FIPP begins 2018 with a look back at five of the key media tech trends that impacted the industry most significantly in 2017.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s no secret that the global advertising industry suffered a tough year in 2017 with WPP, Omnicom, Publicis Groupe, IPG, Dentsu Aegis Network and Havas all posting\u00a0little or no growth for the year<\/a>. What we saw instead was a recalibration of recent digital advertising trends, where programmatic and retargeting exchanges in particular lost a lot of the allure they had amassed in recent years.<\/p>\n In August, we spoke to Grupo Abril about how the Brazilian publishing giant was\u00a0achieving revenue increases by decluttering ad inventory<\/a>. More recently, changes made to Apple\u2019s retargeting regulations led to an open letter from the US advertising industry warning that the updates had the potential to \u2018sabotage the economic model of the internet\u2019<\/a>. With the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming into play later on this year, and a Facebook and Google duopoly now itself coming under increased scrutiny, the changing advertising landscape could present further opportunities for traditional publishers.<\/p>\n \u2018Pivot to video\u2019 is a phrase that became indicative of Tennyson\u2019s Kraken in 2017. Having roared into media consciousness at the beginning of the year, it had quickly died on the surface by the end of 2017, and already become the\u00a0subject of ridicule somewhere in-between<\/a>. The trouble is that many publishers, perhaps spurred on by the enviable viewability and click-thru rates reported by Facebook, began to place a heavy emphasis on video content. But as we first asked on FIPP.com in August, when you\u2019re sitting on a train at 7:30 in the morning and struggling to pull out a 3G, let alone an internet signal, is this really the easiest way of consuming the morning\u2019s news?<\/p>\n Considering this trend more recently and more eloquently as part of NiemanLab\u2019s Predictions for Journalism 2018, Susie Banikarim, editorial director of the Gizmodo Media Group, highlights that \u201ceven ad buyers are realising video isn\u2019t some panacea<\/a>\u201d. From a year that saw Mashable sold off for a low price, new media companies like Vice and BuzzFeed undergo significant contraction, and more recently the much-hyped Videology company put up for sale, it\u2019s an important lesson in managing the incorporation of emerging trends without betting the farm on them.<\/p>\n One area that saw tremendous growth in 2017 was voice. Now, you can\u2019t turn on the television without seeing a commercial for the Amazon Echo or Google Home. In May, eMarketer reported that 35.6 million Americans would use a voice-activated assistant device at least once a month throughout the course of the year – a jump of 128.9% on 2016. It\u2019s a tangible trend that has sparked the imagination in wider Artificial Intelligence capabilities, and has longsince seen\u00a0Hearst create a tangible voice team<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe great video myth exposed<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Voice<\/strong><\/h3>\n