The next three years will likely see some substantial changes in the marketing, advertising and media sectors with value shifting as the supply-side realigns to meet the emerging demands of marketers.
We expect to see the market double down on digital. Online advertising exceeded free-to-air TV for the first time last year in Australia and internet advertising is likely to grow at close to 10% compound a year to 2017.
Mobile search could expand at a rate that drives that number even higher as we move from a PC-centric internet to a mobile-social centric internet.
Advertisers will develop integrated, always-on marketing capabilities that challenge the campaign-based rhythm of the industry.
The days when simple, stand-alone display or SEM campaigns were the rule rather than the exception are numbered.
Mobile is clearly developing as a significant channel in the mix and mobile means personal, location-aware, and inherently social. Context will not be optional.
Data will drive more and more digital marketing decision-making.
Sources will include operational, customer, behavioural, and social/environmental.
Clearly this implies that marketers will need to learn how to deal with large amounts of unstructured and dirty data at speed. Analysis will shift from operating in batches and reporting by document to mashing up multiple streaming data sources in real time, driving instantaneous changes through ad operations.
Advertisers’ ability to target on this data is likely to outpace the ability of networks to supply inventory, at least for a while.
The speed and granularity of always-on marketing will put significant pressure on ad ops. and we expect to see an evolution of publisher capability to support this.
Being slow to adapt to the emerging environment could mean more inventory ending up as remnant.
On the creative side, the unit cost of content will need to come down as campaigns are developed for more highly targeted and ephemeral micro-segments.
We expect to see the content creation supply chain shift as on the one hand more content gets produced by brand teams and, on the other, by low-cost providers employing algorithmically-driven capability substituting for low value segments of the content development workflow.
Jason Juma-Ross
National Digital Intelligence Leader
PwC
Jason Juma-Ross is a keynote speaker at the IAA 75th Anniversary half-day Leadership Forum What's Coming Next? on 18 February at Hilton Sydney. More info here. Bookings still available. Please contact: hleembruggen@ozemail.com.au