This year was transformative for audio and advertising. For the first time there are true attribution capabilities for radio advertising, smart speakers are everywhere, and buying by audience is the new normal. All of this has us wondering what 2019 will look like for advertisers and the audio industry. Here are a few predictions about what's to come this year:
Voice ads Will take a leap
Even though we've heard otherwise, we believe that companies like Amazon and Google will start opening up their ecosystems to more advertising. Maybe not in the traditional sense, but we do believe that we will see more and more branded content and skills. This will push advertisers to take a greater interest in the medium and encourage voice companies to introduce more advertising opportunities.
Radio as a category will evolve to audio
To be fair, this one is already happening so it technically isn't a prediction. The word "audio" is starting to be used for anything that comes out of a speaker. Although AM/FM radio is still the biggest audio medium, we will continue to see growth in both streaming and voice as well. Even terrestrial radio is available digitally in most cases at this point so this shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody.
Brands Will Take more in-housE
As digital advertising's reputation continues to take a hit, brands will increasingly look for ways to take programmatic operations in-house. As a result, agencies will have to get creative. Literally. The creative work is key for agencies to remain relevant in the programmatic era. Keep in mind that advertisers want to work with agencies that deliver more than just what's asked — it's time to think outside of the box and show them your true value.
Every agency will become a programmatic agency
Just like every company wants to be a tech company, the same shift will happen with agencies regarding programmatic. How do we know this? Nobody wants to miss out and programmatic tech is here to stay. Brands will either take things in-house or favor agencies with programmatic buying teams or smaller, boutique creative agencies, leaving agencies with two choices: embrace programmatic buying or get left behind.
GDPR will give digital an opportunity to clean up its act
The digital advertising industry will be forced to change their ways in 2019 thanks to further adoption of GDPR. This will eliminate the misuse of 3rd party data and guarantee more brand safety. In our eyes, this is a chance for digital advertising to improve its reputation with brands and marketers.
Do you have any advertising predictions of your own? Feel free to share your thoughts with us on Twitter! If you want to see a few of our tech-focused predictions, check out our recent post on LaunchPad.
