Since 2014 came to an endout trotted the year of the horse and shepherded in is the year of the goat in line with the Chinese zodiac, that’s. In contrast, the advertising technician calendar has its own oft-debated emblems – can you remember each time the entire year of this mobile was declared?
This brand new year, I’d love to have a stab in forming our calendar based on a year’s manifestation, a quick study of the LUMAscape movement and an ear to the ground for what’s to come.
If 2014 was the Year of Smart Data, I announce 2015 to be the Year of the Client
This past year, our industry moved away from the cluttered boundaries of large data and into a refined, actionable space supplied by intelligent information. Brands became equipped in reaching out using contextualised marketing messages precisely directed in an intended receiver.
This was the year that ad tech flexed its programmatic prowess and the industry had taken notice. Smart information was well and truly in the spotlight. This is not to say that today is the hour to retire smart data. To the contrary, it’s time to genuinely leverage programmatic technology to place wise information to operate in accordance with your client’s needs.
Enter, the year of the customer.
Customer, not technology, will be the primary driving force behind marketing strategies and I predict five business tendencies to spike over the course of 2015 because of this:
1. Multi-channel convergence
Is your customer online? Offline? In 2015, entrepreneurs will cease prioritising between channels and devices, and focus instead on their customer. Consumers don’t consider discrepancy between devices and channels — they just browse, shop, read and respond.
Which is why marketers will need to use technology, insights and data to help them achieve those clients at the right time and location, with the right message. As stated previously, programmatic technologies will help marketers put the information to work to achieve just that.
2. New creative ad formats
Normally relegated to display, email or societal websites, the Year of the Client will see personalisation of more media touchpoints. The digital Midas touch on every device –from TV into digital-in-store combined with mobile–will make it possible for entrepreneurs to blend their electronic display strategies to create a seamless brand travel across streams of different channels and apparatus. Clients will be able to encounter a brand’s joined-up and personalised message more than previously.
3. Weighted attribution
As the drawn lines dividing channels and devices begin to fade, so to will dated attribution versions. The last-click approach neglects to consider attributing across bricks and clicks. However, through smarter attribution versions, partners may work together in the interest of the client, instead of’channel competition.’
4. Retailers, brand and technology: The new trinity
These three programmatic gamers can collaborate more closely than ever before to reach customers with unprecedented finesse. Think about the connection between merchandising merchant and FMCG brand.
In 2015, both will welcome technology to the fold to truly refine complementary marketing messages, especially customised to get their shared client. Working in tandem, all three parties may make shopping a much better experience with abolishing any immaterial media for ingestion, and, finally, placing the customer back in the centre of their advertising plans.
5. Consolidated display ad ecosystem
2014’s mergers and acquisitions have ignited a different movement over the ever-evolving Lumascape. Once overcrowded with tech suppliers, 2015’s screen ad landscape will observe a smoother route from advertiser-side to publisher-side as diverse programmatic players fuse their strengths together to provide all-encompassing options in building and leveraging a 360-degree perspective of the customer.
As we continue to progress towards the future of personalised programmatic marketing, we’ll see the technology increase to greater strengths, all geared towards the customer’s needs and experiences versus arbitrary product’advancement.’
All you need to do is think of how far we’ve come since 2009, the birth of real time bidding (RTB), to recognise what can be achieved in a short time.
What’s different this year is the thing that propels all that innovation, and so the business: The customer – your client.
