What is behind the hype? Here is dmexco's assessment of which trends will determine marketing in 2019:
Blockchain-based marketing — remains a (huge) potential
Blockchain is haunted by the trade press as the ultimate solution to current challenges in digital marketing. It is intended to use smart contracts to create complete control over the value creation stages in digital media trading and give users back sovereignty over their own data. Alone: since a large part of digital marketing is carried out in real time thanks to programmatic advertising, word has already spread that, realistically speaking, sufficient transaction speeds cannot be achieved to create a scalable system for these tasks. There is also another little-noticed point: a sufficient number of participants must be organized in the blockchain so that valid, unfalsifiable information (in the sense of so-called consensus) is shared. For example, there are around 10 million computers behind the cryptocurrency Ethereum - converted to conventional home user computing power. The approaches mentioned above are all still a long way off comparable scales. Nevertheless, further relevant impulses can also be expected for marketing on this topic, because the potential of blockchain is gigantic and there are numerous examples of useful applications in various industries.
Programmatic Everywhere - a lot of catching up to do on TV
The proportion of programmatically traded display advertising spaces rises to over 80%. In the “official” statistics published by the interest groups of conventionally driven marketers and agencies, smaller figures are propagated, as gross and net values are mixed and not all relevant inventories are included. In addition, Digital Out of Home and Audio are undergoing massive redeployments in the booking mechanism towards programmatic, although these channels are not designed for a 1:1 approach and require a different setup for targeting and creation. It will be exciting to see which voice-controlled advertising options are being established on personal assistants beyond mere shopping recommendations. Unfortunately, for the time being, addressable TV will remain an area divided between several major players, as there is no really open infrastructure; in return, significantly more branding budget in programmatic video will be transferred to other devices beyond the TV set.
“Brick & Mortar” becomes a driver of digitization
The impact of digital advertising measures on offline “brick & mortar” business is demonstrable across the board. Parallel to the smart home, branches — partly visible to visitors, partly invisible — have also become digital. Under the (campaign) hood, there are already several scalable ways to measure and control how digital marketing affects visitor flows and sales in retail stores. Holistic considerations have proven beyond doubt that the “research online, purchase offline” (ROPO) effect exists and represents an essential driver of digitally driven corporate success; showrooming is also an opposing phenomenon. Measurement options for what actually happens in stores as a result of digital measures are becoming more accurate and comprehensive without advertisers necessarily having to develop and promote their own apps or operate expensive customer card programs. Augmented reality, innovative payment options and new services enhance the shopping experience and provide valuable data for optimizing inventory management, store design and marketing campaigns.
