The more we see advancement in the AI and AR technology race ahead, the more difficult it becomes for creative industries to keep pace with all things digital.

By Saurabh Sharma

Technology thrives changes to the every aspect of our lives today, and in the field of advertising it is witnessing path-breaking discoveries every day that are being driven by the evolution of technology like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR), Machine Learning and the growing use of designing software. Global advertising spend is set to grow 6% to $656 billion in 2020 as per the earlier data of market research firm WARC. Artificial Intelligence skills have become the fastest growing skills among the professional networking platform. AI and Machine Learning specialists will emerge as the top two important roles by 2022, according to the future of jobs 2018 report.

Though the traditional mode of interaction based learning that has deep-rooted traditions in the country cannot be replaced completely by technology, it has become relevant to enhance the often-used techniques to limit and join the gap between the existing skills of new employee demands. In return, the employees will have access to globally developed and industry relevant courses, adding on to their skills and giving them a higher rate of success of finding the right occupation.

In recent years, the advertising industry has experienced drastic changes and has found it difficult to keep up with the same stride of technology. Earlier the industry, which was dominated by electronic and print, is now getting disorganised, and different media platforms are used to reach the right target audience. Usage of authenticated personalised data to create more specific ad content has forced many agencies to get into a survival mode. The future of ad agencies and advertising as a profession lies in the ability to swim against the direction as per current scenario of technology while remaining creative at the same time. Of course, this is not an easy task and there are multiple ways technology will influencing the future of advertising. Let us take a quick look at the coming days off advertising shaped by technology, and the new media tools you might want to consider if you are an agency looking to advertise. Here are the top trends.

Location based data mining to influence advertising

Currently, location-based data is mostly used for marketing communication purposes. However, in the near future, more advertisers will look at rolling the campaigns specifically based on location data to check how deep they run in the water. GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) may rule in favor of advertisers because many people give permission for their location based data to be used. Earlier a grey area, now it gives a clear pathway to target people in specific locations. Mobile devices will help predict trends as well. In fact, advertising campaign strategy will begin to rely on authenticated data more now than ever before.

Traditional advertising to Digital- “A Paradigm Shift”

Digital advertising is catching up with electronic media. The share of advertising budget is equal at 45% for both TV and digital mediums. Print comes at a 10% outlay in advertising budgets. What this really tells us is that there is a paradigm shift taking place in the advertising industry, where campaigns are now written by default for digital platforms, and TV and print are becoming old school of thoughts. We have witnessed the convergence of digital and traditional advertising, which actually has taken place if you notice the figures. In the near future, the share of TV is likely to fall further, with a potential for print to increase with an increased shelf life.

Rich info-graphics and return to innovation in offline creativity

With online advertising becoming engaging and more serious, ad creators will find more freedom to innovate and experiment in print. Online advertising with more frequency at lesser intervals have already become mainstream and is subject to decision makers’ opinion and strategy, leading to less elbow room for creative professionals. On the flip side, print will see an exponential gradual return to creativity. Additionally, expensive ad campaigns may actually be run via print media, simply because those who still tend to stick to print medium tend to be more affluent. In other words, digital will encourage print to become more niche, and that is how the offline creativity will get the new life and it will lead to the revival of traditional advertising.

App enabled advertising is a fueling factor for GenX

Digital advertising is fueled by mobile users along with virtual reality platforms, and it is no surprise that the future of advertising will depend on artificial intelligence and how agencies tap into this medium. Usage of application-based services have increased dramatically in the last few months, especially for online shopping experiences. In-app ads and users’ geo-location together can transform the way we understand advertising today. Moreover, we have the validated data of our end users to create a long term relation and build the bond of trust for any new launches and run the loyalty programs among their customers.

Personalised Ads- A trend in market

Much of the changes taking place in the advertising industry is due to authenticated data that we collected from different platforms. Data is helping ad managers to access insight that was previously impossible, and that’s leading to a greater degree of personalisation and allowing us to run loyalty programs. Personalisation of ads is important because digital ads can be targeted as per the category wise segmentation of the customers and rarely enter the periphery of perception of web users. Without personalising the communication, you stand the risk of being blocked or just being ignored and as a result google with consider you a spam.

Focus on content

Another important trend is the quality and uniqueness of the content. So, it is very different from creating ad content for print or electronic media. Advertisers will need to focus on the quality of content and infographics to ensure that they are filled with rich media in order to attract the attention of end users. In fact, ad content has to be more informative and realistic than convincing. Convincing and creative campaigns may find better use in print media offline.

The author is president of Goldmine Advertising Ltd, and Founder of OnPoint Management consulting.

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