CMOs at Mastercard, NHL, Zola will focus on community building, virtual worlds, retention incentives and more in 2023

Virtual worlds

“We’re settling into a ‘new abnormal,’ where virtual and real worlds collide every day,” said Mastercard CMO Raja Rajamannar. “This is the undercurrent for the trends I’m watching.”

Rajamannar continued: “AR is on the rise. Even though VR seemed to be the buzzier ‘reality’ in recent years, AR technology has been gaining more and more traction. This is likely because there are more tangible use cases. Plus, the ability to use an existing device instead of an expensive headset makes it easier to access and lends itself to faster adoption.”

Community building

“Importance of communities is something that I think about a lot,” said Zola CMO Victoria Vaynberg. “For Zola we started our in-app and now on-web community at the start of the year. We have thousands of active couples in there. Outside of our business, when you think about what Web3 worlds are really about it’s ultimately communities.”

Vaynberg added that allowing for community to be built on brand properties not only fosters connections with people who share the same interests but gives the brand more insight into the community they serve.

“It’s a great tool but also a great listening tool for us to hear about what couples want whether it’s product feedback or cultural insights or how weddings are changing,” said Vaynberg. “It’s really important to get as close to the consumer as possible. Community as a whole is a top priority for me.”

Growth and first-party data

Zola isn’t alone in using its own insights to find ways to boost brand growth. The National Hockey League is also turning to its own data to find ways to grow its audience.

“We’re focused on growing and knowing our fans,” said NHL CMO Heidi Browning. “From a growth perspective, we’re focused on expanding and diversifying our fanbase, with a focus on female, multicultural and younger audiences. To grow, we need to know more about our current fans. We’re aggregating, analyzing and activating based on insights derived from first and zero-party fan data.”

Retention incentives

Finding ways to make sure customers will return is critical any time but especially during a more difficult economy. It’s no surprise then that going beyond the usual retention strategies will likely be common for brands next year.

“We’re going to focus heavily on retention and re-engagement,” said Lia Haberman, CMO of Fit Body App. “Our previous efforts to reduce churn were pretty standard automated efforts: cancellation surveys, win-back campaigns, exit incentives, etc. Now, we’re actively reaching out and trying to retain every subscriber looking to cancel. We’re digging in to understand why they’re leaving and then offering them a personalized incentive to stay. In this economy, you want to work to retain or win back every single customer.”

Brand values

In recent years, brands have spoken out and taken stands about various issues more and more. Marketers expect that to continue to be a focus in 2023, albeit the issues will likely be more closely tied to the brand’s lane.

“We’ve been very vocal about the Respect for Marriage Act,” said Zola’s Vaynberg. “It’s important for brands to know their lane. I don’t think it’s your job to comment on everything that’s going on in the world but for us we have clear company values and brand values. Continuing to use the leverage we can to support what we know is right will continue to be an area of focus.”