Digital Disruption within Marketing Communications
Predictions for 2008
Making predictions in the world of digital marketing is a dangerous business. While it’s a safe bet that adspend will continue to move online over the coming months and years, it’s impossible to say where the next internet phenomenon will come from. In the meantime, marketers are still struggling to get to grips with the current raft of online developments, such as blogs and social media sites.
Nonetheless, at the end of January Results International brought together seven leading players from across the digital space to discuss the big issues facing brands and agencies in the shift to digital media. The resulting predictions were hotly debated and sometimes contentious, but provide essential insights for anyone working in the digital media space today.
Mobile – is 2008 the year?
Avid readers of the marketing press will have noted that every year for almost a decade has, at some point, been proclaimed the year of mobile. 2008 is no exception, and the recent development of the iPhone and more reliable 3G coverage have certainly made mobile a more viable advertising proposition.
However, there remained a consensus among participants that the mobile internet was not yet a viable advertising channel, although there was still a belief that it would develop through 2008. Levels of confidence in the continuing success of SMS campaigns remained high.
New age Ad Networks
Ways of buying online advertising continue to evolve, with ad exchanges such as AdJug, a sort of eBay for advertising, increasing in popularity. “We will see a proliferation of ad exchanges – in the long term you can’t underestimate their impact,” said one participant. There was also consensus on the idea that alternative networks and means of buying inventory would change, partly due to 2007’s furore over ‘blind’ buying and inappropriately sited ads. Unsurprisingly, those assembled agreed that highly targeted online advertising was the way forward.
Privacy and data
Online privacy has been the subject of much media debate in the past 18 months and remains a major concern for web-users and marketers. Debates around the use of data within Facebook highlighted the issue, and users are now much more aware of and concerned about how their data is used online.
Data portability is set to become a big issue, according to one participant. Users are now aware that there exists a pool of information about them online, and will want to regain ownership of it. This is linked to, but distinct from the privacy issue: “Users will want to have their own platform which lets them have flickr and del.ic.ious functionality and everything else that they want,” they said. “They will have their own rich preferences within this space and advertisers will need to treat them with respect to access that.”
Recessions and accountability
If the predicted recession ever finally rears its head, how will digital cope? Along with other types of media, agreed the panel, accountability will be the key indicator of how the medium might fare. “In the last recession, during the 90s, sales promotion did well, as budgets went onto things that would shift product over the next three months,” said one attendee. “But now it’s all about accountability and being able to track spend.” On that basis, search in particular is set to continue to perform strongly.
The changing agency landscape
Traditional agencies, perhaps pushed on by the threat of recession, will continue to move into the digital space. “If the UK were to move into a recession, traditional advertising would be likely to be hit hard, so these agencies will continue to move into digital to try to save their skins.”
