Top Five Digital Advertising Trends of 2021

A lot has been said about the year 2020 going down in history as one that dramatically changed human perspectives. The statement holds a specific meaning for advertisers whom the changes have been not just significant, but, even enduring. The first quarter of 2021, has injected a new optimism in the global economy, with advertisers focusing on the conceivable long-term aspects of consumer behaviour in the new normal, writes Sunny Kataria, Head of Commercial Verticals, OLX Advertising India.

Given the accelerated consumer shift into overcrowded virtual spaces, deeply personalised and innovative advertising seems to stand out as a key trend for capturing audience attention. Here’s an overview of the digital trends that are shaping advertising in 2021 and beyond. 

Personalised advertising to make emotional connects

Customised or personalised advertising allows businesses to make emotional connects with people. This sort of bespoke advertising basically refers to a brand’s ability to give tailored messaging to individuals who make up the target audience. A personal touch suggests exclusivity to the customer as well as an element of flattery as one is made to feel special. To quote the Harvard Business Review, “emotionally connected customers are more than twice as valuable as highly satisfied customers.”

By choosing to consciously share data on their preferences, customers are practically co-curating the product or service with brands. This has the added advantage of not just allowing customers to choose but also suggesting what a customer might like given their past behaviours. Targeted promotion using videos, short, tailored questionnaires, personalized messages are something that brands can benefit from in 2021 and beyond. 

Using Video Advertising Innovatively to Interact and Engage

Video advertising has been a long given since the advent of the movie and television screen. However, growing statistical data points to how consumers are consuming more and more content as videos on a daily basis. Yet, as the internet floods with videos of all nature, the winning brownie will go to the advertisers who use it most innovatively. 

Combining personalised messaging with live streaming, interactivity, live user-feedback, product-explainer videos, native advertising slipped into movies and sitcoms, social media messaging can be some ways video advertising can be exploited creatively to build engagement. The video types will depend upon product or service, target demographic, engagement type and product placement in the market.       

With attention spans reducing and people craving for short, direct and concise communications, it would not be wrong to assume that short-form video ads are a trend that are here to stay in 2021. 

Mobile Advertising to Stay Connected

Given the all-pervasive penetration of smart devices – cell phones, tabs, smart TVs et al —mobile advertising has already emerged as a must-have for an advertisers' portfolio. It has further consolidated its position following the Covid-19 induced lockdown wherein people found that the only way to stay connected was through smart phones and such devices.

Social media platforms were, perhaps, the earliest to start honing the 15-20-second story ad formats, quickly followed by messaging services. The billion-plus active users in these platforms means that no business can afford to stay disengaged with this space. The playfulness and entertainment value in these mobile ads offer quick wins and low-cost viral marketing often with returning customers. 

It is then a no-brainer to expect businesses to leverage the eyeballing on these gadgets. Every industry can be expected to maximise the exposure of their products and services via chats and messengers, where the ease of single click sharing offers much mileage to brands. 

Display Advertising – The New Billboards  

Using the old advertising technique of getting the attention of people via billboards or restaurant menus, the new display ads popup as you browse a site or watch something on streaming platforms. Traditionally, such advertisements had to be pre-purchased and pre-planned by the advertiser.

Display ads, on the other hand, do not need any predetermination. They allow advertisers to use the customer preferences gathered via previously visited websites and present users with personalized ads. This addresses both the issue of personalization as well as capturing attention.  Media buyers can thus target their audience, based on location data and prior user behaviour. 

Another trend noticed within these is incorporating not just text or stills but also videos in the banners that play across mobile screens. The engagement rate on these ads suggests that this is another trend that is here to stay. 

Voicing the Trend - Programmatic AI-Enabled Advertising

This brings up perhaps the most significant trend for advertising going forward. Using Artificial Intelligence to create and determine ad content. Once brands have user preference data and data on what engages and for how long, advertisers will be able to automate ad purchases and target them to specific audiences. AI will also be able to amalgamate data and create bespoke content to offer package deals. 

Another major benefit that programmatic advertising offers to advertisers is the ability to engage with consumers on any internet-enabled platform in real time. This would have been tough to manage without AI given the proliferation of channels that divide human attention. 

Although these are early days, some predictive algorithms can also be expected to come into play to suggest and direct consumers to make specific purchases depending on their past behaviour.

In the context of AI-enabled advertising, voice searches and commands are also likely to play a major role in defining the trend. Voice-enabled assistants are listening, recording and targeting accordingly.  Voice searches offer a direct way of reaching consumers in real time in a highly specific manner. As consumer habits evolve, these devices literally offer an ear into consumer thought and have the potential to inject a new voice into brands.  

It can be said that 2021 has opened positively, with new, exciting challenges for advertisers, as the world comes out of the pandemic and finds its footing again. The fatigue of lockdown notwithstanding, brands will be vying for audience attention as the digital real estate will be flooded with competition. Advertisers will have their hands full with creating personalised, customer-specific content and exploiting AI, while developing innovative ways to maintain the basic emotional connect with their consumers.