‘There’s never been a more interesting time in advertising and media’
There are more than 30 innovations and trends in media and marketing today – but only four that really matter now. Ahead of his presentation at Mumbrella360 Asia, Chad Stoller explains exactly why
It’s so easy to get swept up by headline-grabbing technologies that might prove to be marketer must-haves, that it’s sometimes hard to remember what’s already a reality.
With that in mind, it’s far more worthwhile for marketers to instead focus on four areas that, while still emerging, are sure to be with us for the long haul: live video, cross-screen audience measurement, addressable content and location reputation.
These are among more than 30 innovations and trends in content, data and measurement, formats and platforms that are attracting attention today.
When live, streaming video emerged on Periscope about two years ago, some wondered why they would want to see strangers on the other side of the world walking their dogs as it happened. But while Periscope will be submerged for good in early 2018, live video has exploded, particularly on social platforms.
Now, in the same way that digital giants Amazon have jumped into the arms race that is original content creation, so have they, along with Facebook and Google, taken to the field to compete for the rights to stream professional sports events.
These well-funded players (Google alone was sitting on some US$86 billion in cash in 2016) aren’t making things easier for traditional broadcast networks, but so goes the march of innovation and disruption as consumer preferences continue to shift and fragment.
One cannot attend an advertising industry event that doesn’t include significant dialogue about measuring cross-screen audience content consumption. In the US, the jury is still out on whether there will emerge a single, uniform way to conduct cross-screen measurement. Like other agencies, we’d like to see this happen as soon as possible because it promises better performance for our clients.
But the complexity of trafficking and reporting, along with differences within the priorities of major media companies, have led instead to siloed approaches tracking cross-screen consumption.
According to a recent survey by video provider FreeWheel, 70 per cent of 242 people—55 per cent on the agency side the rest marketers—believe that eventually there will be three to four key providers of cross-platform measurement solutions.
Addressable messaging can mean many things, but the basic concept is being able to serve up various iterations of ad campaigns—on the fly—depending on the audience or the context of the environment. There are four major subsets in the category, including creative versioning, dynamic creative, dynamic creative optimisation and programmatic creative.
One space to watch closely is traditional linear TV, where some of the creative versioning tactics of the digital world are now being rolled out. We can expect this to continue and become more refined as additional households can be targeted via set-top cable boxes and devices that deliver video on demand.
As a good deal of internet search activity has migrated from desktop to mobile devices, the reputational aspect of search results has never been more important for brands. This is true regardless of whether someone is looking for a nearby fast-food restaurant or an automobile dealership. Fortunately, brands have more tools to monitor and even manage consumer reviews while not running afoul of the algorithms that power engines like Bing and Google.
Amazon’s Vine Voice invitation-only program helps companies boost their reputation by making their products available to Amazon users free of charge.
Then there is Yext, which helps brands generate authentic reviews directly from their customers, and Birdeye, which collects reviews from customers by integrating with brands’ CRM systems. Another example is Reevoo, a website that specialises in product reviews that it solicits from verified purchasers—the results of which brands can post on their own websites to raise their search ranking.
When you look at the potential of just these four categories, it’s safe to say there’s never been a more interesting time in advertising and media.
Chad Stoller is the EVP global chief innovation Officer at UM. He will be speaking about how new technology will apply to modern marketing at Mumbrella360 Asia next week.
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