We saw a lot of different advertising trends this year that were highly effective, but, as posted by TechCrunch, a new article by Jonathan Sillis points out more specific trends that could be highlights for the New Year.
Sills provided a number of forecasts for the coming year, with a particular focus on native advertising, as well as the effects of television and email campaigns. Here are some of Sills’ predictions from the article:
Google to introduce “custom audiences” solution
“One of Facebook’s most successful ad-product developments has been the ability to upload ‘custom audiences’ that marry advertisers’ customer lists with those individuals’ social profiles (subject to various privacy policies, of course), enabling advertisers to reach these targeted groups (and those who look like them) specifically,” explained Sills.
“So a company selling widgets online could upload a data file of their most loyal customers and communicate directly with them about the latest product releases and developments. Google has continued to inch toward this approach, building ‘similar audiences’ off remarketing lists. But with the massive success Facebook is seeing here, it’s hard to imagine they won’t follow suit in a more specific and compelling way.”
TV ads to be bought “linearly”
“Television advertising, despite the growth of online video, continues to play a role in marketing budgets for traditional and emerging businesses. For those wishing to target households more finely at the subscriber level, online, or through people’s tablets and smartphones as they’re watching video, there’s certainly a long line of partners waiting to take that money,” said Sills on this particular subject.
“A variety of interesting opportunities continue to surface from the cable/satellite/fiber providers here as well. But despite these efforts, we still seem a few years away from a fundamental disruption in the way television advertising is purchased — namely, in a non-interactive, linear way, with ads being paired with specific broadcasts at set times — be it a football game at night or the History Channel during the day.”
Native ads switch from third party to in-house
Sills stated, “May the line between editorial and advertising rest in peace. Native advertising, or ads that match the form and function of a particular website, e.g. they look and act a lot like the regular story placements on a site like CNN or Business Insider, has become a rule rather than the exception on a wide variety of independent content sites. So it seems likely that some of the largest publishers may choose to take a crack at keeping 100 percent of the margins in-house rather than outsourcing the work to a third party – despite the requirement for more work on their end. AOL buying web-personalization engine Gravity provides one example.”
In addition, Sills also touched on the forthcoming Apple Watch and its impact on the market when it comes to being the “Internet of everything”. “While I haven’t had an opportunity to demo the Apple Watch, I’m intrigued by the new interaction models Apple has laid out: sending ‘touch’ and ‘tap’ messages, quick doodles, and further abbreviation of messages and intention. Siri seemed to have this potential but fell short. Anything on-demand and easy that facilitates communication and commerce has the potential to reshape how we reach new customers and more intelligently play a value-added role in their daily lives. It seems like a better platform for marketers with more likelihood for quick consumer adoption than Google Glass,” Sills concluded.
The full set of predictions for the New Year can be found here.
