Part 3: Web Trends 2010 – The Evolution of the Online Advertisement

Previous – Part 2: Marketing the Mobile Boom

At the risk of stating the obvious, online advertising is seeing a change in format and execution due to two reasons:

1. A rapid evolution of technology and
2. online consumers now have extensive control over the consumption of their content.

In effect unwanted banners and buttons are going unnoticed (not to mention appearing outdated, which doesn’t necessarily reflect well on the brand) and proving a lack of impact on the ROI of advertising dollars.

Instead, in 2010 successful online advertising will look nothing like advertising at all.

eMarketer’s CEO, Geoff Rams, explains that the challenge of advertising for 2010 should be “To create communications that are so compelling, entertaining, informative or useful that the consumer is not only happy to receive them, but also motivated to share them with others.”

How to Capitalize on this Trend : Cross-Media Platforms on the Web

How is your consumer spending their time online? We’re seeing a rise in the different media platforms available to online consumers. The key is to integrate your product/brand with the new technology, creating content that is “so compelling, entertaining, informative or useful that the consumer is not only happy to receive them, but also motivated to share them with others.”

For example, with the recent buzz surrounding the iPad and the Tablet PC, wouldn’t it be worth it to integrate your brand in some format with this new technology? Think about it. If 90% of the public (just an arbitrary number) test out an iPad or Tablet PC at some point over the next 3 months, wouldn’t it be great if your application was at the forefront of application popularity for this new technology, not only exposing your brand, but also piggybacking off of the buzz and cool factor of a new product launch?

Let’s break it down by new technology trends:

Online Video

It’s no surprise that eMarketer currently forecasts a 40% jump in online video advertising spending. Online video is interactive, memorable, widely accessible, cheap to create, and highly shareable.

Different methods of advertising:

• Viral Videos
  • Check out Viral Video Chart. This site lists the top 20 viral videos. Some great examples can be found here.
  • If anything, check out the site to get an idea of how powerful a viral video can be. Integrate your brand, and you’ve got mass exposure.
• Video Email Marketing
  • E-Mail newsletters will see an evolution in format as video emails grow in popularity.
  • You’ll find more services like  Benchmarkrichmedia popup as marketers realize the engagement potential.
• Pre-Roll Ads
  • Pre-Roll Advertising will continue to grow in popularity as videos themselves grow. Expect more channels to open up as online video viewing (movies and television shows) gains momentum.

In-Game Advertising

Neilson Company describes In-Game Advertising as one of their top 5 Online Advertising Trends for 2010,

“The massive growth of online video games played and shared online leads the way for more successful interactive and cross-media advertising campaigns to appear. Growth in the adoption of this innovative advertising across screens and activities will increase.”

Keep an eye on companies like IGA Worldwide and their Canadian counterpart, LoudMouth Media for new innovations and trends in this field.

Hyperlocal Social Platform Advertising

Pat Kitano, co-founder of a consultancy agency that works with corporations and organizations to develop social media based sales and marketing systems explains this trend perfectly:

“The first local advertising and search media are starting to emerge: Postabon facilitates the broadcast of local discounts and coupon offers and Milo searches for specific products at the large chains like the neighborhood Best Buy by accessing the store’s inventory database. Expect popular geotagging applications like FourSquare and Gowalla to integrate local coupons and product search. These coupons are not perceived as advertisements. If they save you money, they are called “unexpected cash”.

These systems help solve the consumer impulse buy decision (”I’m shopping at the mall tomorrow, what stores are having sales?”). Traditional search engines haven’t been able to answer these temporal questions down to the local level (try querying Google to find a snowboard sale in your town this weekend).”

I mentioned these trends in my previous article, “Marketing the Mobile Boom”.  As online media focuses more and more on localization, businesses should have a sound foot in these online directories as people become more familiar with the technology. Start with Google Local Business Center and then venture to the above mentioned applications/sites.

Application Advertising

I’ve written about this before and mentioned it above. Have you started thinking about the possibilities? The online world is going to become more and more personalized as people begin to adopt applications that work for their lifestyles. Why not create a free application for your customer that they can use on their desktop/mobile/iPad/TabletPC???

It’s a simple equation.

Applications = Brand Exposure + Brand Engagement. PERIOD.

Next, New Developments on the Search Engine Front