• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, December 7, 2022

Media buyers and other players are nervous in a way that could impact email marketing departments in 2023, judging by Mediaocean’s 2022 Marketing Report and 2023 Outlook, conducted by TechValidate by SurveyMonkey.  

For one thing, brands fear the cookieless future and lack of access to third-party data. And some brands would move resources into measurement and attribution and first-party data. 

Here are their biggest concerns:

• Lack of preparedness for cookieless future and other data deprecation relating to consumer privacy & walled garden behavior — 37%
• Decline in ability to measure campaign effectiveness on tech platform & open web — 32%
• Loss of access to third-party data — 32%
• Consumer ad avoidance/ad blindness — 29%
• Talent retention/access to expertise — 29%
• Poor ability to manage reach & frequency across CTV & digital channels — 28% 

Given all that, the respondents see these advertising capabilities and media investments as the most critical:

• Performance-driven paid media — 52%
• Measurement & attribution capabilities — 41%  
• Brand advertising — 36% 
• First-party data mastery — 26%
• Demand generation — 24% 
• Creating testing & analysis — 22% 
• Automation — 21%
• Experimental/innovation budgets — 21% 
• Privacy — 21% 
• Identity — 16%

First-data data mastery is critical to email teams — they cannot market at all unless they have that key piece of first-party data: the email address.   

Marketers also believe these factors will most impact for their advertising in 2023: 

• Measurement improvements centered on non-cookie methods (e.g. panels, media mix modeling, federated learning methods, better use of first-party data) — 27% 
• Improvements in integrated media planning & execution — 21% 
• Artificial intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning Learning (ML) — 15% 
• Improved ad opportunities in emerging channels (e.g immersive games, influencer economy, Tik Tok, VR/AR) — 15% 
• Contextual targeting improvements — 11% 
• Better infrastructure/processes for first-party data — 6%
• Converges TV measurement/planning — 5%

Marketers are also worried about brand safety and suitability of ad placements, but perhaps a little less so than before. In Q1 2022, 51% said their worries would stay the same and that 42 would increase over the next 12 months. 

Asked the same question in Q4, 54% felt they would stay the same and 40% that they would increase. 

Meanwhile, marketers think these consumer trends are the most critical to watch in 2023: 

• TikTok/social video — 63% 
• CTV/streaming — 54% 
• E-commerce everywhere — 47%
• Consumer privacy — 35%
• Metaverse — 34%
• Gaming — 30%
• Political & advocacy trends — 15%

To meet those interests brands seek: 

• Better creative & production tools — 49% 
• Better ad performance — 40% 
• Resolving social identity across platforms — 40%
• Time savings (automation) — 32%
• Cost savings — 25%

TechValidate surveyed 621 respondents from brands, agencies, media companies, measurement firms, tech platforms, and other marketing industry constituents in November 2022.