More attention to information provision and standardization make the online advertising market even more accessible. Yet that market is already much more important in the eyes of marketers than it was last year. This is evident from a survey in which advertisers, publishers, media agencies, and creative agencies shared their opinion about the online advertising market for the second year in a row. We identified these five trends and shifts in the market.
Online advertising is becoming more important, display advertising plays a major role
One thing is clear from the research: the importance of online advertising for marketing continues to grow such as advertising some brand or product like ‘iptv subscription’. While banner fatigue, ad blockers, and the rise of social media marketing still left their mark on the expenditure on display advertisements in recent years, you have seen a change in attitude towards banners since 2019. The percentage of professionals who attribute an important role to display advertising in the field of online advertising has more than doubled. More than two-thirds of the advertisers surveyed indicate that banners are an essential part of their online use (but no more than offline). In 2019 this was just under a quarter. One-third of those surveyed consider online deployment even more important than offline deployment. The importance of display has therefore increased sharply. We are also seeing a strong shift from the preference for desktop banners to mobile banners. Tablet plays almost no role in the current market.
Focus more on a reach with rich media
Creating awareness among the target group remains the most important goal to use rich media. With spectacular formats, awareness is triggered among the target groups. In addition, we see a trend in which rich media is increasingly used to create reach.
Preference for rich media programmatic convert to
Perhaps also related to the accessibility of the use of rich media is the need to be able to use the advertisements programmatically. Three-quarters of the media agencies prefer to use rich media in this way. This way they can make price agreements and keep control over campaigns themselves. This need has decreased compared to the previous year. One possible explanation is that there is a need for direct deals due to the guarantee of impressions with premium publishers.
The market needs more information
Our research shows that a vast majority of market players need more information about cases and benchmarks in the field of rich media. Although the online advertising market has become more transparent, a lot of knowledge about the applications has also disappeared. Where rich media advertisements were often marketed by publishers and media agencies in the past, we now see many companies taking it up themselves. However, knowledge is not yet sufficient everywhere. This is also a sector problem: it is up to providers to increase that knowledge and thus expand the market for innovative advertisements together.
The market demands standardization
Striking but not unexpected is also a growing need from the market for standardization of names of available formats for rich media and standardization of measurement models for KPIs. This is an industry-wide task for cooperation. By using the same names for standard formats, we collectively create a lot of clarity for advertisers.
Industry: respond to needs and let the market grow
We see a clearly growing need in the market for eye-catching and special online advertising options for a variety of purposes. In addition, there is a growing need for unambiguous information and standardization of, for example, formats and measurement models for KPIs. It is up to us as companies in the industry to initiate a discussion about this, to respond to the needs, and thus make the market for innovative advertising even larger and more effective.