The rapid pace of technological development has truly catapulted mankind into the digital age at an exponential rate. Many statistics demonstrate the effectiveness of digital marketing as compared to traditional advertising.
Judging by current trends alone, by 2021, digital advertising is projected to generate a whopping $172 billion in ad revenue, far surpassing traditional advertisement’s $67 billion prediction. A huge factor in the astronomical success of digital campaigning can be accrued to the market share dominance many social media platforms have come to claim in recent years. They are the new age juggernauts and nothing’s slowing them down.
They will only continue to attract many marketers and investors as they flock to capitalize on their market success. Amidst all this exciting new insights, how then can you stake a claim and stay afloat amongst such fierce competition? Well, one way is to start advertising on social media platforms. You’ll get to reach a wider audience and you can even track your ads’ success with the right reporting tools; if you’re curious to find out what templates there are, you can simply Get the free template now! Besides social media marketing, here are some other options for you to consider!
DOOH what?
The emergence of novel concepts such as Digital Out of Home (DOOH) has definitely sparked intense conversation within the digital community. It introduces the concept of purchasing online billboards and signages programmatically that pop up on users’ screens, much like how traditional billboards tower over highways and latch onto skyscrapers. However, it’s precisely because this is still a relatively new concept, the transition between traditional billboards and digital ones is rather slow and unexplored. There’s still a greater preference for the traditional in this field of advertisement and existing online versions simply cannot compete in terms of receiving exposure and generating viewer traffic.
Why is this so? Well, consider this. Nobody likes having advertisements imposed onto them, much less viewers who are interrupted from their favorite showtimes. The possibility of an individual being persuaded by an advert viewed on TV or computer is greatly minimized given his/her ability to click off from the channel. As a result, measuring the true value and effectiveness of digital marketing is extremely difficult, since users can deliberately avoid them and there being no substantial way to track all these behaviors. Hence, it’s no wonder DOOH has stunned and confounded many marketers in the practice. Therefore, present problems like these make it especially challenging for people to jump on board the DOOH bandwagon — not until reliable solutions and frameworks have been created to circumvent these issues.
Smaller Fishes in a Big Pond
In the past, there was no denying that money could take you places. Many smaller firms found it hard to succeed in their promotional campaigns if they lacked sufficient resources and funding. However, this pattern is quickly evolving. Nowadays, we’re seeing huge members in the field like Google extending support to smaller-scale participants by educating them on the rules of the digital marketing game. At first glance, it seems like they’re doing a good deed and helping out the smaller guys for a noble cause but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
In actuality, these big-stake players are taking advantage of the opportunity to directly earn more money from the smaller fry by eliminating the mediator. Initially, such companies weren’t interested in investing in educational sales initiatives for struggling firms. However since smaller firms have begun uniting and combining their resources and expenditure power, they’re more capable of offering better tools, improving targeting schemes, and meeting the compliance requirements of the industry. Undoubtedly, their overall market value has increased.
Indeed, this is good news for everyone because more money gets channeled into the market. With increased funds in circulation, it entices more investors to engage with businesses in the industry, including the smaller ones. Generally, this behavior has encouraged smarter business ventures and expenditure decisions for everyone.
The End of the Pay-To-Play Era?
Over the past few years, music streaming services have risen to become the new norm in
accessing your favorite tunes. Many of them like Apple Music and Spotify have adopted
measures largely following a “freemium” model where they offer new users free trial periods (ranging from one to three months) of premium access to all of their services. In doing so, it entices users to become acquainted and subsequently accustomed to their services. After the free promotion period ends, users are forced back into the reality of reduced perks and access to the streaming services. This flips the narrative of previously taken-for-granted subscription services into now, a luxury. As a result, users desperately desire the “privileges” that they once enjoyed and consequently give in to re-purchasing their beloved subscription.
While this was largely effective in the earlier days, things are quickly changing in this OTT/CTV space. As more and more platforms enter the market and adopt the same subscription model, the market is not only becoming fast saturated but there are also more platforms offering the same services. Hence, there’s lessening variety, and users can easily switch across platforms and abuse the “freemium” model to enjoy essentially the same services for months on end. If companies are to survive, more innovation and unique services (not found elsewhere) are needed to help them stand out, attract, and retain loyal customers.
The Call for More Honesty and Responsibility
Speaking of OTT/CTV advertising, this realm of marketing is still extremely viable. There are a multitude of investment channels arising and lots of openings for new businesses. These conditions are not only attractive to advertisers but consumers and the like too. The only issue of concern would be a surprising lack of honesty and responsibility in the traffic being generated. It’s not uncommon to witness botting incidents where firms dismiss the value of real human viewership in favor of fast results.
Thus, to condemn such unscrupulous behavior, it is pertinent that more MOATs and
DoubleVerify companies bulk up their efforts to fight against these frauds. They need to adjust their measures to better adapt to an OTT-heavy environment. All of these online content providers that bypass traditional telecommunication and cable TV networks severely dampen the ad revenue of honest advertisers. Instead, they’re the ones generating all the income. At this rate, it’s impossible to impede the growth of the OTT-medium. Instead, it becomes progressively more complicated, making it increasingly difficult to navigate it with each passing day. Therefore, it’s even more crucial now for advertisers to demand better rights and more equal playing fields. More transparency and accountability is necessary.
Closing Thoughts
With new competitors constantly entering the industry and fighting for spots in the market, the competition is only going to get tougher and tougher. Hence, advertisers and agencies need to heed this warning very carefully: you need to always be on the ball with new advancements in order to both capitalize on new opportunities and also stay protected. Choose your prospects and services carefully and be updated with fraudulent scheming tactics. We don’t want you on the losing end and have your rights violated to the point where it drives you out of business.
