MAM
Talkwalker & Khoros release social media trends 2023 report
Mumbai: The leading consumer intelligence and deep listening company, Talkwalker, and a digital-first customer engagement software and services company, Khoros, have released their annual social media trends report titled “From insights to action: how to disrupt a disruptive consumer.” The report highlights the social media trends that matter most for brands, marketers, and PR professionals to watch in the coming year. The report follows the announcement of the companies’ strategic partnership to seamlessly deliver deep listening and social media management through a unified experience.
According to the report, the customer experience will become even more social in the future. It highlights that 75 per cent of consumers say the pandemic has driven long-term changes in their behaviours and preferences, including a bigger focus on urgency. Brands must prioritise customer experience by providing support, information, or solutions as fast as possible. In 2023, expect more brands to leverage social media as dedicated support channels, enabling a fast, efficient response no matter which platform consumers use to get in touch.
The report expects that social commerce will rise and fall. It reveals that large increases in post-pandemic digital growth and rising costs of living are driving increased demand for affordability. Soon, consumers will be more willing to explore new shopping channels such as social. However, some countries are more ready to adopt social commerce than others. In India, from FY 20–25, social commerce is expected to grow at a 55–60 per cent CAGR, taking the current market size from $1.5-2 billion to $16–20 billion.
The report leveraged Talkwalker’s social listening and AI-enabled analytics capabilities to uncover the 10 most impactful social media trends to expect in 2023 and demonstrates how consumers are driving these trends.
The insights behind each trend are further supported with industry-specific social engagement actions marketers can take from Khoros’s Strategic Services team. This report also features contributions from industry experts such as Smita Murarka from Duroflex, Samit Malkani from Google, and Aurnob Godinho from Bombay Shaving Company.
Further, the report also predicts that brands will place an emphasis on communities rather than personas. It stated that 66 per cent of branded communities say that their community has led to increased loyalty. Brands will focus on gaining deeper knowledge of their consumer ecosystems to understand who is driving and sharing brand-focused conversations. Influencers, employee advocates, and consumers will be engaged within brand communities to generate authentic connections and consumer-led content.
“We all know the digital ecosphere has disrupted how marketers engage with consumers,” said Talkwalker chief marketing officer David Low.
He added, “In this new environment, marketers must focus on forging symbiotic relationships through a better understanding of online conversations and taking quicker action. It’s this new understanding that will help brands create meaningful experiences and become closer to their consumers.”
Khoros chief marketing officer Dillon Nugent stated, “As marketers, we know the value of data and the importance of listening to our customers. But we need to be more action-oriented and use those insights more effectively. Consumers’ comfort level with doing things online—shopping, researching, socialising—is not slowing down as the world opens up. They also care more about their communities—global, local, IRL, and online. Marketers need to tap into these trends and behaviours more deeply to personalise customers’ experiences and create more impactful strategies that empower your brand to stay connected to customers and grow your presence in the market.”
AD Agencies
Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
