Trends in 2016 that might impact on you
Don't Disrupt me
Online advertisers have always struggled to find a balance between creating ads that grab users' attention and disrupting their experience to the extent to which they annoy them. Research shows 65% of consumers say they would avoid sites that became overcrowded by advertising. This could result in a significant decrease in the volume of ads for brands and instead a focus on ensuring they reach the right person, with the right message, at the right time. The interesting factor will be how ads complement the online experience rather than hindering it in a fight to win over consumers - a transition in content marketing, which could see incorporating ads that deliver exactly what users want to see based on previous analytics rather than a volume, brand exposure approach.
Power to the people
Data has become invaluable to brands, yet consumers are becoming more aware and more conscious of sharing their information than ever before. Pagefair reports that 63% of people would be interested in using privacy settings on a website to avoid ads that use their personal data. Pagefair estimates that the cost adblocking is expected to reach $41.4bn in 2016. This could lead to the introduction of sophisticated control mechanisms that allow users to set their own advertising preferences, whether it be the formats used or the data shared, type of content shared. With a new sense of empowerment for consumers what impact will this have on advertising?
Focus on interaction instead of layout
In the design phase of producing a website, the visual look and layout would be decided. For designers, it does to an extent give them an idea for the look and feel of a design. However this somewhat limits them to seeing how the design will work with dynamic content. 2016 will deliver a new response to the barriers for designers creating design tools that allow for such restrictions such as Adobe Comet and Sparkbox. A transition shift for designers means they can focus more on the interaction perspective of the design.
Increasing mobile usuage
Unsurprisingly we have also seen a continued strong growth in mobile use, shown clearly by Mary Meeker's annual mobile trends round-up from earlier in the year. This means that another key trend to follow in 2016 will be the utilising of mobile marketing.
Video ads will start dominating
Video ads are nothing new, we have experienced them for years. However, Google is set to revolutionise videos and advertising platforms. Google is getting on board with in-SERP video advertising. Does this mean that users are becoming more accepting of video ads online? If this is the case expect to see more types of video ads popping up in more unexpected places with Google's ownership of YouTube.
So, that is a flavour of what to expect for 2016! If you have any questions or something else to report then feel free to email, facebook or tweet us.
