We always think about the future. But the change we’ve been through in the last few years is making us think even more about the future. It’s no different when it comes to media buying. Let us share with you some of our predictions about the future of media buying.
Technology Will Shape the Future
This is not a new fact. We all know that technology is the number one variable that will drive the future of media buying. What we don’t know is how technology will develop and how people will adapt to it.
In particular, the fact that streaming services have become much more common and concepts such as metaverse are based on concrete foundations will cause the media where people see advertisements to change forever. This will naturally affect the dynamics of media buying.
Targeting: A Much More Complex Job
Thanks to technology, targeting is now much easier. But in the future, when audiences will be more split up, it will be harder for media buyers to keep track of all these different groups.
Here we need to add that the line between media buying and creative operations will become more and more blurred with each passing day. In a communication environment where messages must be shaped according to the medium and context, knowing the media will be a prerequisite for being creative.
The Future of Media Buying Agencies May Be at Risk
In the future, media buying operations will have much more strategic importance. Advertisers are likely to want to keep these operations, which will have more complex structures, in-house. We can observe this trend even today. In a future where access to data will be much more problematic with the privacy regulations made, brands will not want to consolidate all their data sources and share them with the outside.
The Human Factor: Much More Important
We may be exaggerating when we talk about the future role of technology. We see this in the TV programs of the 1960s in which predictions about the future were made. Most of the predictions about the 2000s in this era of technological optimism are inaccurate. None of us are driving flying cars yet.
The same may be true today. While technology facilitates many media buying operations, there may be a greater need for human insight in making strategic decisions. We need to know that the foresight of machines has to be based on the data available but that humans do not always act in accordance with the data. If that were the case, millions of dollars could be made in the stock market just thanks to algorithms.
We live in a time of great change. It is not possible for us to predict most things. One thing we do know: Time will tell what will happen.
