2020 was one of the most difficult years we have faced in recent times which brought with it massive challenges. With people stuck at their homes, many of the traditional mediums witnessed a huge drop in spending. 2021, therefore has been a year of slow recovery.

While the first half of the year was, in some ways, even more challenging, owing to the havoc the second wave of Covid-19 wreaked, things have been steadying slowly. The second half of the year has seen consumer sentiments slowly moving towards positive and it has been a good festive season.

GroupM in its recently published report gave some positive news, that the industry is recovering much faster than earlier anticipated. And there have been signs of the green shoots too with different mediums recording good growth. BARC recently revealed that the November ad volumes for Television stood at 156 million seconds, 3% higher than 2020 and 31%

With consumer sentiments turning positive and brands’ increasing willingness to spend more on advertising, things seem to be on the mend for now.
We will continue to see a lot of these trends in 2022 as well, but there is more in store. While the industry is moving towards the next year with cautious optimism, we spoke to a few experts from the advertising industry to understand what we can expect from 2022, and here is what they had to say:

Kainaz Karmakar & Harshad Rajadhyaksha, CCOs, Ogilvy India
Seniors will learn from juniors
The pace with which new media and technology are integrating themselves into advertising, we can either up-skill or pack up our egos and leave.
This is the truth. The faster we internalise it, the clearer we will be about our future.

If this clarity leads us to acquiring new skills, then the best teachers are the youngest people in our offices. They were almost born with a smart phone in their hands. We had to learn to live with devices and apps. They can’t imagine living without them. Technology is blood to them. Add to that the immortal enthusiasm of their youth. An hour in their company is like reading an entire issue of The Wire.

We should invest in these kids. Not just money but also our time. Learning something new from them is much more fun than whatever administrative meeting we are missing to do this.

The fabric of advertising as we know it is changing. It’s terrific to be a part of this change, even if it means going back to being a student. Most of us had the best time of our lives when we were students. Only this time, our teachers are younger and cooler than us.

Arun Raman, Chief Intelligence Officer, GREY Group India
2022: Happy Brave Year
The last 2 years were all about ‘Safety First’. Any action perceived as risky, was quickly branded as irresponsible by all and sundry. And we were all forced to put our heads down and keep our distance from the unknown.

Covid, particularly the Delta variant, made marketing prudent too. At a time when there were tectonic shifts happening in consumer behavior, in cultural markers and even in business models, prudence was the operative word. Protection of market shares and protection of bottom-lines were the extension of protection at home. After all, aren’t marketers human first, consumers next and sellers lastly!

I predict 2022 to break these self-imposed protectionist mindset by my marketing counterparts. Most have adeptly adapted to the new business models and the new way of consumer behavior. We are already seeing green shoots of big ideas re-surfacing. I think 2022 will be the Return of Bravery in our industry and the beginning of the end of the pandemic infused risk-aversion.

Amit Wadhwa, CEO India, dentsu Creative
Amalgamation of Creative with Data, Technology and Digital
2021 has been a year that has had possibly the most ups and downs. Right from starting the year on a bullish note to seeing the biggest challenge with the second wave both from a business and people wellness front to finally coming out of it and closing the year on a high. The one thing that 2021 taught us was that it’s good to be ambitious but ‘cautiously ambitious’ rather than ‘bullishly ambitious’.

One thing that I feel extremely passionate about is that we are in the business of creativity and our core is and will always be ‘creative’. The year 2022 will be a landmark year where creative agencies will see an even bigger transformation of the amalgamation of creative with data, technology and digital as the boundaries will vanish much faster this year. And agencies that are not ready for this change or are reluctant will face the heat while the ones who are better prepared and want to embrace the changing world will prosper. With our investments in data, tech and digital, I am all excited to embrace 2022.
 
Source: https://www.businessinsider.in/advertising/ad-agencies/article/