AI, YouTube Shorts, and Performance Driven Metrics Will Continue to Rise

David Brickley, CEO 

A.I. is Here to Stay

With the introduction of sophisticated tools like ChatGPT, A.I. has now officially gone somewhat mainstream and is becoming a tool all professionals can use to be more efficient in their day-to-day work. While it doesn’t fully replace humans day-to-day it allows you to no longer have to work from a blank canvas and get a head start on copywriting, researching, coding, and much more!

YouTube Shorts is the New Player

We will see (finally) a bigger emphasis on YouTube for brands. YouTube is often forgotten about as a lot of brands focus on IG, Twitter, and TikTok. However, with the release of YouTube Shorts, it has become the #2 website in the world and one that you can’t forget about when it comes to your social strategy. YouTube announced last summer that Shorts is now being watched by over 1.5 billion logged-in users every month, less than two years after its launch.

By comparison, TikTok announced 1 billion monthly users in September 2021. The ability to move your top-performing creatives on IG Reels or TikTok straight to YouTube Shorts gives you yet another opportunity to increase your distribution

Performance-Driven Metrics for Teams

Now that the remote working environment has settled in, we will see an increase in companies having clear measurable KPIs and accountabilities for each position at the company that helps drive results that affect the bottom line.

This is not silly keystroke tracking or making someone work on ZOOM, but more so being accountable for a lane of the company and tracking those metrics to ensure the position is as efficient and effective as possible.

Impact, Performance, and Efficiency will Drive Company Culture

Cammille Arciaga, Senior Vice President

After years of uncertainty and companies pouring into initiatives that support baseline employee wellness, safety, remote work, transitions, virtual collaboration, etc. – I think that companies are going to start taking a hard look at what actually drives performance and efficiency to ensure that investments turn into tangible impacts on the business. I predict impact, performance, and efficiency will be at the heart of company culture.

AI Tools will Evolve our Content Creation Models

Alex Flores, Director of Marketing

AI tools aren’t new to 2023 but the accessibility of these tools will be evolving the landscape of how we implement these features into our current marketing models. Having tools like ChatGPT or Magic Write take care of the more mundane writing tasks allows marketers to spend more valuable time on the actual content strategy, optimization, and conversion tactics.

And although these AI tools have gotten better at reading and understanding user inputs, they still require quite a bit of hand-holding. In 2023 I think we will continue to see the evolution of these tools be even more powerful with regard to input interpretation and I believe we will see their usability expand to even more fields of work.

Increase in Integrated Marketing and Unpolished Content

Danny Pham, Director of Strategy and Innovations

Overall Marketing Predictions

In 2022, there were a lot of talks of omnichannel marketing and in 2023, I believe we’ll see the same emphasis, but I prefer integrated marketing. With brands thinking more strategically about their marketing efforts (and dealing with a lower personnel headcount), there needs to be an emphasis on marketing disciplines talking and working together to help amplify their overall efforts ie: If the overall goal is more followers, what can the content team, influencer team, community management team, and paid media team do to achieve that goal?

Integrated marketing and omnichannel marketing isn’t anything new, but brands are still new to the concept. A good way to look at it is if a brand has a marketing campaign (whether it be a product launch or brand campaign), how is that campaign being rolled out across all marketing channels, platforms, and disciplines? Is it consistent? Is it cohesive? What does segmentation look like?

I also believe brands will be thinking twice about their spending to ensure there is an ROI on every dollar spent on marketing. Thus requiring Directors, VPs, and CMOs to know how to speak on metrics of success and KPIs for marketing channel budgets.

Content Marketing Predictions

Unpolished content has proven to perform and it’s what consumers desire. Brands will continue to test lo-fi content, but also explore how to make super-polished content work. There’s a time and place for everything, so platform and delivery style is extremely important to how something will perform. What we are understanding with platforms like TikTok and BeReal is that there is a desire for “in-the-moment” content pieces.

Maximizing Engagement through a Human-First Approach and TikTok Paid Media Strategies

Liz Ninivaggi, Senior Director of Media

Emphasis on a Human-First Approach to Content

I predict a continued emphasis on human-first approaches with content across organic, paid, and influencer marketing. Audiences continue to crave realistic and organic types of content that they can resonate with, versus standard traditional content such as text-heavy banners. Influencer content will continue to share more realistic POVs, GRWMs, and more.

New Paid Marketing Strategies on TikTok

TikTok’s direct-to-consumer paid capabilities will compete even more with historical platforms such as Meta. With taggable product links rolling out of beta for TikTok – I predict spending will be more evenly diversified between the two platforms from a major media standpoint.

A Shift Towards Visually Inclusive Social Campaigns

William Riggins, Senior Creative Director 

In 2023, brands will be more visually inclusive in their social campaigns to demonstrate authenticity, tell compelling stories, and build affinity with their consumer base.

Brands more than ever care about how their customer base feels towards them. Through custom imagery and illustration, brands will promote a sense of authentic care for their consumers and the values they hold. The future is only more diverse and brands will be keen on getting ahead in connecting with emerging audience segmentations.

On-site Events to Focus on “The Experience” 

Dena Rix, Vice President, Production & Creative Services

In the past year, we began to see more and more events come back in person, but overall people have become more accustomed to staying at home. I predict that on-site and event productions will need to focus on the experience more than ever before. We will need to be strategic and intentional to enhance the experience of the event/stunt to ensure people are motivated to attend, participate, and engage with the brand.

Influencers will Need to Shift to Medium Form Content

Dylan Siegel, Senior Influencer Marketing Manager

Medium-form content is COMING BACK! Short-form content offerings such as TikTok and YouTube Shorts have opened the gates to a new universe of creator and influencer content and new audience bases that are just looking for another quick fix. But what happened to the days of YouTubers being the most followed creators on the internet? What happened to the billions of people spending 10+ minutes watching one video? They’re still out there.

Short-form content has shown us that the most creative storytellers can get their message across quickly to fit the mold. I think there is a world out there of highly engaged audiences that want medium-length content and I predict that the influencers who will find the most success building highly engaged and connected audiences will be those authentically sharing their creativity in 3-6 minute shorts.