The Future Of Display: What’s Ahead For 2012

It’s the oldest format in online advertising, but it’s not stodgy by any stretch. Display Advertising is still changing rapidly as new technologies and innovations come along and are put to the test. That may be why display been gaining as a percentage of overall online advertising revenues, commanding 37% of the total dollars in the first half of 2011 according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s latest report (PDF).

But what’s ahead in 2012 for this space? One area that’s seen a lot of growth is performance-oriented display, often fueled by behavioral data from search or from a company’s website. To get some insight into what we might expect from this sector in the future, we tapped three experts to give us their predictions.

John Kelly, Vice President of Criteo

Performance Display will be one of the hottest areas of advertiser investment in 2012. Performance display providers will grow dramatically, and retargeting will become a de facto best practice in online marketing. Advertisers will continue to invest in their traditional acquisition channels, like search, and then will ensure engagement with those users who leave their sites without buying through retargeted messages.

Secondly, consumer privacy will still be important. Users will continue to demand transparency from the parties collecting their data and how that data is being used.

Finally, data exchanges will face increased scrutiny. Advertisers will take a very hard look at the advantages and disadvantages of selling their user data to third parties, and many will make big adjustments to their programs.

Dax Hamman, Chief Revenue Officer of Chango

In 2012 smart brands will actually reduce their spend in site retargeting specifically, driven by a realization that their programs are stuffed full of wastage — too high frequency caps, running for too many days and targeting lots of people that don’t care about buying (i.e. job seekers, press etc). Site retargeting will continue of course, as it should, but the spend will decrease, driving an increase in ROI and better consumer experience. Some of this budget will flow into acquisition techniques like search retargeting that find people who have not visited your site previously.

James Green, CEO of Magnetic

In 2012 we will see the walls come down between the display and search teams within digital agencies. We’ve recognized in 2011 that the intersection of search and display is profitable, but there is a need for a higher level of strategic communication and interdependence between the two functions. Why? Media planning will be tighter, and the data shared by each team can cross-inform and influence better performance across both channels. As technology continues to gets smarter, so will agencies in the way that they strategically plan their clients’ budgets. So, raise your glass and toast to interdependence in the New Year!