By Gridi Koduzi

Introduction

          Advertising is a paid form of communication between companies and consumers with the purpose of promoting a product/service. But the deep, sentimental meaning of advertising has changed drastically through the years. The art of printed advertising has been around for centuries, from the first newspaper ad to the latest google ad, and the number of ads has increased exponentially, and so have the budgets. But the element that changed the course of advertising is the way to strike in people's hearts than just their wallets, the creation of brands. A brand is an intangible characteristic that gives a product/service a value above any amount of dollar: an identity, a symbol, a reputation that makes it unique and creates a loyal fanbase. The power of branding and the rapid growth of the internet have shown that advertising is nowhere near its true potential. But how far can we go? Hence, it is crucial to discuss how and why advertising has to change and the possible scenarios anticipated in the near future. 

This is a brief introduction on the history of advertising and how we got to modern advertising. But what is in store for the future? Video presented by Mashable Brand X!

Challenges of modern advertising

We have now entered the era of modern advertising, as the video previously shown claims. An era where consumer needs have substantially increased, the business world has reached unmatched levels of competition, and we are witnessing unprecedented gains in the economy year after year. The rise of the internet has created a population of technologically literate consumers that is uncontrollably growing daily. More and more diversified groups of people are using the internet nowadays, with demand increasing as they are significantly exposed to more advertisements. To be more precise and up to date, the coronavirus outbreak only helped speed the up the process of digitization, considering the unparalleled establishment of online shops, and the 27% increase in Facebook usage in the U.S.A, which spent a quarter of all U.S video ad spending (24.5%) and ranks second in total revenue generated in digital advertising (Dautovic, 2021). So far, we notice a pattern of unprecedented events that take place in such a short period of time. This is a sign that we are going through a transitional period, where everything is changing right in front of our eyes. Nonetheless, this has not been an easy path. To speak truthfully, advertising has been facing serious challenges that need to be addressed.

As the years go by, an ever-increasing number of people have access to education and are proficient at using technology to their advantage. People nowadays are far more intelligent and less naive in comparison to the previous generation. These are the type of people who, despite being among the most consuming generations, take their time to carry out the research that will aid the into determining the right option that will satisfy their needs. This means that they are not easily convinced by an ad or an overly enthusiastic salesperson, as they are prejudiced and believe that they will be deceived into buying overvalued and nowhere close to fulfilling their needs. Furthermore, the internet has succeeded in weakening the traditional platforms of advertising, such as newspapers, radio and TV, and strengthen itself through computers and smartphones. Unfortunately, this transition has created an unmanageable clutter of online ads that do more harm than good. They are frequently characterized as inappropriate, irrelevant and most significantly, intrusive. We can acknowledge that immediate action must be taken when almost half a billion new devices installed ad blockers in the span of just one year (Dautovic, 2021). The outcomes of these unfortunate events have created a bad reputation when it comes to advertising. Society views ads in a confrontational manner, as they have become more irritating and less helpful, and tend to break the privacy of the users, making their internet experience a bad one. One of the most elemental aspects of marketing is to create trust between the buyer and the seller. Yet, we notice that a feeling of distrust overwhelms this relationship. We come to the realization that advertising has flaws that need to be fixed in order to regain the consumer's trust once again. In consideration of the foregoing, it is important that the future of advertising results in an established relationship and advertisements that ideally represent the needs of consumers. However, we ought to look at this matter in an unbiased manner and examine the methods of future advertising and take ethics into account as well. 

Future scenarios

The first scenario includes marketing shifting into data-driven advertising. Data is considered to be the weapon of the future, considering the power anyone who possesses it can have. In order for us to guess its potential, we need to understand how it works. The internet works with cookie policies, a piece of data stored in all different platforms and is used to keep memory of user activity every time they visit. To be more accurate, these platforms receive data information on all clients which they use in order to further study them when it comes to preferences. In the future, we expect to have much more advanced artificial intelligence (AI) which will revolutionize the way data information is being implemented into creating the "perfect" for every consumer, successfully bringing sellers into the mind of the buyers', rather than lead buyers where sellers want them to be. In any case, such powerful tools haven't always been used to the society's advantage and there is a controversial reputation surrounding the use of data to this day. The major downside of data usage is the line being crossed when it comes to privacy. Free apps are not just free, but we are paying in a different currency, that being our own privacy. Our actions on the web are constantly monitored to the point where our data is illegally sold for money to third parties. I believe that data implementation is an fundamental part of the continuation of the world and essential to creating ads custom made to fit and surpass our expectations, and with future AI this is possible. The future definitely lies in the complexity of algorithms and search engines, elements that AI will manage better than humans. What humans can do is take into consideration the emotion and restructure the motivation behind advertising - not making only money-driven ads but ads that will compliment branding and create loyal customers.

Another potential direction that advertising might take in the near future is towards science. Decisions made by consumers are after all human decisions that are being influenced by certain factors, such as peers, information about the product, and mostly emotion. If businesses wish to triumph over the problems we mentioned previously, investing in neuromarketing is the move. Neuroscience data can help examine the human brain more intensively than ever before. But how does this help? To begin with, businesses can study the norms, beliefs and true values of consumers needed to regain the lost trust and rebuild the relationship between buyers and sellers. Moreover, neuroscience targets the brain of consumers and figures out ways to stimulate their sense, making ad design much more memorable and intriguing enough to spread word of the mouth. Additionally, it can go further in the psychology of consumers and study the unconscious part of the brain, making the right "connections" that will enable conscious decision making and make branding more appealing (Maday, 2020). By the same token, another behavioral concept called nudging, which focuses on using product placement and other techniques to subconsciously test consumers in order to maximize their sales and develop research data, will be used extensively with the view to increase awareness in marketing research and compliment the work of data aforementioned. Due to the widespread application of such techniques, consumers would be warned with a sign outside stores or a notification before entering a website, informing them that their activities will be used for research conducting. In addition, advertising companies could implement augmented reality, such as VR to create a fun and gamified experience that people would attend to voluntarily, making it an approved procedure rather than a dark and secretive one. The videos below by Polymatter and SHOT BY SHOT display the success of neuromarketing and nudging respectively.

Last but not least, another possible scenario that we should not avoid discussing is that of a total role reversal in marketing. In this scenario, consumers are the ones creating advertisements and businesses making an effort to bringing such ideal products to life. Advertising agencies of the future will be comprised of buyers who create their own advertisements and describe the ideal product that would be useful in their life. The communication roles reverse, and the internet becomes a huge marketplace where buyers and sellers interact with each other in order to bring products that are actually helpful, useful and do not waste both of the parties' money and time (Schultz, 2016). To be realistic, for this to be established it would still need the help of businessmen, working as advocates for groups of consumers and it would need skilled consumers to work on aspects such as design and copywriting. Yet, this is an innovative idea that would shake up the marketing world.

Conclusion

To conclude, advertising has come a long way from the print to the digital era, with branding being key to this rapid growth we are witnessing every day. This unprecedented growth can only help us think of ways it can evolve in the near future. Potential future scenarios we discussed include data, science and the internet, all being the required pieces of the puzzle to ideal advertising. These scenarios indicate ways advertising could excel and also work in favor of consumers, as long as any ethical boundaries are not being crossed.

Bibliography

1. Dautovic, G., 2021. The 45 Most Important Advertising Statistics Of 2021. [online] SmallBizGenius. Available at https://www.smallbizgenius.net/by-the-numbers/advertising-statistics/  (Accessed 21 February 2021)
   
2. Maday, J., 2020. 5 Ways Neuromarketing in CX Will Change The Future of Business. [online] The Future of Customer Engagement and Experience. Available at https://www.the-future-of-commerce.com/2020/02/05/neuromarketing-in-cx/ (Accessed 21 February 2021)
   
3. Mashable Brand X, 2014. History of Advertising in 60 Seconds. [video] Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d3VAYGnXjY  (Accessed 21 February 2021)
   
4. PolyMatter, 2017. Nudging: The Future of Advertising. [video] Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lha5tQO0H-8 (Accessed 21 February 2021)
   
5. Schultz, D., 2016. The Future of Advertising or Whatever We're Going to Call It. [online] Taylor & Francis. Available at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00913367.2016.1185061?casa_token=X0KtbE24P1IAAAAA%3AWHYJdCXzaivBLtQtJguGLLytOFfHOM8BVXx1EYI6WPdUyetUkZU4pXj7XQLoLL1O2HEbnJ37FUp2aQ (Accessed 21 February 2021)
   
6. SHOT BY SHOT, 2020. The Best Marketing Ever | Art Of Selling | NEURO MARKETING | SHOT BY SHOT. [video] Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcQDr4HxPKU (Accessed 21 February 2021)