Another year is here and everyone is hoping it will be a good one. Here are my thoughts on what 2013 holds for the digital display world.
There will be a continued rise of automation in the trading of digital media, possibly as high as a 100% increase in the volume of programmatic buying, RTB and inventory traded through exchanges.
There continues to be a need for an emphasis on display advertising developing its branding proposition – most advertisers still look to TV for brand building and big launches instead of online. Having said that richer, more brand-favourable display ad formats across online, smart phones and tablets will aid the acceleration of brand advertising pounds into digital.
While big data was the buzzword of 2012, 2013 is the year when it will combine with other digital technology to really impact the business of online advertising.
Data is finally sexy: analysing and delivering insight on hundreds of data points both on and offline gives us the ability to dig deep into consumer behaviour to deliver more intelligent ways to target and speak with online consumers.
Here at Latitude, owing to our partnership with Callcredit, we have invested heavily in data over the past two years – how we collect, store, analyse and display it – and this will continue to have impact on our business and our clients.
In terms of the social world, I foresee a drop off in engagement via Facebook as a platform. As Facebook pushes to monetise all elements of the platform, some brands will have no choice but to spend money with Facebook in order to get reach. This doesn’t bode well for users who are likely to get sick of spammy and often irrelevant adverts. It will be interesting to see what impact the launch of the new Myspace has on the social arena.
This year we will see a rise in media trading in digital as a real-time, automated, data-driven business. The challenge for clients and Latitude will be how we couple this with innovative, creative thinking and communications.
Here’s to 2013!
