Thanks to the pandemic, the advertising industry, unsurprisingly, took a substantial knock, with ad spending plummetting for a good part of 2 years. However, since the world and businesses have gotten back on track, spending is expected to return to pre-pandemic levels by the end of this year.

In the meantime, advertising is trying to keep up with a non-existent metaverse, as well as new media channels, in the face of a cookieless future, which means lots of changes are afoot!

These are some of the most talked-about topics in advertising right now:

1. The metaverse

It seems that campaigns won’t be heavily metaverse-focused for a while, at least for marketing agencies and in-house marketers. 

Metaverse participation is a top priority for 33% of individuals according to the March 2022 Zeitgeist report.

In contrast, just 15% of customers are adamantly opposed to taking part in the metaverse at all.

51% of individuals say they want to watch TV/films, 44% want to play games, 43% want to explore merchandise, and 41% want to watch live events in it (like concerts).

Looking at what is preventing people from getting on board with the metaverse, there are quite a few reasons.  40% say it is due to a lack of interest and a preference for the real world, and 23% have cited data and identity theft concerns.

2. Audio ads are on the rise 

Audio commercials are definitely on the increase. Between quarter 1 of 2021 and quarter 1 of 2022, the following were the most popular means of discovering new brands:

• Ads that appear on podcasts (up 14% )
• Ads displayed in the theatre (up 12% )
• Internet radio and television commercials (up 11% )
• Listening to the radio and hearing commercials (up 9% )

Only one of them is video, which says a lot about how popular the audio platform is becoming.

3. In-game advertising 

Brands have a plethora of opportunities in the gaming market. Console gamers throughout the world are 22% more inclined than the typical customer to buy products they’ve seen marketed. 

Jonathon Troughton of Frameplay, CEO of an intrinsic video game advertising firm, gave a talk at Advertising Week Europe explaining how to make it work: 

“Use different graphics, avoid complicated designs, and keep it basic.  As a reminder, keep in mind that gamers are moving around the area, so reducing text is essential, as is being fun and true to the overall experience”.

4. The cookieless future 

Marketers worldwide are waiting for Google to tell us what to do when cookies finally vanish. A huge amount of agency and brand executives are concerned about the cookieless future.

On the other hand, customers don’t appear to be concerned. As a matter of fact, they’re looking for a little alone time!

About 42% of customers frequently clean their browsing history, 25% regularly utilise private browsing, and 22% consistently deny cookies, according to research. While 20% of people use a virtual private network (VPN) on a daily basis, 32% are concerned about how corporations utilise their personal information online.

As a result, how will this impact brands?

New and creative techniques to bypass the cookie are already being developed by advertising specialists who aren’t waiting for Google. Third-party cookies have long been used to target adverts, and therefore currently the future rests only on obtaining more data. The only method to achieve this is to integrate with third-party syndicated data.