What's Next for 2022: Top Trends

With 2021 wrapping up, GumGum has compiled a list of the key trends to look out for next year:

#1: Shift Focus on Attention

Marketers must find new ways to measure ad success in an increasingly digital and saturated online environment. One method that has recently started gaining traction is attention-based measurement, which uses  metrics around “viewability” or the “opportunity to see an ad” to identify how long eyeballs were actually on a particular brand message.

To prove the power of its contextual capabilities, GumGum partnered with Lumen Research and Publicis Groupe and put its ad formats to the test. The study on ad viewability proved that GumGum's contextually-targeted ads had a 92% ad viewability average versus 55% for standard formats.

Undoubtedly, attention-based measurement will continue to grow throughout the next year, leaving behind the current impressions system of measuring ad success.

#2: Goodbye Cable, It's the Era of CTV

The revolution of Connected TV is quickly gaining speed, with CTV ad spend reaching $18 billion by 2023 (eMarketer). CTV offers an exciting opportunity for marketers, capturing troves of consumers that have moved away from traditional television and towards streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Roku and more.

This is a whole new frontier for digital marketers to capture consumer attention in a new environment. People no longer have to be at home in front of the television to grab their attention - CTV goes wherever the consumer goes, opening up endless possibilities for advertisers.  Next year we will continue to see advertisers make their way into the streaming video space and even brand new environments like gaming. Plus, perhaps the real hero of CTV - gaming has vast untapped potential that will become crucial to marketers in the near future.

#3: Cookie is Out, Privacy is In

Whether we like it or not, third-party cookies are on their way out, bringing in a new wave of privacy regulations and technologies. Now more than ever, it is important for industry leaders to develop brand safe channels that protect consumers.

The work on data privacy regulations is just beginning as regulators, tech leaders, and consumers figure out what is required in order to keep everyone's personal data safe going forward. The future is contextual - it is the only solution out there that is future-proof, effective, and doesn't require any personal data to work. Solutions like Universal IDs and FLoC cohorts have several challenges, one being that it still requires the collection of personal data and the second being that it still doesn't guarantee you're reaching the right consumer, at the right time.

In the years to come we expect to see data privacy regulations grow as we learn more about how to protect personal data in a digital world.

#4: Contextual Will Gain Global Traction

The death of the cookie, coupled with Google's recent announcement to end all behavioral targeting has marketers looking forward to the next best thing. With its projected growth worldwide, it's of no surprise that the advertisers will continue to invest in contextual advertising.

In 2022, advertisers will seek to run contextual-only campaigns in the absence of any scale people-based identifier, with privacy-first companies coming out on top. High quality contextual targeting combined with effective programmatic DOOH will be an effective means to advertise within a post-pandemic context.

But, with this, more companies will claim to be contextual targeting experts, but none will match GumGum's MRC accreditation. GumGum is the first independent ad tech provider to have achieved Media Rating Council (MRC) content-level accreditation for contextual analysis, brand safety and suitability. This is a pivotal win for GumGum and stands testament to the fact that our contextual solution will shape the future of digital advertising.

#5: Creative Remains Crucial

Undoubtedly, creativity converts - in fact, high-impact creative drives 50% of a campaign's success. Rich media formats, by nature, provide a larger canvas for advertisers, allowing for more creative techniques, from interactive animations and games to immersive video experiences.

GumGum partnered with MAGNA Media Trials to test the impact of its contextual video ad units. The study found that GumGum's ads grab more user attention because they are highly creative and contextually-driven. GumGum's contextual ad creative is far more noticeable, gets far more attention and drives more brand recall. The combination of high-quality ad inventory, with high-quality creative and high-quality context is what leads to authentic engagement from consumers. For the full study, please click here.

#6: Closing the Programmatic Gap

Next year, more and more DSPs will begin to surpass SSPs and opt to integrate directly with publishers, slashing the ad tech tax. The supply path optimization (SPO)  effort, which is historically held at the brand and agency level, will be overtaken by DSPs, with The Trade Desk (TTD) kicking off the first effort with their Global Placement ID. With scale becoming an increasingly important consideration, there will continue to be consolidation on all sides of the chain.

To stay ahead of the pack and learn about GumGum's offerings, get in touch now.

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