Digital Ad Spend Now Set To Overstep Traditional Budgets in US

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“Mobile will continue its dominance, accounting for more than two-thirds of digital ad spending, at $87.06 billion in 2019” [1]

According to data/research firm, eMarketer: this year in the US, spending on digital ads will top conventional ad spend; and by 2023, digital will outperform two-thirds of total media expenditure [1]. Further, “nearly all forms of traditional ad spending will be in decline this year (45.8% in 2019, down from 51.4% in 2018). This includes [traditional] TV, which is expected to drop by 2.2 percent. That drop will bring TV’s ad spending revenue to $70.83 billion [2].

e Marketer also anticipates that now in 2019, America's total digital ad spend will be $129.34 billion. This would mean a growth of 19%, and a whopping 54.2% of the US's predicted total ad spend [3].

This Year's Winner and Losers

Interestingly, even though their revenues are shooting up, emarketer expects that the mega duopoly giants, Google and Facebook, will drop for the very first time. The favourite of 2019 will be Amazon: the No 3 player, which has witnessed its US ad business increase by over 50% this year; moreover, its percentage of the American digital ad market will rise to a hefty 8.8% [1].

Digital is the Only Way Forward For Advertisers 

“83% of marketers now say that video gives them a good ROI, up from 78% twelve months ago” [3]

eMarketer forecasting director Monica Peart, remarked that: “The steady shift of consumer attention to digital platforms has hit an inflection point with advertisers, forcing them to now turn to digital to seek the incremental gains in reach and revenues which are disappearing in traditional media advertising” [1]. Clearly this is right on. One excellent case in point is the global surge towards mobile TV – namely, being able to enjoy fab entertainment on the go. Up and coming OTT digital TV platforms, such as OONA mobile TV, are rapidly shooting towards Mars in terms of popularity, and their superiority to traditional TV. Consumers want OONA's flexibility: to be able to enjoy on-the-go entertainment, as well as TV casting at home; an awesome choice of content over hundreds of top international and local channels; fun interaction; and being rewarded with a virtual currency just for watching the exciting content they love, and the personalised ads that interest them.

     Christophe Hochart, far right and on screen, discussing the advantages of AVOD

OONA Global TV – A Successful Case in Point

For OONA's founder and CEO, leading digital specialist, Christophe Hochart, it is clear that the domestic advertising market is being reshaped by various different trends which are powered by the massive surge in digital tech. For instance: “automated advertising platforms [such as those employed by OONA], are helping to stimulate a boom in digital advertising spending... Meanwhile, dramatic changes in video have shifted many consumers’ programming preferences and viewing behaviours, shattering the traditional media advertising model” [4].

These immense transformations have contributed to making OONA's unique interactive TV platform in global demand. OONA is already set up to serve 185 million Indonesians, and is on course to provide billions of people in other parts of Asia, the US, Africa, the Middle East, South America and Europe, with the same exciting free (mainly ad-funded) entertainment; as well as SVOD options.

Making Watching Interesting Ads Rewarding

When OONA first came into being, Hochart looked outside the box for workable strategies within the growing advertising ecosystem. He focused on attaining valuable deep data, and a way to attract viewers to watch the ads they are interested in. Being an early supporter of AI and machine learning, one of the unique ideas he came up with, was to create a patented helpful personal assistant named Siskabot (the genie in the OONA app), to ensure that viewers can enjoy content personalisation through: accessing their favourite programs and live content, as well as the kind of helpful ads that interest them, and can save them time and money.

In order to get the right personalised ad fit for each viewer, Siskabot has regular conversations with users so they enjoy relevant, compelling experiences. She continually finds out more about them and their lifestyle, as well as the products and services they use, and are interested in. The latter is vitally important, as it seamlessly amalgamates relevant ad content into the digital consumers' experience. - After all, there is no point in showing ads that viewers will just cut off.

In addition to this, OONA's leverage of deep data generates contextually connected results for targeted consumers based on their personal interests. - And this allows advertisers to take a higher level of control over their campaigns.

A Fun Virtual Currency

In order to have success with OONA's ads, Hochart also devised an ingenious system whereby viewers can accrue loyalty rewards in the form of tcoins. - The latter is a virtual currency which rewards viewers just for watching content and personalised ads; sharing the content they love with friends and family; sharing a referral code on social media; and interacting with Siskabot. These tcoins, which are stored in a virtual wallet, can be exchanged for a broad range of branded goods, meals, fun days out, discounts, free telcom minutes and various telcom products.

So in practice, Hochart has laid the groundwork for ensuring that the data the OONA platform collects, is an effective asset. He notes that: “While there has been an upsurge in data sources, and the means to collect it; for the purpose of actually utilising it to propel the business, we focus on first-class data management in order to achieve the unity, timeliness, and wholeness of consumer data which will drive accurate results. In addition to this, we continually work on applying new patterns so we can integrate the information, and apply new techniques such as machine learning, in order to achieve optimal results. All the tools we utilise involve privacy-complaint methodologies, therefore, consumers' personal data is always safeguarded, and users can have total confidence in us.”

Summary

It is highly likely that mobile will remain dominant, and account for over two-thirds of spending on digital ads. Moreover, by 2023, there is a strong chance that digital will outperform two-thirds of total media expenditure. OONA Mobile TV's AI deep behavioural data, as well as the access it provides to real-time data, makes its state-of-the-art platform a magnet for marketers and advertisers who want to back a digital winner.

References

[1]. Clancy, Michelle (2019). “Digital ad spend to exceed traditional budgets in US for first time.” Rapid TV News. https://www.rapidtvnews.com/2019022155206/digital-ad-spend-to-exceed-traditional-budgets-in-us-for-first-time.html#axzz5gFkeLkaU Accessed 21 Feb. 2019.

[2]. Balderston. Michael (2019). TV Technology. “TV Ad Spending Drops As Digital Surpasses Traditional In 2019.” https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/tv-ad-spending-drops-as-digital-surpasses-traditional-in-2019 Accessed 21 Feb. 2019.

[3]. Hayes, Adam (2019). “The State of Video Marketing in 2019 [New Data].” Hubspot. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/state-of-video-marketing-new-data Accessed 21 Feb. 2019.

[4]. Paris, Todd & Aitken, Robert (2018). “Tech, New Business Models Fuel Ad Industry Shift.” Wall Street Journal. https://deloitte.wsj.com/cio/2018/07/02/tech-new-business-models-fuel-ad-industry-shift/ Accessed 21 Feb. 2018.