The next 5 years will hold more changes in advertising than the previous 50 did. This is a radical transformation in how all brands, especially considered-purchase brands, will engage and market to their customers.
The information for this post is from an IBM global survey of more than 2,400 consumers and 80 advertising experts. The report is titled “The end of advertising as we know it.”
Imagine an advertising world where spending on interactive, one-to-one advertising formats surpasses traditional, one-to-many advertising vehicles, and a significant share of ad space is sold through auctions and exchanges.
Advertisers know who viewed and acted on an ad, and pay based on real impact rather than estimated “impressions.”
Consumers self-select which ads they watch and share preferred ads with peers. User-generated advertising is as prevalent (and appealing) as agency-created spots.
Based on IBM global surveys, there are four change drivers shifting control within the ad industry:
- Attention – Consumers are increasingly in control of how they view, interact with and filter advertising in a multichannel world. They are shifting their attention away from television and they are adopting other, non-linear channels. This survey suggests personal PC time rivals time watching TV.
- Creativity – Thanks to technology, the rising popularity of user-generated and peer-delivered content, and new ad revenue-sharing models (e.g., YouTube, Crackle, Current TV), amateurs and semi-professionals are now creating lower-cost advertising content.
- Measurement – Advertisers are demanding more individual-specific and involvement-based measurements, putting pressure on the traditional mass-market model. The majority of experts polled in this survey say they expect 20 percent of advertising revenue will be switched from impression-based advertising to impact based formats by 2013.
- Advertising inventories – Will be bought and sold through efficient exchanges, bypassing traditional intermediaries.
There is no question that the future of advertising will look radically different from its past. The push for control of attention, creativity, measurements and inventory will reshape the advertising value chain and shift the balance of power.
As consumers continue to take control of how they view, filter and share advertising, the marketing of considered-purchase brands must evolve to accommodate these shifting attentions.
I expect these will be really exciting years ahead as the best and the brightest in every category develop new approaches, innovative thinking and ever-deepening connections with their consumers.
What are your thoughts on this? Are you shifting more of your marketing efforts into permission-based marketing? Are you having greater success this year with contextual and interactive formats?