Leading brands have prioritised investments in the speed, scale and efficiency of their content creation capabilities to build stronger customer relationships this year, according to Adobe’s 2023 Digital Trends Report — its annual deep dive into brand marketing and IT priorities.

The global survey of more than 9,000 executives, practitioners and agency employees (including 170 from India) finds that demand for content has significantly increased. According to the research, 79 per cent of senior APAC executives including 92 per cent senior Indian executives surveyed said content needs have gone up, but despite this insatiable appetite from customers for dynamic digital experiences, only a quarter of APAC brands rate themselves as “good” at creating and delivering content.

The report finds that barriers to delivering good customer experiences include lack of time to be creative. Nearly one in two (48 per cent) Indians surveyed believe that workflow issues are the biggest challenge in providing the best customer experience. Only one-quarter (25 per cent ) of APAC practitioners rate their organisations as ‘good’ or ‘very good’ at planning, scoping, prioritising and assigning content to achieve measurable outcomes, compared to 33 per cent globally.

Advertising on news sites

In an era when misinformation and fake news is rife, GroupM, WPP’s media investment group, has introduced a Back to News (BTN) Initiative. The programme seeks to support the re-investment of media budgets in credible news publishers and responsible journalism. Created in a global partnership with non-profit Internews, BTN will provide GroupM clients with access to high-quality ad environments on vetted local, national, and international news sites. The partnership aims to establish active news inclusion lists in 60 international markets by the end of 2023. The idea behind the initiative is two-fold — for brands, it is good to be seen on high quality news sites, and for credible news sites, the ad support gives them the muscle to positively impact the society.