The End of Advertising as We Know It: IBM Survey

November 12th, 2007 Nurlan Urazbaev

According to a new survey by IBM, “The next five years will hold more change for the advertising industry than the previous 50 did. Increasingly empowered consumers, more self-reliant advertisers and ever-evolving technologies are redefining how advertising is sold, created, consumed and tracked,” - write IBM’s Saul Berman and Bill Battino in today’s MediaWeek.

The article summarizes global shifts in advertising trends as forecasted by more than 2,400 consumers and 80 advertising experts polled by IBM. I would like to point out the parts that are relevant to digital signage:

“… Measurement: Advertisers are demanding more individual-specific and involvement-based measurements, putting pressure on the traditional mass-market model. Two-thirds of advertising experts IBM polled expect 20 percent of ad revenue to shift from impression-based to impact-based formats within three years.” - Since digital signage is a strong impact-based media type, this trend will benefit its growth.

“… Advertising inventories: New entrants are making once-proprietary ad space available through open, efficient exchanges. As a result, more than half of ad professionals polled expect that open platforms will, within the next five years, take 30 percent of the revenue currently flowing to proprietary incumbents such as broadcasters.” - We see a similar thing happening in digital signage with companies like SeeSaw and ADCENTRICITY aggregating, standardizing and packaging advertising inventory from heterogeneous networks.

Aggregators will eventually make it possible for marketers to start buying digital signage directly, bypassing traditional middlemen.

Related topics: Is Digital Signage for Branding or for Sales Lift? ; New Metrics for New Media? A Multi-Billion Dollar Question ; Digital Media M&As a “High Growth Category,” Despite the Credit Crunch and Fears of Recession: WSJ

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