A few predictions for 2019

Increasing political polarisation, major data breaches, the spread of fake news, trust in advertising at an all time low and an emerging unease about the behaviour of big tech. These headlines were just a few of the topics and big themes from 2018.

How did the advertising industry respond? Media advertisers pushed for more reform of the ad ecosystem, media owners fought hard to get proper recognition of and reward for their original content, and media consumers were ever more aware of inappropriate use of data.

In short, everyone - advertisers, publishers and consumers - wanted a bit more respect, a trend that we think will evolve and expand this year.

For example, in 2019 more advertisers will seek to treat people as individuals, not artificially formulated stereotypes. Data savvy marketers will move beyond their existing data sets to seek unique and competitive insights that embrace the complex role of emotions in decision making. And consumers will vote with their data by migrating their time to more ethical publishing platforms that filter out the lies, prohibit licentious behavior, and respect personal information.

Here are a few specific trends we think you'll see this year.

My Data

In a post GDPR and Cambridge Analytica world, people have started to wake up to the value of their personal data. Initiatives such as Datawallet and People.io have already been established, promising to reward consumers in exchange for their data. Good-Loop gives 50% of an advertiser’s budget to the charity of the viewer’s choice.

The IAB has just published its playbook for opt-In value exchange ads and 90% of marketers surveyed by OpenX agreed that video with permission generates stronger engagement metrics for ads compared with other formats.

In 2019, we will see consumers taking a more active role with their data. For example, people could rate video ads for effectiveness or enjoyment in exchange for incentives, or perhaps pay a publisher to fund quality journalism from within the actual ad unit.

Mood Matching

2019 is going to be a huge year for emotional targeting. Savvy advertisers have known the power of it for years, and we all know intuitively that the mood a person is in affects their receptiveness to a message.

While the core emotional DNA of a person may be fairly static - e.g., some people respond more positively to happy content than others - the mood of someone fluctuates based on time of day, situation, media environment and the weather.

Expect mood matching to be more prevalent and more powerful in 2019 as advertisers seek incremental data sets to overlay on the increasingly common third-party information already accessible to all.

Emotional Outcomes

2019 will be the year that smart buyers will wake up to the fact that emotional considerations are not just nice to have - they’re actually the deepest driver of human behaviour.

This will be the year that groundbreaking academic research will finally link specific emotional responses to business outcomes. From long-term effects (such as profitability) to short term goals (immediate sales activation), brands could have clearer guidance than ever to create and optimise content that drives behaviour directly in line with desired outcome.

Click here to read all ten of our predictions for 2019, which include using neuroscience for content testing, shoppable videos, and the impact that machine learning will have on our industry.