Five predictions for 2011

December 30, 2010 by Dave Haynes

Five predictions for 2011 (please read to end):

Contextual relevance: New contextual capabilities for advertising will enhance the power and popularity of ads, rich media, and video. Marketers will push for new “hyper-relevant” dynamic advertising options that serve “customized” content-based ads that change based on location.

Advertising as content: Advertising will increasingly incorporate branded utilities such as listings, live sports scores, weather, search results, Twitter, etc. Live video feeds and longer form branded video entertainment will continue to drive engagement as the tolerance for full-length video programs continues to take hold.

Privacy: 2011 will see increased concerns over privacy issues specifically pertaining to video-based audience tracking. Government intervention or increased self-regulation will lead marketers to new, safe alternatives with broader public acceptance. Brands will engage consumers through clear, opt-in technologies leveraged for direct marketing. There will be an obvious surge in all forms of contextual targeting as advertisers look beyond behavioral, but still need precise targeting at scale.

Consolidation/M&A: 2011 will see the consolidation of networks and ad exchanges, making buying and selling easier. The industry needs to simplify and become more coherent for marketers. Wall Street will take a vigorous interest in ad technology companies as the industry matures.

Social: “Like” buttons in everything from advertising to content. Applications for the iPad and other devices will drive new platforms for interactions between consumers, publishers and advertisers. New approaches are also seeing the integration of social-sharing and social recommendation functionality, adding value to content through utilities such as toolbars, which are beginning to take off for publishers.

Interesting. I changed perhaps a dozen words in this post, which is actually about the online advertising industry and NOT written by me. As a little experiment, I changed pages to screens and cookies to video audience tracking, and not a whole bunch else other than nipping out a line about display versus search ad-spend.

I’ve often related the situation with DOOH today to online 10 years ago, but I suppose in many respects the issues both industries face today are remarkably similar – the real difference being the amount of attention and money one gets versus the other.

Original post, from Doug Stevenson, co-founder and CEO Vibrant, here: http://www.digidaydaily.com/stories/content-and-context-will-rule-digital-2011/