With 25 years of marketing and advertising experience, I have had to evolve many times – but not radically. From editorial to small boutique design studio, to large traditional agency, then into the radio industry, the music business, which lead me to the entertainment sector. Now, again, over the past few years, I have been on the front lines of new models in marketing and advertising. This is different. Why, because it doesn’t look like the past 50+ years of one-way (top-down) communication. I find this to be an exciting time for a number of reasons.
The next 5 years will hold more change for the advertising industry than the previous 50 did.
The information for this post is from an IBM global surveys 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Keep in mind … this change will also will also impact ad agency new business practices.
To learn more of where advertising agencies will need to innovate:
John Ayers 