Future techniques in online marketing

1. In a world where nearly everything can be anonymously known about a registered user on a large site, marketers are making full use of the data to deliver on the promise of 1-1 marketing. Online advertisers will create highly customized and immersive marketing experiences, fully leveraging the most up-to-date data from their databases.

2. While user generated content (UGC) is inappropriate for most major brands, we will see more professionally produced viral campaigns that capitalize on this genre, says DaSilva. With no standards, and lots of different players and technology, video buys are still incredibly labour intensive, and often require site-by-site exercise he says. Brand advertisers are clamouring for an affordable, brand-safe environment with the ability to target audiences with video.

Premium content is very expensive, and serious questions are emerging about the level of intrusiveness of running pre-roll. Professionally produced content affords a better value but is more difficult to find at scale. Overlay advertising will likely become the preferred solution, DaSilva anticipates, when it comes to monetizing the large volume of user generated video content, whereas pre-roll will continue to be tolerated in front of high-quality content.

3. 2008 is the year when we finally see a viable, truly local solution for local advertisers. The breakout leader in the online local space will be the company that provides the best user experience and repeat users, "without consumers being bombarded with national ads when they are looking for a local sushi restaurant." says the release.

We believe, reports DaSilva, that "vertical local" will play a vital role, becoming even more granular, or "hyper local," with legal, travel, and home services playing an important role as well. The release notes that Yellowpages.com and Superpages tend to attract the users who are searching for more services.

"Local CPC (cost-per-click) display" will evolve to be a major factor in 2008. This means local users on a national site will be shown display ads of local businesses in their area that are relevant to their interests, using data from the display network. These ads create a greater CTR and the opportunity for local businesses to advertise on sites that they could not have accessed in the past.

4. As more advertisers launch online branding campaigns they increasingly want more metric feedback on the effectiveness of their online marketing efforts, beyond clicks, both to justify spending on the web and to help guide their future media allocations.

With the shift of TV to online, the industry has no choice but to embrace the emotional selling proposition where the emotional values becomes critically important in the buying process. This change will enable online buying to shift from a transactional strategy to an ongoing source for influencing the customer in different stages of the purchase funnel.

5. While the technology of computers acting as intelligent agents has largely lived in the research arena, it is now making its way into mainstream applications. (Some Online marketers) are now deploying applications that "learn," enabling users to structure and share the richness of their online experiences.

6. 2008 will see the increased popularity of Virtual Worlds. Users will increasingly shift towards specialty worlds more closely associated with their lifestyles or interests. This will be an opportunity for marketers to create whole worlds around products, or to customize environments inside specialty virtual environments.

Advertisers can create branded environments and even brand accessories. For example, Coke Studios is an online community with millions of users creating customized music mixes that can be shared and rated by others.

DaSilva concludes, "These are a few of the key topics we think will be consistently discussed during the conferences and industry events in 2008..."

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