Adland’s Future Is Speedy Relevancy, Not Intrusion

Fears of ad overload are overblown. Advertising is going to become smarter, with faster use of data to reach the right customer with the right message.

The future of digital advertising is not going to mirror movie Minority Report where customers are overloaded with sales messages. To the contrary, technology is going to become increasingly adept at processing data to make sure that customers are not confused by too many adverts but are, instead, served with the right, personalised advert in near-real time.

That was the vision outlined to Dmexco delegates today by a panel of industry experts. Instead of pushing irrelevant, endless messages, efforts will focus on ensuring only the right message reaches the right consumer on the right device.

“People are understandably worried about intrusion, so we’re not going to get a Minority Report situation,” summed up Nicolle Pangis, Global COO at global digital media platform Xaxis.

“Technology’s going to be all about relevancy, that’s the key to the future, relevancy but at great speed. When you look at how much data there is out there and how it’s growing, the challenge is to look through all this data, find insights, and use these to inform creative so they can work at far greater speed that today.”

Wearables and the Internet of Things (IoT) will provide new opportunities in this drive to interpret data at faster speeds today and deliver the most relevant message, according to Alicia Hatch, CMO at design and development agency Deloitte Digital.

“Conventional thinking always used to be that sales were evenly attributable to emotions as well as rational thinking,” she said.

“We now know from neuroscience that emotions are responsible for around 95% of all purchases. That’s what is going to make it so exciting to get more data about customers from new technology such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and wearables. If we can collect this and interpret it at speed, we’ll be able to offer fantastic new customer experiences.”

The good news for those involved in the industry is that while machines will continue to take the lead in processing an ever-increasing mountain of data, Pangis and Hatch agreed that smart people would always be needed to programme the machines and interpret findings.

For more of CMO.com’s coverage from Dmexco, click here.