The Ozone Project’s CEO, Damon Reeve, appears alongside other industry leaders to discuss what key trends will impact in 2021
Our CEO Damon appears alongside other industry leaders to discuss what key trends will impact in 2021; citing transparency, value of first party data, digital campaign measurement, ethical use of data, and closer advertiser relationships as areas to continue to watch.
Wednesday 23rd December 2020 - first published on Mobile Marketing
Putting aside the macro-events such as Brexit and a looming post-COVID recession, 2021 will see digital advertising will continue to be impacted by the findings of the ISBA/PwC report into transparency in the programmatic supply chain. Advertisers are rightly demanding greater accountability from their digital partners, and as a result we will increasingly see trusted, safe and known environments become even more valuable to brands. This will mean greater investment in quality content environments powered by premium publishers and content creators.
At the same time, we’ll see more organisations grapple with the challenges and opportunities the demise of the third-party cookie is creating. Those with an abundance of first-party user data - such as premium publishers - will become even more integral to the advertising mix, as the richness of this data becomes increasingly important for consumer targeting. The value of contextual capabilities will also grow as brands look for alternative ways to target their consumers.
The third-party cookie cull will also force the digital measurement debate to the fore of many conversations. With less deterministic data available, the sector has a great opportunity to demonstrate the full spectrum of what digital advertising can deliver. There will be greater focus on real business outcomes and brand building capabilities while aligning with the range of measures used to determine the effectiveness of other media channels - rather than purely looking at ad tech metrics.
As one data source crumbles, any replacements will come with greater ethical scrutiny. While the industry matures and user privacy comes front and centre, the digital advertising industry should no longer need to rely on legislation like GDPR to tell us whether we should be pursuing a particular data strategy or not. Many of these decisions will be codified into our values and those that don’t put the customer first, should expect to see their businesses challenged.
Finally, and from an Ozone perspective, we expect our sector to take great strides in bringing the advertiser and publisher relationship closer together. Much of this will be as a result of the advertisers’ need to work with trusted, known environments, while at the same time publishers are making it easier for brands to connect with their customers, through simpler buying routes and alternative ways of targeting at scale.
