PPB June 2018

FEATURE | 2017 U.S. Advertising and Marketing Growth 1 Smart Technology Brands increased spending on smart techmarketing over 600 percent in 2017, according to PQMedia, asmore advertisers are relying on artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), audio computer robots (BOTS), Internet of Things (IoT) and virtual reality (VR) technology to develop and distribute brandmessages. Numerousmarketers used smart tech in campaigns, such as Toyota’s partnership with IBMWatson to use AI to develop content for RAV4 television commercials. Expedia employedVR on digital sites for travelers to examine hotel rooms; McCormick partneredwithMITMedia Lab to develop an IoT programto place recipes on refrigerator digital screens featuring McCormick spices; Burger King triggered GoogleHome’s audiobot with brand messages; andWhataburger parodied the AR game PokémonGo with a screen shot on Facebook of the Pokémon trainer grabbing ameal near one of its restaurants. 3 Transparency Agency/brand relationships became strained after it was revealed that agencies didn’t share discounts offered by media operators with their clients. Consequently, some brands such as Procter & Gamble reduced the number of agencies they use, while other brands like Unilever implemented a zero-based budgeting process. 2 2016 Elections Brands becamemore cognizant of consumer attitudes toward controversial issues, and as a result mademoves such as pulling ads fromcable news programs when negative reports arose surrounding the programhosts’ behavior. Other brand marketing tactics that arose from the 2016 election cycle included an increase in public relations campaigns to drive free earnedmedia; a proactive effort to reach the “forgotten” voter (older, rural, disenfranchised consumers); and internal analysis of market researchmethodologies after pollsters were inaccurate in predicting the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. 4 Ad Tech Programmatic media buying increased substantially in 2017, but it led to a backlash when, for example, ads were placed near controversial topics that resulted in more than a dozen brands, such as Walmart and Verizon, pulling their ads from YouTube. Meanwhile, other brands were dealing with ad fraud, estimated to drain one-third of all digital marketing spending due to billions of dollars lost to non-human traffic, infringed content and malverting- related activities. 10 Trends Driving Advertising And Marketing Growth In 2017 TOP PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTS RANKED $ 23.3 BILLION 6 th in size 5 th in growth AND RISING 9.3 % TO 62 | JUNE 2018 |