Why Are Marketers So Stressed Out in 2022?

If you’re like us, then you subscribe to a million and one newsletters. I mean, what better way to start your day than with a cup of coffee and alarmist headlines warning that our industry is going up in flames? Well, at least that’s the impression you may have gotten from the recent deluge of reports that, due to a myriad of factors, the advertising world is running into some severe headwinds as we make our way to the end of the year.

We’re all feeling this crunch right now. Which is exactly why QuickFrame’s Aston Ford, Manager of Maker Operations, is presenting a webinar with Advertising Week called Balancing the (Work-LIfe) Force: How to Streamline Video Production Without Sacrificing Scale. He will clue you in to some video production “trade secrets” that’ll help you take some of the pressure off your marketing department. Catch the on-demand webinar here.

But before we reveal our secrets, we want to get to the root of why temperatures have been rising around the folks who make adland run. According to a report on creative management, the top challenges marketers face today are:

• The speed at which they are expected to work (73%)
• Too few resources to accomplish the work (61%)
• High demand for more creative content (59%)

Let’s double click into what’s causing all of this.

Privacy Regulations Have Made Marketer’s Jobs More Taxing

Between the impending demise of the third-party cookie, and Apple’s slew of data privacy updates, users have more transparency than ever before into how their personal data is collected and shared. These changes have given consumers considerable autonomy over the information third parties can collect and use, automatically opting users out of tracking.

These are well overdue protections for individual consumer data, but if you’re a marketer who relies on hyper-relevant targeting to reach your core audience, your job is going to get more complicated–and, worst of all, time consuming as you search for your targets across social media, CTV, and beyond.

Economic Uncertainty Has Squeezed Marketing Budgets.

“Can you do more with less?” are words every marketer hates to hear, but over the last few years, that decree has been unavoidable. Between 2020 and 2021, marketing budgets were cut from an average of 11% to 6%. 

On top of that, the pandemic also exacerbated staffing issues. Between 2019 and 2020, 38% of teams were unable to make planned hires and 31% experienced layoffs or furloughs. These are all leading reasons why 58% of marketers said they faced larger workloads from 2019 to 2020, and that number has only grown as the demand for content continues to skyrocket.

An increased appetite for video demands more content than ever

Brands are facing unchartered territory as new platforms, channels, and competitors are driving the demand for video advertising through the roof. To effectively reach your audience and ensure your brand’s long term success–while also getting ahead of the competition–you need to be publishing a constant stream of video ad creative targeted to more places than ever before. We’ve pulled some stats that illustrate this point:

• Video will account for 82% of all internet traffic by EOY 2022
• Mobile video consumption increases by 100% every year
• 85% of consumers want to see more video content from brands

Marketers Are Expected to Quickly Adapt to New Styles, Techniques, Trends, and Technology

Decades ago, marketers didn’t need to wear that many hats. I’m sure all you old-school marketers out there would disagree with me, but when you compare what came before to the litany of things that marketers must do today–the differences are undeniable.

With audiences scattered across an ever changing social media landscape, and with so many options of video entertainment to choose from, marketers must adapt quickly to new production techniques and trendy video styles just to match pace with the speed of culture. Marketers are being asked to become experts in areas outside of their wheelhouse, like videography, editing, casting direction, location scouting, and so much more. Hell, I’m sure at least one of you has considered taking up dance classes just because your boss left you in charge of your brand’s TikTok account.

Because marketers are trying to meet the surging demand for video–demand that can fluctuate month-to-month or even week-to-week–they’re being forced to move faster than ever before. And when you’re moving that fast, with fewer resources and support, your teams are destined to get burnt out even faster.

How Do You De-Stress Your Teams?

It’s the most saustomer question you can be asking yourself right now. But we’ve got a solution that we think will work wonders for your brand. Watch our webinar, and learn how you can reclaim some well-deserved bandwidth for your marketing department.