Digital Advertising Media Landscape- How it started, and how it's going
Photo: Adobe
When I started working in the Digital Advertising Industry, the only place that you would really see a digital ad was on a website. Traditional TV and Print advertising were dominating, and digital advertising was an afterthought with tiny spending budgets from large advertisers. Back then, Streaming TV wasn’t really a big thing (although Netflix and Hulu did exist).
Fast forward to today, Digital Advertising is the projected leader in Advertising spending growth, Traditional TV Ad spend is slowly declining and slowly dying, and Print is in the same boat. According to Dentsu’s News Release on 5/29/24, "Ad spend growth tracks ahead of the economy: Dentsu revise up global ad spend growth forecasts to 5.0% for 2024", they call out that “Digital is expected to remain the fastest growing channel at 7.4% to reach $449.3 billion and 59.6% of global ad spend.” That’s quite the difference from where we started.
The social media sites used to be a place where all the millennials mingled with their peers and would post things that they’d NEVER be caught dead posting now. (Well, some may but those that have matured wouldn’t). It was a fun time before millennials knew that the internet was a permanent place and that they shouldn’t post the crazy things that happened at last night’s party. LinkedIn was a place where grown-ups and college graduates posted their resume and connected with people to find jobs— but it was SUPER basic and didn’t have a news feed.
A few stats about the social sites that we know and love today, and where they were when I stared my career:
Facebook was a child- 7 years old (founded 2004)
Instagram was a baby- 1 year old (founded 2010)
Twitter was a child- 5 years old (founded 2006)
Pinterest was a toddler- 2 years old (founded 2010)
Tik-Tok- was unthought of (founded 2018)
LinkedIn- the oldest child, was 8 years old (founded 2003)
Since social media was so young in the late 2000’s/early 2010’s, and it was new and risky for big advertisers but they knew it was necessary to reach millennials. So once a few big advertisers took the plunge, others followed suit, and social media slowly became the digital advertising cash cow that it is today. The risk- still there for advertisers, but they have learned to work with the risk. And the reason being is that social media can reach a large audience, and efficiently. Social Media sites have registration data and information on what you interact with on a day-to-day basis that makes targeting ads- something that traditional advertising channels have struggled with—much easier and much more efficient. Social media has become an everyday staple in Digital Advertising- and even grandparents are on social media, which wasn’t the case when I started.
Smart TVs are now very common and are a standard in many households, which opens opportunity for digital advertising and ad innovation. And streaming audio has become a staple- platforms like Spotify, Pandora, and iHeartRadio also offer a variety of digital ads, including host reads on Podcasts and Video Ads.
We now have so many Digital ad types—- display banner ads, interactive display ads, audio ads, and video ads across websites, Social Media, Streaming Audio, Digital “out of home”, and across connected TV and other connected wearable devices. We also now have influencers on social media sites who use their digital platforms to promote products.
What used to be so simple is now over-crowded, noisy, and overly complicated because there are so many platforms, screens, and ways that you can now view a digital ad today. And every platform is doing what they can to monetize their platform via ads. Below is a summary of where you can now find Digital Ads, and the Ad Types:
• Screens: Desktop, Mobile Phone, Connected TV/OTT
• Platforms: Network/Publisher/Social Media’s Website, Mobile Web, Mobile App, CTV App
• Devices: Computer, Mobile Phone/Tablet, Smart TV, Digital Billboards, Smart Devices (Watches, etc), OTT Devices (Roku, Firestick)
• Creative types: Display (standard and rich media), Video, Audio
Evan Shapiro does a great job of illustrating just how crowded the Digital Marketing and Advertising space really is.
We’ve come a long way from the what is claimed to be “The First Digital Ad”, and I believe that it’s just going to keep evolving and growing as Ad Spend continues to increase.
