Happy New Year from all of us at Intermedia!
January is finally upon us, and already December seems like a hazy memory. As the overindulgence hangover begins to slip away, we roll up our sleeves for an exciting year ahead. And what a year its looking to be.
2017 saw us through some monumental changes in the publishing and advertising industry, especially with transparency within the industry taking centre stage. This year promises much of the same, with a plethora of critical issues lined up to dominate the news in the next 12 or so months.
The transparency message will be backed up even further as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) clicks into place on 25th May 2018, meaning we all will have to tighten our belts and make sure we have our compliancy is and ts crossed. Some other exciting topics will include delving deeper into the ongoing boom of the once thought to be futuristic technologies artificial intelligence and machine learning to name a few.
We gathered up a handful of publishing and advertising predictions for the year ahead:
- Consumers are spending a rapidly increasing amount of time across a broader array of devices devouring online content. They are hungry for real content and in attempts to wade through the fake news and time-wasting content. Paying for access to the best material is something people are willing to do.
- There are no two ways about it. Video and audio are on the rise. With the boom of interactive audio relationships with devices such as Amazon's Echo, Google's Home and other voice controlled devices, as well as a number of virtual reality devices such as Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR available, these devices are going to dominate and revolutionise the way we communicate brand messaging to our audiences.
- We are about to slip into the fourth industrial revolution. After many years in development, AI and Machine Learning is going to massively impact customer experience.
- More and more users seamlessly transition between a plethora of digital screens. Brands are going to have to pull up their socks and do the same. Maintaining control of data has never been so crucial. Digital transformation is the best way to utilise the high volumes of data we have to transform the customer experience by making interaction personalised, seamlessly relevant, and enticing.
- The increase of subscription models and content bundling was seen through 2017 and like a runaway train, it doesn't show signs of stopping. An example is the New York Times collaborating with Spotify to grouped its digital subscription with a Spotify account for less than £5 a week.
- Context and audience will share pole position of importance when marketing. Building relationships with consumers has never been easier, and this will be done in a way that boosts the reach and creates unparalleled engagement. This of course means takings an indicative shift away from prioritising click-through rate in favour of brand recall, time spent, and other engagement metrics.
We cant wait to see what the year ahead brings.
Posted on 9 November 2017, on Whatsnewinpublishing.co.uk. Read the full article here.
