Choueiri Group’s Walid Yared lists 16 trends that will affect the way media is bought and used in 2020:
1. Digital advertising will reach 40 per cent of total advertising spend
Digital advertising has been growing, but for it to reach the 40 per cent mark, we believe a new buy-side model must rise to the top of the ecosystem. This leads to our second prediction…
2. Digital programmatic buying will reach 60-70 per cent of total digital budgets
Programmatic buying will rise from its current level of 30-40 per cent to reach this point in the next two years.
3. Programmatic buying will consolidate across platforms at the agency side
The push for programmatic will be accompanied by agency-side consolidation of programmatic buys across all platforms. This will enable agencies to achieve a much more holistic one-stop-shop (instead of siloed) approach to media buying.
4. Privacy initiatives will make publishers’ fi rst-party data more valuable than ever
The growth in programmatic will affect user privacy. With increasing regulations aimed at addressing privacy concerns, cookies are also becoming a thing of the past. The contradiction is that amidst this transformation, first-party data will become the most valued asset for publishers.
5. Blockchain will be tested to address users’ privacy issues
Second- and third-party data cannot completely be forgotten. Blockchain has always been linked directly to cryptocurrencies, but the reality is it can do so much more and solve complex problems. In 2020, blockchain will be tested to address and resolve user privacy issues.
6. Out-of-home will witness the start of its digitisation
All types of media have had to adapt, and OOH will no longer be able to escape this shift.
Here’s a video of Choueiri Group’s CMO Walid Yared speaking on Integrated Communications in 2020 at Campaign’s Marcomms360 Predictions2020 conference.
7. E-commerce will reach $22bn
Rising from its current level of $8.3bn and aligned with changing consumer behaviours, a host of new, as well as traditional retail players will enter the regional e-commerce game. E-commerce both globally and regionally is booming and shaking the ground.
8. Cinema and entertainment in KSA will be a multimillion-dollar opportunity
Saudi Arabia is the most important and largest regional market. KSA’s focus on promoting social and cultural interaction, as a key component of its Vision 2030 development plan, will ensure that cinema and entertainment in the kingdom will become very lucrative.
9. Time spent will become the most important media metric
“Reach” no longer serves as the main metric for planning, transacting and measuring media. In 2020, we believe that it will be replaced by “time spent”.
10. The market will start turning to alternative media measurement solutions
Regional brands all suffer from the lack of a reliable measurement system, which would allow them to see where their advertising dollars are going and to gauge effectiveness and ROI. In 2020, the market will begin to use alternative media measurement solutions.
11. Passive cross-channel measurement will evolve
With brands now interacting with consumers across a multitude of channels and a growing number of touchpoints, passive cross-channel measurement will come into focus. Such solutions could come from smartphones, which enable us to see what users are watching, consuming, etc. and at the same
time can determine where users are and where they have been. This sort of data would give us very insightful and holistic views of users’ journeys and their media interactions.
12. AVOD and SVOD – there will be a convergence towards hybrid models
Looking at video and TV, broadcasters need to reach viewers across digital platforms as well as traditional media. Advertising-on-demand and subscription-on-demand models will continue to converge, and new hybrid models will be launched to give users many more choices adapted to users’ budgets, likes, dislikes, media viewing habits, etc.
13. Television will become a new player in the performance game
Attribution models are proving that television is effective across different platforms, on top of the uplift TV is bringing to the digital performance game. In 2020, TV will become a major player in the performance field.
14. Television buys will become more data-driven, with a focus on measurement and linear targeting initiatives
Television buys will become increasingly data-driven, but with a focus on measurement and targeting initiatives. What this means is that there will be some types of targeting that look very similar to what can be achieved with digital today, but of course with the limitations that apply to TV measurement.
15. Spends are coming back to TV
The drive is being led by both new-to-TV advertisers (search engines, travel aggregators, e-commerce sites, etc.) as well as TV advertisers, including brands that drastically shifted their budgets to digital in the past few years.
