Trend for 2023: How Adtech Is Changing Consumer Behavior Advertisement technology has played a pivotal role in this paradigm shift, as it has enabled new ways of collecting data.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
From the evolution of Homo sapiens to now, one thing that hasn't changed for us humans is the need and want to acquire more and more material wealth, be it clothes, cars, food or a safe living environment. This need and want is the reason behind the invention of commerce. What used to be the barter system of food and crops in prehistoric times, have now converted to a full-scale economy, revolving around commerce and consumerism, which has evolved over the past thousands of years.
However, with the inception of the Internet, the definition of a consumer has been changed from someone who buys products/services to someone who consumes products/services or content. Not only the definition, but the behavior of the consumers has changed dramatically over the past few decades.
Advertisement technology has played a pivotal role in this paradigm shift, as it has enabled new ways of collecting data; now not only the brands can gather how the consumers are behaving by demographics, but can also gather the psycho-graphics of a consumer to learn how they are thinking.
Consumer's behavior is ever-evolving as per their social circle, affluence, wants and needs, but with the availability of consumer data, brands can not only effectively target their consumers, but also can effectively modify their behavior as well.
Every year, we see millions of first-time Internet users experiencing the power of Web and digital consumerism. We are seeing hundreds of thousands of users making their first digital purchase, in terms of products, services or content, and this is just the beginning. With the launch of 5G connectivity, Web 3.0, Meta Platforms, AI and other cutting-edge technologies, it's exciting times to be in.
The pandemic not only accelerated content consumption but also online shopping for the essentials which were the need of the hour. But then it became adtech platform's responsibility to keep them online for their needs, instead of shifting back to the offline world.
With the availability of the data and AI technology, personalization really helped brands to reach out to their consumers in effective measures, to achieve wonderful results in consumer engagement and retention.
Some of the key takeaways and the trends to watch out for in 2023 are:
Consumer is the king: As mentioned, consumer behavior is ever-evolving, what remains constant is that 'consumer is the king', and it becomes even more important in the digital ecosystem. So as long as brands and adtech platforms honor the Holy Grail, they don't have to worry about the consumer's behavior towards their brand.
AI and personalization: No two consumers are the same, each have their own likes, dislikes and preferences, then why treat them alike? With the availability of terabytes of user data and powerful artificially intelligent tools, personalization is going to be the key. Highly targeted personalized ad campaigns can really target consumers well, affecting their mindset and behavior around the brand.
Omnichannel: We live in a hybrid world, where consumers engage with brands in both online and offline worlds. While adtech plays a key role, when the user is online, it becomes a challenge to target the users in offline world. Martech platforms are helping bridge the gap, but a lot of strategy, planning and technological advancements are required to make this a perfect case scenario. This will help brands and adtech to understand the behavior in a better manner.
Cookie-less future: Understanding consumer's behavior becomes even more important in the cookie-less world, where the opportunities of gathering data are getting less by the day. It becomes all the more important for brands and adtech platforms to understand consumer's behavior in a better manner, so as to avoid being irrelevant in this brave new world.
Web 3.0: With user data and privacy being an important concern for the users globally; migration to Web 3.0 will be an important event. As with Web 3.0 users will be able to control their data, and even monetize it. Amalgamating the data and privacy concerns with Web 3.0 and consumer's behavior targeting is going to be both a challenge and opportunity; that's worth investing.
Metaverse platforms: Earlier there were limitations on how brands were engaging with their consumers, but metaverse platforms brings infinite possibilities, on how a brand or adtech platform can engage with users. The data signals hence generated are of huge value for understanding, tapping and changing consumer behavior, as metaverse is blurring the line between digital and physical worlds, which does help in cracking the Omnichannel problem as well.
Understanding, tapping and changing consumer's behavior is the key to a brand's success, and while adtech is doing a lot to solve this problem, and help brands engage with their consumers in a meaningful way, though still a lot needs to be done.
All in all, we are living in very exciting times, which come with a lot of challenges and opportunities, and it's on us to address them, to make a positive impact on the digital ecosystem.
