IAB Canada’s State of the Nation roadshow wrapped up this week. Moving across Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Halifax, this coast-to-coast event brought hundreds of Canadian digital media and marketing professionals together to discuss the latest issues, trends and opportunities in the sector.
Kicking off in Toronto, we shared the preliminary results from the 2023/24 revenue survey which revealed steady year over year growth. The industry generated $15.9B in advertising revenue across all formats and channels. The main drivers included video, audio and most significantly, retail media, which has started to make its mark by shifting dollars in search towards lower funnel environments outside of traditional search engines. When looking at the current year, IAB Canada has estimated revenue of $18.1B based on the IAB Canada/PWC study results.
Amidst the onslaught of narratives, the industry faces in this time of transition, the discussion centred largely on focus. Each community is grappling with its own challenges and opportunities to reach revenue targets, drive new business and ensure sustainable growth. Following were some highlighted themes as we made our way across the country:
Action as the Antidote to Uncertainty
IAB Canada Enterprise research suggests that the level of confidence in a successful cookieless future is directly linked to organizations that have actually tested alternatives. While many worry about the decline in signal or the impact to reaching audiences at scale, early testing is showing encouraging results. We see similar patterns in those who have been experimenting with AI solutions to streamline workflows or enhance product offerings. It’s in the doing that we will find our next opportunities.
Audience Fragmentation – Made in Canada
While the industry grapples with fragmented audiences across various media channels and platforms, a new narrative is taking hold in Canada. With immigration levels at an all-time high, Cultural IQ gave us a lot to think about. Canadian audiences are shifting towards a rich mosaic of cultures and traditions. While new Canadians may have common behaviors and needs, brands will have unprecedented opportunities to explore culturally appropriate advertising that strikes the right tone, timing and in some cases, dialect. Solutions-providers are emerging, but this is the tip of the iceberg as our industry doubles down on defining what it means to address Canadians within our borders.
Tools are for Outputs
Some marvellous examples of leveraging AI surfaced from coast-to-coast. The common thread was that in each case, the data was used to produce an informed output that resonated with the end consumer. Whether it was to experiment with horizontal product offerings or to unearth social chatter that was creating a negative turn in behavior, brands who provided value or a “win” to consumers through the use of predictive tools or ML in turn, created a win for themselves.
Attention, Meet your Sibling – Motivation
Compelling research from Vividata showed the power of mapping motivation to media consumption. We’ve often discussed the immense value of insights that can be gleaned through media activity results. Applying common labelling to media content to measure tendencies towards various psychological motivations and media response is a hot new opportunity that shows some promise in informing creative strategy.
Help Yourself…A New Vision for Domestic Media
When looking at the Canadian digital media landscape, it’s clear that the lion’s share of revenue is directed towards non-domestic media. This is a trend that IAB Canada has been measuring for almost 20 years. Taking a closer look at the Canadian economy, we see that 98% of businesses in the country are SMEs that are naturally drawn towards self-serve media platforms to help reach their smaller or local audiences. Our industry is beginning to respond. With impressive movement of self-serve multi-media access, data collaboration platforms like Optable that are built to accommodate all sizes of first party data pools and Canadian broadcasters building their own direct to SME tools, we are moving the needle towards a major untapped market opportunity. More on this in the coming months!
State of the Nation is IAB Canada’s opportunity to be on-the-ground with our communities to have unplugged conversations about the digital advertising industry in Canada. We are so grateful for the tremendous turn-out and the incredible line-up of powerful digital thought leaders who shared their ideas and opinions on the state of our industry. Our efforts and services will reflect many of the issues we discussed, and we look forward to transforming our member’s invaluable collective feedback into practical tools and outputs.
To get involved, please reach out to [email protected] We would love to hear from you!
SOTN Regional 2024 by IAB Canada