The Future of Advertising: 5 Predictions and Expert Views

Source: Omnivirt

In this era of increasing rates of change, the future of advertising is both known and unknown. One aspect remains a guaranteed constant: billions and billions are spent today on digital advertising, and billions and billions will still be spent tomorrow.

Industry experts agree that keeping track of trends and flexing agility will be critical to help optimize advertising budget allocation to get the best ROI.  What are these trends? How will advertising evolve? How should advertisers evolve their own thinking?

Here are 5 predictions and expert views to help advertisers to own the future…today.

The future of advertising is about engagement

The metrics of today are only surface deep: impressions, clicks. They don’t fully capture what a brand wants to know, namely, how a customer responds emotively to a brand and how they actually engage with an advertisement and with that brand.

There’s a shift today towards measuring metrics around authentic engagement, not just surface-level exposure. New technologies are enabling this more granular measurement in many ways:

• Biometric data: Using facial recognition technologies or speech analysis to help measure the efficacy of an ad or sales call by determining customer responses outside of clicks and views (slightly creepy but helpful for fast iteration of different ads and sales approaches)
• Emotive measurement: Creating sets of data to help define what a customer’s emotional response is to an ad
• Interactive content: Capturing a user’s interaction with content like hotspots clicks or rotation of the phone to view immersive content

I think of engagement as representing two-way communication between a brand and consumers. In the past, companies treated customers as passive recipients of their marketing messages. First, the digital revolution and, now, the social revolution have created the opportunity for customers to be more actively involved in marketing campaigns. This is moving brands away from “bullhorn” marketing tactics to creating two-way dialogues. – Jay Henderson, Director of Strategy at IBM

The future involves evolving content formats

Content has evolved over time. We’ve gone from text to image to video and now to immersive and interactive content.

But even in just the last 5-10 years, we’ve seen drastic shifts in content consumption and formats.

A democratization of content creation took place with YouTube and the camera phone. This has led to User-Generated Content as an effective advertising channel.

As attention spans have declined, we see short video clips (RIP Vine) and GIFs being able to communicate a lot in a little bit of time.

Interactive formats like games and interactive 360° video have allowed for deeper engagement.

This impacts display advertising greatly. Flat images have been less and less effective and advertisers are experimenting with new display ad formats like in-banner games and 3D Display Ads.

The future uses emerging tech more wisely

The problem finds the technology, not vice versa.

Buzzwords in tech sweep the advertising community every day: AI, VR, Blockchain, etc. But as the hype cycles of emerging technologies become shorter and businesses become smarter about incorporating new technologies, brands will start to think business objectives first to better inform tech experimentation.

For example, briefs working to incorporate VR won’t just include VR in a media plan for the sake of it. It’s about including VR in a media plan with X stated ROI. Technology alone won’t influence a customer’s purchase decision. Brands are starting to adopt performance-driven experimentation strategies to ensure separate the froth from the real.

The future thrives with tribes

90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business. People look to other people for recommendations before they trust a brand.

A brand that succeeds amidst the clutter and noise of the digital landscape is one that manages to create authentic relationships with its customers. Customers become brand advocates and salespeople, creating a growth engine for the brand.

This is what Seth Godin refers to as the Tribe.

When you think of Apple and the ubiquity of its devices, fan following, online independent websites dedicated to all things Apple, this is what a powerful, fanatic tribe looks like.

The real magic behind building and nurturing a tribe is that it’s rooted in human connection. Not AI, not VR, not hyperlocal targeting–no buzzwords. Tribes just mean your customers love your brand, sell your brand, and live your brand. It’s the greatest form of engagement and authenticity that goes beyond logo–it gets into the why the brand even exists and the problems they solve for their customers. It’s the past, present, AND future of advertising.

The future of advertising revolves around multiple digital touch points

As business digitize, brands now have multiple online touchpoint opportunities with their customers, whether in the awareness and acquisition stage, or in the activation and engagement stage. A consistent brand voice is critical amongst all these touchpoint (and the channels through which these touch points are created).

When it comes to advertising specifically, experts recommend thinking about:

• Personalization: Dynamic creatives and local targeting helps meet the customer where they are in the purchase journey
• Moving to a lifetime brand relationship: Meeting customers at every touchpoint. Advertising and marketing is now product marketing, it’s now customer success. It’s every part of the funnel, all orchestrated in a consistent concert of brand communication. Display advertising becomes part of this as well, as retargeting plays a larger role in connecting with customers.

People expect to be able to engage across multiple touch points anytime and seamlessly transition between them. Companies need a full picture of what that journey looks like for any individual, and understand their pain points.– Catharine Findiesen Hays, co-author of Beyond Advertising: Creating Value Through All Customer Touchpoints

Council approves Aeon 3 project

By May Kunmakara

Source: Phnom Penh Post

Japan’s Aeon Mall Co is to spend more than $200 million building its third shopping mall in Phnom Penh as the firm eyes the Kingdom’s burgeoning middle-class.

Construction on Aeon Mall 3 in the capital’s Meanchey district is to begin early next year as a result of the firm’s $289.6 million investment, which was approved by the Council for Development of Cambodia on Wednesday.

According to the Aeon Mall Co’s financial report for the year, the mall is to cover 174,000sqm in Ing City, some 7km from the centre of Phnom Penh.

The company enjoyed strong growth in the Asean region, according to its Medium- and Long-term Initiatives Report released in early October.

“While overseas developers tend to emphasise efficiency, our malls in China and Asean feature a large, flat parking area – reflecting our understanding of the modernisation of the region. These parking lots will also serve as a competitive advantage in future expansion.

“We conduct shopping mall management and operations that compare favourably with Japanese malls, offering facilities that provide safety, security and comfort on par with [Japanese standards],” the firm said.

Real estate firm CBRE Cambodia’s director An Thida told The Post on Thursday that Aeon Mall 3 would complement Ing City’s fast rate of development as the project aims to appeal to the Kingdom’s middle-income households.

“The south of Phnom Penh, where the mall is to be built, is developing [rapidly] and middle-class families are flocking there. [Aeon Mall Co] conducted a study on demand [for the retail space] before they decided to invest so heavily there. This will be another success for them,” Thida said.

However, she said that the Kingdom’s purchasing power remained low as consumer spending was largely directed towards food and entertainment.

The first Aeon Mall in the capital’s Chamkarmon district opened in 2014 with capital investment of some $205 million. Aeon Mall 2 opened in Sen Sok City in June last year, with capital investment of around $120 million to develop the 68,000sqm of retail space.

Cambodia has 21 shopping malls in Phnom Penh with a total combined area of 337,400sqm, according to the CBRE Cambodia.

The future of media quality in digital advertising

By Tanzil Bukhari

Source: The Drum

Research from Harris Poll and DoubleVerify earlier this year finds that the majority of consumers feel it is critically important that a brand advertises on content that is safe, accurate and trustworthy. In fact, nearly 90% of consumers feel that brands bear responsibility for ensuring their ads run beside content that is safe.

This is no surprise. Issues like brand safety, fraud and viewability are top of mind for advertisers – and for good reason. Fraud has undercut campaigns across marketing channels, from desktop to mobile and social, and there are constant reports of brands running ads alongside fake or objectionable content. In fact, while desktop brand safety and fraud have improved, mobile app brand safety violations are on the rise.

The stakes are high. So, what does the future of media quality look like? What developments might impact strategies as marketers think about 2020?

Ad-driven internet under siege

The internet is under siege as a sustainable marketing platform. The ad-supported web has traditionally been based on a fair value exchange. Consumers access content like text, video and apps at no cost, in exchange for viewing brand promotions. For the paradigm to continue, online advertising must perform; yet technologies like ad blocking and new cookie policies have affected the value exchange, making it increasingly likely that paywalls and micropayments will gate content. Publishers and advertisers shoulder some of the blame given a glut of intrusive and annoying ad formats. For example, over 90% of consumers say ads are more intrusive today than they were just two years ago. But the ad industry is taking steps to promote higher quality ads and ad formats.

As the industry looks to improve the user experience, and brands work to protect themselves against negative situations across the expanding digital ecosystem, the opportunity to leverage the data from transparency around media quality to drive performance is massive.

Viewability is one of the primary metrics advertisers use to measure success. It is often seen as a proxy for performance. However, viewability represents a minimum standard of performance, meaning that the ad has the opportunity to be seen. There are more sophisticated metrics beyond this, such as how much real estate the ad takes up, if a user interacted with the ad, or indicators that a consumer is actually present. Measuring performance, therefore, starts with a baseline of quality – did an ad have the opportunity to be seen, by a real person, in a brand safe environment, in the correct location? If this baseline is met, new, more nuanced metrics will emerge as superior predictors of performance – including brand lift, propensity to buy and actual conversions.

Transparency in scalable media

That social media platforms are finally accepting independent, third-party verification and authentication of inventory quality, is one welcome trend. This greater transparency offers advertisers more measurement parity among different ad buys and a better view of the media supply chain across campaigns and platforms. The walled gardens will continue to improve in the coming year by providing greater access for third party measurement providers.

That being said, some of these platforms still have a long way to go. Many have started going in the right direction such as Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat and Pinterest, but content consumption habits are constantly evolving, so we will need to continue to be vigilant about verification as users migrate to newer platforms like Reddit, Imgur and TikTok. Brands are expecting more of a data exchange between these platforms so they can better track performance across all channels.

Existing industry concerns still in CTV

According to TruOptik, OTT/CTV spending will reach more than $20bn next year – and, because of the quality of the content and a scarce supply, the inventory is sold at a premium, often at 10 times the standard for digital video inventory. The number of CTV and mobile apps identified as fraudulent is increasing because the channel is commanding more ad dollars.

Traditional TV measurement isn’t enough for digital advertisers who will demand greater transparency across the entire CTV landscape and adherence to the same standards around quality and performance as other digital channels.

Targeting 2.0: reaching consumers in a post-GDPR world

Regulations around consumer privacy and security like GDPR, now into its second year of implementation, restrict the data advertisers can collect and use for targeting, optimization and analysis. These restrictions have affected marketers’ ability to use advanced analytics, AI and machine learning.

As an alternative, advertisers could use contextual targeting at scale as a substitute for cookie-based targeting, since contextual targeting uses information about the content of the page, not bid or impression data. Marketers can go beyond broad contextual categories, using detailed semantic concepts, to get an understanding of where users are in the buying cycle while not requiring their personal data.

Brand reputation

Brand safety has material commercial implications for marketers and those at Fortune 500 companies, who believe that where they place ads, including the content surrounding those ads, can shape consumer attitudes about the brand. According to a Verizon Media study, almost 40% of consumers would have a negative perception of a brand that advertises near offensive content. Meanwhile, 29% said they feel more favorably toward brands they see advertising on sites they trust. 2020 will see a continued focus on brand reputation.

Digital advertising continues to evolve, but the core challenges around brand safety, fraud and viewability remain front and center. Fraudsters will continue to follow the money to new, lucrative channels, and regulatory action means advertisers, publishers and platforms will have to evolve their practices. The challenges are real. Still, digital advertising remains one of the most effective marketing channels available. To address its issues as an industry, we need to set a baseline, challenge the status quo and align digital activity to actual business outcomes.