But talk of agility is easy. The real challenge, and the focus of the conversation in Amsterdam, was how to ground these ideas in reality. How can broadcasters break free from decades-old production models? Where are the real revenue opportunities in vast, dormant media archives? And how can businesses adopt powerful new technologies without being crippled by cost and complexity? The discussion needed to shift from conceptual promises to tangible solutions, with many on display throughout the conference.

Decades old broadcasting models are evolving to meet modern audience demands.

For decades, the broadcast industry has stood on what seemed like solid ground, but that foundation has irrevocably shifted. As Lewis Smithingham, EVP MEGS at Monks, noted on stage, “Media production has been done effectively the same way for something like 58 to 59 years.” But that traditional model is breaking under the strain of a new reality where audiences are no longer a monolith, but a diverse collection of interests scattered across countless platforms. To reach them, he explained, “We can't deliver with a straight line of sight anymore, because there isn't a straight line, and there is no primary platform. It's all over the place.”

This new landscape demands a new approach that breaks free from the institutional inertia of how things have always been done. Reaching modern audiences requires the agility of cloud-native production, which is more a fundamental change in mindset than merely a technological upgrade. It means letting go of old “golden rules,” such as never turning off a generator for fear of a system collapse, and instead embracing an agile, software-defined approach that manages systems through adaptable software rather than rigid, physical hardware.

Nowhere is this shift more apparent than in the evolving role of the media archive. For too long, valuable content has been locked away in dusty vaults. Now, AI is rewriting that playbook, transforming stagnant libraries into living, breathing performance archives. 

This evolution means moving beyond thinking about rights on a per-title basis and seeing the monetization opportunities in the underlying IP. For a sports broadcaster, this could mean using AI to instantly find and package player highlights following a high profile trade—a process that would traditionally take significant manual effort. For a studio, it means transforming a classic radio show into an animated series for social media. By democratizing archives with AI-powered tools, we give editors, producers, and even fans the ability to unearth new value, create new stories, and generate novel revenue streams from content that was once forgotten.

Ultimately, these technological shifts point to a single imperative. As Smithingham simply put it: in today's environment, “if you're not real time, you’re history.” Success now comes from using technology to transform dormant IP into the dynamic, personalized experiences that connect with audiences in real time. This is the new frontier of broadcasting, and it's a future we are actively building.

AI-powered tools empower teams to deliver better viewer experiences.

The ultimate goal of all this innovation is to deliver a better, more personal experience for the audience. One of the central themes of the talks throughout the show was the need to empower creators with agile, real-time tools that make this possible. Our LiveVision™ demo illustrated this point in action.

LiveVision™ is an AI-powered tool that operates within live production workflows. Built to run on a full stack of NVIDIA hardware and software technologies including NVIDIA RTX PRO Server, Video Search and Summarization Agent, and Holoscan for Media , LiveVision™ can be deployed on edge, in the cloud, or in a hybrid environment. It brings real-time intelligence to the broadcast by analyzing multiple camera feeds simultaneously, introducing object detection and analysis into the broadcast pipeline for shot prioritization, scene description, and audio transcription. This frees up production teams for the creative process and provides end-of-day summarizations.

New tools are turning dormant media archives into new revenue streams.

Our Time Addressable Media Storage (TAMS) demo offered a powerful solution to the challenge discussed above of unlocking value in dormant media archives. This demo showcased a practical application of the industry's shift from static storage to “performance archives”—systems that actively surface valuable content.

TAMS tackles the time-intensive process of manual search by using AI to analyze and index the content itself, making footage searchable by actions, objects or people within seconds. This provides instant, frame-accurate access to massive media libraries, transforming a dormant archive into a dynamic, monetizable asset. For example, a sports rights owner could use TAMS to instantly pull clips of a specific player's key moments to create a personalized highlight reel for fans, or quickly curate footage for live betting markets.

The industry’s future depends on a fundamental shift in mindset.

Ultimately, conversations at IBC 2025 painted a clear picture of an industry at a crossroads. It's clear that the transition to a real-time, AI-driven world requires more than simply adopting new tools and platforms. The real challenge is to overcome the inertia of legacy workflows and embrace a more agile, experimental and software-defined approach to creating and monetizing content.

Success in this new era requires orchestrating creativity and technology to build systems that are not just innovative, but deeply relevant, efficient and profitable. It’s this synthesis of vision and execution that will define the next chapter of media.

These are our three takeaways that defined GML 2025.

Takeaway 1: Ad delivery is getting more flexible across Google’s network.

Google is shifting away from channel-based ad setups and leaning into more fluid, moment-driven experiences. Instead of building separately for Search, YouTube, or Display, ad products are increasingly designed to find users wherever they are—scrolling, streaming, or shopping. This expansion means more opportunities to reach users but also more demand for creative that fits each touchpoint, which often requires brands to scale video visuals and messaging quickly with the help of AI (or not). Measurement tools are also being updated to support this shift, aiming to track how these moments connect and contribute to sales across the journey. Flexible measurement (going beyond pixel-based attribution by incorporating incrementality, MMM, etc.) is essential as customer paths rarely follow a straight line.

Takeaway 2: AI is now embedded in Search and how brands connect. 

The rollout of AI Mode and ads in AI Overviews marks a shift in how users navigate Search and how brands show up. These tools change not just ad placement, but the buying journey. Search is becoming more visual, more video-led, and more human in tone, which results in a search and shopping experience that’s more tailored and productive for users. For advertisers, what used to require multiple campaign types and formats is continuing to evolve into a single system of outcome-based products. This year Google’s messaging this as their “power pack”—Performance Max, AI Max and Demand Gen—for brands that use AI to reach consumers. If advertisers want to capitalize on the relevance and performance Google says the “power pack” provides, media buyers must focus on giving the AI the right quality inputs, in high volumes (conversion data, creative assets, etc.). 

Takeaway 3: Google is rolling back the black box for visibility and transparency.

Advertiser pressure for more transparency is starting to pay off. Google is introducing new Performance Max insights, lower spend thresholds for incrementality testing, and agentic tools like “Your Google Ads Expert” to make results easier to explain and optimize. But blind spots remain. For example, there’s still no placement-level reporting for ads in AI Mode or Overviews. Progress, yes. Total clarity, not yet.

These are the new features our team expects to be most impactful for advertisers.

AI tools are reshaping how we search, shop and advertise.

Search is no longer just a typed query in a box. With tools like Gemini, Google Lens and AI Overviews, the buying journey is becoming more visual, conversational and context-aware. The path from awareness to purchase is increasingly possible in one scroll, without leaving Google’s ecosystem. Google’s newest tools reflect this shift:

• Smart Bidding Exploration (in beta) blends flexible ROAS targets with new bidding logic to uncover valuable queries you may be missing.
• AI Overviews are live on mobile in the US, with desktop and other markets coming next. These ad placements are designed to align with broader search intent.
• AI Mode, currently in testing, introduces a conversational, multimodal search experience with an AI-powered shopping layer launching in the US soon.
• Agentic tools like “Your Google Ads Expert” and “Your Google Analytics Expert” (in beta) aim to speed up insights and surface optimizations. “Your Marketing Advisor,” a Chrome-based AI assistant, will soon help teams manage tasks and surface recommendations across tools.

Put it into practice: These evolutions in the SERP are reshaping user behavior and redefining what ad success looks like. For advertisers, your inputs—site content, product feeds, conversion data, creative assets, etc.—matter more than ever as the content and experience will be derived automatically with AI. Invest in shoring up those foundations to make sure you’re showing up accurately and effectively in these new SERP experiences.

AI Max for Search gives you automation with a clearer view.

AI Max for Search Campaigns is a one-click upgrade that uses AI to match your landing pages, ads and keywords to real-time search intent. Google reports early tests showed up to 27% more conversions at similar CPA or ROAS, especially when using exact and phrase match. Unlike Dynamic Search Ads, which auto-generate content with limited reporting, AI Max surfaces clear insights into which queries, headlines and landing pages are driving performance. It’s still automated, but with a clearer view of what’s happening behind the scenes.

Put it into practice: Try AI Max on a campaign where broad match is performing well but hasn’t hit its ceiling. Use the new reporting to spot high-converting queries and creative, then scale what’s driving results. 

Performance Max now shows where results are coming from.

Performance Max has always prioritized automation over transparency. But Google is finally pulling back the curtain. Channel-level reporting now shows results across Search, YouTube, Shopping and other surfaces. Asset-level insights and fuller search term visibility offer more granular data to understand what’s actually working. For brands running full-funnel campaigns, this is a significant improvement.

Put it into practice: Shift budget to top-performing surfaces using channel data by influencing Google's spending. Update or remove underperforming assets within your campaign. If YouTube is lagging, shorten your video creative or adjust your audience signals.

Video ads in Search and Shopping compress the funnel.

Video placements are now being tested directly within Search and Shopping results, giving advertisers a shot at influencing high-intent shoppers without relying on separate awareness plays. The line between discovery and purchase is disappearing, and Google wants to keep the entire journey within its ecosystem. Users aren’t skipping steps in the funnel, they’re completing all of them in a single scroll.

Put it into practice: Add horizontal and vertical video assets to your ad groups. Focus on short-form content that delivers value fast, such as how-to clips, testimonials or product highlights.

Measurement tools are improving, but still require setup.

Google maintained its focus on measurement this year, sharing advertiser stories about the value of Meridian and unveiling updates to measurement features within Google Ads.  For example, they lowered the threshold significantly for in-platform incrementality testing, making it more accessible for brands to measure what tactics are creating incremental results. 

Additionally, Data Manager is Google Ads’ latest tool aimed at improving signal quality and measurement reliability. It helps advertisers connect and validate first-party data from websites, apps, CRMs, and in-store systems, making campaign data cleaner, more actionable, and privacy-compliant. It also supports better attribution by ensuring tags and signals are set up correctly. 

Put it into practice: Use Data Manager to set up and quality check your tagging configuration, confirm that key data sources are linked to your Google Ads account, and connect first-party data from third-party platforms like BigQuery, Salesforce, Shopify, Google Sheets, and more. A clean setup leads to better optimization and clearer insights.

Turn GML 2025 updates to real business outcomes.

GML 2025 showed that performance marketing is becoming more creative, more automated and more measurable. These updates are your chance to simplify workflows and scale impact. If you’re connecting creative, data and AI in one system, you’re going to move faster than your competitors.

Need help connecting the dots?
Let’s talk. We help brands turn updates like these into growth strategies that drive results.

To be more precise, achieving this competency reflects our ability to deliver scalable, cost-effective solutions that drive business agility and elevate the consumer experience. From content production to direct-to-consumer distribution and data analytics, we’ve been building impactful solutions that empower our clients to reimagine what’s possible in today’s fast-paced, ever-evolving industry. By leveraging AWS best practices, we empower our customers to modernize their operations, reduce costs and enhance scalability—all while delivering seamless, engaging experiences to their audiences.

Our transformative solutions are helping companies reshape media and entertainment.

Whether it’s evolving workflows for content production, streamlining media supply chains, or enhancing direct-to-consumer distribution, our solutions are designed to help customers harness the full potential of the cloud. We focus on delivering faster workflows, greater flexibility, and actionable, data-driven insights that drive success in a rapidly evolving industry.

Our AWS Media & Entertainment expertise is already delivering tangible results for leading companies. For example, we collaborated with Meta to revolutionize NBA broadcasting through immersive virtual reality experiences. Over four seasons, we enabled fans to experience more than 50 NBA games courtside in VR, complete with live commentary from NBA and WNBA champions and the ability to interact socially with friends, fellow viewers and even athletes. By leveraging a cloud-based, software-defined production workflow powered by AWS and NVIDIA, we streamlined traditional broadcasting processes, using just five cameras and a small crew to deliver stunning 8K, 60 fps footage. The result was a highly engaging and interactive way for fans to connect with the game, demonstrating how cloud-enabled workflows can redefine content delivery.

Similarly, we partnered with ITV Studios to test a modernized production workflow for ITV’s flagship morning show, This Morning. Faced with the challenge of reducing costs, improving sustainability, and enhancing creative opportunities, ITV Studios explored a hybrid cloud-based production setup with our support. We migrated key production processes to the cloud, seamlessly integrating on-site crews with a cloud-based control room. This experiment demonstrated reduced reliance on energy-intensive broadcast equipment, increased stability with built-in redundancies and improved efficiency. 

Additionally, by leveraging AWS’s 100% renewable energy-powered infrastructure, ITV Studios made significant strides toward sustainability, reducing its carbon footprint and setting an example for greener broadcast practices. Remote collaboration capabilities also unlocked new opportunities for creativity and diversity within production teams.

These projects underscore how we’re empowering companies to reimagine their workflows, reduce operational complexities, and deliver authentic, interactive and sustainable experiences. Whether enabling fans to feel like they’re court-side or helping broadcasters achieve greater flexibility and resilience, we’re committed to driving transformation across the media and entertainment industry.

Our blend of innovation and industry expertise further sets us apart.

At the heart of our approach is a commitment to cloud native agile production (CNAP), a methodology that combines the agility of cloud technology with the operational rigor of production workflows. We strive not just to support production systems in a traditional operator-focused manner but to rethink them through a cloud-native lens. This means embracing the elasticity of the cloud—the ability to spin resources up or down dynamically—and embedding efficiencies that empower businesses to move faster while optimizing costs. Having walked in the shoes of production operators ourselves, we approach these challenges with empathy, bridging the gap between operational needs and executive goals. This perspective enables us to deliver solutions that drive tangible results while addressing the unique pain points of the production ecosystem.

As a marketing and technology services business with a rich legacy in production, our roots lie in the making, tracking, and delivery of images—a core capability we’ve refined and scaled through innovations like generative AI. But our value extends far beyond content creation. By combining a deep understanding of production workflows with cloud-native principles, our technologists design and build pipelines that enable faster, more efficient content delivery, including live broadcast capabilities. This fusion of technical innovation, operational empathy, and industry expertise is what truly sets us apart.

We’re not a traditional broadcast company, but we bring the perspective of seasoned veterans who intimately understand the industry’s challenges. This enables us to lead with empathy and address pain points with the confidence and trust that comes from having walked in our clients’ shoes. 

Together, we’re building a future defined by creativity, progress and transformation.

Achieving the AWS Media & Entertainment Competency reflects our commitment to helping media and entertainment companies fully realize the potential of the cloud. This recognition underscores our ability to deliver solutions that solve complex challenges and enable meaningful progress in the industry.

Looking ahead, we’re focused on empowering our clients to respond to change, push boundaries, and create lasting impact. With every project, we aim to shape a future where innovation drives new possibilities for media and entertainment.

What do these requests have in common? Easy: they stem from a misconception that gamers are a niche market, rather than a wide-ranging audience with an ever-growing array of habits, preferences and lifestyles. Now, don’t misunderstand me; I have nothing against gamers (quite the opposite!). However, as time goes on, I’m becoming increasingly convinced that this notion of a “specific audience” doesn’t truly exist, or at least, it is as ambiguous as saying “people who enjoy music” or “people who like chocolate.”

Gaming is experiencing exponential growth and shaking the foundations of pop culture.

Let’s start with the facts. In recent years, the gaming industry has seen remarkable expansion. Today, gaming surpasses the combined value of the film and music industries, making up 42.1% of entertainment industry earnings and generating an astonishing $182.9 billion in profits. This trend has prompted numerous brands worldwide to seize the opportunity and develop strategies to engage with this audience, even including it as a secondary audience in their marketing briefs.

On top of that, the world of video games is a vibrant cultural sphere that has expanded far beyond gamers’ consoles and computers. Nowadays, we can see the impact of the gaming world permeating related industries like Hollywood, as they increasingly adapt video game concepts into movies and series. A prime example is the recent success of the Mario Bros film, which became the second highest-grossing movie globally in 2023. Similarly, we have The Witcher, the Netflix series based on the video game adaptation of a book saga. This influence also extends to the music industry, with worldwide tours featuring symphony orchestras performing iconic video game soundtracks to the delight of massive crowds.

The problem arises when we consider the sheer size of this universe. As of 2022, there were approximately 3.2 billion gamers worldwide, which amounts to nearly half of the global population. Yet, we still tend to think of it as a niche segment. I believe the real challenge lies in using overly broad terms when referring to this category. The term "gamer" encompasses a diverse range of individuals, from a young adult enjoying some Call of Duty during her downtime after college, to an eight-year-old playing Roblox before bedtime, and even a 65-year-old lady passing the time with Candy Crush in the waiting room. 

All of these people are games in their own way. So, if “gamers” can’t be a target audience, then what are they? They're part of a thriving and diverse community with immense potential, waiting to be explored if we go beyond generic discussions and approach them just like any other entertainment subcategory.

How to win in gaming: there’s no “one size fits all.”

By understanding the gaming community’s habits, we can craft more impactful campaigns by pinpointing the needs our brands can satisfy. A prime illustration of this approach is Heinz’s “Hiding Spots” campaign. Knowing that video games demand hands-on attention, making it challenging for gamers to eat while playing, Heinz provided gamers with designated spots within one of the most popular games to hide and eat. 

By broadening our perspective and not confining ourselves to a specific genre, we can create initiatives that appeal to a potentially vast audience. A clear example of this is the urban clothing brand, 100 Thieves, which drew inspiration from esports uniforms to design digital apparel for game avatars, as well as physical clothing for the real world inspired by today’s most popular games.

Arguably, one of the most groundbreaking and “outside-the-box” concepts in recent years is the King’s League. This was the brainchild of a unique partnership between streamer Ibai and former professional footballers Kun Agüero and Pique. Together, they introduced an element of gamification to the sport, forming a football league where the rules aren’t set in stone, the audience can have a say in the matches and the games are far more dynamic than in the traditional professional sport—a product that hits the mark perfectly with the newer generations.

Whether your idea is directly integrated into a game or a connected category, the secret to a successful campaign is the way you marry observations about gamer behavior with the solution your brand can bring to the table.

Tapping into the gaming world for your brand strategy.

Here are some useful tips:

• Dig deeper: Don’t be content with a generic definition. Look beyond the surface of your audience and consider the types of gamers you’re addressing. It’s less likely that your audience of 9-to-5 professionals are hardcore gamers; they’re probably casual gamers engaging on their smartphones.
• Look beyond game titles, focus on behaviors: It’s not just about pinpointing the latest trending game or devising a partnership within Fortnite; it’s more about spotting behaviors and harnessing them to your benefit. What can we bring to the table for these individuals, providing alternatives to those leisure moments currently filled with a round of Candy Crush?
• Push the envelope: It’s well-known that the most brilliant ideas emerge when we innovate by bringing together two seemingly unconnected contexts, and this holds true in the gaming sphere as well. One instance is how Riot Games connected the love for K-pop with the rising fame of recent esports champions in League of Legends to create music videos showcasing these digitalized champions in action.
• Act quickly, even if you stumble: The gaming industry is known for its incredibly rapid trend turnover. Conversely, development times are quite lengthy. As a result, you’re left with two options: you can make a long-term bet with a well-established platform (like Fortnite) and give it the necessary time to develop, or you can create campaigns driven by current behaviors that resonate instantly and are easy to implement.
• Simplify matters: We often have a tendency to make ideas concerning the gaming world more complicated than they need to be. A straightforward, easy-to-execute idea will outperform a campaign that’s laden with complex steps and places excessive demands on our audiences.

Remember to shift perspectives and stop viewing the gaming world in black and white. Instead, begin to explore the contrasts that materialize when we probe the right questions. As we navigate the answers, we’ll unearth a vibrant and diverse community that stands as a fundamental part of our modern culture, brimming with a universe of opportunities for our strategic initiatives.

By enabling shoppable experiences that are deeply intertwined with brand narratives and cultural identities, the blockchain is redefining the very concept of value. As brands aim to gain deeper insights into their customers and create more relevant experiences, the adoption and effective use of Web3 shifts from an optional tactic to a fundamental requirement. In a recent episode of The Nex6 Project, Michael Litman, Senior Director of Emerging Tech Strategy, sat down with John Ghiorso, SVP, Strategic Advisor & Evangelist of Global Ecommerce, where they discussed how Web3 is evolving brands’ approach to commerce.

Web3 is transforming brand-consumer relationships.

When discussing the role of Web3 in facilitating community building, Litman highlights what he refers to as "the four C's": creativity, culture, community, and commerce. Emphasizing the significance of relationships in branding, he states, “In Web3, this dynamic relationship between the brand and the consumer transforms into a more robust, two-way relationship, where consumers actively engage, creating a reciprocal exchange.” The transparency provided by blockchain technology thus enhances the connection between brands and consumers.

Dom Pérignon realized this when they partnered with us to build an exclusive Web3 marketplace inspired by their collaboration with Lady Gaga—a move that enhanced the brand's cultural relevance. We furnished the high-quality immersive web platform with 100 NFTs that represented the Dom Pérignon Vintage 2010 and Dom Pérignon Rosé Vintage 2006 collections, and every NFT purchase was bundled with a purchase of the bottle depicted.

By linking the NFT purchase to the physical bottle, Dom Pérignon created an additional revenue stream for themselves while also giving consumers the chance to pocket digital collectibles that could be exchanged on the secondary market—where they grew their value by nearly 1500%. The shoppable experience effectively bridged the gap between the virtual and the real world while establishing Dom Pérignon as a pioneer in the Web3 space.

Dom Pérignon is not the sole beneficiary of embracing Web3. The prestigious jewelry brand Tiffany and Co. seized the opportunity within Web3 early on by tapping into the existing community of CryptoPunks holders and crafting a tokenized reward exclusively for them. The NFTs, cleverly named NFTiffs, were unleashed to 250 holders, allowing them to collect these unique digital assets and trade them for real-world customizable gold pendants. Tiffany and Co. made history as the first brand to intertwine fine jewelry with the digital world, with NFTiffs selling out in just 20 minutes at a mint price of 30 ETH, raking in an impressive $12.5 million in revenue.

Beyond standard ecommerce, Web3 enables entirely new shoppable experiences.

As brands use Web3 to tap into communities and drive cultural relevance, the space enables boundless opportunities for interactive, communal experiences in commerce that have never been possible before—especially as digital shopping experiences become more social, with global social commerce sales expected to reach nearly $1.3 billion this year.

But what makes Web3 unique compared to typical forms of social commerce? Essentially, says Ghiorso, it’s about giving consumers a space to interact with one another while keeping the brand at the forefront. “What really amplifies this is the community aspect. This one-to-many, many-to-one network gives the brand and their community the ability to conduct commerce effectively between those various consumer touchpoints.”

Macy’s has done an excellent job building these kinds of spaces for multi-user, communal interaction with the brand at the forefront. We partnered with the department store to virtualize its iconic Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2022, including a virtual Sixth Avenue featuring parade balloons inspired by the year’s most popular Web3 communities: Cool Cats, Boss Beauties, VeeFriends, and more. In addition to enjoying the parade, visitors had the chance to enter virtual storefronts and buy digital collectibles of their own, with each purchase benefitting Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. If they chose, they could resell those collectibles in Web3 resale platforms like OpenSea and more. Macy’s efforts show how Web3 capabilities can inspire a new class of shoppable, social experiences—and gave the retailer an entirely new product category to sell.

Other brands can do something similar by exploring ways to incorporate elements of Web3 into their existing strategies, similar to how Macy’s used its Thanksgiving Day Parade as inspiration for its own Web3 efforts. Brands can also explore ways to incorporate elements of Web3 into their existing strategies. This could involve creating an NFT for a brand, launching a blockchain-based loyalty program, or even creating token-gated experiences that can potentially drive a negative cost per acquisition, a disruptive shift from traditional commerce. "The lightbulb moment for me was when I found that in many cases, consumers are willing to pay upfront for limited access to token-gated physical products," says Litman. "What that means is they’re effectively crowdfunding, and the success of that program or project will be dependent on those upfront sales. Because of that delayed value exchange, it gives the brand time to get it right, get all the logistics and the distribution in place before they need to ship anything out.”

Unearth a trove of customer insights on the blockchain.

In addition to building relationships with communities, Web3 commerce has the potential to forge a deeper understanding of customers on the individual level—precisely when traditional means of following customer journeys, like third-party cookies, are no longer as reliable. In contrast, the blockchain’s transparent nature means businesses can gain more insight into consumers’ behavior, preferences, and purchasing patterns to inform personalized marketing strategies.

“Your Web3 wallet will become as ubiquitous as your email address, and it will provide this linkage between purchasing offline, online, and on-chain. That, to me, feels like an absolute data goldmine,” says Litman. It will take time for that to become a reality, but it is important for marketers to begin incorporating Web3 into their long-term strategic planning as they begin to envision alternative ways of learning about their audiences and connecting the customer journey.

In collaboration with Salesforce—who helps brands enter the Web3 space through a familiar, secure and trusted interface—we released a report that demonstrates how Web3 not only enhances experiences across the customer journey but also helps brands build key insights into their audience. As brands continue to beef up their customer relationship management to better understand their customers and lay the data foundations required for AI implementation, accounting for Web3 serves as another way to future-proof one’s efforts and adapt to emerging consumer behaviors.

The Web3 revolution won’t happen overnight—but brands can prepare now.

Beyond the NFT craze of 2022, the blockchain is transitioning from a speculative hype cycle to an integral part of brands’ strategies that is helping them build cultural relevance, deepen customer relationships, and ultimately enable new commerce experiences. "Many brands out there will have their own token that then has a value associated with it," says Litman. But for now, it’s imperative that brands swiftly recognize the value of Web3, and then adapt their strategies accordingly: the speculative nature of blockchain is evolving into a foundational element for the future of generational culture, community, and commerce.

Want to learn more? You can listen to the full episode of the Nex6 Project on Spotify, YouTube and Apple Podcasts.

Among these are the successful implementation of artificial intelligence in marketing strategies, the advent of new interfaces for engaging with technology, and the creation of a new class of experiences that are more immersive and personalized than ever before. Let’s dive in!

Data foundations remain crucial for successful AI implementation.

“Enterprise clients will continue to emphasize building internal AI capabilities, which will vastly increase the demand for data and the systems required to manage it at scale,” predicts Tyler Pietz, Global EVP, Data. Indeed, a solid data foundation is the price of entry for successful AI implementation, especially as brands look beyond third-party cookies to better understand their audiences and build ownership of their data. By first creating fresh, predictive and prescriptive data streams that feed into AI workflows, brands can ensure their AI implementations are not only successful but are also self-evolving and constantly improving the accuracy of insights and predictions.

One can see this with our recently announced Monks.Flow professional managed service, which connects talent trained in AI, the latest AI tools, enterprise software and microservices into efficient, automated workflows. By integrating Monks.Flow into the Salesforce ecosystem, for example, we bring the creative capacity that brands need to personalize customer journeys at a granular level. This partnership allows us to fulfill the promise of digital: one-to-one personalization at scale.

The marketing structure will evolve to enable content at scale.

Brands are preparing for another great shift in 2024: transforming their marketing structure. “Clients are shifting from traditional models to content at scale structures. These content models continue to be bespoke, some of which are built in-house while others rely on third parties,” says Dave Carey, Global EVP, Studio & Embedded Solutions.

Carey, who has a background in helping brands spin up in-house studios and embedded services and leads the Studio.Monks, sees an opportunity to deliver a tech-first vision to brands looking to shake up their marketing structure. Rather than focus solely on the talent portion of the implementation, for example, brands can organize themselves around AI-centered workflows designed to enable seamless collaboration. “AI is changing the way content is created. Clients are looking for transformation AI agencies to help them understand and implement new ways to create content,” he says.

Marketers will aim to integrate media, content and commerce.

AI can help with far more than content creation, serving as an integrative force across content, data and media, a key goal that VP, Media Enablement - GTM New Business Victoria Milo sees emerging in 2024. Prompted by a reorganization of the media landscape—including consolidation of media partners and agencies—and a slowdown of growth in the media industry, brands will increasingly seek to solve media challenges with non-media solutions fueled by AI.

AI-powered innovations in platforms will connect customer insights and user experiences.

A brand’s own platform is a great spot to better align behavioral insights and user experience. Thankfully, digital experience platforms like Adobe Experience Manager are integrating AI features in service of these goals, says Business Lead Platforms & Ecommerce Remco Vroom, who leads the Platform.Monks. These features enable brands to apply dynamic learning capabilities to anticipate and adapt to user needs with remarkable speed and precision.

Adobe Sensei is one example, which combines generative AI with integrated workflows to deliver customer experiences at a scale previously unimaginable. Meanwhile, Salesforce is incorporating generative AI features that enable teams to produce enriched content and journeys at scale by utilizing customer data. This integration of AI within digital experience platforms will continue to revolutionize how brands respond to user needs in real time.

These features help underscore our own approach to platform development: generating actionable behavioral insights, then applying those insights to craft a superior user experience. “As we develop more intelligent digital solutions, our aim is to lead the change by establishing a new standard for digital ecosystems that think, learn, and grow. The future is performance-first, data-driven and AI-empowered," says Vroom.

The first global, AI-powered influencer will enter the chat.

Over the years, virtual influencers have, well, significantly grown their influence. What these digital humans do, say and share with their audiences are still crafted by teams of real people, much like fictional mascots of old—but this year, EVP, Global Head of Social Amy Luca, who leads the Social.Monks, expects to see a truly global, AI-generated influencer spring onto the scene. “This generative AI personality will be able to communicate in any language at scale, connect with cultures, and will be trained to be brand safe,” she says. They will likely be a lifestyle of fashion influencer, similar to Lil Miquela, but will enable a completely new level of one-to-one consumer communication at scale. Another possibility: bringing people back to life.

Marketers will elevate the role of immersive brand experiences.

Virtual humans are just one way that brands can better fuel one-to-one interactions at scale. And overall, Global EVP, Experience and leader of the Experience.Monks Jordan Cuddy expects to see brands focus more strongly on elevating consumer experiences in 2024 and beyond, citing a recent report that 71% executives plan to increase brand marketing in 2024, while only 46% intend to do the same for performance marketing.

But marketers face a dilemma: performance is easy to measure—think impressions, click-through rates and impressions—but the death of the cookie will challenge those strategies. Meanwhile, it’s harder to measure the effectiveness of an immersive brand experience. “Agencies need to be able to provide the feedback loop on ROI (loyalty, conversion, engagement, sentiment and opinion) in the shift toward more immersive experiences,” says Cuddy—an opportunity that will likely be helped by Milo’s earlier point about integrating strategies under one roof.

Emotional intelligence will be key to striking a chord with audiences.

Likewise, Head of Brand Design and Brand.Monks leader Jonny Singh sees an opportunity for emotionally resonant brand experiences in 2024. “As the trend towards personalization intensifies, brands will naturally elevate interactions to a new level of intelligence, tailoring experiences intricately to individual preferences,” he says. “However, amidst the technological wave, the emotional element remains pivotal, emphasizing the importance and power of storytelling.”

With a backdrop of global uncertainty, emotionally resonant content across the customer journey will go a long way in helping brands maintain relevance and resilience. “Brands that will come to the forefront this year will be ones that combine function and emotion, using logic and magic to think, make and create new futures, now,” says Singh.

Ambient computing will begin making its way into the mainstream.

In addition to virtual humans, ambient computing is another compelling evolution of how we will engage with technology. Brady Brim-DeForest, CEO of Formula.Monks, our technology services practice, envisions the dawn of truly pervasive and transparent software powered by AI. "I see 2024 as the beginning of the rise of true ambient computing. I think we’ll look back at the middle of the 2020s as ‘peak screen’—the future of work is coming fast and it will largely be screenless," he says. If you’ve interacted with a voice assistant on a connected speaker or wearable, then you’ve already dipped your toes into the screenless future. Now, generative AI will make these agents smarter and more reactive to user needs.

Brim-DeForest expects the way we interface with technology will evolve beyond verbal speech, as seen with emerging technologies like Neuralink. Brain implants may be a while away, but ambient computing isn’t far-fetched; in a recent episode of the Nex6 Project, Brim-Deforest explained how software has followed a trend of abstraction that will make these screenless experiences inevitable—and more natural, meshing seamlessly with our everyday routines.

AI innovation will focus less on hype, more on practicality.

Building on Brim-DeForest’s perspective on seamless technology use, Sander van der Vegte, VP, Emerging Tech and R&D on the Labs.Monks, sees an imminent shift towards more accessible and practical AI applications after a year of hype.

Van der Vegte notes a move away from the hype surrounding AI towards a more pragmatic approach that more realistic about AI's capabilities and use cases. “Its output is pretty good, but not great out of the box," he adds, creating a need for bespoke models that integrate with a brand’s production pipeline.

Here’s to the year ahead!

Time will tell if these predictions will come to fruition in 2024. Regardless, the convergence of AI, new interfaces and immersive experiences is providing new opportunities for brands to connect with their audiences in meaningful and innovative ways. Brands who successfully navigate this terrain will be those that adapt quickly, build robust data foundations, and embrace the potential of AI.

Across markets, brands are met with complex issues like the current economic downturn, inflation and third-party cookie deprecation. Budget cuts and layoffs have led them to reduce their media and content production budgets for 2023 and, as a result, raised their interest in automation solutions for production and advertising operations. With the aim to complete the same workload in the best way possible, many brands are shifting their focus to lower-funnel, performance-driven activities, while seeking ways to use resources more wisely. As they embark on new paths to growth—or dial up investments in innovation to diversify marketing strategies—now is the time for brands to automate whatever formats and assets they can to unlock the time and budget necessary for more outstanding activations. 

Fear of taking big creative risks during tough economic times makes it difficult to deliver groundbreaking creative. Besides, the traditional creative process is often expensive and doesn’t guarantee a campaign will perform well. I believe this is a result of a linear and rigid process which doesn’t allow for iteration, thereby leaving mid-flight performance insights to go unaddressed. Traditional big idea campaigns have their place, but there’s a more cost-effective and efficient solution to develop truly groundbreaking creative: Dynamic Creative Optimization. 

DCO is a silver bullet as brands streamline budgets and teams.

DCO is the process of producing modular creatives that can serve personalized creative variants to users based on different attributes, from their demographics and location to their behavioral and psychographic tendencies. In a time of economic uncertainty and evolving consumer expectations, the ability to quickly adapt creatives to address new challenges, trends or “moments” is a game changer. 

Looking at additional benefits, DCO allows you to streamline creative iteration and corresponding AdOps processes and shorten the activation process. My colleague Mitchell Pok, Director of Creative Services & Technology, says the typical creative process too often ends at delivery, and getting any iterations or changes done can take a long time.

This also means that the lift required to run tests has been reduced, allowing brands to do more proper testing. By methodically iterating on high performing content, brands are able to learn what works best for their target consumers and adjust messaging on the fly.

As you can see, DCO is a means to increase operational efficiency. By templatizing high volume and repetitive creative assets, brands save time and budget, which they can reinvest into other areas: developing innovative formats for new platforms, designing creative for channels that require a more bespoke approach, or fine-tuning low-scale but high-performing tactics to drive personalization at scale—the choice is yours. 

Successful DCO is a true interdepartmental effort. 

To realize the full benefits of DCO, collaboration across multiple teams is required to ensure a seamless process from asset iteration to activation. Unfortunately, different departments like media and creative are often siloed. Historically, the media landscape has always consisted of niche occupations, with specialists rarely moving out of their specific realms. As for creative teams, they’re further downstream and don’t really get to see the results of the assets they deliver, but are left in the dark until the next request comes in. 

However, constant collaboration between these teams helps tie everything together. That’s why we focus on breaking down barriers and making sure everyone involved in a project understands what other departments are doing. As much as there are limitations from a media perspective that creatives need to consider, there are limitations from the creative perspective that media teams need to take into account. The key to bringing these two together is helping them see things from the other’s perspective—for example, by showing designers the granularity at which media can be purchased, thereby empowering them to create more relevant imagery to serve these tactics.  

Cold feet? Run a pilot and see where it takes you. 

To brands that still shy away from DCO, I say: let’s run a pilot. It’s complementary to other measures, and thus can play a big or a smaller role in your strategy. Additionally, if you’re already used to creating and running animated HTML5 creatives, the DCO production process is only marginally more complex, but provides the benefits of quickly updating messaging and testing new variations. Start out by teaming up with a partner who can help you run a pilot and see where it takes you. 

Ultimately, the more you systematically test your creatives and generate insights, the more DCO will help you fine-tune your whole marketing strategy across creative and media. My advice to brands that are ready to become smarter in their creative production is the same as to myself when I browse pottery courses: it’s time to take your chances, because fortune favors the bold.

Indeed, the efficiencies and opportunities that AI enables can radically uplevel brand experience and output, though unlocking their true potential relies on understanding how to uplevel teams to use the technology effectively. Those who can fully leverage the power of AI and infuse it within every aspect of their business will dominate the market. But for those lagging behind, this is a Kodak moment: there will be no loyalty for businesses that are slow to deliver AI-powered experiences that make consumers’ lives easier.

Throughout this guide, we’ll showcase AI’s potential to transform marketing today and tomorrow, as well as the actions you can take right now to reap those rewards and lead in the new era.

10. Digital humans get more realistic.

Digital humans may have earned a spot on our list of trends last year, but we haven’t grown tired of traversing the uncanny valley to play with the technology. In fact, the recent explosion of conversational AI will likely inject new life into digital humans and transform the realms of customer service, entertainment and more. Whether used to hand-craft original characters or refine scanned-in digital twins, digital human creation tools are becoming increasingly complex to deliver lifelike avatars. 

“We’ll see more competition between Unreal’s MetaHuman Creator and Unity’s Ziva,” says Geert Eichhorn, Innovation Director. In fact, Media.Monks has used Unreal’s tool to create a digital double of our APAC Chief Executive Officer, Michel de Rijk. Because why not?

9. Motion capture becomes more accessible.

Last year, we released a Labs Report dedicated to motion capture and how its increasing accessibility influenced content production for both professional film teams and everyday consumers. New technologies available at consumer price points are helping to bring motion capture into even more people’s hands. Meta’s Quest Pro headset, which released late last year, features impressive facial tracking that will be key to expressing the nuances of human emotion in VR. Move.ai, currently in beta, enables 1:1 motion tracking with a group of mobile devices—no bodysuits, no markers, no extra hardware needed. Using computer vision, the platform allows anyone to make motion capture video in any environment.

8. Mixed reality and mirror worlds mature.

With smaller and more comfortable AR headsets shown off already at CES, we can expect augmented and mixed reality to become more immersive, accessible and practical over the course of 2023 (check out more of what we saw at CES here). The VIVE Flow, for example, includes diopters so that users can replicate their prescription lenses in the device, amounting to a more comfortable experience overall. 

But it’s not just about hardware. “One of the major advancements is not in the headsets, but in the software,” says Eichhorn, noting that VPS has the power to pinpoint a user’s exact position and vantage point in the real world. “They do this positioning by comparing your camera view to a virtual, 3D version of the world, like Street View.” We covered mirror worlds in last year’s trend list, but the development of VPS is now bringing this vision closer to everyday consumers.

While VPS currently works only outdoors, we’ve already seen the power of the technology with Gorillaz performances in Times Square and Piccadilly Circus in December 2022.

7. More enterprises embrace the hybrid model.

For many businesses the return to the office hasn’t been a smooth transition; while some roles require close collaboration within a shared space, others enjoy more flexible setups that support childcare, offer privacy for focus work or greater accessibility. Given the benefits of flexible work setups and the development of technologies that build presence in virtual environments, Luis Guajardo Díaz, Creative Technologist, believes more enterprises will embrace the hybrid work model.

Media.Monks’ live broadcast team, for example, built a sophisticated network of cloud-based virtual machines hosted on AWS to enable people distributed around the world to produce live broadcasts and events. Born out of necessity during the pandemic, the workflow goes beyond bringing teams together—it’s designed to overcome some of the challenges traditional broadcast teams face on the ground, like outages or hardware malfunctions. It stands to show how hybrid models can help enhance the ways we work today.

6. Virtual production continues to impress.

Virtual production powered by real-time become popular in recent years: the beautiful environments of The Mandalorian or grungy urban landscape of The Matrix showed what was possible by integrating game engines in the production process, while pandemic lockdowns made the technology a necessity for teams who couldn’t shoot on location.

Now, further advancements in game engines and graphics processing offer a look inside the future of virtual production. Sander van der Vegte, VP Emerging Tech and R&D, points to Unreal’s Nanite, which allows for the optimization of raw 3D content in real time.

Localization of content is one example. “In 2023 we’re going to see this versatility in the localization of shoots, where one virtual production shoot can have different settings for different regions, all adapted post-shoot,” says Eichhorn.

5. TV streaming and broadcasts become more interactive.

With virtual production becoming even more powerful, TV and broadcasting will also evolve to become more interactive and immersive. “Translating live, filmed people into real-time models allows for many new creative possibilities,” says van der Vegt. “Imagine unlocking the power to be the cameraman for anything you are watching on TV.” 

It might sound like science fiction, but Sander’s vision isn’t far off. At this year’s CES, Sony demoed a platform that uses Hawk-Eye data to generate simulated sports replays. Users can freely control the virtual camera to view the action from any angle—and while not live, the demo illustrates the power of more immersive broadcasts. The technology could be a game changer for sports and televised events that let audiences feel like they’re part of the action.

4. Metaverse moves become more strategic.

“2021 was a peak hype year for the metaverse and Web3. 2022 was the year of major disillusionment,” says Javier Sancho, Project Manager. “There are plenty of reasons to believe that this was just an overinflated hype, but it’s a recurring pattern in tech history.” Indeed, a “trough of disillusionment” inevitably follows a peak in the hype cycle.

This year will challenge brands to think of where they fit within the metaverse—and how they can leverage the immersive technology to drive bottom-line value. Angelica Ortiz, Senior Creative Technologist, says the key to unlocking value in metaverse spaces is to think beyond one-time activations and instead fuel long-term customer journeys.

A great example of how brands are using Web3 in impactful ways is by transforming customer loyalty programs, like offering unique membership perks and gamified experiences. These programs reinforce how the Web3 ethos is evolving brand-customer relationships by turning consumers into active participants and collaborators.

3. Large language models keep the conversation flowing.

With so much interest in bots like ChatGPT, the Labs.Monks expect large language models (LLMs) will continue to impress as the year goes on. “Large Language Models (LLMs) are artificial intelligence tools that can read, summarize and translate texts, and generate sentences similar to how humans talk and write,” says Eichhorn. These models can hold humanlike conversations, answering complex questions and even writing programs. But these skills open a can of worms, especially in education when students can outsource their homework to a bot.

LLMs like GPT are only going to become more powerful, with GPT-4 soon to launch. But despite their impressive ability to understand and mimic human speech, inaccuracies in response still need to be worked out. “The results are not entirely trustworthy, so there’s plenty of challenges ahead,” says Eichhorn. “We expect many discussions over AI sentience this year, as the Turing Test is a measurement we’re going to leave behind.” In fact, Google’s LaMDA already triggered debates about sentience last year—so expect more to come. 

2. Generative AI paints the future of AI-assisted creativity.

If 2021 was the year of the metaverse, the breakout star of 2022 is generative AI in all its forms: creating copy, music, voiceovers and especially artwork. “Generative AI wasn’t on our list in 2022, although looking back it should have been,” says Eichhorn. “The writing was on the wall, and internally we’ve been working on machine learning and generating assets for years.” 

But while the technology has been embraced by some creatives and technologists, there’s also been some worry and pushback. “These new technologies are so disruptive that we see not only copywriters and illustrators feel threatened, but also major tech companies need to catch up to not become obsolete.” 

In response to these concerns, Ortiz anticipates a friendly middle ground where AI will be used to augment—not erase—human creativity. “With the increasing push back from artists, the industry will find strategic ways to optimize processes not cut jobs to improve workflows and let artists do more of what they love and less of what they don’t,” she says. Prior to the generative AI boom, Adobe integrated machine learning and artificial intelligence across its software with Adobe Sensei. More recently, they announced plans to sell AI-generated images on their stock photography platform.

1. The definition of “artist” or “creator” changes forever.

Perhaps the most significant trend we anticipate this year isn’t a tech trend; rather, it’s the effect that technology like generative AI and LLMs will have on artists, knowledge workers and society. 

With an abundance of AI-generated content, traditional works of art—illustrations, photographs and more—may lose some of their value. “But on the flip side, these tools let everyone become an artist, including those who were never able to create this kind of work before,” says Eichhorn. This can mean those who lack the training, sure, but it also means those with disabilities who have found particular creative fields to be inaccessible.

When everyone can be an artist, what does being an artist even mean? The new definition will lie in the skills that generative AI forces us to adopt. Working with generative AI doesn’t necessarily eliminate creative decision-making; rather, it changes what the creative process entails. New creative skills, like understanding how to prompt a generative AI for specific results, may reshape the role of the artist into something more akin to a director. 

Eichhorn compares these questions to the rise of digital cameras and Photoshop, both of which changed photography forever while making it more accessible. “The whole process will take many more years to settle in society, but we’ll likely see many discussions this year on what ‘craft’ really entails,” says Eichhorn.

That’s all, but we can expect a few surprises to emerge as the year goes on. Look out for more updates from the Labs.Monks, who regularly release reports, prototypes and podcast episodes that touch on the latest in digital tech, including some of the topics discussed above. Here’s to another year of innovation!

Virtualization defines the transformation of digital.

As the world opened back up, an era of digital transformation gave way to the transformation of digital. By this, we mean virtualization: a set of new audience behaviors, cultural norms and technology paradigms resulting from 30 years of digital transformation, hyper-accelerated over the past five years. Virtualization, covered in our report earlier this year, marks a revolution in consumer behavior as people demand more from the digital platforms they engage with, which implicates the ways they look at digital experience, community, ownership and identity. For example, the design of ComplexLand, a virtualization of the hype-fueled annual event ComplexCon, was built around the insight that today’s fashion trendsetters are becoming just as invested in their digital identities as their corporeal ones.

The Social Innovation Lab, who explores up-and-coming trends in social, delved deeper into what motivates some of these behavioral changes in The Search for Meaning. By exploring how technology shapes the ways consumers find and make meaning in their lives, the Social Innovation Lab uncovers how brands can adapt to the new era in digital.

Experiments in the metaverse drive real success.

One of the biggest manifestations of the virtualization trend has been the rise of the metaverse, which many brands have experimented with this year to find their footing. Duolingo celebrated the birthday of its lovable (and persistent) mascot by hosting a game jam in Roblox and building larger-than-life public artwork in Decentraland. Logitech for Creators reinvented the awards show format by building the first music awards show in the metaverse, the Song Breaker Awards.

The fashion industry in particular has found a lot of success in the space. Liam Osbourne, Global Client Partner at the FLUX.Monks, our dedicated fashion and luxury team, shared with Vogue some insight on how the metaverse is an opportunity to become more inclusive. For brands exploring that question and more, the FLUX.Monks have authored a quick bulletin on why the metaverse matters.

As the metaverse continues to take shape, now is an excellent time for brands to continue experimenting in the space, which was a large part of a discussion shared between SVP Web3, Metaverse & Innovation Strategy Catherine D. Henry; Chief Innovation Officer Henry Cowling; and Mike Proulx, VP and Research Director at Forrester as part of our Meet Me in the Metaverse series. Eager to get started experimenting in the metaverse yourself? Our map of the metaverse can help you find the right home for your brand within this quickly evolving space.

Web3 and other emerging tech begin to mature.

In addition to the metaverse, other emerging technologies have fueled transformative digital experiences—most notably Web3. We showed up at NFT.NYC, the biggest Web3 conference on this side of the screen, with an immersive installation for Cool Cats that blurred the boundary between virtual and the real. Meanwhile, Gucci opened the virtual door to an immersive gallery space used to host an auction of NFT artwork.   

More than just a new tech infrastructure, Web3 marks a foundational shift in brand-consumer relationships, a topic covered in a bulletin we released in collaboration with Salesforce this year titled Web 3: The Future of Customer Engagement. For those wondering how to begin making moves in Web3, check out insights from our In a Monk’s Opinion series, which lays out everything you need to know about NFTs and the blockchain. One tip from the Labs.Monks: be sure to make your NFT projects sustainable.

Speaking of the Labs.Monks, our R&D team has continually released missives on the bleeding edge of tech throughout a year of innovation. Their most recent report on generative AI explores the potential of AI tools like Dall-E and Mid Journey that have captured creatives’ imagination (and people’s social feeds). One example of what the tech can achieve: unlocking efficiencies in animation and other production needs.

Creativity and media go hand in hand.

Throughout the digital era, it’s been tempting to focus attention on vanity metrics. But as CMOs invest more dollars into media (and face increasing budget scrutiny with a possible recession), they will benefit from transforming their approach to a more holistic strategy that blends media and creative to optimize their spend. Speaking to Digiday, Media.Monks Global Head of Media Melissa Wisehart unveiled how our integrated media pillar is designed to help brands make this leap.

Uni's relaunch campaign demonstrates this more holistic approach through the development of both the creative and media placement by one partner. With three creative variations and four measurement initiatives, we ensured the creative rolled out across today’s most relevant channels according to their purpose within the brand ecosystem.

When it comes to creative optimization, wellness brand Hatch found great success—and shared some of their secrets in an episode of In a Monk’s Opinion featuring Hatch’s VP Growth Marketing Holly Elliott. Many brands that rely on digital platforms for their marketing face a series of challenges: rising acquisition costs; a limited ability to manage their performance, attribution and audience targeting; and the risk of losing brand authenticity. Hatch assuaged these concerns by striking a balance between creative and performance. In the episode, Holly and our creative performance experts offer insight into how historical performance data can fuel further creative iterations.

Brands prepare for the oncoming privacy era.

While media optimization and performance may be top of mind now, budget conscious CMOs are also eyeing another obstacle on the horizon: overcoming their reliance on third-party cookies as attitudes in privacy shift and as Google aims to sunset third-party cookies with the Chrome browser. And speaking of cookies, VP of Data Services and Technology Doug Hall recently shared ways marketers can rethink cookie consent and management using the Privacy Sandbox platform.

Add to the mix that Google is sunsetting GA360 to make way for its new GA4 platform, meaning brands have plenty of adjustments to manage in the near future. Thankfully, GA360’s sunset was postponed to July 2024, meaning they have more time to perfect their migration strategy. Our data experts put their heads together to create a short guide on how to maximize your move to GA4 before the deadline.

We’ve also got some inspiration based on how other brands have future-proofed their data strategies with great success. We began our partnership with Molson Coors in 2021 with the goal to bring more of its digital media in-house. By taking an ambitious, holistic approach focused on modernization, we’ve since helped the brand future-proof with a robust, in-house digital media team: a data transformation that ranges from data acquisition, data activation and enrichment, and optimization.

And in the commerce space, leadership from Canadian retailer Reitmans shared the role cloud computing played in building a single source of truth throughout its entire organization, joining online consumer behavior with data from over 400 brick-and-mortar locations. Check out the episode of IMO to learn how a strong data foundation helped the brand adapt at speed.

Speaking of data foundations, emerging technologies like Web3 offer new ways of connecting with consumers and strengthening relationships. In an episode of Meet Me in the Metaverse, Ashley Muscumeci, our Director, Go-to-Market, sat down with Jordan Cuddy, Chief Client Officer at Jam3, and Avanthika Ramesh, Senior Product Manager, NFT Cloud at Salesforce, to explore how building a resilient data foundation will help brands get a head-start into the Web3 future. One key insight: despite being a new space, the same rules apply when it comes to user consent. “Even if you are bridging Web3 and Web2 data to bring all these identifiers about a consumer together, it’s really important that the user opts in and provides consent to merge these identities,” says Ramesh.

Commerce goes social and creators go virtual.

In recent years, creators have expanded their digital footprint into new spaces—like gaming and social audio—and have even adopted new content ventures to translate audience engagement into revenue for brands. So, what does the intersection of content, commerce and entertainment look like today? The Social Innovation Lab launched a report earlier this year, The Year of Digital Creators, to explore the state of the creator economy in depth, available in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

One example of how creators have transformed the consumer journey is through the rise of live commerce, the subject of a recently released Social Bite from the Social Innovation Lab. Live commerce blends communities and real-time connection to offer entertaining, interactive and personalized experiences for audiences, and the short deck offers a glimpse into the live commerce journey and how brands can activate audiences every step of the way.

What’s next in the realm of digital creators? Expect more and more virtual influencers in the form of CGI-rendered fictional characters or avatar alter-egos of real people. With the rise of the metaverse and more accessible motion capture technology, virtual influencers are primed to become a more common presence in brands’ influencer marketing strategies—and if you’re curious about the role one could play in your own marketing, check out another Social Bite about how virtual influencers are coming alive.

Here's to a new year of innovating!

With so much innovation in the last year spanning experiences, content creation and optimization through data, there’s a lot to celebrate as we cap off 2022. Looking ahead into the new year, these trends will continue to shape brands’ strategies as they seek to engage with hyper connected audiences in the new digital era.

Where will you begin? Reach out to start your 2023 journey with confidence.