Adobe has released the 2023 Digital Trends Report, its 13th annual deep dive into brand marketing and IT priorities for the year ahead. The global survey of more than 9,000 executives, practitioners, and agency employees (including 800 APAC respondents including 170 from India) also explores the technology investments and strategies that set industry leaders apart from the competition.
This year’s report reveals that leading brands have prioritized investments in the speed, scale and efficiency of their content creation capabilities and workflows to build stronger customer relationships and succeed in 2023. In parallel, they are enhancing their existing marketing processes and technologies to make the most of their investments and ensure they seize every opportunity throughout the year.
“Customer demand for content-rich, personalized experiences have increased immensely,” said Anindita Veluri, marketing director, Adobe India. “To meet this, businesses need to focus on content supply chain backed by intelligent workflow automation, built on a customer-centred strategy and streamlined for the entire content lifecycle.”
Content Creation at scale
According to the research, 79 percent of senior APAC executives including 92 percent senior Indian executives surveyed say demand for content has significantly increased. Yet despite this seemingly insatiable appetite from customers – who now crave dynamic digital experiences across a growing range of channels – only a quarter (25 percent) of APAC brands rate themselves as “good” at creating and delivering content.
Industry leaders are therefore rethinking and streamlining their content supply chains, which cover content campaign planning, creation, delivery, and data analysis. Efficiency and cost-reduction are the focus as 43 percent of senior APAC executives say they have already made their content processes more efficient.
Workflow emerges as a top priority
Historically, efforts to accelerate content creation have come at the cost of employee time and freedom. Two in five (41 percent) APAC marketing practitioners cite a lack of time to be creative as a barrier to delivering excellent customer experiences. However, nearly one in two (48 percent) Indians surveyed believe that workflow issues are the biggest challenge in providing the best customer experience. In addition:
– Only one-quarter (25 percent) of APAC practitioners rate their organizations as ‘good’ or ‘very good’ at planning, scoping, prioritizing, and assigning content to achieve measurable outcomes, compared to 33 percent globally.
– Crucially, 41 percent cite workflow issues as a critical barrier holding back their marketing organizations.
To address this issue and strengthen their content machines in 2023, leading APAC brands have prioritized workflow management and digital collaboration across their content teams with 24 percent of senior Indian executives betting on having an efficient customer data operation.
– More than one-third (37 percent) have prioritized streamlining or automating collaboration processes so their teams can work faster and better.
– And 43 percent have prioritized using workflow automation to improve marketing and customer experience process efficiency. This is higher than the global average of 38 percent.
Enhancing current technologies
Investments in content and creative workflows reflect how leaders are prioritising improving processes and technologies to enable success in the current economic climate. Almost half (45 percent) of APAC leaders plan to invest in new marketing and data technologies. For India, 44 percent of leaders are looking to maximise the value of existing technologies.
Some brands’ future planning may be suffering due to economic concerns: 65 percent of senior brand executives in APAC report that emphasising immediate needs has come at the cost of longer-term planning and strategy. Encouragingly, this focus on immediate needs is not universal; some APAC respondents said they are looking ahead at new digital platforms and forms of engagement, with 41 percent indicating their organisations are learning about marketing in the metaverse.
The Adobe Digital Trends Report is a global survey produced in collaboration with Econsultancy that explores how leading organizations are using cutting-edge technologies to empower individuals, transform their business, and connect with their customers. Now in its 13th year, the report draws comparisons between industry leaders and laggards to unearth the strategies, technologies, and issues brands must focus on to succeed and stand out.
The 2023 Digital Trends Report is based on an online survey fielded between September and November 2022 to select Econsultancy and Adobe lists. The findings represent responses from 9,247 qualified respondents, including 793 respondents from Asia Pacific (158 from Australia/New Zealand, 170 from India, 90 from Japan, 137 from South Korea, 54 from Taiwan and 184 from ‘other’).