2017 has been an incredibly transformative year for the digital advertising industry. Global advertisers and publishers had the opportunity of experiencing shifts impacting the industry, such as increased ad spending budgets to the rise of mobile users. Groundbreaking trends and topics that stuck around soon became household names such as going programmatic and transparency .
This past year has also been full of change for us at plista. We launched our new SSP integration as well as announced our new global managing director, Michel Gagnon.
Let’s have a look at an overview of 2017 and reflect on the memorable moments that have occurred this last year.
#1 – Shifting Digital Trends
Many digital trends have emerged this year. Some have left seemingly long-lasting impressions while others were overshadowed, such as chat bots and live stream. Let’s look at three major trends we saw this year that appear to trickle over to 2018.
Native Programmatic
As many industry experts have forecasted, ad spending on going programmatic has exponentially grown. Zenith revealed that more than half the world trades digital display advertising at 59% and will have an eight percent increase by 2019. Why the shift? As we recently discussed, going programmatic is beneficial for both advertisers and publishers. Supply and demand partners have also shifted over to going native programmatic to target mobile users. Last year, eMarketer revealed that 19% of native advertising budget in the US went towards going native programmatic. Programmatic use will only continue to steadily increase.
Mobile user increase
With immediate access to social media, data and web search, it is no surprise that mobile user increase picked up in these last years. Smart phones have enhanced the user experience worldwide. Mobile devices offer users the convenience of being able to work on tasks and immediately obtain information . Plus, the size of the phone enables transportative use, which is something that a desktop cannot do any more conveniently.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial intelligence has left publishers and advertisers a chance to get closer to users and accurately target audiences. This consistently-updated tool has machine and deep learning technologies that can gain access to user data. AI enables more personalized ad exposure and sponsored content. This provides a more accurate match between an online user and marketer. Companies around the world utilize artificial intelligence primarily for IT and marketing purposes. This is used for sharing relevant information within ads or content to consumers online for a greater user experience.
#2 – Buzzworthy Topics
The industry has gone through many hot topics that left industry experts in constant discussion. Let’s reflect on some memorable topics that made its way into 2017.
Transparency
Transparency is meant to achieve a trustworthy and consequently successful monetization for both parties when it comes to the ad supply and demand exchange. Offering and practicing clear, direct information is crucial in different aspects. This is because the stakes for ad spending have continuously increased this year. Programmatic buying is a great example of a transparent relationship since this automated process yield a win-win for the supply and demand side. Ads.txt, a new initiative launched by the IAB Tech Lab, promotes transparency which blocks domain spoofing, or the robbing of advertisers and their spending.
Increased ad spending
Lately advertisers have been more than willing to increase their ad budgets. This is from going programmatic as well as targeting the rising mobile user demographic. Those with a higher budget are fueled by the promising prospect of monetizing through effective and high-quality ad slots on publisher sites.
#3 – 2017 for plista
This year, we have gone through some major changes. These changes resulted in a transparent outlook internally and externally. Let us revisit some of plista’s 2017 highlights.
Michel Gagnon as new global managing director
After previous global managing director Jana Kusick’s departure this past summer, we announced Michel Gagnon as her successor to lead plista GmbH. In the second half of this year, Michel has had a great start thus far with some accomplishments achieved under his command. These include reaching business goals as well as reshaping and sharpening the plista culture among its entire personnel.
Shift of growing native programmatic
In September, we announced our SSP integration and launch in growing native programmatic at the annual dmexco conference. Catering to both publishers and advertisers, going programmatic enables plista to offer effective and monetizing products to clients. With the rise of mobile users, going native is key for advertisers to reach their target of mobile users.
International growth and strengthening markets
With 21 markets worldwide, plista is determined to further expand and offer our approved services to many more publishers and advertisers alike. This year, we have achieved strong clientele relations worldwide. plista is always motivated and is readily available to offer its advertising platform of native solutions.
#4 – What will the next year bring?
2017’s trends and topics include artificial intelligence, native programmatic, and increased ad spending. This leaves us to expect the coming year to continue on with more promising prospects for success. Stay tuned with plista to find out more about our outlook for 2018.
As we wrap up 2017, we would like to say thank you for all your support and involvement with plista this year. We wish you a happy holiday and a great start in 2018.
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