I just ran across a rather compelling white paper written by IBM researchers talking about the future of advertising. The article was in an article written by Michael Gass on the Social Media Today blog. To see the original posting, click here. While parts of this research are not revelations, there is deep and wide research presented for you to draw your own conclusions.
The next 5 years will hold more change for the advertising industry than the previous 50 did.
Gass wrote, "The information for this post is from an IBM global surveys of more than 2,400 consumers and 80 advertising experts … the report is titled, "The end of advertising as we know it.”"
Imagine an advertising world where ... spending on interactive, one-to-one advertising formats surpasses traditional, one-to-many advertising vehicles, and a significant share of ad space is sold through auctions and exchanges. Advertisers know who viewed and acted on an ad, and pay based on real impact rather than estimated “impressions.” Consumers self-select which ads they watch and share preferred ads with peers. User-generated advertising is as prevalent (and appealing) as agency-created spots.
1. Attention – Consumers are increasingly in control of how they view, interact with and filter advertising in a multichannel world.
2. Creativity – Thanks to technology, the rising popularity of user-generated and peer-delivered content, and new ad revenue-sharing models (e.g., YouTube, Crackle, Current TV), amateurs and semi- professionals are now creating lower-cost advertising content.
3. Measurement – Advertisers are demanding more individual-specific and involvement- based measurements, putting pressure on the traditional mass-market model.
4. Advertising inventories – Will be bought and sold through efficient exchanges, bypassing traditional intermediaries.
There is no question that the future of advertising will look radically different from its past. The push for control of attention, creativity, measurements and inventory will reshape the advertising value chain and shift the balance of power.
Keep in mind … this change will also will also impact ad agency new business practices.
To Download the complete IBM Institute for Business Value Study
To Download the Executive Summary