The way that products are advertised has changed in the last decades. From print to traditional TV, now the advertising is each year more digital. This is due not only to technological advances, it is also because the new generations want to use channels different from the ones mentioned. New generations embrace technology, and when more years pass, technology advances more too. People always want to acquire the latest device to use. “Technology has always changed how marketing works. What is different today is the unprecedented rate of change in the both the development of marketing tools and the escalation of expectations for better experiences from customers (Ellett, 2014).”
There are three trends that are impacting digital advertising. Those are the use of social media, influencers and the advances in artificial intelligence.
The rise of Social media is a notable trend. Social media are “forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2020).” Since the creation of the first social media sites like Six Degrees, Friendster, MySpace and Facebook, things have changed. Now, Facebook is a social media that is used by people of different ages. Those young people who started using Facebook 10-15 years ago now are adults, and other types of social media have appeared in the path. They are not use only for interacting with family and friends, they are also used for different purposes like communicating news. For example, there is Twitter where, with just a few words, people can communicate to others any new thing happening. Or, people can share photos on Instagram which is mainly a visual social media platform. Companies that wish to reach their target faster need to create a business profile in the social media platform that their audience uses the most. There are 7.7 billion people in the world, with at least 3.5 billion of us online. This means social media platforms are used by one-in-three people in the world, and more than two-thirds of all internet users (Ortiz-Ospina, 2019). The use of social media is a trend that will continue growing in use and marketers need to take advantage of it for advertising.
Influencer is a term that become popular in daily life, and a trend that is equally popular too. People who have a big quantity of loyal followers on their platforms are the ideal candidates for presenting products. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2020), an influencer is “one who exerts influence: a person who inspires or guides the actions of others.” The influencers could be well-known celebrities like actors or sportsmen or social influencers (famous on social media). For example, the soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo is the influencer who advertises NIKE products. “Over 80% of marketers who had undertaken campaigns collaborating with social media influencers found them effective for driving both engagement and awareness (“The Rise and Rise of Influencer Marketing,” 2017).” Predictions are that that companies will continue using influencers in digital advertising for advertising different kind of products.
Then, artificial intelligence (AI) is another trend that is on rise too. Artificial intelligence (AI) is “the capability of a machine to imitate intelligent human behavior (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2020).” For example, since technology can perfectly help in digital marketing, we can make use of it to better advertise to our target. “AI serves to leverage technology to improve the customer journey and boost the return on investment (ROI) of marketing campaigns. This is accomplished by using big data analytics, machine learning, and other processes to gain insight into your target audience (Hall, 2019).” “72% of business leaders say AI can enable humans to concentrate on more meaningful work (Brooks, 2018).”
In conclusion, it is predicted that those trends will continue being used in digital marketing for advertising products and services.
References
Brooks, Aaron (2018). 50 Marketing AI & Machine Learning Statistics. VentureHarbour.
Retrieved from:
‘https://www.ventureharbour.com/marketing-ai-machine-learning-statistics/
Drew Hendricks, Drew (2013). Complete History of Social Media: Then and Now. Small
Business Trends. Retrieved from:
https://smallbiztrends.com/2013/05/the-complete-history-of-social-media-
infographic.html
Ellett, John (2014). Technology is Changing the Future of Marketing (Again). Forbes.
Retrieved from:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnellett/2014/09/30/technology-is-changing-the-future-of-
marketing-again/#4dd7c8d5e7df
Hall, Jason (2019). How Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming Digital Marketing. Forbes.
Retrieved from:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2019/08/21/how-artificial-
intelligence-is-transforming-digital-marketing/#2531124821e1
Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2020). Retrieved from:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/
Ortiz-Ospina (2019). The Rise of Social Media. Our World in Data. Retrieved from:
https://ourworldindata.org/rise-of-social-media
The Rise and Rise of Influencer Marketing (2017). Smart Insights. Retrieved from:
https://www.smartinsights.com/online-pr/influencer-marketing/rise-rise-influencer-
marketing/
EK Marketing Blog by Ericka Koehler 