Our NZ MARKETING INSIGHTS & TRENDS FOR 2023 presentation and slide deck is now available.

Some of the primary topics we cover include:

THE NZ MARKETPLACE

It’s Election Year, we have a new Prime Minister and a reshuffled cabinet. What are the implications for marketers?

NZ Economic Expectations are not great. 73 percent of Kiwi businesses expect general economic conditions to deteriorate over the coming months, the weakest over the survey’s history, according to the NZIER Quarterly Survey of Business Opinion, Nov 2022-Jan 2023.

Labour shortages are the top concern for 66.2% of New Zealand businesses, with employee retention the second highest concern and rising costs the third highest.

Business pessimism has tripled over the last 12 months, according to Indicator’s 2023 NZ “Mood of the Sales Leader” study, and more than twice as many sales leaders are planning for a flat budget in 2023 (vs 2022).

Annual food prices are up 10.7 percent, according to Statistics NZ (Nov 2022). And increased mortgage rates will hit consumers hard in 2023. Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank sees inflation holding steady at 7.5%. Where’s the money coming from to pay for it all?

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

An NZ Herald research project conducted in October 2022 shed some interesting light on the New Zealand psyche:

• Two-thirds of us believe that New Zealand has become more divided in the last few years.
• 56% of Kiwis believe that the cost of living is the most important issue facing New Zealand right now.
• Even so nearly half (48%) expected their life to improve in the year ahead while a further 38% expected little change.

Perception is Reality: those consumers who believe that we are in a recession will behave accordingly, spending less on discretionary items, eating out less and spending less on entertainment.

On the other hand, after being stuck at home for so long, bored and disgruntled Kiwis want to get out and see more, of the country or the world. Those urges will war with the need to cut back and spend less.

Buy Now Pay Later usage will grow, as consumers attempt to still have and eat their cake despite financial constraints.

Sustainability has slipped a bit as a consumer priority in 2023, not because people care less about the planet. Instead, it is more a question of prioritisation and mental bandwidth, with everything else that consumers have to worry about. 54% of global consumers say that they currently value affordability over sustainability when making purchase decisions.

As mortgage rate increases bite, consumers will cut back on discretionary spending and will spend significantly more time planning the purchases that they do make.

MARKETING (LEGACY MEDIA & STREAMING SERVICES)

The TVNZ/RNZ merger is off, allowing both organisations to get on with their core businesses.

WB Discovery New Zealand has pre-announced the 2023 launch of Free Ad-supported Streaming Television (FAST) channels. Whilst we don’t yet know which channels WBDNZ will launch over here, the company’s FAST channels recently announced in the US include:

• WB TV Watchlist: premium TV shows series including “Westworld,” “Raised by Wolves,” “The Nevers,” and “The Time Traveler’s Wife”
• WB TV Keeping It Real: Reality shows including “The Bachelor,” “The Bachelorette,” “Bachelor in Paradise,” “Finding Magic Mike” and “Fboy Island”
• WB TV All Together: shows with “characters who feel like family” including “Eight Is Enough,” “Better With You” and “Head of the Class”
• WB TV Sweet Escapes: baking competition shows including “Cake Boss,” “Extreme Cake Makers” and “Cake Wars”
• WB TV Paws & Claws: pet shows including “Dogs 101” and “My Cat from Hell”
• WB TV Slice of Life: series following people from “all corners of the world” including “Extreme Couponing,” “Breaking Amish” and “My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding”
• WB TV Welcome Home: Real estate and interior design shows including “Caribbean Life,” “Buying Hawaii,” and “Bahamas Life”
• WB TV At the Movies: Selection of classic films from the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s
• WB TV How To: “curiosity-inspiring” series including “How It’s Made,” “How to Build Everything” and “How the Earth Works”
• WB TV Supernatural: shows including “Ghost Brothers,” “Paranormal Lockdown” and “Ghost Asylum”
• WB TV Crime Series: shows including “Murder Chose Me,” “A Crime to Remember,” and “Murder Comes to Town”
• WB TV Mysteries: shows like “Mysteries at the Museum,” “Mysteries at the Monument” and “Off Limits”
• WB TV Love & Marriage: shows including “Say Yes to the Dress Atlanta,” “Four Weddings” and “A Wedding Story”
• WB TV Family Rules: series about real-life families

As streaming services proliferate and market shares stabilise (or decline), some of the leading players (specifically, Netflix and Disney+) are introducing lower-cost ad-supported streaming service tiers. We review what’s currently being rolled out around the world.

DIGITAL MARKETING

We naturally take a look at the latest developments in the digital sphere, including the increase in digital marketing adspend (now estimated as representing two-thirds of total NZ adspend).

The developments are too numerous to cover here in much depth, but include:

• The importance of EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness) when ranking on Google Search
• SEO best practices, including optimising websites for Google Discover, maximising for user intent and ticking all the boxes for Technical SEO
• Increased focus on Vertical Video for TikTok, Instagram Reels & Stories and YouTube Shorts
• The rise of TikTok as a search engine for younger audiences
• New Zealand social media statistics for 2023, what’s growing, what’s declining
• Meta’s latest algorithm changes and what they mean for Facebook and Instagram
• The move to a cookie-less future

And let’s not overlook social media influencers, who are enjoying increased impact, with 22% of consumers globally learning about a product through an influencer, with 16% going on to purchase that product. Those numbers balloon out amongst Gen Z (48% learn, 32% buy) and Millennials (36% learn, 26% buy), while just 17% of Gen X and 7% of Boomers say they have learned about products through influencers, with 13% (Gen X) and 5% (Boomers) making purchases as a result.

Even with the increased popularity of influencers, however, consumers are more discerning than ever when it comes to relating to influencers, and are more likely to believe those who are real people and who share their own experiences of a product.

KEY MARKETING TECHNOLOGIES

Inevitably, the marketing technology buzz in 2023 is primarily about artificial intelligence. Key trends to observe include:

ChatGPT and its competitors being integrated into many many tools, including Microsoft’s Bing search engine, Google Search (with Bard), Microsoft Teams and a whole host of other programs.

Google has begun launching AI-enabled Maps and AI/AR enhanced views of local neighbourhoods, and these will roll out around the world during 2023.

Text-to-image AI tools such as MidJourney, Dall-E 2 and Stable Diffusion are attracting more and more attention as they gain in sophistication and capability. (And yes, all of the images you see above, except for the main header, were created by AI.) Expect new generations and developments during the year.

Text-to-video and video-to-video AI tools, most especially Runway Research’s Gen-1 and Gen-2, allow users to use both words and images to generate new videos. This technology is also showing dramatic results and new iterations promise to deliver even more.

Beyond AI, other technologies worthy of note for 2023 include the eco-system commonly known as Web 3.0, which (according to ChatGPT) “refers to the third generation of the World Wide Web, characterized by a shift towards a decentralized and more intelligent internet, where data and information is better organized, interconnected, and accessible. It is based on the use of advanced technologies like blockchain, semantic web, and artificial intelligence to create a more intelligent and connected web, where users have more control over their data and online identity.”

And, we note, Web 3.0 users regular expect brands to interact with them directly, one-to-one, through tools such as Discord servers. It won’t be an easy transition for marketers more accustomed to the one-to-many broadcast model.

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All this and a whole lot more can be found in our NZ MARKETING INSIGHTS & TRENDS FOR 2023 report.

Personal Use and Agency Use Rights

This NZ MARKETING INSIGHTS & TRENDS FOR 2023 report, like all our Marketing Insights presentations, comes with personal use and agency use rights: you can present these reports to your own team and to your clients and prospects, bringing everyone up to speed on the latest marketing insights and trends as we face 2023. All presentations are unbranded, so you can add your own branding and comments.

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