So what has the Allen & Co.’s annual conference for media moguls in the US resulted in? The promise of new advertising formats.
Such touted new formats will outperform current industry staples such as banner ads and search ads, but Google CEO Eric Schmidt isn’t worried, he’s instead championed “interactive video ads”.
There was a time when banners and search ads were the be all and end all of internet advertising. They are, of course, what made advertising all its money online in the first place. But not only is technology moving on, so is the competition and internet giants need to step up their game in order to continue to attract advertisers with their latest gadgetry and graphics.
Schmidt also talked up the idea of ads that act as mini webpages and allowed users to leave their comments as they would on social media.
Another idea touted at the conference was the idea of more localised ads. The idea of localizing ads (or location based advertising) comes on the back of the uptake of such social networking sites as Foursquared – which allow users to see each others exact location. This allows for targeted advertising too and has often been named “the next big thing in advertising”.
Whether that is true is yet to be seen. However, it certainly isn’t looking likely in the European ad market where internet users have constant voiced concerns over privacy. Facebook and Google have also constantly been in trouble with various regulators over privacy concerns in the region over various policies and practices.
The conference also talked about persuading media companies to change how they buy and sell online ads, hoping to expand the market by selling ads across a broader range of websites, or even media.
So things are about to change, that we already knew, but the question is, how much will the market and dampening economy allow the advertising market to change in the short-term?
Today’s Bellwether shows that confidence is down and marketing budgets have yet again been squeezed. So we do we have the capacity for a reinvigorated ad market with fancy new platforms?
With all the changes the media industry is currently undergoing in regards to paywalls, the iPad and various other new delivery platforms, the sector is bound to change sooner or later. One thing is for sure though, it’ll definitely be a long period of trial and error.