Audio, Retail Media, CTV, DOOH... Where will brands invest in 2024, and what developments will be made in these channels to attract both people and advertisers?
We asked IAB Europe’s Brand Advertising Committee for their predictions on the trends and themes that will shape the industry over the next 12 months. Take a look below to see what they think 2024 will have in store for our industry!
Augustin Decré, Regional Managing Director SEMEA, Index Exchange
In 2024, we'll see efficiency underscore multiple aspects of the industry, signalling a shift towards more streamlined and effective processes.First, we’ll see a renewed interest in supply chain optimisation (SPO) and an industry-wide push for safety, quality, and sustainability. These factors will be key in shaping the strategies of both marketers and media owners. Marketers will continue to lean in and collaborate with partners that drive value, enabling them to maximise their campaign investments.
Programmatic will continue to bring promising opportunities to streaming TV advertising. By recreating the linear TV advertising experience in streaming TV through the adoption of standards, more marketers will leverage the channel, specifically those in markets that have a strong history with TV like France, Italy, and Germany.. Additionally, the rise in programmatic streaming TV will be further boosted by major sports events occurring in the EMEA region, including UEFA Euro 2024 in Germany and the Summer Olympic Games in France, which historically are known to drive significant ad spend.
However, for efficiency to remain at the core of industry's evolution, there are a few challenges to address. One of the main challenges lies in the widespread adoption of industry standards. Industry standards play a pivotal role in enabling scale and innovation within the ad tech landscape, and we’ll see this become more evident in 2024. For instance, OpenRTB 2.6, first released in 2022, is reaching a level of adoption that'll be a tipping point in achieving programmatic scale in streaming TV.
Still on the challenges front, the impending deprecation of third-party cookies within Chrome is top of mind. This will transform addressability in advertising, requiring everyone across the industry to invest in testing and adopting alternative solutions to prepare for a privacy-centric future.
Finally, our ability to collaborate to build a sustainable and accountable industry will also drive efficiency as well as real change. As consumers are choosing to support brands that align with their sustainability and diversity values, this next year will be pivotal for accelerating the alignment of advertising strategies with broader societal values.
Ekkehardt Schlottbohm, RVP Northern Europe, PubMatic
The deprecation of cookies in 2024 will reinvigorate the goldrush for data, further fuelling the rapidly growing CTV and commerce media ecosystems and premium publishers that have been investing in their data activation strategies. There is ample opportunity to expand audiences across these authenticated environments, expanding reach and scale without media owners sacrificing control over their data as they did in the height of the cookie era. Data collaboration between commerce media, CTV and the open web will provide advertisers with greater audience access without the audiences themselves being devalued, which is a massive win for the often disintermediated supply side.
Not only will media owners retain control and ownership of their audience data, audiences themselves will see their data privacy respected in this new paradigm. Putting individuals firmly in control of what data they share and for what purpose means publishers and advertisers need to approach users with a mutually beneficial value exchange, whether that’s through personalised user experiences, reward schemes or exclusive benefits.
However, challenges await in 2024, with increased regulatory scrutiny demanding transparency and responsible targeting practices. Despite these hurdles, the digital advertising market will remain resilient. It will continue to lead the way when it comes to pioneering positive change in challenging areas such as transparency and sustainability.
Anthony Lamy, VP EMEA Client Partnerships, VIDMOB
With ongoing economic pressure and falling advertising spending, many marketers are looking at viable short-term gains to maximise ROI, something that will inevitably creep into 2024. However, this can be damaging in the long run. To ensure long-term connections are made with consumers, brands need to hone in on measuring creative effectiveness to better promote and drive campaign performance.
By using creative data, brands can measure and optimise content based on in-flight analysis and scalable learnings from past campaigns. This will ensure that every available penny of spend is maximised to create unique and impactful campaigns. A stronger outlook, powered by creative performance tools and media data, will help brands to develop more meaningful connections with customers and allow ad budgets to stretch further – making them sustainable beyond simply short-term gains.
Emmanuel Josserand, Sr Dir. Brand, Agency and Industry Relations, FreeWheel
In a challenging economic climate consumers will likely continue to prioritise getting the best deals versus brand loyalty in 2024. The transition from subscription models (SVOD) to hybrid models with ad-funded tiers (HVOD) is a good example of this and we anticipate that these services will further grow next year. This transition, in turn, will provide new opportunities for brand advertisers to reach audiences. Viewers are increasingly omnichannel in their habits according to FreeWheel’s Video Marketplace Report, watching across a broad range of devices to access premium video content, including set-top-box video-on-demand (30%), mobile (29%), CTV (26%), and desktop (15%), and brands need to meet them where they watch.Next year we predict that we will see more broadcasters and streaming services experiment with ways to enhance the ad experience through culturally relevant ads nestled within content, contextual targeting, lower ad loads, and more varied ad formats.
GroupM Nexus team with additional input from Mindshare. Key Contributors: Alex Else, Tom Hudspith, Matt Spraggett, Alex McGibbon, Jason Wescott, Julia Rast, Stef Jansen
CTV will drive global TV spend growth via AVOD, FAST and SVOD with expected growth at 9.5% annually, reaching $45.8 billion in 2028. More SVOD players will use hybrid models for growth whilst Hollywood strikes may cause players to licence content instead of producing originals, leading to short-term ad buying increases & higher CPMs. Advanced TV will become more connected, aligning media and creative storytelling for increased effectiveness. Total Video plans will continue to deliver incremental reach to advertisers.
Commerce solutions for TV will present an unrivalled opportunity for brands to blend TV with data to produce uplifts in retail sales. Addressable TV with commerce data such as stock or footfall, will help identify valuable audience segments and optimise media to business goals. Employing cross channel lens commerce marketing by integrating brands sales, marketing & e-commerce teams, promises a seamless customer experience.
Cross Channel will continue to enable brands to connect all stages of the funnel. With continuing fragmentation of media consumption, identity constraints and complex ad ecosystems driven by walled gardens, advertisers will need a complete view of performance, the ability to measure outcomes effectively to realise cross channel benefits. Data will be key in enabling advertisers to utilise first party data, incorporating wider metrics including attention and impact, whilst zero-party data will be critical to any privacy-first marketing ecosystem. Advertisers to deliver on sustainability by combining emission related insights, industry backed standards and the ability to control where budgets are spent.
AI will continue to dominate headlines and affect cross channel capabilities. Models for rapid asset creation are taking centre stage, as are AI tools for predicting audience reactions. As more brands unlock the potential of AI, having a clear creative vision that enables them to connect with consumers in a human and unique way will be more crucial than ever. As AI scales there will be a growing emphasis on safety and security. Bias interruption in the use of AI will be key and we can expect new technologies to mitigate disinformation as a result.
Podcast audience growth, new audio formats and 2 strategic developments mean integrating audio advertising will drive Total AV in 2024. Firstly, audio’s role in omnichannel strategies, offering efficiency throughout the funnel, driving attention, reach, and impact on par with other channels. Secondly, an evolution of tools enabling advertisers to measure incremental reach from digital over linear, aligning measurement to allow advertisers to make clever investments that gain efficiency and reach.
Sound increasingly underpins brand identity. Gen Z streamed 500bn songs and 3bn podcast episodes in the first half of 2023, marking a 76% increase from 2022. We can expect music and entertainment to become a bigger part of the marketing mix in 2024.
Gaming has become a global phenomenon, ranking third among the world's most popular pastimes. Despite this advertising spend has been slow requiring renewed focus on utilising gaming as a powerful tool for extending reach. Education in its ability to reach diverse audiences and provide engaging experiences, showcasing how gaming can grab attention via data, amplifying media partnerships with programmatic gaming media, and a focus to measure all media on the same scale will enable gaming to reap the benefits in 2024.
Influencer marketing, estimated to be worth $22.2bn by 2025, is coming of age and with the rise of iCommerce, influencers are selling directly to consumers. The intersection between influencers and SEO will be a game-changer as brands continue to form partnerships that defy convention, becoming immersed in esports and co-creating with artists.
Top buzzwords for 2024
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