Overall, 2016 is shaping up to be a strong year for marketing. From artificial intelligence to nonverbal communication, here are some trends to watch during the next six months.
2. The
1. Vote TV
Traditional media will get a boost from political spending
during this U.S. election season. Pundits predict a $5
billion presidential race—double 2012’s total—and state
and local candidates are girding for massive spending,
anticipating the side effects of a contentious Clinton-vs.-
Trump campaign.
The result could be tight inventories of national and
local TV time, especially in the battleground states. The
Association of National Advertisers (ANA) has already
predicted the possibility of an “ad squeeze” as the party
conventions adjourn just in time for the Olympic Games
to kick off and take up inventories.
The rising use of programmatic buying for political ads
will help ease the crunch, though political advertising
remains TV-centric, especially in local spot markets.
Expect tight inventories and hefty price tags for prime
time until November.
3. The
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2. Marketers And Agencies At Odds
Cracks in the marketer-agency relationship became
obvious this spring, after the ANA released a
controversial K2 study highly critical of transparency in
agency media-buying practices. The industry group
pointed to a “fundamental disconnect,” citing rebates
from publishers were pervasive, with markups often
mandated by senior agency executives.
The K2 study appears to have driven a wedge between
the ANA and the American Association of Advertising
Agencies (4A’s), which in January released its own set of
transparency guidelines. “This does nothing to foster a
productive conversation or to move our industry
forward,” the 4A’s stated in response to the K2 study.
The two groups have been trying to find common cause
in fighting off the separate issue of ad fraud, estimated
to be a $7.2 billion annual drain on media budgets.
Future meetings could now be tense.