Advertising and Technology – The Battle for Power

Written by Ascari Pena

 

In 2017, we are seeing the mass emergence of many different technological platforms such as Virtual Reality (VR), self-driving cars and dominance of non-traditional television platforms such as Netflix and Hulu. With this technology changing how we interact with media, products will emerge and others will fall. Innovation is the name of the game.

Our media consumptions habits are changing daily and large tech companies such as Facebook and Google are having larger pressures from large businesses to deliver higher quality ad-serving platforms. On the opposite side, advertising and marketing agencies are competing for business and trying to drive growth of their clients through SEO and content marketing.

To further prove the shift to digital platforms, digital ad spending overtook TV for the first time ever in 2016; experts say this is due to the Summer Olympics and the Presidential election. Globally, TV is still leading in ad spending. While many in the advertising arena would like to debate which one is more effective, the shift to digital is real and advertisers need to recognize this.

Apps and Ads

Large companies with billions of dollars in an advertising budget such as McDonald’s are now turning straight to social platforms such as Snapchat to assist in the marketing of their brand to allure teens to apply for jobs.

While this is becoming a trend for major corporations, these prominent social platforms are now having to provide scalable advertising analytics for their dollars spent. Scaling the analytics for advertising campaigns has been a thorn in the hide of Facebook, Google, Snapchat and Twitter.

With the freedom of the internet also comes the one percent that ruin it for the rest of us. In March 2017, major brands such as Honda pulled their advertising from YouTube as their ads were appearing on extremist websites and other content they deemed to be inappropriate to their brand.

While these platforms have nearly all the attention, there is demand from users and advertisers to create systems to filter out hate speech and the new trend of ‘fake news’ through development of algorithms.

Traditional Advertisers

While we are consuming media at an all time high, traditional media spenders need to think long and hard about where they are placing their advertising dollars. Unlike previous generations, Millennials and Generation Z’s have no problem tuning out your annoying 30-second spot on TV.

While traditional television advertising works to reach a broad audience, it does not have the granular analytics that digital platforms do. If an advertising agency is to spend on traditional mediums, the creative must be engaging and provide value to the viewer, or they will be tuned out faster than the latest Nickelback album.

When evaluating where to spend your ad dollars, auditing your ad spend and re-strategizing with an advertising agency like Fusion 360 in Salt Lake City, Utah may be your best option.