The Tomorrow of Advertising

Abdallah Jbilou
Sep 5, 2018 · 3 min read

The whole advertising world has been shaken in 2017 by Magna forecast stating that digital advertising sales will overtake TV ads for the first time ever, and that their market share was expected to reach 40%, as opposed to the 36% market share for TV.

Well, probably “shaken” isn’t the right word, as those who watch out for the new trends should have seen it coming that digital ads will take over the industry.

Indeed, looking ahead, industry experts agree that budgets will shift to more controlled environments, with targeting that looks at context versus just demographics. Additionally, advertising will be able to take into account how people feel about a particular experience. Given that Instagram wasn’t even launched a decade ago and today counts more than & billion active monthly users, I have no doubt that what’s ahead for the ad industry will look absolutely nothing like it does today. And that’s incredibly exciting!

Instagram hit the 1 billion MAU in June 2018, in less than 8 years! #Huge

So, what are the main tendencies that will shape the advertising sphere in the nearest future? Let’s find it out!

PERSONALIZATION

People are so used to all types of ads surrounding them in the digital as well as real world, that the battle for consumers’ attention is getting more and more fierce each day. Therefore, only ads that are relevant for a specific person have the potential to catch their attention. Ad content is getting more engaging and dynamic — like videos in the news feed, interactive banners etc. So, advertisers need to personalize their messages on the basis of consumers’ search/browsing history, geographic location, demographics via new technologies that allow precise audience profiling. Experts recommend to use the collected behavioral data for creating ad formats most suitable for the target consumers that will be most engaging and relevant and use content that corresponds to their interests.

MEASURABILITY

You consider branding a black hole that eats up your advertising budget and brings next to nothing in return (at least, you cannot measure what actually is the return)? Then, you’ll be delighted with the new trend — accounting for each dollar spent on advertising. Thanks to the new attribution models and data streams, it is now possible to gain a clear understanding of the conversion funnel and define the performance of each ad channel. Instead of simply calculating the number of views/impressions/clicks, advertisers can learn how deeply down the funnel they are taking the customers and what is the actual ROI to focus on what really works.

INTEGRATION

As consumers’ attention is divided between devices throughout a day, successful ad campaigns will need to use an integrated approach to connect different media channels and create effective ad sequences that will work across different devices and platforms, and drive consumers towards the purchase. It requires complex strategy including accurate real-time targeting and effective communication between all of the advertising channels which should support each other instead of competing and deliver the right content to the right consumer at the right time.

AUTOMATION

Along with numerous business processes, advertising is about to be governed mostly by technology, not only online but also in the real world (aka Outdoor Advertising). Today, artificial intelligence Watson is already running digital advertising campaigns for IBM, and proving to be more and more proficient (and profitable). Recently, JCDecaux, the OOH advertising powerhouse, is backing VIOOH — pronounced ‘view’ — a global, open and independent platform, combining automation, programmatic and traditional buying models designed for the OOH industry. While human touch will undoubtedly be always the core ingredient of any campaign, all the heavy lifting like data collection, media channels integration and measuring the results will be performed programmatically for top effectiveness.

KEY TAKE-OUTS

So, the secret to success in the nearest future advertising is to know your customers and their behaviour, deliver personalized messages based on the data, not assumptions, ensure holistic experience for consumers across all media channels and platforms, and know exactly how much each advertising effort and channel is getting you in terms of ROI and conversions.


Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this story or have a question, please leave a comment below and hit the applause button! I’ll reply to each question & comment.

Abdallah Jbilou

Written by

Marketing Director JCDecaux Central America | Ex-papernest | Le Wagon alumni #Batch39 — I have a passion for technology & innovation. [All views are my own.]

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