Advertising Doesn’t Break, It Evolves

In 2007, IBM predicted the end of advertising as we know it, crediting “increasingly empowered consumers, more self-reliant advertisers, and ever-evolving technologies” as key factors that would redefine the future of advertising. Fifteen years later, this couldn’t be more true of the industry today. Not only have we moved away from static advertising methods and towards more interactive, hyper-contextual strategies, but we’re also deep into experimenting with capabilities like AI & VR while witnessing new media channels like TikTok open up entirely new possibilities for brands to interact with consumers.

All that is to say, we’ve officially entered a new Golden Age of Immersive Media. And that’s a good thing for several reasons. For one, advertisers aren’t focusing just on volume and impressions—they’re prioritizing impact. Gone are the days of buying up generic radio and broadcast space just to reach a large but invisible audience. Now, it’s about understanding the consumer and placing an emphasis on the experience, combining factors that optimize the when, where, why, and how to create something incredibly impactful.

This is good news for the consumer as well, as it means less irrelevant junk advertising, and instead more personalized and meaningful brand experiences, which is much needed in an age where we are constantly being inundated with media, content, and endless brand offers in nearly every aspect of our lives.

Prioritizing Understanding Over Impressions

So how should advertisers prepare for this new era? First, it’s important to acknowledge that just as we’ve evolved from static advertising, we’ve also grown out of old-school demographics. We know that every mom is different. Every student is different. Every millennial is different.

And perhaps more importantly than just the who, is the when, where, why and how you speak to a consumer. Thanks to tech, particularly AI-driven capabilities, we’re now able to seamlessly combine all of these elements powered by data, to deliver hyper-targeted activations in real-time, which take into account not only the content being shared with consumers, but also the channels through which brands are reaching them throughout the customer journey right down to the purchase.

Thus, the key formula that marketers should ensure are incorporated into their upcoming strategies are primarily three things: timing (when), relevance (where), and context (why). Whether consumers are flipping through the TV watching home improvement shows on their couch, browsing the aisle of a garden center in spring, or searching for a new lawn mower on their phone during their kids soccer practice, marketers should be tapping tech to take those real-time insights into account in order to optimize each touchpoint and drive the greatest ROAS.

This is ultimately the foundation on which the Golden Age of Immersive Media will thrive: Tech will remove the hassle of reach while optimizing timing and context, and in doing so enable brands to focus on creativity, impact and the experience.

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Engage to Create An Experience

So once brands gain a better understanding of consumers, and the channels for reach are in place, what does it take to deliver an ‘impactful’ moment?

Engagement will be key, particularly for finding new and more innovative ways to encourage consumers to interact with their favorite brands and get excited about their products. Luckily, with the rise of things like VR and AR, we can expect a myriad of new channels to be at our disposal that will allow brands to curate more creative touchpoints. This could take the form of virtual reality dressing rooms, to customizable shopping experiences, to augmented reality home design. Whatever the tactic, finding new ways for customers to engage their senses and experience the brand in a more immersive way will be key to rising above the competition.

As an example of this, in a recent campaign for its battery-powered lawn tools, STIHL launched a highly engaging and dynamic ad, “Trim the Grass.” Encouraging users to cut the grass with STIHL’s lawn tools by using their finger, the experience invited consumers into the ad. Then, STIHL moved to the 360º panoramic ad unit, which fully immersed the consumer into the ad and established a deep brand connection, driving an engagement rate of 3.99%, which is 6.7x above industry benchmarks. In other words, by tapping ad tech to break through the clutter, STIHL was able to funnel resources into creating a uniquely immersive campaign that hooked in the right customers at the right time, and ultimately drove higher performance.

While we can expect traditional activations like brand and product awareness and rebates/discounts to remain, the way in which they are offered and delivered to customers will evolve as engagement will be key to creating memorable brand experiences early on in the customer journey.

The Future is Now

In sum, IBM is more right than ever before, and they’ll continue to be right because advertising always evolves. Who knows what the next decade holds? At least for now, today’s brands are in the midst of something special, a time when we are only just scraping the surface of a new era of consumer-brand relations powered by highly sophisticated technology that we are still working to understand.

Perhaps the only thing that we can know for certain is that brands must move beyond the who and focus on the why, when, and where to better connect with consumers and most importantly make sure that engagement creates a memorable experience of value. While we are just entering this new and exciting golden age of immersive media, consumers will increasingly expect to be wowed by the brands that can leverage both data, knowledge and insights and convert them into new experiences that reach new heights in terms of creativity and impact.

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BONUS READ – Jon Miller, CMO at Demandbase chats about the evolution of ABM in this webchat with MarTechSeries: