Adobe recently released the 2023 Digital Trends Report, its 13th annual deep dive into brand marketing and IT priorities for the year ahead. As per the company, the global survey, launched between September ‘22 to November’ 22, with 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 the content supply chain backed by intelligent workflow automation, built on a customer-centred strategy and streamlined for the entire content lifecycle,” he added.
According to the research, 79% of senior APAC executives including 92% 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%) of APAC brands rate themselves as “good” at creating and delivering content.
Efficiency and cost-reduction are the focus as 43% of senior APAC executives say they have already made their content processes more efficient, the report stated.
The report also mentions that two in five (41%) 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%) Indians surveyed believe that workflow issues are the biggest challenge in providing the best customer experience.
In addition, only one-quarter (25%) 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% globally. Crucially, 41% cite workflow issues as a critical barrier holding back their marketing organizations, cited the report.
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% of senior Indian executives betting on having an efficient customer data operation. More than one-third (37%) have prioritized streamlining or automating collaboration processes so their teams can work faster and better. And 43% have prioritized using workflow automation to improve marketing and customer experience process efficiency. This is higher than the global average of 38%.
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%) of APAC leaders plan to invest in new marketing and data technologies. For India, 44% of leaders are looking to maximise the value of existing technologies.
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.