Back to Posts

Imagine waking up tomorrow morning and finding out... it's 2020.

How would advertising on your Instagram account look? How would your Smart TV serve you the content that you and your family love?

Maybe your wearable device will be suggesting you get the latest pair of trainers, which it knows are perfectly suited to your running technique, and just before you realise your soles are wearing out?

Perhaps your Alexa will suggest that you purchase olive oil as you are running low, and you'll be finding yourself having a conversation with your ads.

As an advertiser you might now be asking yourself how your brand is going to keep up with this new digital advertising revolution, driven by data and AI, for smarter 1-to-1 interactions with your customers, where the quality of their experience is the new battleground.

Let's be honest, nobody wants to be that brand who targets the consumer that's just purchased a shiny new car, with a shiny new car ad. Or that cool active apparel brand that serves a new sports bra ad...to your husband.

 

The journey to 2020 starts today - 5 key trends to influence your roadmap

The advertising landscape is rapidly changing and Salesforce's global lens gives us insight into what is happening around the world.

When it comes to digital advertising, often North America leads the way. The trends that happen there today will be coming to Europe tomorrow.  But, the good news is it's still 2018 and there's time to prepare for when the future arrives. So, get ready and get excited, because your advertising roadmap to 2020 starts now! 

In our Digital Advertising 2020 report we interviewed 900 advertising leaders across Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region, in search for their new priorities, strategies, and tactics to give you a preview of these exciting trends, driven by tech and big data. Here are the top 5 things to consider...

 

1. Advertising and marketing are converging

Once siloed from the rest of the organisation, digital advertising teams around the globe are now integrating with marketing teams, and in Europe this trend also holds true. Technology is the catalyst for this evolution as it enables marketing teams to gain control of their data which helps to facilitate team collaboration - all in the name of a better customer experience.

The desire among teams to regain control of their digital advertising and their data is driving independence from advertising agencies, with 59% of the companies relying entirely on internal staff to optimise ad spend on Facebook and Instagram.

 

2. Data – lots of data – is advertising’s North Star

In the era of big data, the insights we are able to capture about the consumer and their behaviour, to inform digital advertising, is growing exponentially. 

Demographics as we know them are slowly fading away, and online data is on the rise, uncovering consumer behaviors, interests and engagement in real time. Europe is leading this trend with 24% of advertisers increasing their use of interest-based data over the next two years.

Where are marketers and advertisers placing their bets with regards to data? First-party anonymous data (such as browsing patterns)  is still the most used type of online data (71% of all respondents are using or planning to use first-party data for their campaigns). However, the use of second party data (essentially, another organisation's first-party data) will see a staggering 32% growth in usage over the next two years in Europe.

Marketers are increasing their focus on data quality and having more control over who they're marketing to.

 

3. Facebook and Google dominate as video rises in importance

Thanks to their ability to reach massive audiences and target consumers based on their identities, the Facebook and Google duopoly is here to stay, and represents 69% of total spend for advertisers in Europe.

The industry focus, in terms of ad format, is shifting from banner to video, as advertisers prefer to aim at strategic brand-building over tactical direct response.

But there are additional reasons for the rise of video. First and foremost, the ability to tell stories better than any other format, but also the possibility, for primary video sites, including Facebook and YouTube, to enable advertisers to measure and optimise content performance in detail. 

This is reflected in our report where 57% of advertising teams in Europe increased their digital video ad spending between 2% and 24% in the past year.

 

4. New metrics signal success in a data-driven world

Advertising teams are increasingly prioritising long-term quality relationship with customers, with 27% of advertisers citing lifetime value of a customer as their top success metric.

In search of more insights on their strategies, advertisers are becoming more sophisticated, in fact when assessing the effectiveness of their campaigns more teams are now using DMPs and web analytics than spreadsheets.

One example is Kellogg's, that tapped into Salesforce DMP’s Cross-Channel Frequency Management to boost the efficiency of its marketing efforts by eliminating wasted impressions in both video and digital display ads. The result? In the first year, Kellogg's experienced an impressive saving of $20.5 million in wasted video and display advertising spend, for an ROI of more than 25x.

 

5. New tech means new ad space

The future is opening up brand new scenarios and opportunities for advertisers. New technology already in our homes such as smart TVs, voice-activated digital assistants, and wearable devices - and those on the horizon like augmented and virtual reality - are creating new touchpoints with customers that translate into new platforms of engagement with them.

This is not only going to increase the available ad space, but most importantly will represent an intriguing opportunity for advertisers to capture their audience wherever they are, during personal and professional time.

Globally, in 2018, 74% of advertisers currently use or are planning to use voice-activated digital assistants powered by artificial intelligence to advertise.

 

Find out more

As marketers we are living in exciting times.  Great opportunities are emerging for those who are well prepared. Want to know more about digital advertising in 2020 and how Salesforce can guide you to it?