pandemic

Consumer Behavioral Shifts: Why Your Marketing Measurement Must Adapt in 2022 and Beyond

Consumer behaviors have changed dramatically creating new challenges for brands and their marketing measurement. During this Insights Studio, we explored the measurement challenges brands have faced in the wake of significant consumer changes. We also discussed best practices brands should be using to ensure their marketing measurement is set up for future success as consumers continue to react to major societal change. Executives from OptiMine, an agile marketing analytics provider, Kepler, a global digital agency, and Beachbody, an innovative health and fitness company, shared their observations on how changes in consumer shopping and media consumption behaviors have been reflected in marketing measurement.

Concurrent Track Panel Discussions: AUDIENCE-DRIVEN TRENDS IN MEDIA

Britta Cleveland of Meredith Corporation provided an overview of the themes from the Audience-Driven Trends in Media track. Advertising is alive and flourishing, but there are opportunities for improvement in creative, as well as how and where it runs. Streaming VOD is growing exponentially, and both ad supported and paid content are growing. Global entertainment opportunities are expanding. Additionally, the pandemic led to changes in how consumers make their choices, and supply chain pressures increased. This idea of intentionalism is something we are all feeling. During the past two years, everything changed.

Welcome to the Age of Intentionalism

The 2020 pandemic broke time, and this is still happening in 2022. Warner Media’s Mukta Chowdhardy explained that the pandemic caused consumers to focus on intentionality and making mindful decisions.

Streaming in the New Media Landscape

Since the onset of COVID-19, viewing patterns have changed dramatically. The biggest shift, however, has been an accelerated trend towards streaming. Shelter at home policies and health concerns about gathering in large public places, such as movie theaters, are the driving forces. The ARF’s OTT virtual event was dedicated to exploring recent trends as well as identifying the drivers of viewing behavior and the business of OTT in the “new normal”: How have viewing patterns and preferences evolved? What strategies have streaming companies employed to maintain and increase market share? How have studios evaluated and overcome production challenges? 2020 OTT landscape are vastly different from 2019 – how have advertisers taken advantage of the shifts? Spanning two days, for two hours each day, leading OTT providers, advertisers and research experts shared their perspectives and predictions about changing viewing behavior and where the market is heading.

Forecasting Post-Pandemic Business Recovery

At ARF’s DATAxSCIENCE 2021, experts in forecasting and scenario planning presented the latest research and insights on understanding which changes in consumer behavior and attitudes will help shape the post-pandemic recovery. They also shared examples of different research methods and models to tap into these signals. Key themes of the conference included:

  • The fundamentals did not change, and it’s important not to lose sight of the fundamentals that made brands successful.
  • Trends that became accelerated by the pandemic, such as anything related to technology and healthcare, are likely to continue.
  • What drives value may have changed for people.

Building a Customer Experience (CX) Roadmap

This MESH Experience webcast focused on how marketers can grow their business and succeed in the new age of customer experience (CX). Experts at Axa Investment Managers and Cox Communications discussed how to build a CX roadmap in the current consumer climate. Attendees were given a toolkit to grow their brand and gained an understanding of how to meet and exceed the demands of their current and prospective customers.

OTT 2022: Welcome

Tania Missad of Warner Bros. Discovery introduced the audience to their Video Now study, a 10-year project investigating the evolution of the viewing landscape, which includes the growth of streaming and further erosion of linear TV. The study found that people are now less willing to spend on streaming apps and other options due to frustration with rising costs. They also feel overwhelmed by the number of services. This is causing low and no cost options such as AVOD and FAST to flourish. Besides cost savings, viewers like that AVOD and FAST have large libraries of content to explore. What consumers want now is bundling discounts, improved content discovery including aggregating desirable content across different apps and more personalized recommendations. There’s also a growing interest in more diverse stories and international content.

Building a Multi-Currency Future

This dialog between Scott McDonald and Colleen Fahey Rush (Paramount) covered the rebranding of Colleen’s company and three broader issues facing the television industry—the rise of streaming services, her perceptions of the currency environment and the upcoming upfronts.

AUDIENCExSCIENCE 2023

The ARF hosted its annual flagship conference, AUDIENCExSCIENCE 2023, on April 25-26, 2023. The industry’s biggest names and brightest minds came together to share new insights on the impact of changing consumer behavior on brands, insights into TV consumption, campaign measurement and effectiveness, whether all impressions are equal, join-up solutions across multiple media, the validity, reliability and predictive power of Attention measures, targeting diverse audiences, privacy’s effect on advertising and the impact of advertising in new formats. Keynotes were presented by Tim Hwang, author of Subprime Attention Crisis, Robert L. Santos of the U.S. Census Bureau, Brian Wieser of Madison and Wall, LLC and Andrea Zapata of Warner Bros. Discovery.

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