Meta recently published a 22-page report detailing key shifts in consumer behavior for brands to consider when planning their marketing strategies.

“Businesses today are facing a new reality: an uncertain macroeconomic landscape, increasing pressure on profitability, efficiency, and business outcomes, and changing media consumption habits,” Meta said in announcing the report. “As a result of these shifts, marketers are finding that their tried-and-tested marketing mixes are no longer performing as strongly as they once did. Instead, brands are discovering that spending more on digital platforms can reap rich rewards, including greater efficiency and return on ad spend.”

While the report outlines major marketing opportunities for companies in the Asia/Pacific region, its data hold potentially helpful information for marketers everywhere.

Meta begins by citing major challenges to businesses today: an uncertain macroeconomic environment, due to such causes as inflation and the Ukraine war; an increasing expectation of efficiency in spending on marketing; and changes in media consumption, with the rise in streaming services and short-form videos.

In the report, Meta identifies four factors responsible for transformative shifts affecting media planning: content creators, short-form video, messaging, and AI (artificial intelligence).

According to the report, 68% of Gen Z respondents to a 2022 Meta-commissioned retail survey said they follow creators for inspiration and discovery, with 79% saying their shopping decisions have been influenced by a creator. Creators are using word of mouth to gain more trust from users than traditional brands, due to their perception as being more accessible, personable, and, well, human.

On the topic of short-form video, Meta—which has been pushing its Reels offering hard this past year—reported that Reels on Meta platforms receive 190 billion views a day globally and that more than 2 billion Reels are shared globally every day. Meta recommends short-form video as a solid investment for marketers, which is certainly self-serving, but the company provided some data to back up the suggestion: According to a Nielsen report evaluating the impact of Reels on marketing campaigns, marketing campaigns featuring Reels were reportedly 20% more effective those using other video formats, and short videos are 76% more effective than long-form videos in impressions shared. So if you listen to Meta, you might spend some holiday marketing budget on Reels, or at the very least, create some for your profile.

The growth of messaging might be the most surprising aspect of the report, but only in the sense that businesses may not have thought to incorporate it in marketing. It makes sense that businesses that allow direct messaging from potential customers would see more success—as consumers begin to engage with products, it bodes well for a business to make itself accessible to those shoppers. According to Meta surveys cited in the report, 1 in 3 people chat with a business once a week, and 70% of respondents said they felt more connected with businesses they can message. Meta’s apps have a message button right in a user’s profile that would help businesses to connect with potential customers—a good option to turn on as the holidays approach.

Finally, as to the expanding use of AI, Meta notes that 77% of advertisers that tested Meta’s Advantage AI solutions saved several working hours of work using them. Again, another self-serving tidbit, but this survey finding does show how AI can make it easier on marketers to put out quality ads in a short amount of time.

The report goes much more in depth, but those were some highlights to get you started. You can read the full report here.

(Photo via Meta)

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