To Advertise or Not to Advertise, That Is the Question

So, yesterday I wrote about the Man vs. Machine panel at Social Media Week New York on the future of advertising and how advertisers will need to adapt, and I’ve written about Spotify ads and how they’re actually counterproductive to what advertisers are trying to accomplish. I want to talk a little more about that and about a trend the panel didn’t really touch on yesterday.

First of all, the recommendation to the industry to follow Google’s lead with advertising is absolutely a sound piece of advice. With my husband being Google-certified in pay-per-click, you can guess that Google is a regular topic of discussion in my house. It’s true that Google is paving the way in digital advertising, and their recommendation to only buy on what’s viewable is not just  self-serving, and if the industry follows suit, it might just fix that little botnet problem central to yesterday’s panel discussion and the CPM side of advertising.

The underlying viewpoint of yesterday’s panel was that advertising as we know it is going to deteriorate as more and more people view it as “disruption,” particularly in places where they least expect it (e.g. when Facebook bought out Instagram and experimented with sponsored images, only to receive a hefty dose of backlash). That may be true, and I agree with it in my post about Spotify, but I don’t think it’s going to die off altogether. At least not yet. I see it starting with a trend that we’re already seeing take shape—personalized targeting.

If I’m going to see ads, I might as well see ads that represent who I am and what I like. More and more consumers are choosing products and services based on peer recommendations, and people are more than willing to offer their two cents. Make a Facebook post asking your friends and family for the best roofer in the area and you’ll get more than a handful of responses. So if we like recommending things, don’t we also like to know about new products and services that might better our lives? If you’re a shopper, don’t you know want to know about when your favorite boutique has a sale? If you’re a shoe fanatic, don’t you want to be presented with wedge sandals that match your recent searches? If you’re a camper, don’t you want to know about the latest and greatest in outdoor cooking or safety equipment? If you’re interested in SEO, don’t you want daily tips? My theory is that as advertising becomes more and more targeted on mediums like Facebook where the opportunity is there, it will become less and less of an annoyance.

What do you think? What will be the norm for advertising in three years? Five? Will the industry be completely revolutionized or will it just need to adapt to new standards?