2022 brought omnichannel investment; this year we'll see real measurement

It’s true that the way to identify and track users around the internet is becoming more difficult due to changing privacy regulations. But changes to privacy can’t take the full brunt of responsibility for this increasingly complex measurement challenge.

Budget cuts, a lack of guidance, and a lack of in-house resources mean that marketers aren’t able to find the solutions that they’re seeking, and are unable to drive accurate measurement across their businesses.

Marketers need to become smarter about how they utilize the data available to them to gain an understanding of the full customer journey. This means making use of both their online and offline data, resulting in a journey to delivering truly omnichannel measurement.

Economic necessity

Getting the right message in front of the right person, at the right time, is an ambition for all marketers. However, as advertisers are faced with complex economic challenges in 2023, their campaigns will be under more scrutiny than before. Therefore, the ability to measure these campaigns becomes all the more critical.

Because digital helps brands to minimize wastage and maximize efficiency, the shift to hybrid models won’t reduce its value. Instead, digital will have a bigger role to play right across a brand’s online and offline presences.

A full-funnel approach to marketing – including offline – will be what moves the needle for advertisers during the economic downturn. The injection of digital qualities into above-the-line (ATL) opens the door for marketers to more intelligently target users, and produce more creative, targeted messaging, in places where they would have previously struggled to do so. In turn, it provides the basis for evaluating and measuring the consumer journey across every touchpoint.

These touchpoints are also evolving. It’s likely we’ll be seeing a big focus on areas such as digital out-of-home, connected TV, media mix modeling, and mobile measurement, while the strong brand practices of ATL media are applied to digital platforms.

Finding the new in the old

While ATL marketing methods will always have a place within the strategies of most advertisers, there won’t be a shift to completely relying on the old practices. Instead, we’ll see measurement becoming the link between traditional and digital marketing channels, creating a space for the holy grail of a multichannel attribution strategy.

This could also lead to a reconsideration of the way marketing is done within the online space, with investments shifted away from channels such as PPC into other areas of digital, such as influencers and video sponsorship.

This transition makes a lot of sense, because it addresses the reliance on online advertising, while keeping investment within digital. It bears similarities to what the industry is having to do within digital advertising itself – reverting back to a focus on context, while finding new ways to use the tactics that have been used for over a decade.

Overall, digital is set to become more prevalent across industries in 2023 – spreading its reach further within the online world, as well as in offline environments. This could be through automation, buying capabilities, creative production, or data integration – all of which will help marketers to serve the right message to the right consumer at the right time in the most effective manner possible.

It remains to be seen what the digital advertising space will look like this time next year. However, we can be sure that brands that are able to successfully converge both online and offline channels, while maintaining a strong focus on measurement, will see the most success throughout 2023.