It’s a wrap for us at DMEXCO 2022

And just like that – DMEXCO 2022 is over! It was so good to be back at this event in person again. After two years of hybrid and virtual conferences, you can see how much it means to everyone to be meeting up, conversing, swapping stories and ideas – this really is a hub for marketers and digital specialists to come together and share knowledge with one another.

With over 600 speakers at this year’s event, there was so many amazing people to learn from. For our own part, we were proud to have two Microsoft Advertising speakers on stage to share their stories and expertise. Sandra Lopez, General Manager, Marketing talked about the trends that will shape the digital experiences of the future. Meanwhile, Carsten Rauh, Head of Native Sales for EMEA and LATAM spoke about the challenges ahead for marketers this winter with one of the busiest retail seasons ever.

Decoding the Future of Digital Experiences

Sandra Lopez opened on day one of the conference with her keynote on the future of digital experiences. She took the audience through three trends that will shape the future: responsible AI, data dignity and betterment platforms.

She spoke of the importance of governance of artificial intelligence so that it remains fair, inclusive and accountable. How data dignity treats privacy as a human right and empowers consumers to take control of their data. And she talked passionately about the emergence of betterment platforms – companies that champion causes that people believe in to make meaningful progress.

Sandra talked about the power marketers have to influence global change. Marketers are uniquely poised at the intersection of societal?upheaval and technological acceleration and can be the change makers that will drive us forward.

That ability to influence yields great power. But with great power comes great responsibility. Sandra challenged those in the room to reimagine their role, their responsibility, and the power that resides within them to simply create a better world.

She finished with a call to action – what will you do to make the world a better place?

Cutting through the noise during the world’s biggest sporting event

On day 2 of the conference, Carsten Rauh invited the audience to consider the confluence of events with both retail peak and Black Friday and the world’s biggest football tournament happening this winter in Qatar. With such big events happening at the same time, targeting the right message to the right person at the right time has never been more critical.

Carsten walked through the challenges for marketers this winter. The disruption to retail peaks when key games would be taking place. The tightening of both advertiser and consumer budgets with the cost of living crisis and the rising cost of TV advertising.

Given these challenges Carsten suggested tapping into the Microsoft Advertising ecosystem which would allow brands to reach over 120 million football fans across the globe. He mentioned the rise of the workday consumer, and outlined the importance of the PC as the second screen of choice. During this time, people would be working, shopping and watching football interchangeably at their desks.

Importantly, he talked about the rise of experiential, visual ad formats such as multimedia ads, video ads and the Microsoft Audience Network as the way to cut through to consumers during these busy peaks. He finished with a call to action to think differently this season about your digital marketing campaign and take advantage of multiple channels to gain the edge over the competition.

?

Looking forward to next year’s DMEXCO

We were thrilled to be back at DMEXCO for 2022 and already planning and looking forward to the 2023 event. If you want to find out more about the workday consumer you can download our research whitepaper in association with Forrester here.