It’s never too early to make a prediction, is it?
It’s the middle of November, with Thanksgiving and the winter holidays to come.
The time is blazing right along. I feel like we’re almost ready for pitchers and catchers to report to spring training! Well, maybe it’s not quite that close, but it is amazing how fast this year has gone.
I feel it’s OK to share what I think are the three most important topics of conversation as we head into the new year.
First off, creative is more important than ever. The DMP (data management platform) has given rise to the CDP (customer data platform), and the coming 12 months will see the big tech stacks snatch up their CDP toolsets.
There are a few important players in that space, and I can see each of them having a nice, comfy landing spot with the big folks at Adobe, Oracle.
As these companies continue to build out their stacks, it’s inevitable their attention will shift from media and data to creative and cross-channel messaging/experience. The insurance of the right message being delivered to the right audience, in the right context, is the core of advertising — and I don’t see many marketers being upset if there’s a consolidation of these tools into their core technology partner.
My prediction is, acquisitions in this space will heat up in Q1 and round out by Q3 2019.
Second, data is old news. The data category experienced massive growth over the last 10 years, and in the last year it saw what I could consider a contraction as Facebook put the kibosh on outside players in their platform.
Data was a required step to get us where we really need to be — and that is artificial intellgence (AI). You can’t have automation and AI unless you have a robust infrastructure in data, and we now have that between the leading players. That category has matured and now it’s less about what data you have, but about what you do with the data.
The enablement of automated decisioning systems that leverage the data is where marketers are interested in heading. You can expect dynamic page optimization and ad messaging to become the norm, alongside things like dynamic deals and special offers for performance marketers. My prediction is that final consolidation in the data space will take place by the beginning of Q3, and then the dust will have settled.
My last and most important prediction for 2019 is Amazon, Amazon, Amazon. It seems like everyone is now “partnered” with Amazon for something. Amazon has become its very own buzzword.
There are also a number of companies who hope that Amazon will acquire them before they simply replicate and crush their core line of business. Retailers are flocking to the platform because they know their audience is there, and that audience buys stuff.
Amazon has quickly become an essential piece of the advertising pie, not to be disregarded. Amazon might not quite ascend to number one to overthrow Google, but I do think Amazon can surpass Facebook. My prediction is 2020 is when that may happen; 2019 will simply be another year of massive growth.
I know there’s a lot more to happen in 2019, but those are my top three.
You might have more to share. What do you think we can look forward to in the coming months?
This story was first published by MediaPost.com and is republished with the permission of the author.
Cory Treffiletti is chief marketing officer at Voicera. He has been a thought leader, executive and business driver in the digital media landscape since 1994. In addition to authoring a weekly column on digital media, advertising and marketing since 2000 for Mediapost‘s Online Spin, Treffiletti has been a successful executive, media expert and/or founding team member for a number of companies and published a book, Internet Ad Pioneers, in 2012.
