23 Bamboo Predictions for 2023

As we approach 2023, we asked our team of experts what their top industry predictions are for the new year. How are macroeconomic changes affecting our strategies and how we're approaching 2023 on our clients' behalf? What platforms can we expect to be top players next year? From paid media to design, social media to lifecycle marketing, check out what to keep an eye on in 2023!

1) Christina Guo, Associate Director, Social 

“ROAS might be a keyword next year as all brands are trying to tighten their budgets while still trying to capitalize on media investments. More direct response content might be seen across platforms that focuses on driving conversions instead of impressions or clicks. Paired with lifecycle marketing, brands might be able to improve efficiency of turning more customers from consideration to purchase with slightly less investment.”

2) Jordan Harrison, Associate Director, Design  

“We will see the use of AI in creative development fully blossom, from copywriting to voiceover to image and video generation.”

3) Francis Molettieri, Sr. Growth Marketing Manager, Search 

“Custom Product Pages become a more serious addition to mobile app install campaigns to increase ad relevancy. Apple Search Ads, Meta & TikTok are already rolling them out with solid success. Google (most likely), Snapchat & other platforms may follow to capture the web landing page like experience for app stores.”

4) Tony Meyer, Associate Director, Social

“BeReal Ads - and BeReal copycats on FB/IG, Snap, and TikTok.”

5) Sinan Raja, Growth Marketing Manager, Social 

“Short form UGC style content will continue to gain traction across channels. Advertisers will continue to lean into YouTube Shorts, Facebook/Instagram Reels, Snapchat Spotlight, Tik Tok etc. over the coming years. YT Shorts hit 30B views per day earlier this year, a 4x increase from the year prior. This, coupled with the traction of influencer marketing, provide key opportunities for marketers as inventory costs and competition is currently lower on these placements.”

6) Eric Yang, Growth Marketing Associate, Social 

“Due to uncertain macroeconomic conditions and looming economic contraction, marketing teams will have less budget. Meaning they will need to make every marketing dollar count. Marketing teams that accurately identify and target the brand's ideal customer with effective messaging will be able to navigate these challenging times. Therefore, brands must dial in on the marketing messaging, ensuring that it resonates with the audience, instills trust, and promotes compelling value propositions.”

7) Kathleen Darby, Sr. Motion Graphics Designer 

“My prediction for 2023 is that we will see a lot more success with sound-on-video formats across both Instagram Reels & TikTok.”

8) Malak Lopez, Sr. Growth Marketing Manager, Search 

“After a 10-year bull market that ended this year, 2023 will be a year of reflection, correction, and possibly growth after we've all taken our economic medicine. Tech & startups alike will focus on what actually drives profit, for everything from product launches to hiring plans to marketing strategies. For us in Performance Marketing, this will mean more focus on evolving programs past CPA towards value & profit based KPIs, more buy-in from companies on privacy first analytics implementations, and more long term thinking in general from the clients we work with.”

9) Nirali Shah, Growth Marketing Analyst, Search 

“Given the macroeconomic climate, I think there'll be an increase in ad spend towards channels that have greater efficiency and more visibility in conversion tracking. On Trupanion, this is with Google Search Ads. We've already noticed more focus and higher media spend invested in search in the last couple months.”

10) Ariana Munroe, Growth Marketing Manager, Social 

“If 2022 trends continue, I predict that in 2023 TikTok will take over the advertising space, possibly even ahead of Meta. Now that TikTok is starting to be a platform where people go to search over Google, I don't see user growth slowing down anytime soon. User-generated content will be crucial to your TikTok strategy... so get ahead of the game and get on TikTok now!”

11) John Killeen, Growth Marketing Manager, Search

“In 2023, we will see brands continue to shift to more visual content and personalization. Macroeconomic trends, consumer sentiment, new visual-first features on all major ad platforms, etc. all point to brands focusing more on creating rich visual content to connect with users and break through the noise.”

12) Hailey Robertson, Growth Marketing Analyst, Social

“BeReal will offer advertising in 2023; more companies will shift away from advertising on Facebook.”

13) Katie McElroy, Director, Growth 

“The pandemic only accelerated the streaming wars, combined with mass adoption of smart TVs and rise of cable prices - I am predicting that Streaming services will take over 50% share of total TV usage for the first time in the US in 2024.  This will be driven by YouTube TV, who I predict will be able to secure 12% of total TV viewing by Q4 next year.  Previously content driven, the streaming landscape will become convenience and cost driven - creating NEW opportunities for brands, who previously struggled to afford to buy a spot in broadcast. YouTube TV + CTV offerings will be the new way forward to achieve impact on the "big screen" via a data-driven, cost efficient and measurable model (something traditional TV struggled to do). Exciting times!”

14) Kayse Brunell, Growth Marketing Manager 

“I think that more brands will be looking to TikTok to advertise now that they have established they are a key player in paid social and the overall social media landscape.”

15) Cory Smith, Associate Director, Lifecycle Marketing

“The name of the game is going to be Retention. As funding becomes harder to come by and advertising costs rise, many brands are going to rely on activating and reactivating existing customers to increase their bottom line.”

16) Erika Dial, Sr. Growth Marketing Manager, Social 

“I think we are going to see a lot more clients shifting media spend from Meta to other channels in 2023 as advertising costs on Meta continue to rise and as other channels increase their offerings to both consumers and advertisers.”

17) John Perkins, Growth Marketing Manager, Social 

“Document Ads will take off on LinkedIn: This new ad format allows advertisers to leverage their content library to serve seamlessly on LinkedIn's platform. Users can progress through a gated or un-gated experience to access content with minimal friction, increasing the effectiveness of a content play on LinkedIn.”

18) Meredith Munson, Growth Marketing Analyst, Social 

“I believe that Facebook as a platform (excluding IG) will continue to decline in users and TikTok will continue to launch new features (shop ads, etc.) as costs will continue to climb.”

19) Ritikaa Iyer, Growth Marketing Manager, Social 

“I think digital marketing is going to be a combination of paid marketing & branding, where the story we tell and how brand narrative interacts with customers is going to matter more. Because I think consumer intent is going to continue to be slow next year, I think paid media is going to be more for traffic/reach & diversifying audiences and then we leverage email marketing/SMS to convert.”  

20) Vinicius Bloisi, Growth Marketing Manager, Search 

“I believe that Connected TV devices will continue to grow significantly in 2023. Video ads are the main type of advertisement nowadays and CTV it is all about it. We are seeing big streaming companies such as Netflix announcing basic plans with ads, so in my opinion this can be a trend for next year. That said, advertisers will need to start creating specific assets per device type (mobile and CTV) to have better engagement with target audiences. The games industry is what I believe to be one of the most important for next year. It's a market that has been growing in the last few years and there are many good projections for it in 2023, moving at least $200B.”

21) Allison Danforth, Director, Growth 

“I think in the coming year we will continue to see advertising platform's address privacy issue concerns and lack of measurement in order to better support the advertiser. As platforms get smarter in how they solve for continued limitations, I believe we will see platform specific solutions to understanding audience & targeting in 2023. For top players, I think TikTok will continue to grow as more and more advertisers try to find success on this niche advertising platform.  I predict we will see more tailored TikTok content from both big and small brands as advertiser's try to stay relevant to their users.”

22) Briana Stone, Growth Marketing Manager, Search 

“More automation across all platforms. YouTube video ads will continue to grow, but the optimal video length will shorten to less than 10 seconds.”

23) Bailey Hopp, Marketing Manager, Demand Gen

"I think that there's going to be a bigger shift towards community building and nurturing from brands in 2023 in relation to influencer marketing. With influencer marketing still on the rise and many influencers building genuine partnerships and communities, brands can learn a lot about this and tap thoughtfully into influencer communities where it makes the most sense. I'm excited to see how brand partnerships continue to evolve too, as brands are shifting heavier into platforms like TikTok vs. Instagram."