailoring your
content to satisfy these queries and directly addressing questions may
assist in increasing its visibility in voice searches. *This offers the
additional benefit of increasing the likelihood that your material will be
picked up as a highlighted snippet or seen on Google’s first page of
results.

Miles Toolin is the Principal Solution Consultant at Cheetah Digital
Currently we have businesses stuck in ‘transformation fatigue land’ as they’ve embarked on journeys based on trends such as CDP, Activation and Personalisation

John Uke Founder Authenticity. People are getting tired of curated and fake experiences. For example, TikTok has gotten enormous, and people were disgusted by Zuckerberg’s metaverse pitch because of how scripted it was and untrustworthy he is (not commenting on metaverse but his delivery). Mass exodus now from company employees.

Abhishek Shrivastava (in the interest of transparency, submitted by Vic Reynolds; I’m representing the LMS leadership team. if you’re be interested, happy to chat/connect you with Abhishek or Penry Price on more predictions, etc – vreynolds@missionnorth.com) Senior Director of Product Privacy – privacy changes will make B2B advertising better. Right now, with all of the privacy changes underway, B2B advertising can feel like an uncertain climb. With the introduction of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency framework and the future deprecation of cookies, it can feel daunting not knowing how you will reach your prospective buyers and measure the success of your campaigns. And, things may get harder before they get easier—that’s okay. The privacy changes we’re undergoing are going to make B2B advertising better. Despite the massive uncertainties that lie ahead, there are bright spots—such as harnessing first-party and zero-party data—that will be critical to future success. B2B marketers are charting a new course—one built on a foundation of privacy-first technologies—that will have us delivering even better results for our organizations.

Leslie Osman Director, Marketing Data & AI. Yes, buzzwords, but CMOs should be hyper focused on this as it will truly be the differentiator between those that can adapt and those that get lost. Consumers expect that brands know them based on their activity and reward loyalty in real time. Netflix, Google, Amazon have this down and consumers expect others — no matter the size — to keep up, especially post pandemic and most consumers have become accustomed to it. And, outside of customer experience, data and AI should be a key component in making better strategic decisions involving product development and customer experience. Marketing should be a leader and key player in the development and analysis of all of this.

Robin Parton Pate Chief Marketing Officer Blockchain Technology. While it isn’t new in 2022, the level of sophistication has been amplified significantly and use cases in marketing are numerous.The proliferation of NFTs and their use as marketing tools to drive loyalty + the ability to fine tune every step of marketing and supply chain operations to better serve a customer at every point in the marketing journey will all be center stage next year.

Jessica Hasson Ceo AI / automation

Yaniv Navot Chief Marketing Officer In 2022, personalization will become more ubiquitous, acting as the cornerstone of the customer experience ecosystem, taking a variety of forms in both the physical and online world. We anticipate businesses will require flexible implementation methods and greater connectivity across the stack to synchronize experiences as well as AI and automation to continuously optimize all digital touchpoints. And given the increased skills and resources required, proper education and enablement will be essential.

Jason McClelland Chief Marketing Officer “AI-based search and discovery adoption will create a larger disparity between ecommerce leaders and the pack

Ryanne Laredo Chief Customer Officer “Brands will open the data privacy dialogue, helping consumers make more informed decisions

Jason VandeBoom CEO “Experimenting with ad dollars in new channels like TikTok to reach customers sounds like it will keep your brand relevant, but if the underlying customer experience (CX) isn’t there, it’s a moot effort. CX is at the root of how businesses grow, and brands will have more potential to scale just by running a good business in a sustainable way that works for their customers. Automation can help brands do this, but beware of over-automating the customer experience to the point that a “personalized” ad is merely addressing the customer by name.

In 2022, I predict that we’ll see brands of all sizes rethink their CX and drop “personalization,” instead creating 1:1 experiences with their customers. These are truly unique experiences where brands reach customers at the right time, on the right channel and with the right content throughout their entire customer journey – from acquisition to purchase to support and advocacy. Approaching CX this way allows businesses to develop strong relationships with their customers, making personalized CX a true differentiator for their business.

“

Joshua Grandy Director, Global Communications “PREDICTION: The future of measurement will leverage aggregated data driven by machine learning, and built on transparency and trust

Noa Kind Data and Machine Learning Product Manager “Marketers are managing a whirlwind of challenges heading into next year — a flood of data from more and more sources, tracking and measurement limitations in the era of privacy, machine learning models and algorithms that help make optimization more accurate but may be more difficult to understand, and a workforce that is increasingly feeling more burnout largely due to unmanageable workloads.

It’s never been more important for marketing teams to be fully synced and, in 2022, automation will become a true competitive advantage.

Another major consideration for marketers next year is around data and tracking challenges that are caused by privacy changes. The world is rapidly evolving — large companies (Google, Facebook, Apple) are creating more and more tracking limitations while governments are implementing more regulations around it (GDPR, CPPA etc.). These efforts are expected to expand even more in 2022, posing existential challenges to the classic marketing world that relies heavily on user tracking. The most successful marketers will be those who adjust and come up with creative ways to continue to deliver high quality marketing performance and optimization in this new age.”

Dale Renner CEO, Co-founder Consumer preferences and consent will become integral (vs. a side function) to the marketing team’s approach to driving revenue. Marketers rely on data to inform consumer experiences, but often lack visibility into its quality or provenance. As consumers demand – and legislation mandates – more data privacy and governance from brands, marketers are being held accountable for the data they’re using. This is why in 2022, we will see accountability for consumer data extend beyond a siloed IT function into marketing. Preference & consent management will become a new key function among marketing teams, where they’ll take on responsibility for how data is used to orchestrate consumer experiences. As part of this new capability, we can expect leading brands to establish data contracts with their consumers. This will go beyond checking a box of adhering to a new regulation and instead will focus on adding long-term value and considerations to the consumer experience.

Jim Kruger Chief Marketing Officer “Sales and channel partners will need to enhance their storytelling skills

Well trained sales and channel partners will become increasingly more important for consistently articulating company narratives, asking the right questions and deeply understanding customer use cases. As organizations develop their budgets and marketing plans for 2022, sales enablement should be a top priority. Investing in arming sales and channel partners with strong messaging, training, tools, content and resources enables them to add value to every customer interaction, resulting in higher conversion rates and significant business impact.”

David Council CEO and Co-Founder “For 2022 and beyond, it’s going to be all about AI and chatbots — the delivery of conversational AI. We’re going to see adoption ramp up quickly for a number of reasons. AI is helping marketers accomplish what was long feared it would replace: Meaningful human connection. Because AI isn’t just a lead driver, it can help boost revenue by giving customers the types of experiences they crave. Personalized, timely, relevant experiences that they’ve been getting from their favorite consumer brands for years, but B2B has been failing to deliver. And bonus, AI can deliver these human experiences online, 24/7/365. Everything starts with a conversation and AI is helping both marketing and sales teams have the right conversations at the right time with their buyers.

“

Brian Wallace Founder LinkedIn continues to the the big player in the room that not enough are utilizing enough from a creative content marketing and inbound approach. Whether you are a business owner, work a normal job, or are doing a side gig, there are over 800 million users, with less than 1% of the platform regularly creating original content. LinkedIn has stepped up its game in recent years, now with creator grants and dedicated teams within LinkedIn to support the community.

Eli Chapman CMO “In 2022, the most important trend will be the emergence of technologies that fuel diversity and inclusivity in marketing. Marketers are looking for solutions to help them understand bias behind the scenes – in the briefing, ideation, and production of work – and in the media and algorithms that serve it. Why? Because culture is demanding it. Agencies like IPG have already committed to investing a minimum of 5% in Black-owned media channels across their clients by 2023. Startups like Arize have built out platforms for assessing and evaluating Machine Learning Model Bias. Media and algorithms are just the beginning. People want more inclusive experiences – but they will not be satisfied with surface-level change – and that’s the huge opportunity in 2022 for marketers and technologists.

“

Frost Prioleau CEO and Co-Founder “Digital Style Attribution Replaces Traditional Panel-Based Delivery Metrics for Many Advertisers who are Moving Budgets from Linear to CTV

“

Ryan Horn Vice President, Marketing “Advertisers and Agencies Focus on Streamlining Their Workflow

After many years of adopting additional point solutions, advertisers are looking to integrate and consolidate their workflow. Going into 2022, we’ll see a heightened focus for advertisers looking for increased efficiency and visibility to workflow solutions. Additionally, integrated measurement, reporting, and attribution tools will be top of mind for advertisers and agencies as we move into next year.

“

Gayle Troberman Chief Marketing Officer If you’re listening closely to the signals, Audio Ad Tech is set to explode in the year ahead. Consumers now spend 1/3 of their media time with audio. With wireless headphone and smart speaker growth, audio is now the most accessible medium. Our ears are on the grid 24/7. And marketers are waking up to the massive potential of audio to deliver highly engaged, targetable audiences at scale. That means all of the data, ad tech, measurement and innovation tools developed for early digital will be needed for audio to maximize the power of sound seamlessly across the mass reach of broadcast and the 1:1 power of streaming and podcasts. The year of audio is here.

Sara Spivey CMO “As Apple and Google continue in their arms race on privacy, its resounding impacts have stretched far beyond compliance standards and into a marketing selling point. Marketers should not approach privacy as a dark cloud, because privacy-first approaches can offer new ways to engage with potential customers. Recent research from Braze shows that consumers are still open to sharing data with brands if the opportunity allows for an equal value exchange, where they also see a real benefit for providing this information. In a privacy first world, the use of third-party cookies is declining and first-party data will be the new currency for marketing success.

(The link to the aforementioned research is here: https://www.braze.com/resources/articles/retailers-winning-holiday-formula)”

Irina Marciano Director of Corporate Communications 2022 will be the year of user experience. In the last two years, we’ve seen businesses of all sizes, from all corners of the globe enter the digital commerce ecosystem for the first time. Facing lockdowns and occupancy restrictions, consumers and businesses alike turned to digital platforms for all their social and shopping needs. The result of this rapidly increased digitalization has been a merging of digital environments, as evidence by tech giants like Facebook and Instagram launching shopping capabilities, and social platforms like TikTok rolling out their own marketplaces. In this super-app, omni-channel, omni-device environment, marketers who focus on user experience will find themselves able to push ahead of competition. Look for ways to unify content across channels, and to offer more touchpoints from a singular platform.

Ginny Lobel VP Marketing We’ve seen the continued implementation of AI across various aspects of the marketing industry, and I think that’ll only grow in 2022 – especially in market research. The pandemic required us marketers to get creative, and forced many to turn to digital research solutions for things like qualitative research for example, which is typically done with in person focus groups. By integrating AI into the way brands conduct their research, they can capture the pulse of their audience on a more frequent basis and with more accuracy, ultimately better tailoring their marketing for their target audiences, all thanks to AI!

Katie Jansen Chief Marketing Officer

“”We expect to see health and fitness apps continue to rise in popularity and evolve to appeal to different, savvier audiences. App Annie’s State of Mobile 2021 Report estimated that, in 2020, over 71,000 health and fitness apps were launched globally. The pandemic fueled the idea that ‘fitness can be anywhere’, and more mainstream apps have found ways to reach fitness enthusiasts with broader app selection and class instruction. Gone are the days where you need to book a class and/or head to the gym. With the increased selection of apps, instructors can reach a wider at-home audience and offer shorter, more snackable workouts that can be done in 10 to 15 minutes or less.”” — Katie Jansen, AppLovin Chief Marketing Officer

Keith Kawahata Head of Games “Crypto, NFTs, Web3 infrastructure and protocols present exciting opportunities for virtually every industry. At the intersection between crypto and gaming we see early signs of a new business model of play-2-earn and on-chain virtual asset ownership. It’s still very early for these new business models however, investment into and the community around the space is growing exponentially. Much as we saw in prior business models and platform evolutions we expect crypto to increase audience, transparency and inclusion. The market can expect several contenders to fight to be the ‘back-bone’ of the play-to-earn ecosystem, making it highly fragmented to start, but likely to consolidate and standardize over time.” — Keith Kawahata, Head of Games, AppLovin

Keith Kawahata Head of Games “Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) will grow bigger in gaming, becoming a mainstream alternative to centralized and custodial ownership of virtual assets. This is already providing opportunities for players, creators and developers within gaming the ability to monetize and collaborate in new exciting and decentralized ways. According to nonfungible.com, more than $2 billion was spent on NFTs during the first three months of 2021 alone, marking a 2,100 percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2020. We expect to see this growth continue in 2022, with gaming acting as a first mover to build functional utility and technological advancement across the web3 ecosystem.” — Keith Kawahata, Head of Games, AppLovin

Ken Willner Chief Growth Officer “In 2022, the name of the game is Mobile. The generations coming into purchasing power — Gen Z and Gen Alpha — are growing up without any memory of a world without ubiquitous mobile access and no real knowledge of analog systems because their parents are also more connected than previous generations. This drives a significant amount of their behavior. At a young age, they are already seasoned consumers conditioned to expect instant gratification from the device in their pocket. They live in a world where social media is personalized and highly shoppable, Amazon is omnipresent, and the games they play are on connected devices that repeatedly push in-app purchases and subscriptions. They expect the same level of personalization from the advertising they are served.

The past year has taught us that authentic, mission-driven initiatives are key to connecting with young audiences. In 2022, we will see this continue to grow. The young audiences that marketers are desperate to connect with will see right through inauthentic imagery or taglines. Data shows 78% of Gen Zs will engage with an ad if it supports a cause they align with. Therefore, brands need to prioritize the power of purpose. Companies with an authentic mission, cause, or message, will undoubtedly rise above those who don’t:

–71% of Gen Zer’s are more likely to purchase from a brand if their ads mention topics like mental health advocacy

–66%.2 for public health & safety

–65.8% sustainability

–58.9% racial equality

–53.5% LGBTQ+ acceptance

Finally, given advertisers’ ability to target audience’s entire online and mobile experiences, consumers will grow to expect the same from the way they engage with brands even more than years and generations prior. Our data shows Gen Z typically steers away from ads that are irrelevant, non-personalized (44.6%), influencer or memes (42.9%) and band wagon-ing or hijacking viral videos (40.5%). You can expect the aversion to be even stronger for Gen Alpha. “

Jim Freeze Chief Marketing Officer “To keep up with rising customer expectations in 2022, marketers need to invest in conversational AI solutions that span all channels, voice and text-based.

The second half of 2021 has been an often-confusing transitional period between mid-pandemic and post-pandemic—and 2022 will be no different. After COVID-19 hit, brands saw a shift in consumer touchpoints, with in-person connections dwindling and online channels becoming more popular. Though in-person might have been the method of choice two years ago, preferences have clearly changed; some new behaviors are here to stay, and others are slowly returning to “normal.”

Because AI is already a rapidly growing trend, the next step to enhance these technologies is to move towards optichannel AI solutions—those that enable fluid, productive conversations with customers that can move from one channel to another without disruption. Into the future, this technology will be critical for supporting customers when and where they need assistance. Allowing customers to shift between “on the phone at home” and “by text on-the-go” conversations—and even in person—takes into account the rapidly changing world we live in while continuing to build brand loyalty and customer satisfaction.”

Alexandre Robicquet Co-Founder & CEO In 2022, as privacy laws rapidly tighten, marketers will have to focus not only on bringing in new customers, but also retaining them—without the use of third-party cookies. The ability to attract users to your site is one thing, but converting them is another, particularly as consumer expectations for tailored content grow and brands are expected to understand their preferences almost instantly. As such, we’ll see increased conversation about the technologies that can provide top-notch, efficient product and content recommendations using only on-site actions rather than personal identifiable information (PII). Ultimately, this will be the new frontier for marketing.

Rajesh Johnny Cofounder “Fintech. As almost everything becomes a Fintech, either as a sole business or connected to a Fintech for fulfilment and the crypto/DeFi movement etc, the need for the category to stabilise and mature is high. Also the multitude of neobanking formats wil start eyeing for the same customer cohort which will lead to the aggressive need of marketing to acquire customers.

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Matej Lancaric Independent UA consultant In 2022, UA managers will be trying to figure out how to bring players to the new hypetrain called blockchain games. These games are currently only web/browser based which brings a new challenge for “younger UA managers” who don’t remember the good old days of Google Adwords with Search, GDN and Youtube separated from each other. Seems like we are going back to 2013-14 … Good luck everyone!