In digital advertising, every year brings unprecedented levels of change.

While this is especially true in the last few years, 2022 promises to completely shake up the digital ecosystem. This year is sure to be anything BUT business as usual.

The acronym VUCA, short for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, is a catch-all for, “Hey, it’s crazy out there”. It has become a trendy managerial term that accurately describes how we are all feeling right now.

Often when things happen in the ad industry, they happen in our bubble without causing too many ripples externally. But this year, major external pressures are at play. Consumers are more aware than ever of advertising and how their data is being used. And the government is focused squarely on the industry and its impact on society.

This means businesses need to get their houses in order, re-evaluating existing and well-embedded practices. There are three major areas of preparation to focus on. 

1. Data and privacy reform

In the second half of 2021, the Australian government announced two significant proposed privacy reforms.

The first, a new Online Privacy Bill which would enable the creation of binding online privacy codes for social media, data brokerage services and other large online media owners. The second is a Discussion Paper released by the Attorney-General’s department as part of its ongoing review of the Privacy Act.

Together they propose several significant changes, which, if passed into law, will have far-reaching impacts on data collection and use by advertisers, agencies, publishers and data brokerage companies.

The key impacts to look out for are a proposed broadening to the definition of personal information to include IP addresses, geolocations and inferred data such as demographics and interests; the need to identify all third parties involved in data collection and usage; and greater responsibility for companies around the handling of personal information, including the ability for consumers to opt-out of targeted advertising in all of its forms.

These recommendations are based on similar laws in the UK (GPDR), Europe and US (CPRA), and given we’re lagging behind, many predict Australia will take a harder stance as learning from those markets is used to evaluate the adequacy of consumer protection.

This, coupled with cookie deprecation in 2023 (which will affect targeting, measurement, attribution) will kick off larger conversations as brands realise their strengths and weaknesses and look to create more stable ecosystems through disclosed data partnerships.

Discussions about ID creation (universal or independent) will be on the rise. As will their ethical usage and creating value for the user versus simply being a replacement for the cookie. 

If you do nothing else right now, do this:
 

• Familiarise yourself with the proposed data and privacy changes
• Revisit your post-cookie plan and apply learning from your non-digital strategy and planning where cookie reliance hasn’t existed

Testing redistribution of social media spend

As global and local brands get serious about ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance), audits are graduating from logistics and manufacturing into marketing and media spend.

Brands and agencies are questioning where their dollars are spent, the societal impact of these spends and what they are funding.

From GroupM Global CEO Christian Juhl publicly calling for mandates in environmental impact, to Patagonia pulling Facebook spend, ESG is no longer a nice to have for the media industry.

Further to this, the Australian Federal government has called a parliamentary inquiry into the harm of social media with initial findings are expected in February. Let’s be real: the findings won’t tell us anything we don’t already know but the attention being paid to these issues will only add to the groundswell of expectation.

To get ahead of this wave, brands need to start weaning themselves off their addiction to social media investment and begin testing other alternatives.

If you do nothing else right now, do this:
 

• Look for congruency in your brand values and the companies you invest advertising spend
• Start testing alternate investment options to platforms with conflicting values

The move to quality over quantity

The rise of attention as a media metric is well documented and heating up. It’s about time.

Digital advertising has moved from buying lots of impressions at the cheapest cost to an understanding of the importance of digital at every touchpoint and accountability for more than just a click, like or follow.

Instead of looking to cheap reach as the deciding factor, brands will start to focus on the quality of that reach, and the impact of an impression.

Finally, we will see recognition that ads with little or no attention have little or no impact. And media investment patterns will start to follow the attention if they aren’t already.

If you do nothing else right now, do this:
 

• Review your media spend through the lens of impression quality versus impression quantity

This year will ignite some of the biggest shifts the digital ad industry has ever seen. If you aren’t preparing in these areas, you won’t be ready for the freight train of change that is coming.

There's a small window of opportunity to trial and test alternatives that futureproof your business and set it up for success.

It sounds dramatic, but this could be your last chance.