It’s the season of industry outlooks, predictions, and an avalanche of “expert takes”. As much as we love research firms and agencies working overdrive to release their latest trend predictions to set the tone for the year ahead, the sheer volume can get overwhelming.
If you have the bandwidth to read just one industry forecast, read this one—Campaign’s annual collection of trend reports, categorised and organised in easy-to-digest format—where our editors thumb through the jargon, weed out the important bits, basically do all the hard work so you start 2023 on an informed note.
Each day in the month of January, we’ll bring you a key insight worth knowing. Since we’re a few days in, we’ve started off with a few to whet your thirst for knowledge.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR IN 2023
China is back and so are its women athletes
Source: Mailman Group, 2023 China Trends Predictions
Of the 431 Chinese athletes who competed at the Tokyo Olympics, 69% were women. Historically, 55% female athletes from the country have nabbed golds at the Summer Olympics between 1984 and 2016. The report highlights that Chinese women players have outperformed their male counterparts in various sports such as volleyball, ping pong, badminton, and a wide range of Winter sports. Now, as China opens up after nearly three years of self-imposed isolation, attention rests on its national women’s soccer team aiming to score big at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in July this year.
AI will be our co-pilot for creativity
Source: Accenture Song, 2023 Accenture Life Trends
From learning to live in permacrisis as the pandemic continues to bring critical changes to large parts of Asia, a radical shift is in motion and will push businesses and leaders to operate in more tech-focussed landscapes. Artificial Intelligence is now in the hands of the everyday user and is a new tool for the creative process. Suddenly, neural networks have been made wildly available to create language, images and music with very little effort or skill. Developments within AI are also hitting the market at an astonishing speed. At scale, this is an incredible breakthrough for creativity. Companies need to consider how they will stand out in the sea of AI-generated content and how they use AI to enhance the speed and originality of innovation.
“Disruptive moments have people questioning what sense of control they have over their own lives. As they inevitably adapt and get a handle on things, the decisions made to exercise more control will affect the brands and organizations they interact with,” said Mark Curtis, global lead, thought leadership, metaverse and sustainability, Accenture Song.
Long live the ‘genuinfluencers’
Source: 160over90
Signalling an end to the era of Kardashian-style showboarding, genuine influencers or ‘genuinfluencers’, the ones who are not always seen selling stuff and use their platform to talk about issues that matter—mental health, racial injustice, LGBTQ+ rights—are “the ones to watch out for.” The report forecasts APAC will lean into genuinfluencers in a big way specially to cut through the highly informed Gen Z market who identifies with authenticity, transparency, and clarity in their partner brands.
Twitter will go big, or bust but it isn’t going anywhere
Source: Cielo and Sprout Social, Social Media Trends to Help Win Talent for 2023
2022 was a wild one for social media, and not just for Twitter. By the end of the year, Twitter aims to ambitiously add 100 million daily users to the site—seeking 50% growth from where it is now. The social media site has admitted there’s not a sign-up problem; its monetizable daily active users haven’t seen exponential growth over the last several years. Some of the largest ad companies might have pulled spending from the platform, the value of blue tick is watered down, but given the other social media networks’ focus on video, Twitter is really the best place for a text conversation. And the other platforms aren’t well-positioned for real time either.
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