Is it the end of advertising as we know it?

The trends toward creative populism, personalised measurements, interactivity, open inventory platforms, together with greater consumer control, is going to generate more change in the advertising industry over the next 5 years than it has experienced in the last 50.

Increasingly empowered consumers, more self-reliant advertisers and ever-evolving technologies are redefining how advertising is sold, created, consumed and tracked, so the traditional advertising players; agencies, broadcasters, and distributors will be affected unless they can successfully implement consumer, business model, and business design innovation.

There is no primary role for linear TV any more, and we are seeing the ‘neutral’ evaluation of all media formats meaning that many of the skills and capabilities that were the foundation of success in the past will need refinement, transformation, or even outright replacement.

The latest research from IBM Global Business Services points to four change drivers which are shifting control within the industry:

Attention
Consumers are increasingly exercising control of how they view, interact with, and filter advertising in a multichannel world. TV time is now rivaled by PC time as consumers continue to shift their attention away from linear TV and adopt ad-skipping, ad-sharing, and ad-rating tools.

Creativity
Thanks to technology, the rising popularity of user-generated and peer-delivered content, and new ad revenue-sharing models, amateurs and semi-professionals are now creating lower-cost advertising content that is arguably as appealing to consumers as the versions created by agencies. The survey suggests this trend will continue with user-generated content sites becoming the top destination for viewing online video content, and established players, like magazine publishers and broadcasters partnering with advertisers to develop strategic marketing campaigns – taking on traditional agency functions and broadening creative roles.

Measurement
It is expected that 20% of advertising revenue will shift from impression-based to impact-based formats within three years as advertisers demand more individual-specific and involvement based measurements, putting pressure on the traditional mass-market model.

Advertising inventories
New entrants are making ad space that once was proprietary, available through open, efficient exchanges. As a result open platforms will start to take more of the revenue currently flowing to proprietary incumbents such as broadcasters.