Advertising Week has been and gone again in New York, and with it, a host a discussions about where the industry is headed. With advancements in tech and mobile like never before, will we see advertising cater to this boom? We share our thoughts on the shape of things to come…

One of the biggest evolving trends at the moment has to be native advertising. While advertising integration on both desktop and mobile social platforms is nothing new, it is growing, and certainly being prioritized by marketers in their annual budgets. Recently, Instagram announced that it would soon be rolling out sponsored posts to UK audiences, and we’ve since seen successful ad integration from the likes of Rimmel, Starbucks, Waitrose, and Cadbury. And in what was perhaps one of the best examples this year, Mercedes showed how a native advertising campaign could be successful. The luxury car company recently ran adverts on both its Instagram and Facebook pages, in what they claimed to be the first example of leveraging two social advertising platforms in tandem. Results from the campaign show that native advertising is highly beneficial for brands- Mercedes generated 54 per cent more click-throughs to its site, and an increase in site visits of a staggering 580 per cent.

Another trend that can’t be ignored, is the momentous rise in video advertising. With marketers increasing spend towards video and away from TV, the volume of online video ads continues to escalate. According to Business Insider, video ad revenue is expected to increase at a three-year compound annual growth rate of 19.5% through 2016, making it faster than any other advertising medium, except for mobile. With YouTube now accounting for 20% of the US online video advertising market, digital ad spend is expected to exceed $50 billion this year in line with our viewing preferences. And now that 75% of YouTube ads are skippable, consumers are not likely to be deterred by growth in this area. One of the most successful video ads this month, has got to be Ikea’s “Experience the power of a bookbook.” Created to announce the launch of its upcoming catalogue, the video plays on the idea of a digital e-book or catalogue that most of us have come to expect. With 495,723 shares in September alone, marketers can see how investing in video can increase online exposure.

Arguably, the area shaping the future of advertising most is the mobile sector, with mobile internet ad spend predicted to reach almost $60 billion worldwide by 2017. It’s not surprising that marketers wish to tap into this sector when global e-commerce sales are predicted to reach $1.5 trillion this year- a significant amount of which can be attributed to m-commerce. With tools such as Google’s Mobile Ads helping marketers reach consumers on the go, and new display ad formats from Google also just launched, advertisers will find it easier to reach their specific demographics. Facebook has even gone one step further by focusing mobile targeting on emerging markets, or those with different types of network connections. Early last month, Facebook’s new option was launched, allowing marketers to choose whether they wished to target audiences using 2G, 3G or 4G networks. Aside from reaching audiences by location, age, gender, and phone type, this development certainly paves the way for mobile advertising to be relevant, regardless of network speed and coverage.

Do you agree with our pick of the trends? What are your thoughts on the industry’s direction? We’d love to hear your opinions as always, so please tweet to us @PracticeDigital, and share your comments on our Facebook page.