Technology to power advertising’s future

Technology to power advertising’s future

Most experts believe that IoT much like artificial intelligence and robotics has ushered the third age of the web. Where there is “context to the conversation” allowing marketers to understand what drives a consumer, his needs, desires and wants.

“If the first age of the web allowed brands to push out their message on a new platform, away from traditional media. The second age of the web saw brands engage in a two-way communication with consumers. The third age will be led by technological innovations in packaging, products and retail spaces,” Cameron Worth added.

But the most interesting picture of what the future held for advertising was presented by Dean Donaldson and Jonathan Tavss of Kaleidoko, global brand consultants, who assist companies with their digital strategies.

On Friday, Donaldson and Tavss, who had flown in from the UK and US respectively, said that the use of blockchain and artificial intelligence would increase brand customisation. They also said that the growing interest in genetics would take personalisation (and therefore advertising) to a new level.

“If social media has allowed us to connect with our friends, what genetics-based or geno-targeting would do was help us connect with our families. Having knowledge of people in the wider world sharing the same gene pool that we do, takes personalisation to a different plane, presenting an opportunity for brands to step in,” Donaldson said.

That life is increasingly getting connected and dictated by devices will mean that there will be data leaks, Tavss said, harking back to the recent Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scam that has put the social media giant under government, investor and consumer scrutiny.

Tavss also highlighted the issue of fake news, which is roiling governments and media across the world. A recent directive by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry in India, for instance, had to be withdrawn because of wide-spread criticism from media organisations on the subject.

Tavss said that people in general loved watching videos, fueling the menace of fake news. Video, for the record, remains amongst the fastest-growing segments in digital advertising and marketing in India and the globe.

“We all love watching videos and no one checks the veracity of the content that is playing. So the danger that videos could be doctored easily and pushed as a real video is enormous,” he said.

As first appeared in Business Standard.