Kantar has released its annual forecast for how the media landscape will evolve with a cost of living crisis reshaping business reality in the year ahead.
The 2023 Media Trends and Predictions report gives a definitive view of coming media industry trends using Kantar’s market-leading data alongside evidence-based predictions and expert viewpoints.
The insights aim to help media companies and brands navigate 2023 and plan for the future. The report focussed on new VOD models, soaring costs, data usage and new technologies.
Commenting on the 2023 predictions, John McCarthy, strategic content director, media division, Kantar, said, “We foresee a year full of challenge and opportunity for the media industry. As global price rises impact consumer spend and advertising, campaign planning could be optimised through improved data application, making budgets go further.
“From post-cookie solutions to better campaign planning, data is our fuel – but its usage is changing. The future will continue to deliver a host of new technologies, each brimming with potential, and it’s important not to get lost in the hype.”
John McCarthy
VOD embraces appointment TV strategies
Kantar’s experts predict the winners in the platform wars will deploy hybrid strategies balancing VOD (video on demand) and linear content.
Broadcasters are adopting aspects of VOD strategy that fit their positioning whilst preserving their points of difference, and VOD platforms are adopting concepts like ‘appointment TV’ and curated content discovery. The market will shift away from all-at-once release strategies and box-set bingeing for new content in order to maximise revenues.
Ad-supported models answer to inflation worries
The report also revealed market penetration for ad-based video-on-demand (AVOD) grew from 20% in Q2 21 to 23% as shown by Q2 22 US data. Kantar’s Media Reactions 2022 study shows consumers are more accepting of advertising, and as rising costs are making ad-funded content more palatable.
The timing is right to introduce ad-funded tiers to limit price-sensitive churn. However, ad-models risk creating two types of viewers: those with less disposable income who become over-targeted by ads, and those with more disposable income, who are more attractive to advertisers, but are harder to reach.
Contextualise or fail
The agency also revealed marketers must prepare for a post-cookie landscape by experimenting with proxy-based targeting systems and contextual advertising. Targeting within closed ecosystems, in which consented first-party data is available, will still be possible, but wider cross-platform targeting has hit the barrier of consumer privacy.
‘Dynamic product placement’ edges closer
Additionally, nearly 75% of all US broadcast network shows have some form of product placement, targeting those viewers difficult to reach through conventional advertising forms, according to Kantar’s Future Viewing Experience 2022 report with dynamic product placement – enabling a product, billboard or screen featured in content to be substituted or overlaid with a different brand or advert – also growing.
Like addressable advertising, different viewers could – with the right data – be shown tailored ads. However, technological possibilities will need to be balanced against what’s acceptable to audiences, thus, tailored content should be closely monitored.
Media companies need to respond to advertisers’ (and consumers’) Net Zero ambitions
Reducing the carbon impact of media and advertising to net zero is the business challenge of our time and a greater opportunity, Kantar found.
Pablo Gomez, head of creative and media for the region at Kantar in Singapore commented on brands and the industry on their track to Net Zero: “2023 is a year of green innovation for media brands. According to Kantar’s Link ad-testing database of more than 230,000 ads, the number of campaigns that address social and environmental issues has tripled since 2016, and now stands at 6% of all ads.”
He added: “2023 will be the year of new challenges for media brands when they should not just follow but show. And as media plans seek to go green – charting the impact on energy use alongside existing brand metrics – media owners who can offer better carbon deals are likely to attract more business.”