5 digital advertising trends that will drive 2011

5 digital advertising trends that will drive 2011

By Rhia George, Marketing Communications Manager, Innity

The digital advertising space is changing rapidly and advertisers and agency media buyers need to constantly keep up with advertising trends. How we used to operate or work will not bring about results in this day and age.  Keeping this in mind, I’ve highlighted a few trends that ignited the online advertising space in 2010 and will blaze through 2011.

Socially enabled ads

Socially enabled ads revolve around engagement and not CTR – essentially, the trend of moving beyond the click. With these ads, there is usually a space on them containing links to the brand’s social networking pages such as Facebook or Twitter thus enabling enhanced interaction with the brand.

Local advertising

With players such as Facebook and Foursquare allowing you to “check-in” to places and with Groupon having local coupon based services, marketers are able to communicate specifically with an audience in a given geographic region. This mobile based advertising trend is set to surge dramatically in 2011 allowing local retailers to take advantage of this technology while geographically targeting their customers.

Mobile advertising

Mobile advertising has been spoken about extensively over the last few years however, 2011 will be the year when this trend actually takes off. With an increased array of smart phone choices such as the iPhone and Android handsets and the invention of devices such as the iPad, this industry is set to grow significantly.

Non-standard IAB units

The demand for non standard IAB units has seen an enormous growth in 2010 from media buyers and this trend is set to continue in the next year. These formats provide advertisers with a creative executive that is able to attract the attention of viewers. The only challenge involved in deploying these is that additional resources are required to execute this from a creative viewpoint and hence, it is very important that you work in with a company that has the experience and wherewithal to help you with this.

Video advertising

With video set to be third largest online ad format by 2014 according to eMarketer, it is no wonder that is a part of this list. During 2010, video advertising matured into a real product for many publishers, and we believe this trend will continue in 2011. For publishers, having key quality content is essential when talking about video ads. For advertisers, the emotional appeal of the ad is what will set one ad apart from the rest.

With all that and much more going on, we can expect 2011 to be as exciting as 2010. Only time will tell what’s to come next…