performance and ROI, while
eliminates uncertainty and waste.
analytics
Social media channels have enriched relationships
with consumers turning communication into
a genuine dialogue. Technologies to measure
and monitor social activity provide insights
into emerging opportunities along with an early
warning of trouble.
Finally, marketers themselves are big winners.
They have seen their prestige and power (and
budgets) increase in unison with the growing
power of consumers in whose voice they speak.
of their revenues in markets like the US. The rot
will not stop. Based on their share of eyeballs
they should probably lose another 70% of what
they have left.
Free to air television has had a happier time of it,
although the outlook is more opaque.
The rise of video advertising and the ubiquity
of smart mobility means that brands are able to
distribute their messages with less friction, more
precision and frankly lower cost than in the cosy
analogue world of the past.
For agencies too the outlook is problematic.
The have more control over technology investment
decisions and more options about where they
buy and rent those services. And their ability to
describe and justify their spending is fed by the
transparency of the systems.
Advances in CRM give them visibility over the
entire supply chain and improving cross device
integration and cross channel visibility have
brought the potential for genuine and accurate
campaign attribution, (If they can just bend their
mind beyond the last click).
And finally newer developments such as the
rise of data management platforms are bringing
the promise of near total control and visibility
over once disparate, complicated and unwieldy
information silos to fruition.
Research by Gartner suggests that the larger a
brand is the more likely it is to start asserting
control. And here is a strong economic incentive
for brands to reduce intermediaries.
For companies with more than $500 million
in revenues the percentage who run digital
advertising internally has increased by 54%
to 76% in just two years according to studies
by Gartner.
And despite the rise of trading desks and
programmatic paraphernalia, agencies are still
ceding the greater share of revenue to other
participants such as ad networks and other adtech
platforms, say the analysts.
Coins of course have two sides. So who are the
likely losers from many of the changes.
It is not all bad news, creative and strategic
advice is as important as ever – although even
here our industry sources tell us the bigger tech
companies are looking to automate even this
most human of endeavours.
Traditional publishers and media companies top
that list. The travails of newspaper companies
are well documented. As eyeballs have shifted to
digital channels print publishers lost about 70%
Data scientists likewise should make the
most of their moment in the sun. The high and
unsustainable salaries being paid for these
numerical alchemists is most likely temporary.
TROUBLE IN MIND
We are already seeing the emergence of
analytics off shoring to fill the current
capabilities gap. In the longer term technology
is likely to have a more corrosive effect on
demand for data science services.
Already in the visualisation space companies
such as Oracle and others are arming business
users with the toolkits they need to start making
their own decisions without recall to data science
or even business analysis specialists.
YOU CAN’T GET THERE FROM HERE
Marketing and ad tech are not new. They
are as old as Netscape’s browser and the
commercial internet.
What is new in recent years in the level of
investment and the massive wave