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Every year, everyone who is anyone in digital dares to dabble in to the realm of fortune telling. All the gurus attempt to predict what’ll happen in the New Year (and it’s quite fun to see who is right and who gets it very wrong). Here at the Display Media Dept. at Quirk we’ve consulted the crystal ball , but we’ve also decided to see what others are saying about the prime number 2011.

iMedia Connection talks about 7 expert predictions for 2011 These include:    

• Brands that learn how to become companions will see a lot of success in 2011.  
• Agencies need to focus more on clients' business objectives rather than media objectives. 
• Social will evolve beyond the Facebook app or Twitter feed, growing into ongoing conversations that are core to the digital platform.

Even more pronounced is Exact Target’s 5 Resolutions Every Marketer Should Make - and Keep - in 2011. Resolutions that stand out: 

• Data should be the foundation of marketing.
• Using more mobile in campaigns where applicable.
• Using automation to save time.

Of particular interest to us here at Quirk, is the last point. More often than not; digital marketers spend more time in the actual creation of reports than analysing the results. Playing in a result-driven digital marketing arena, it’s vital that digital marketers learn how to automate reports and spend the majority of their time on analysis. 

Ten digital trends for 2011 include something for everyone. The focus is wider than only digital marketing, but the trends mentioned are all important to digital marketers. Digital theory and practice is helping us to not only bridge the gap between online and offline, but also between various digital platforms. 

Of particular interest to Display is real-time bidding. According to eMarkerter, real-time bidding - which heated up the display ad market in 2010 - will continue to gain share in 2011 and become an increasingly significant force for advertisers, publishers and ad networks. For this type of ad buy, marketers bid on impressions based on the site, the location of the ad, the number of impressions desired and any potential cookie data they can use for retargeting or other segmentation. Publishers “auction off” ad inventory in real time, automatically looking at the bids made by advertisers for various ad slots and which ad should be served based on the user currently visiting the page.

In addition, display spending is beginning to catch up with search in the US. Some interesting figures include (dated from 2009 and including forecasted figures up to 2014):

US Online Display and Search Ad Spending Growth 2009-2014 Image Credit: emarketer.com

US Online Display and Search Ad Spending 2009-2014 Image Credit: emarketer.com

In terms of designing display ads, we no longer only have to deal with a standard 468x60. Long gone are the days of static ads clicking nowhere. We now can do almost anything in-banner and the only limitation is our imaginations. See how more Avatar ads are pushing the boundaries. Rich media is now also becoming a possibility on mobile and you can check out how Paramount has been tapping into rich media mobile ads to drive ticket sales for the movie, Jackass 3D.

An exciting year awaits us, rock on 2011!

Also check out:

• The Accelerated Growth of Display Advertising
• Evolution in Display Advertising