From banner advertisements to artificial intelligence, advertising has travelled a long road to provide the right information to the right prospects at the right moment

The primary objective for companies at this stage of digital transformation is to deliver a tailored end-to-end customer service in real-time

October 27, 1994, was the day when the first online banner advertisement was published by HotWired. Since then, a slew of features came into existence to make digital advertising an irresistible juggernaut.

From banner advertisements to artificial intelligence, advertising has travelled a long road to provide the right information to the right prospects at the right moment.

Let go through the dynamics of this escalating industry to understand which innovations are at their peak and what strategies are now obsolete.

What's Blazing

OTT Ushers In A New Era Of Advertising

Pandemic took the OTT industry to a whole new level. With rising demand, leading platforms such as Disney+ Hotstar, SonyLIV, Voot, and ZEE5 are luring marketers with a multitude of advertising alternatives at attractive pricing.

Bearing this, brands now target audiences based on cohorts such as fashion love, fitness freaks, music or sports fans, and high net worth individuals (HNIs).

Some premium platforms enable companies to engage with influencers to generate authentic content.

Businesses with a strong brand image and market goodwill often tap into such services since they are prepared to invest in interest-specific platforms with high-budget advertisements.

Despite the fact that many companies are adapting to this new trend, it still cannot compete with the influence that social media advertising offers. It is advisable to first have a strong social media presence and later tap into OTT platform marketing.

AI & ML Are the Biggest Allies

What was once an option in digital marketing is now a need. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) have refined the nitty-gritty of any data-processing operation, notably in digital marketing.

This information is gathered, stored, evaluated, and made available for immediate use. It will be increasingly efficient in automating processes and improving digital marketing campaigns based on consumer profiles and journeys as it is further enhanced for this purpose.

It includes more than the humanoid robots and vibrant screens flashing figures that science-fiction films have conditioned you to anticipate since the 1970s.

They may be excellent for digital marketing in general, but advertising always requires a human touch. It is not safe to rely solely on technological tools for advertising because they fail to meet the most important requirement of advertising, which is the emotional connect.

Emergence of New Media Platforms

The short video app market is teeming with extremely innovative content, and now, 6 out of 10 smartphone users have at least one short-video app.

These new-age video platforms are booming everywhere and changing the traditional way of storytelling, marketing, and advertising while creating internet stars, also known as influencers.

Apps like TikTok, Mojo, Vimeo, and many others have already paved the path for content marketing to fuel the trend of more snackable content.

Integrated Strategies Harness the Power Of Digital Advertising

In today's complicated and splintered advertising environment, integrated marketing is a method of uniting independent marketing activities so that "the whole is better than the sum of the bits."

However, integrated marketing is not for the faint of heart since it necessitates the coordination of several marketing channels.

It takes a lot of research and effort to curate a multi-media strategy that meets the desired ROI. If implemented with proper planning and smart execution, it will surely result in some remarkable outcomes.

Integrated strategies are incomplete without retargeting efforts. Prospects visit your website numerous times but still peruse the web to compare products from your contenders and may not be persuaded to buy your product.

Retargeting enters the advertising scene at this point. If it is properly designed, executed, and evaluated, the business's sales and return on investment will shoot through the roof.

Digital advertising trends and the stock market have one thing in common: they both change frequently. Keeping a close watch on marketing statistics of various platforms and tapping into them at the right moment is the best method to stay current with the marketing trends.

The Need for Instant Gratification to Customer Concerns

Advertising is more than simply promoting your products or services across different platforms; it is also important to resolve client complaints on a priority basis to represent oneself as an active and customer-oriented company.

To meet such client expectations, companies now offer chatbots on websites and applications. They may not give a rapid solution to the problem, but they do register the issue instantly, ensuring the user that their worry is important to the firm.

Prospects also evaluate brands based on how they manage criticism and how quickly they respond to it on social media platforms. Here is where the ORM service comes in. Twitter has evolved to be one such medium of consumer problem redressal.

What's Uncool

Repercussions of email marketing

Above all digital advertising practices, one major concern that isn't getting much attention is our lack of awareness of the email carbon footprints we leave behind when we use non-renewable services for our daily work.

Let me convey this with an analogy to a car. The carbon footprint of a 1 km car trip is equivalent to sending 60-65 emails. Attachments to emails shoot up the carbon footprint.

Reduced email size, compressed images, and regular cleaning of mailing lists can all help to mitigate the consequences we may face in the future.

Cloud storage dispels excessive energy

The amount of energy required to run and maintain very large data centres is the main environmental concern of using cloud storage. It requires power 24/7 to be assured that their clients have access to their data all throughout; the energy needs of each data centre are substantial, with a massive energy requirement.

However, many large corporations are investing in the research and development of greener storage systems with the goal of improving data centre efficiency and lowering environmental impact globally.

Takeaway

The primary objective for companies at this stage of digital transformation is to deliver a tailored end-to-end customer service in real-time.

The pandemic has also acted as a catalyst for innovation, allowing businesses to make calculated decisions for the growth and profitability of their services.

(Lavinn Rajpal is MD & Co-founder, Chimp&z Inc.)