In this guest post, Jessica Miles Country Manager, ANZ at Integral Ad Science says contextual, compassion, choices and CTV will soar as we head into 2021…

Ad tech industry has been forced to push its limits and work through the unprecedented situation of the pandemic. The radical changes that occured in 2020 are likely to continue through to next year. Some key trends have emerged over the last 12 months that we expect will shape the face of digital in 2021 and beyond. So, here are some scenarios that marketers can expect to face in 2021:

CTV will become mainstream 

This year, consumers’ new stay-at-home ‘lifestyles’ caught the attention, and budgets, of advertisers. With work from home and other restrictions related to the pandemic expected to last well into 2021, consumers’ “indoor living” will remain a key focus for advertisers. This means that marketers must continue to be creative and discover new ways to engage consumers in their living rooms, including taking advantage of increased digital video and Connected TV (CTV) viewing habits.

With notable growth in CTV viewership along with increased choice of ad supported CTV content options, advertisers have already started following the eyeballs by shifting linear TV budgets to CTV. Almost nine in ten (88%) marketing and media professionals agree that advancements in digital video/OTT and CTV technology will accelerate the shift in ad spend from linear TV to digital in 2021. In fact, eMarketer estimates that CTV ad spend will witness its largest growth in years, jumping 40.1% to $11.36 billion in the U.S.

While we know that younger people are most likely to be CTV viewers, it’s catching on with older audiences too. U.S. CTV viewers in 2020 total 45.7 million for Gen Z, compared to 32.8 million for Baby Boomers. As stay-at-home behaviors continue, marketers will embrace CTV advertising to connect with their respective audiences.

What’s more, almost 60% of CTV inventory will be bought programmatically by 2021 according to eMarketer reports. As the CTV market grows, higher CPMs, a decentralized app ecosystem, a lack of widely-adopted industry standards, and other factors mean the OTT/CTV landscape is at a greater risk for ad fraud. Resounding concerns about ad fraud and brand risk for CTV will see advancements in CTV verification technologies and partnerships, as more advertisers activate these safeguards in 2021.

Demand for accurate and precise measurement will be in demand 

Marketers are planning for a tough economic climate in 2021 and now more than ever, it is critical for marketers to make every impression count by controlling the quality of media they buy or bid on. There will be a greater shift towards performance marketing and driving efficiencies next year. Technology will pave the way for a more transparent and measurable digital marketing ecosystem to ensure that campaigns connect with the right audiences. Using ad verification to make sure campaigns remain fraud free, viewable, and brand safe has become table stakes. In 2021, marketers will use measurement technology to focus on reducing ad spend wastage, measuring business impact of campaigns, and driving consumer engagement. That’s especially true for platforms including CTV/OTT and social environments, where advertisers are looking for even better ad verification.

Advanced verification solutions powered by AI and machine learning will become mainstream. These positive developments will benefit all stakeholders in the advertising ecosystem—publishers will be able to monetise their content better and drive more revenue, agencies will be able to launch more effective and efficient strategies, and brands will be able to understand the impact of their campaigns on consumers.

Contextual Targeting will be top of mind

Privacy has been a hot topic this year and will continue into 2021. In our Consumer Privacy study, 7 out 10 Australian consumers have taken action to limit data collection when online and the industry has also seen significant movement to comply with privacy regulation. Increasingly, there will be increased scrutiny on data that is collected for the purposes of advertising. The usefulness of data will get limited  with the death of cookies. If you have all this data about the individual but no way to activate that data in digital environments you might be better off not having it at all.

Due to this, there is increasing reliance on contextual targeting as a proxy for audience. However, contextual targeting in 2021 will be more sophisticated than ever before. With cutting edge technology, we can now ascertain the sentiment and emotion of an article, interpreting the content the way a human would. With these increased capabilities, we’ll see more advertisers take advantage of both context targeting and avoidance to drive additional value and greater alignment in their digital marketing. Advertisers will start to substitute that audience data with contextual intelligence rather than having to support all that data management and privacy regulations that go along with capturing and leaving personally identifiable information.

Businesses will automate for higher efficiencies

The challenges of 2020 highlighted the need for operational efficiency and consequently accelerated the drive to automation. In the media, the pressure of lockdowns saw this manifest with the increased reliance on programmatic media buying and a shift away from direct, IO based bookings with programmatic facilitating more automated media buying. Given the losses sustained by businesses in 2020, 2021 will be a year of efficiency underpinned by automation. With less “hands on deck,” adtech vendors will need to “plug and play” into existing buying platforms or risk generating too high an operational cost for partners to deploy. Frost & Sullivan’s research shows that companies recognize the business and operational benefits of automating business processes like data capture: higher productivity, leading to higher revenues. In a recent survey of almost 2,000 global IT decision-makers, it was reported that 72% have already invested in technology to drive and improve enterprise content and business process management as they try to reduce operational costs and improve the customer experience and their digital presence. By automating key processes and adopting AI and Machine learning to increase the speed, accuracy, and cost-effectiveness of their business operations, companies can improve the customer experience and drive employee productivity.

Leading with Compassion and empathy

Uncertain times call for unparalleled leaders and in my view, there is a very strong and permanent shift in emotional leadership. Empathy is a key CEO attribute today and it’ll set the tone for 2021 too- albeit with a stronger focus. Having lived and worked around the world, I cannot think of a more necessary time for empathy. The playing field has changed for the foreseeable future. Unless C-suite adopt empathetic leadership principles quickly, keep the well-being of the employees at the core- they may find themselves leading team members who’re uncertain, overwhelmed and unable to do their best work. Leadership is about having the ability to relate and connect and listen and bond with people for the purpose of inspiring and empowering their lives. Right now, employees across industries and geographies are dealing with tremendous fear and frustrations. Those guided by empathetic leaders will likely have an easier time working through their stresses, while others operating under a “business as usual” leader may become disengaged and resentful. Enabling honest discussions and then pivoting the conversation and actions toward positive solutions will be the key for leaders in 2021 to help their employees stay motivated and thrive professionally and personally.

More streaming choices, more targeted

With increasing consumption of streaming content in Australia- 76% of Consumers are willing to see ads in exchange for free streaming video according to an internal IAS survey- we are witnessing a significant increase in the variety of streaming providers that are content-specific. Britbox is an example, serving up only British programs to Australians and Kayo and DAZN focused solely on Sporting and Boxing content respectively. Similarly, the rise is gaming streaming platforms like Twitch, with an audience of highly engaged gamers. The rise of these content-specific platforms will provide new environments that advertisers can leverage to supercharge their contextual alignment and reach an audience highly engaged in a particular vertical.

The rise of exposure time

With increasing digitisation across media channels, think CTV and DOOH, we are now seeing the challenge of aligning different metrics and measurements. For example, DOOH reports on ‘plays’ while Web Display reports on impressions. Neither of which convey the value of that play or impression. However, if we know the time that each play vs impression has been ‘in-view’ then we have a metric that is not only comparable but also translates value. Time doesn’t change and is a metric that is ubiquitous and comparable across all platforms.

Internet of Behaviours

The Internet of Behaviour (IoB) is an evolution of the Internet of Things (IoT). In simple terms, IoB is when connected, smart devices gather data and information about a user via IoT, think health tracking or location tracking, to develop knowledge and an understanding of a user’s behaviour. Gartner included IoB as a key prediction for IT Organisations in 2020 and beyond. With an increasing array of IoT data sources, and better machine learning and AI technologies, more marketers will leverage IoB to drive greater personalisation at scale.