Mumbai: From the digital medium booming to the metaverse, NFTs, web 3.0, and blockchain becoming the new buzzwords, several trends took shape in the year that went by.

With 2022 coming to an end, Indiantelevision.com had a chat with Wunderman Thompson South Asia CEO Shamsuddin Jasani, aka Shams, on the trends that topped the charts of 2022 and which the industry is likely to witness in 2023.

Digital

Even though it was much expected and a lot has been spoken about it, but guess the digital trend caught up more swiftly than anybody thought it ever could. Shams says, "This was the year where digital overtook tradition from the perspective of advertising spends for the first year. This was coming, but I think the pandemic accelerated in terms of consumption."

Commerce

According to him, "Live commerce, I think that's something which is coming up - social commerce was a big buzzword and it is still going to be a big buzzword. I think live commerce, where people are showcasing the products live and there's a live community that is buying something, that is going to happen."

He goes on, enthusiastically, "I think next year, you will see a lot more being done on e-commerce and a lot more innovations that are happening in commerce, because I think that is where people are spending more and more time. So, of course, people are consuming video content, and people are consuming audio content, but I think an increasing amount of time is being spent on e-commerce platforms. So you will also see a lot of innovations happening on the commerce platform from an advertising perspective, not just from an autonomous perspective because the time spent on a lot of Flipkart or Amazon or even a food app is now substantially more than what it was. So I think, and this is a completely off-the-cuff thing, that you could see some great things happening in the entire commerce ecosystem."

ONDC

All of us are well aware that the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) has been set up by the government to develop open e-commerce. It is a set of specifications designed to foster open interchange and connections between shoppers, technology platforms, and retailers.

Speaking on the same, Shams cites, "I think the new big thing that's going to happen next year is how do we latch on to the very important ONDC, which the government is backing in a very big way. That is going to be very, very interesting for 2023. And how the ONDC plays a role for marketers and brands is going to be very, very interesting. So, the entire thing is going to be very interesting for the entire commerce market from the perspective of how you have a D2C role, how you have a marketplace role, and how, where, and when ONDC comes into play, and as a brand, how do you see this entire end-to-end commerce ecosystem being most critical."

Technology like the metaverse, web 3.0, and 5G

He is of the view that one of the other big things that have happened is that ecosystems are coming up, like the metaverse, web 3.0, and 5G, which is coming up next year. He points out, "How we as brands and agencies will be up the curve? Clients and consumers are going to adopt it. How can we also try to be there with them is another trend that I think is visible to us?"

Elucidating on the metaverse phenomenon, Shams states, "It's like there is a technology, and it is up to you to use that technology. I think this year the buzzword was metaverse, and people were talking about it. And I don't know if it's innovation, but it is more in terms of actually just exploring the entire metaverse that is there. Next year, you will see a little more relevance creeping into the metaverse, and much more being done on it that's there." 

Influencers to content creators

He also discusses the change from influencers to content creators. "So the whole buzzword has changed from saying that these are influencers to content creators. People are no longer interested in influencers posting something online and being influenced by it - they want people to create content, and then people are consuming that content. So I think the whole transformation of addressing them as influencers to content creators, I think that's another shift that's happened, and hence, how as advertisers as marketers, are we working with content creators, I think that's a trend, which is big now, and which is going to be very big in 2023, as well, as is the entire content-creating community," he wraps up.