A year in review and a look ahead
Informed by their Digital & Marketing in Focus 2023 report, Teresa Sperti, Founder at StudioSpace agency Arktic Fox - a specialist digital, eCommerce & capability development agency that helps marketing, digital and business leaders accelerate growth, improve performance and shine - kindly contributed her fascinating reflections on 2023 and predictions for 2024 below.
2023 has been a year of highs and lows for brands and marketing leaders across the country. With GenAi racing onto the scene, marketers have been afforded opportunities to innovate in experience delivery like never before whilst driving efficiency and we are really only getting started.
Cost of living pressures have however equally plagued us, placing a lot of downward pressure on budgets and resourcing requiring leaders to re-think their strategy and drive innovation in order to remain relevant as consumer behaviour and expectations shift.
The government has also progressed its agenda in the privacy space with brands now clearer than ever on what some of the key changes to the Privacy Act will be (35 recommendations agreed to) and others that are still on the table for greater consultation (68). It has also been an interesting year for eCommerce. The post COVID eCommerce boom has somewhat normalised and whilst some brands are still seeing strong growth, others have seen performance plateau.
The cost of living pressures have begun to re-shape how consumers buy online, with marketplaces taking a bigger share of the pie and smart brands re-thinking their distribution beyond to extend reach in third party channels.
As we crawl into 2024, we see a number of trends on the horizon that brands need to consider. As the government begins to pass changes to the privacy act brands will need to double down on addressing privacy compliance.
Our 2023 Digital & Marketing in Focus study found that only 31% of suggested that a focus on improving our compliance with data privacy was a priority so there is much work to do across the industry. Brands and marketers will also be playing a delicate juggling act as Google begins to phase out cookies from early 2024.
Our 2023 study found that 37% of brands had yet to prepare for the change and a further portion were only in early stages of planning.
2024 is also likely to see a wave of innovation in the value space, as consumers and B2B buyers continue to tighten their purse strings brands will need to go beyond short-term activations to continue to grow and deliver value in new ways as buyers and shoppers more than ever shop around and compare what is on offer and weigh up where they will invest and what maybe isn’t a necessity.
To download the 2023 Digital & Marketing In Focus report visit https://www.arkticfox.io/digital-marketing-in-focus
