News You Can Use, January 11th, 2018

What’s new in 2018? Read our recap to get the latest and most relevant in digital marketing news.

Amazon to take on Google and Facebook advertising giants [Phys Org]

• Amazon has slowly been gathering its own data and experimenting with digital advertising capabilities.
• 72% of shoppers search Amazon to find products, 56% stating that they search Amazon first.
• Amazon could surpass or be an equally competitive partner to Google and Facebook.

Our take: We see Amazon entering the fray as a powerful player in digital advertising. A bulk of Google’s 89.5 billion revenue in 2016 came from their advertising network, Google Adwords. 93% of marketers use Facebook advertising for their campaigns. While Amazon doesn’t have fool-proof advertising platforms like these tech giants, they have a landmine of data on consumers, something everyone is vying for: purchase data. However, Amazon has a bit of catching up to do, as Google and Facebook have years of data collection about other things, like interest and intent, under their belts. It may take a couple of years, but Amazon has the capacity to give Google and Facebook a run for their money.

Programmatic solutions set to soar this year [Exchange Wire]

• 86% of brands and 89% of agencies plan to spend more on programmatic advertising this year.
• 52% brands believe programmatic ads will overtake TV as an incredibly important ad strategy.

Our take: Programmatic spending is set to increase year by year, as B2B marketers become more comfortable with it. As previously reported, knowledge gaps are the reason many marketers balk at technologies like programmatic, machine learning, augmented reality and virtual reality for their ad campaigns. With the appropriate information, marketers can learn how to use these tools correctly to optimize their ad campaigns. Embracing new technologies will occur more readily among advertisers and marketers in 2018. We also foresee social networking websites opening up more ad inventory to be purchased programmatically.

Apple Could Potentially Purchase Netflix, says Citigroup [Media Post]

• According to Citigroup analysts, there is a 40% chance that Apple buys Netflix with the money they will get from the corporate tax reform.

Our take: This is too hefty a purchase for Apple. Apple is currently investing money into producing original content of their own, which could make the price tag on Netflix far too high for what they’d get on return. It’s also worth noting that Disney has removed all its content from Netflix to create their own separate streaming service. More competitors in the market may mean that Apple should wait and see if Netflix is still the top streaming service in 2–3 years. If this type of acquisition does come to fruition, it calls into question whether Apple might introduce a new streaming option on Netflix, one that introduces ads. A free, ad-supported Netflix subscription option means advertisers get access to the 109.25 million existing paid subscribers, in addition to unpaid subscribers.

Rumor has it: Amazon’s Alexa ready to start running ads? [CNBC]

• As of now, digital assistants like Siri and Alexa can perform web searches, buy products or play music and entertainment.
• Amazon may begin running ads on their Alexa device. They are currently in talks with companies like Proctor & Gamble and Clorox, according to a CNBC reporter.
• Brands may be able to pay a higher price to have their ad come up first in search results.

Our take: Digital assistants are going to be a new venture for digital marketers and advertisers. We foresee brands adjusting ad strategy to stay on top of search results with assistants like Siri, Alexa, and now even Roku. Voice-powered searches are affecting brands’ keyword strategy as well as content strategy. Companies will need to maintain a traditional SEO strategy for web searches, but also create a strategy specifically for vocal searches. How do consumers vocalize their intent versus how they manually search for it? Is there a difference? Brands that don’t start developing a voice-powered search strategy to stay on top of Amazon shopping results will get left behind in digital marketing.

Our bi-weekly series covers relevant industry news and forecasts how these developments will transform in 2018. What are some of your predictions? Let us know at @katana_media, and check out our blog on Medium for news, insight, case studies and more: https://medium.com/katana-media

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