Research company Millward Brown has released its annual digital and media predictions for the year ahead. For the seventh year running the company is providing marketers with a clear guide to the challenges and opportunities of the next 12 months.

Authored by Millward Brown experts from around the world, the 2015 report identifies the need for marketers to empower programmatic media buying systems to do more than simply access cheaper and more targeted impressions.

To make this transition, marketers will need to build creative that can be customised and seamlessly delivered by media buying algorithms. Millward Brown says brands that achieve this will be able to create a new form of dynamic and relevant storytelling.

At the same time, marketers will need to ensure the advantages that come from programmatic targeting are not delivered at the expense of other key campaign objectives such as communicating brand messages and building long-term desire. Successful programmatic providers will increasingly differentiate themselves based on their ability to deliver campaigns that not only drive behaviors but also improve brand metrics.

“To date, the debate around programmatic media has been firmly centered on the ‘how’ of operations and behavioral metrics such as cost per click,” said Duncan Southgate, Global Brand Director for Digital at Millward Brown. “In 2015 we expect marketers to be equally focused on the benefits programmatic may be able to bring to building meaningful brands and the opportunities to leverage it more creatively.”

Millward Brown also anticipates other important changes in the media landscape around the world and describes in the 2015 predictions how marketers can “get media right”.  These include: 

• As native advertising becomes an established medium, advertisers should partner with best-in-class publishers who strike the right balance between advertising and editorial.
• New and exciting paid marketing opportunities will emerge on micro-video platforms, but only brands who know, learn and love those platforms will succeed.
• Location-based marketing opportunities will become powerful when brands focus on consumers’ interests rather than on their own.

“Native, micro-video and location-based marketing are disparate technologies, but they are connected by marketers’ desire to deliver more relevant communication,” said Southgate. “A key challenge for marketers in 2015 will be balancing identification of the perfect marketing moment with a need to generate cost-effective scale and reach.”