The Future of Digital Ads

Alan King 8th October 2013

alanking.org

alanking.org 10/13

In digital media there are only two trends to worry about

1. Rush to mobile devices

2. Programmatic ad delivery

alanking.org 10/13

“People want advertising that’s

virtually indistinguishable from

information”Nikesh Arora: Senior Vice President & Chief Business Officer - Google

alanking.org 10/13

Why ‘broadly’ do people use the web?

1.To find information

2.To perform a task

3.To be entertained

alanking.org 10/13

Perhaps the best digital advertising…

1.Is information

2.Makes the task easier

3.Is entertaining

alanking.org 10/13

Kind of hard to do that with these

alanking.org 10/13

Agencies and brands are worried about their ads not being seen or clicked on

alanking.org 10/13

Two reasons the industry came up with these….

alanking.org 10/13

But this is a shitty

answer to a desktop

problem

alanking.org 10/13Gartner

And the new world is mobile

alanking.org 10/13

So these ads have been developed

alanking.org 10/13

Which are the same

shitty answers as

before

alanking.org 10/13

alanking.org 10/13

BANNER ADS ARE NOT THE

FUTURE OF DIGITAL DISPLAY

ADVERTISING

EVEN IF THEY EXPAND

alanking.org 10/13

Banners were first developed for Prodigy; then the World

wide web. They are C. 20 yrs. old

alanking.org 10/13

And CTR’s have been in decline ever since

HotWired CTR 1994

78%

Ave banner CTR 2013

0.05%

alanking.org 10/13http://andrewchen.co/2012/04/05/the-law-of-shitty-clickthroughs/#

Some research suggests people aren’t looking at ads even when they are visible

alanking.org 10/13

alanking.org 10/13

• It’s harder than ever to get the attention of digital audiences

• We live in a world where people use mobile devices to search for

and access content; as we shift to a world of mobile devices, the

ad experience and units we are used to on desktop will not work

• In many cases we are shoehorning an 18 year old format onto a

platform that didn’t exist 6 years ago

• The answer is to provide the user with meaningful and important

content; native to device and environment and totally based on

relevance

• It has to scale so the technology to hand must deliver the content

programmatically

• Are publishers geared up for this? Does the ad delivery tech exist?

The ad business MUST evolve

alanking.org 10/13

Cards

alanking.org 10/13

But cards aint programmatic…..

alanking.org 10/13

MobileProgrammatic

Content

marketing

Smart

Content

Adding content to the big trends reveals the sweet spot

alanking.org 10/13

Smart Content

1.Is information (blogs, whitepaper, educational video, podcasts)

2.Makes the task easier (branded utilities)

3.Is entertaining (video, lists, pictures, stories)

alanking.org 10/13

"We're not really selling ads,

we're promoting their (Brands’)

content.“Lee Brown: Head of sales - Tumblr