As we begin the new year, Media in Canada interviews the industry’s top executives to find out their thoughts on 2023 and what they see on the horizon for 2024. Today, we feature Glassroom general manager Scott Stewart (left) and GroupM CEO Kevin Johnson (right).

What do you think were the most seismic changes of 2023?

Scott Stewart: No surprise, the biggest changes in 2023 were all directly or indirectly related in some way to the impact and implications of the economy on our sector and how it ultimately affected changes in consumer media and shopping behaviour. As a result, the biggest changes in 2023 were, for the most part, due to a very drastic change in business reality as agencies and their clients tried to do “more with less,” while dealing with the overarching pressures to maintain previous year performances.

Kevin Johnson: I wish it was something less predictable, but it’s undeniably top of the list: the leaps and bounds we have seen in artificial intelligence this year – whether actionable, adaptive, generative – is continuously accelerating the pace across the entire system.

Commerce: Blurring the lines between what it means to be performance and commerce as more media channels offer shopping and selling options.

Retail media: Despite Canada having a small set of players, 2023 was an interesting year wherein some of the retail media networks stepped up their game, making retail media a critical part of the biddable and programmatic media mix.

Social media has long been a driver of performance and outcomes-based buying for brands, and social commerce has stepped up to showcase its ability as a primary conversion and performance-based solution in any scale of performance-based marketing.

Data: Brands and platforms are intensifying their focus on user data as we near the end of the cookie. We spent a lot more time this year educating clients about harnessing the opportunity and power of their data in preparation for this new world.

Sports and live events on new channels: While we have long understood the value of live sports on linear TV, we are seeing streaming companies prioritize live sports to encourage consumers to subscribe.

How do you predict those changes will evolve in 2024? 

Scott Stewart: It will be another year of looking for more ways to re-optimize and to re-rightsize in order to meet current market conditions and make every dollar count. Working vs non-working percentages will be on marketers’ minds and attribution will be a priority in determining efficiency. From a trends perspective, pay-to-play, bundles and subscriber services will be heavily scrutinized by the end consumer and cancellations will impact the bottom line.

Media companies on the sell-side that are looking to offset declining audiences with increased rates will not be well-received by the buy side, and there will be more scrutiny than ever before on channel selection as agencies and marketers start to focus more on prioritizing media value based on ad effectiveness, as well as refined audience buying and quantitative return on ad spending. This may not bode well for more premium/ultra premium channels and could/should ultimately slow down the continued growth of Connected TV and other pay-to-play media services as agencies reduce the total number of partnerships in the mix as they look for more value opportunities.

On the upside, I think that OOH spending will most likely continue to increase as agencies embrace location intelligence as a way to enhance precision and accountability on ad spending while keeping costs down.

Kevin Johnson: In 2024, AI will be ubiquitous and accessible allowing the creation of impact and productivity gains across the supply chain. It will be an organic part of all workflows. The evolution of AI applications and integrations empowering an accelerated shift to more personalized and interactive content: chatbots, gamification, personalized platform recommendations, such as Netflix’s suggestions, Spotify’s playlists, and Amazon’s ads.

As we see the cookie depreciate, we expect to see the consolidation of tech and data stacks to prioritize business use cases that drive the identification of optimal moments of receptivity. This interplay and data and contextual exchange presents a prime opportunity to deliver advertising that works better for people.

Retail media transition from bottom funnel tactical to being a full-funnel strategic media solution. The scale of the retail media network will be comparable to social and programmatic channels. Social commerce will organically merge into performance and full-funnel media and measurement activities. Brands will move away from siloed investments in social and retail, to long-term strategic investments for overall growth and performance.

What do you and your agency see as the biggest challenge facing your business? 

Scott Stewart: Sound planning, a deep commitment to the development of our people and little attrition resulted in a strong 2023 for Glassroom, but not being able to control or forecast against some of the mitigating macro economic factors can make even the most solid business plan hard to navigate.

As we face another year with a turbulent economy, we plan on addressing those challenges through the commitment of people. It becomes even more important to focus on the quality of the product that we deliver to our clients, the results we deliver and having a growth plan that is fair but responsible, ensuring we stay flexible enough as an organization to move quicker than the market can.

Kevin Johnson: Maintaining a robust local, responsible media ecosystem. The Online News Act that just came into effect is an inflection point for this industry to responsibly collaborate across interests to create a system that fuels a robust, responsible local media ecosystem while acknowledging the changes in Canadian audience behaviours and consumption.

Google and the government coming together is promising but there is still more to do, and I hope that we see more of the industry proactively coming to the table to participate and inform. As responsible journalism is a key pillar of our responsible investment framework, we are committed to actively participating to deliver success on all related fronts and continuing to inform our clients about the importance of investing locally.

What do you see as the biggest opportunity in 2024?

Scott Stewart: More and more, we are meeting potential clients who share our business values, are struggling with the need for far more transparency in their agency relationship, specifically around fees, media pricing and ways of working, and are starting to see far more value in a customized approach to their business.

Kevin Johnson: Consumers and audiences today want advertising that is relevant to their personal circumstances and interests, so with the continued increased diversification of the Canadian population, it’s critically important that we push diversity in this industry to ensure we are accurately representative of the diversity of the audiences we serve. Because, to plan and deliver effective media in Canada, we need to have the perspectives at the table to inform how to reach and connect with them.

Interviews were conducted separately and edited and condensed for clarity.