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In many ways, native advertising is the veritable chameleon of the digital marketing world. It’s come a long way since its inception over a decade ago, evolving into an important strategic component of digital campaigns—so much so that US native ad spend accounted for almost 60% of total display ad spending last year. Against all the disruption and recalibration across the digital marketing industry right now, native advertising shines through as a reliable and trusted way for brands to communicate their story. In fact, one study found native advertising to be the most impactful channel for brand favorability.
Here, we define what native advertising is and unpack what it looks like, how it can drive performance, and what the future holds for the medium.
At its most basic level, native advertising is a form of paid media that mimics the look, feel, and function of its editorial environment. In other words, it fits in naturally alongside the original content on its host website or app without disrupting the user’s browsing experience—sometimes to the extent that consumers don’t even register they’re engaging with an ad. If you’ve ever been reading an article on a news site, or scrolling through TikTok or Instagram and not realized that content you’re enjoying is is an ad until you’ve 15 seconds in (or more!) because it blends in so seamlessly with the rest of your feed, then you’re already intimately familiar.
Native advertising is most commonly deployed as paid “in-feed" posts on search engine results pages (SERPs) and on social networks such as Instagram, TikTok, and Reddit. Indeed, close to three-quarters of native display ad dollars are spent on social networks, while 97% of all social network ad spending is native.
Native display advertising stands out from other ad types by “blending in” with the content around it, offering a user experience that can feel less disruptive . Unlike traditional banner ads that can feel intrusive and are often ignored, native ads match the form and function of the platform on which they appear. By integrating naturally into the user’s experience, native display advertising can foster higher engagement rates and deliver a more authentic interaction with the audience, ensuring a brand’s message resonates effectively.
Beyond display, this channel can take other forms as well: as “recommended content” typically found at the foot of news sites, or as more extravagant “branded content” that consumes entire webpages (and occasionally entire websites). Let’s dig deeper into these different formats:
In-feed native ads copy the layout (arrangement of elements) and the design (font, color, scheme, aesthetics, etc.) of the surrounding environment while simultaneously including visual cues informing the reader that it is a paid ad and not organic content. For instance:
Historically, when a consumer interacts with an in-feed ad, they will subsequently navigate to the advertiser’s website. But through the rise of technologies and spaces such as social commerce and retail media networks, brands can now enable users to shop and take action directly on many publishers’ sites, putting customers closer to the transaction point. As these systems evolve and mature, in-feed native ads could potentially assume even greater importance.
Content recommendation ads are delivered via widgets into the main hub of a publisher’s page or underneath or beside individual articles. These native ads don’t necessarily imitate the appearance of the editorial content neighboring them, and the majority will link off-site. Disclosure language for these units can be anything from “You might also like” or “Elsewhere from around the web,” to “You may have missed” or “Recommended for you.” If served via a third party, the technology provider may also include its name or logo to further indicate that content is not produced by the publisher, i.e., “Recommended by Outbrain” or “Recommended by Taboola.”
This type of native advertising goes beyond the initial ad by also incorporating written content and (sometimes elaborate) design work that takes the form of an article, blog post, vlog, infographic, or interactive webpage. This branch of native has grown to be quite lucrative in recent years, with many major news outlets opening their own in-house commercial teams specializing in producing multi-dimensional content on behalf of brands (think T Brand Studio at The New York Times or Brand Studio at The Washington Post).
This content lives on the publisher’s site but will typically feature multiple outbound links directing to the advertiser’s own pages. The key thing to note here is that branded content is created and produced through direct partnerships between an advertiser and a publisher, with their placement guaranteed based on a fixed pre-negotiated (and oftentimes premium) price.
For advertisers looking to scale their campaigns in a cost-effective way, programmatic native advertising offers great opportunities. By automatically serving ads in real-time through a demand side platform (DSP), advertisers can create richer, more relevant brand experiences for consumers across screens and devices. Advertisers simply need to provide an image, headline, description, and click-through URL. Then, depending on the form of the organic content on the site where the ad will be shown, the programmatic native platform used by the DSP will determine which of those elements to bring in so the ad matches its context as closely as possible.
Programmatic is so dominant in the native ecosystem today that native programmatic advertising constitutes 95% of all native display ad spending. Additionally, close to 66% of all programmatic display ad spending in 2024 will be native, though that share has been dropping for a few years as programmatic increasingly permeates newer, emerging channels such as connected TV (CTV), digital out-of-home (DOOH), and podcasts.
As adtech becomes more sophisticated, advertising teams can leverage a host of creative native advertising formats to make a more compelling impression on consumers, going even beyond branded content. No longer are marketers restricted to the use of a single, static image: Native ads can now incorporate animated GIFs, carousel ads, click-to-watch video ads, instant play video ads, and more—options that are particularly attractive for advertisers looking to reach younger audiences. Advertisers can then pick and choose which style(s) best serves their message and potential customers.
For example, B2B brands looking to tell a story around a campaign to drive leads can create a click-to-watch video ad with an embedded CTA. Retail and e-commerce brands can use native carousel ads to showcase a collection of products (or multiple images of one product). And travel and tourism brands can create snazzy photo spreads or short-form videos to showcase the allure of a particular destination or travel experience that customers may come across as they browse their social feeds.
What does the future hold for native advertising? Well, there is definitely change afoot.
The channel is still growing, but its share of total display has plateaued of late—largely because its success is so intrinsically tied to that of social media, and the social landscape has seen significant upheaval in recent years.
However, the tides appear to be turning for social platforms in 2024, as social media spend is forecast to increase by 14% year-over-year, becoming the largest media channel worldwide by advertising investment.
Still, while social platforms have dominated the native space for so long due to their audience targeting capabilities and array of available ad formats, streaming and mobile channels are opening up new opportunities for native ads with more inventory available programmatically. All in all, while social will likely remain a significant force in the native advertising world, advertisers are diversifying their native spend across other channels as well.
Native advertising can be a dynamic addition to any marketing mix. By seamlessly and authentically integrating into consumers’ online browsing and shopping experiences, native ads are often able to achieve higher levels of engagement and brand recognition than other channels. Plus, innovations across the digital ecosystem could expand native advertising’s reach and capabilities moving forward.
Want more insights into how native reimagines consumer connection in meaningful and less disruptive ways? Check out our Native Advertising Guide.
Can you remember the last ad that struck you because the people and stories represented in it were a welcome departure from what you usually see in marketing content? Maybe it was Proctor & Gamble’s Emmy-winning commercial, The Talk, which explored the difficult conversations about racism that Black American parents have with their children. Maybe this Campbell’s ad, which portrays a gay couple entertaining their child with a particularly corny Dad joke, comes to mind. Or perhaps this Maltesers commercial that features two friends communicating via sign language caught your eye.
On the other hand, maybe you can’t think of anything. Or, even worse, maybe what comes to mind are the kind of ads where models or actors with disabilities, or those who are people of color, LGBTQIA+, or neurodivergent, are portrayed less as believable human beings and more as symbols of a business’ attempt to come across as inclusive. Or, perhaps you recall advertisements where people with historically marginalized identities are portrayed according to stereotypes.
Yes, the advertising industry continues to struggle to represent people from, well, underrepresented communities. And even when advertisers nail inclusive casting, the content of their advertisements can inadvertently portray tokenism, stereotypes, or representations of life that simply don’t hold true for many communities.
This is a problem for a variety of reasons, not least of which being that advertisements have an impact on peoples’ sense of belonging in the world. As such, marketers have an ethical responsibility to ensure that everyone can see their lives reflected in marketing.
Though the advertising industry has many areas for improvement when it comes to diverse representation, they mainly fall into two categories: Representations of historically marginalized groups either lag behind those groups’ share of the general population, or are characterized by tokenism and stereotypes.
Let’s start by looking at those groups whose representation in advertising is disproportionate to their share of the US population. Latinx/Hispanic people make up 19% of the US population, yet they account for only 5% of those featured in advertisements. On the other hand, 61% of the US population is white, but they account for 73% of the people featured in ads.
The disproportionately low representation of historically marginalized groups is true beyond racial and ethnic identities as well:
On the other hand, some historically marginalized groups are represented more proportionately to their share of the population, but the quality of those representations is often poor due to tokenism and stereotyping. For instance, while the representation of Black Americans in advertising is proportionate to their share of the US population, over 35% of Black Americans feel that brands portray all Black people the same in their marketing, and 62% feel that many attempts at diverse representation in media and marketing are still stereotypical.
Similarly, while women have a less disproportionate presence in ads, those representations are often characterized by stereotype—for example, commercials portraying women as cooks and cleaners. And, while it’s easy to think that this kind of stereotyping must be improving over time, research indicates that it may actually be getting worse.
Also relevant to this discussion is the fact that the US is becoming more demographically diverse across multiple axes, particularly when it comes to younger generations. The last census found that the population is growing more racially and ethnically diverse at even faster rates than the US Census Bureau had previously predicted. Additionally, the percentage of people who identify as LGBTQIA+ more than doubled between 2013 and 2023. For advertisers, this means that the need to accurately represent diverse identities is growing more urgent by the year, as more and more consumers identify with historically underrepresented groups.
Which begs the question: How, exactly, can advertisers get diverse representation right?
Growing a marketing team’s inclusive marketing skill set is a marathon, not a sprint. Leaders can set themselves up for success by approaching this journey with openness, curiosity, and a dedication to continuous learning.
Advertisers should pay particular attention to ensuring their teams understand tokenism and stereotyping, establishing practices to acquire and retain diverse talent, and investing in ongoing professional development to equip their teams with the tools needed to produce high quality inclusive marketing content.
It’s easy enough to cast an ad with a diverse group of actors or models, but accurately representing diverse experiences is a more difficult task. As previously noted, this is one of the main pitfalls advertisers run into in the context of inclusive marketing—and tokenism and stereotyping are two of the most common ways advertisers can get those representations wrong. As such, it’s critical for any marketing team to understand tokenism and stereotyping so they can avoid them in their ads.
In advertising, tokenism occurs when actors or models from historically marginalized groups are cast without consideration for how people from those groups experience life—say, by portraying a Black woman engaging with hair products that Black women never actually use, or a deaf man living in a home without a visual alert system. These shallow portrayals use diverse actors and models as symbols or tokens, rather than authentic representations of the diverse experiences of these populations. Even more, many instances of tokenism coincide with stereotyping, which can happen in relation to gender, race, ethnicity, and culture.
Because of the prevalence of tokenism and stereotypes in advertising, marketing leaders must ensure their teams understand these concepts. This knowledge enables them to raise a red flag whenever tokenism or stereotyping arises during campaign creation.
Back in 2020, the advertising industry took steps towards progress and prioritizing authentic representation in marketing as many businesses committed to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in response to widespread protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. However, that momentum appears to be slowing of late, with many organizations curbing their diverse hiring efforts amidst economic pressures. The ethnic diversity of the advertising industry fell from 32.3% in 2022 to 30.8% in 2023, falling well short of the 42.2% of the US population that’s ethnically diverse.
There are innumerable ways that marketing organizations benefit from hiring and retaining a diverse employee base, not the least of which is that it invites new perspectives into the room while developing a campaign. Marketing organizations that prioritize the hiring of people who can craft authentic storylines that connect with consumers are more likely to be successful in their inclusive marketing efforts—and, critically, to avoid tokenism or stereotyping.
Notably, the goal here isn’t to put the onus of inclusive marketing solely on employees with historically marginalized identities, but rather to craft a diverse team to ensure that diverse ideas are brought to the table. At the same time, advertising leaders should prioritize training around inclusive marketing for all staff members to create a shared foundation of knowledge and vocabulary to support their diverse representation efforts.
Inclusive marketing is a skill set that can be as critical to a brand as effective communication or strategic thinking—but one in which marketers are often much less fluent. Many marketers name a lack of expertise, knowledge, and talent as obstacles to improvement when it comes to inclusive marketing, and 50% of brands are worried about getting inclusive marketing campaigns wrong.
To mitigate this, advertising leaders can invest in ongoing professional development to equip their teams with the tools they need to create media that authentically represents historically marginalized identities. This could include organizing annual workshops around diverse representation in advertising for employees, or bolstering any existing DEI programs with content specific to inclusive marketing.
In providing regular professional development opportunities for their employees, agency and brand leaders can ensure their teams are progressively upskilling in this area, and that their inclusive marketing efforts progressively improve in kind.
Amidst the many challenges facing marketers, it can be easy to put inclusive marketing on the backburner. But considering the state of diverse representation in advertising today, as well as the fact that the US is only growing more diverse, it’s clear that upskilling their teams’ ability to get inclusive marketing right is a clear and worthy priority for marketing and advertising leaders.
If there’s one trait that sets winning advertising teams apart, it’s the ability to adapt to change. From shifting consumer behaviors and digital media habits, to new and ever-evolving technologies, to dynamic social and economic influences, digital advertisers must constantly adapt to stay at the top of their game.
This need for adaptability is particularly evident today, as rapid technological innovation (we’re looking at you, generative AI) coupled with shifts in which generations hold the most purchasing power are forcing advertising teams to rethink how they connect with target audiences. This is particularly evident in the search and social spaces, which are seeing significant changes in usage among younger internet users.
To succeed in this landscape, digital advertisers must remain agile by staying up to date on the latest technological developments and seeking to understand how they are influencing how younger generations engage online. In doing so, marketing teams can create tailored strategies that resonate with younger audiences and maximize their impact in today’s ever-evolving digital world.
Today, digital marketers must connect with both audiences who grew up with the internet and those who did not. Looking towards the future, however, teams must be prepared to engage primarily with full digital natives, or those who have always known a connected world.
At present, nearly half of the global population is part of either the millennial or Gen Z generations. And the number of Gen Alphas, the generation that follows Gen Z, is forecast to surpass that of baby boomers by 2025. While millennials grew up with the internet as it evolved, Gen Z and Gen Alpha are the first two generations born into a world where the internet has always been an integral part of their lives.
Because they grew up with the internet woven into their day-to-day, younger consumers often expect a high degree of continuity and personalization from channel to channel. Whether they’re scrolling on TikTok or Instagram, playing a game in an app, or navigating a brand’s website, they generally anticipate a consistent and integrated experience. And, younger generations have made it clear that personalization should be a priority for advertisers, with 57% of millennials and a whopping 81% of Gen Zers saying they like personalized ads.
Given that these generations are progressively acquiring more buying power, understanding how they use the internet will be critical for advertisers looking to connect with millennials and Gen Zers now, as well as Gen Alphas as they grow older and amass more purchasing power.
Millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha are all deeply familiar with the internet, with many members of these generations having never known a world without it. They spend a significant amount of time online, and use online tools in different ways than prior generations.
Take, for instance, social media. Where baby boomers, seniors, and about half of Gen Xers tend to use these platforms primarily for messaging, Gen Zers and millennials rely on them for news, short-form videos, product and service insights, and other information as well. For brands and advertisers, this presents a distinct opportunity to connect with these younger users when they’re actively searching for products, news, and other information. In fact, social media has overtaken search engines as the primary search tool for discovery among Gen Z and millennials, representing a significant shift from prior generations’ reliance on search engines for their queries.
“Social media is very much a discovery engine, as it’s visual and browsable,” says Lindsay Martin, Group VP of Search Media Investment at Basis Technologies. “To compete and attract younger audiences that are increasingly turning to social for their search needs, Google is working on enhancing their search experience by including new offerings such as Circle to Search or Google Lens.”
In addition to the social search trend, another major force is impacting how younger generations behave online: generative AI. Advertisers must understand these evolutions in behavior and plan for how they will continue to change as generative AI further disrupts the landscape.
Though ChatGPT has only been around for a couple of years, 61% of Gen Z and 53% of millennials report that they are using AI tools in place of search engines when seeking information on a topic. And, recent reports have found that search engine volume could drop by 25% by 2026, thanks to AI chatbots and other virtual agents.
Additionally, search engines are integrating genAI features that will further change the broader search landscape, likely in an effort to appeal to these younger audiences. Google, for example, recently introduced AI overviews, which provide an AI-generated summary as the first “search” result when users turn to the platform for a query. Since this overview appears before all organic search content, it could very well decrease the amount of organic web traffic from what websites have been able to generate in the past.
“In this context, there will likely be an even greater emphasis on paid (rather than organic) search,” says Martin. “The paid ad experience will also continue to evolve to monetize the AI experience. For instance, at Google Marketing Live earlier this year, Google made announcements about testing Search and Shopping Ads in AI Overviews, though this is still in early stages.”
Social media platforms have been quick to embrace AI-driven features as well. Meta AI, for example, is a new AI-powered assistant that answers questions and helps connect Meta platform users to more relevant content. As social media continues to evolve with the help of GenAI, more unique opportunities will become available for brands to connect with younger users as they spend time connecting with others andsearching for new information and products on these platforms.
The question, then, is how advertising teams can adapt to younger generations’ unique online habits amidst these technological shifts. Leaders should consider the following strategies as they strive to connect with younger generations:
Even as their media habits change and the channels themselves evolve, younger consumers expect a seamless experience across all digital channels. To implement an effective omnichannel strategy, teams can use data to identify key consumer touchpoints and preferences, work cross-functionally to ensure different departments are aligned and working towards a unified brand message, and leverage advancements in machine learning and AI to automate and optimize personalization efforts. Additionally, making optimization a priority and regularly reviewing and refining strategies based on real-time data can help teams stay ahead of trends and maintain a cohesive brand experience.
Advertisers should ensure they have systems in place to effectively collect, organize, and analyze customer data to understand how younger audiences are engaging with different platforms, particularly as those platforms evolve. To that end, leaders might consider investing in newer tech offerings—for example, CDPs, which streamline the collection, organization, and use of first-party data; or automation solutions, which allow teams to access and action critical data through a single platform. By making it easy to both gather and analyze insights, advertisers can create personalized messaging that resonate with target audiences’ unique needs.
As younger generations’ online behaviors evolve amidst technological advancements, it can be easy to see this complexity as an obstacle to success. However, leaders who reframe this change as an opportunity for experimentation and growth will be able to maintain relevance and forge meaningful connections with young audiences—both today, and in the years to come.
For instance, leaders might encourage their teams to experiment with different forms of interactive content that is particularly impactful with young audiences today (i.e., short form videos or gamified ads), use A/B testing to determine which iterations and placements yield the highest engagement rates, and then use insights from these experimentations to inform future marketing efforts. By embracing experimentation, teams can bolster media efficacy, hone their creativity, and create a team culture centered on adaptability.
Digital advertisers today face the challenging task of adapting to younger audiences’ preferences and online habits, particularly as these habits shift based on new technologies and advancements. By seeking to understand these consumers’ online behaviors amidst profound digital transformation, advertising leaders and their teams can gain crucial insights to effectively capture the attention and loyalty of today’s digitally savvy consumers.
Specifically, identifying how technological innovations in search and social are influencing younger consumers’ behavior is key for today’s advertisers. By researching and implementing strategies based on these shifts, advertisers can create content that resonates with younger audiences, meets them when and where they’re spending time online, and fosters connection in today’s ever-evolving digital landscape.
Earth Day may have already come and gone, but that doesn’t mean the opportunity to reflect on how we can protect the future of our home planet has passed. And, given the bleak outlook recent reports have presented on the health of our environment, it’s critical these conversations continue year-round.
Projections on the trajectory of climate change are growing ever more dire, with targeted carbon emissions goals looking increasingly out of reach barring swift and major regulatory and/or corporate changes. The severity of the situation even led to UN Secretary General António Guterres’ recently calling for countries to ban advertising from fossil fuel companies, calling these corporations the “godfathers of climate chaos.”
In the face of all this, organizations continue to tout their climate pledges and roll out marketing campaigns—or, depending upon who you ask, PR stunts—demonstrating their commitment to environmentally friendly values and practices. But as the scientific community continues to sound the alarms on the coming climate crisis, many sustainability-minded consumers are making it clear that they aren’t buying what brands are selling. And with consumers increasingly looking to corporations for leadership on the climate crisis, the old methods of green marketing just aren’t good enough.
The past few years have seen a major step forward in the advertising industry’s efforts to combat inaccurate and anti-science climate claims, as Google, YouTube, Pinterest, and others announced policies banning ads for (any monetization of) content that denies climate change.
But for marketers, there is still a significant amount of work left to do in the green space, considering that consumers are increasingly skeptical of many brands’ Earth-friendly sustainability claims. Case in point: 52% of people globally report they have encountered misleading or false information about brands’ sustainability efforts. At the same time, emerging GenAI technology both holds great promise for advertising teams and poses a significant climate challenge due to its energy usage. Given these complexities, marketing leaders looking to authentically champion sustainability must be proactive and intentional in both how they approach climate- and sustainability-focused advertising, and in how they leverage new technologies like AI.
If you take only one thing away from this article, let it be this: Consumers today don’t have time for sustainability claims that your brand can’t back up. More than half of Canadian consumers distrust brands’ “green” or sustainability claims, while 67% of global consumers feel that brands only involve themselves with social issues like sustainability for commercial reasons.
Beyond consumers’ greenwashing concerns, recent months have seen a flurry of regulatory activity to combat greenwashing, with the EU approving a new greenwashing directive that imposes stricter regulations on companies’ sustainability claims and the Canadian government passing new corporate greenwashing rules into law in late June. The new regulations in the EU tackle the issue of generic and/or unsubstantiated claims, introducing very specific rules for how and when companies can make environmental and sustainability claims. Similarly, the new law in Canada prohibits companies from representing “a product’s benefits for protecting or restoring the environment or mitigating the environmental, social and ecological causes or effects of climate change that is not based on an adequate and proper test.”
Amidst this heightened regulatory action and consumer distrust, advertising leaders and their teams must be intentional and authentic in the claims they make. A particularly helpful resource for evaluating sustainability claims is the World Federation of Advertisers’ Global Guidance on Environmental Claims, which identifies six key principles for marketers who want to establish their brands as trustworthy and avoid greenwashing accusations.
In essence, advertisers must accept that when it comes to the environment and sustainability, the bare minimum isn’t good enough anymore—so if that’s all you have to tout, then it’s probably not worth sharing. Consumers (particularly young consumers) will see right through it, and—depending on how egregious your exaggerations are—call you out on it.
Indeed, marketers should embrace what might as well be the new climate advertising Golden Rule (or, in this case, Green Rule): “If you don’t have anything meaningful to say, don’t say anything at all.”
Since its public debut in late 2022, generative AI has garnered significant attention—both within digital advertising and beyond. In fact, 77% of agency professionals believe it is the trend that will most shape the next decade of digital advertising.
But this emerging technology comes with a hefty price tag—specifically when it comes to its energy usage. According to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) 2024 forecast for global energy use, the average energy demand of a ChatGPT request is nearly 10 times that of a typical Google search. If ChatGPT were to be used for the nine billion searches that happen daily, this would require nearly 10 additional terawatt-hours of energy each year. That’s more energy than 952,000 average US households use in a year!
Businesses who value environmental responsibility must understand this aspect of generative AI to ensure their campaigns are energy efficient. Though there are many ways this technology can streamline campaigns, being intentional about its use and staying abreast of new developments in more energy-efficient ways to leverage GenAI can help mitigate potential climate impacts. By using generative AI thoughtfully, teams can significantly reduce unnecessary energy consumption, thereby supporting sustainability and responsible business practices.
When it comes to planet-conscious marketing, the most successful brands will be those that find creative ways of addressing climate change that feel authentic to their existing images.
Take Patagonia, for example. In 2011, the outdoor apparel brand made waves with its “Don’t Buy This Jacket” ad on Black Friday, where it broke down the specific environmental cost of making one of its items (down to the amount of water used and carbon dioxide generated) and encouraged audiences to buy only what they need. Since then, it has launched a Worn Wear initiative, where consumers can both trade in their own used gear and purchase others’ pre-loved items, thus further reducing their environmental impact.
And in 2022, Patagonia’s owner Yvon Chouinard set a new bar for corporate environmental leadership when he made Earth the company’s only shareholder, pledging all profits to the fight against climate change. Over the years, Patagonia has consistently used clever, on-brand marketing to advocate for good—all while backing up their efforts with real, measurable action. Though not all brands will go to the same lengths to demonstrate their commitment to the environment, advertising teams can look to companies like Patagonia for inspiration for how to meaningfully engage in the climate change conversation.
Lastly, when you’re running your sustainability-focused digital advertisements, make sure they appear alongside content that reflects those same brand values—and, ideally, support the kinds of publishers that promote similar ideals. Work with partners that prioritize brand safety and take advantage of programmatic solutions like block lists, allow lists, and high quality inventory such as programmatic guaranteed and private marketplaces (PMPs) to eliminate the risks of problematic content and/or sites that endorse climate-damaging products or industries. In prioritizing brand safety, you can turn yourself into a trusted messenger that’s more likely to appeal to values-driven consumers.
Digital marketing leaders and their teams are at a critical juncture in their approach to sustainable advertising. Amidst escalating climate warnings, there is no space for greenwashing—a fact that is underscored by the recent flurry of regulation aimed at curtailing such misrepresentations. Additionally, industry professionals must be aware of the energy costs of generative AI, and use those insights to inform how and when they leverage the technology within their campaigns.
To succeed in this evolving landscape, teams must embrace transparency and authenticity, steering clear of misleading claims and unsustainable practices. By embracing ethical advertising strategies that meet consumers’ demands for transparency as well as new regulations, fostering creativity that aligns with their unique brand values, and approaching new technology intentionally, marketers can not only build trust with consumers, but also contribute meaningfully to the urgent global need to address climate change.
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Let’s start with this: Burnout is real.
Though it’s not a medical condition, burnout is nevertheless a very real, very definable occupational phenomenon that can tax a worker’s physical and mental health. Mayo Clinic defines job-related burnout as special type of stress related to work—specifically, one that “includes being worn out physically or emotionally” and “may involve feeling useless, powerless, and empty.” The syndrome has also been tied to anxiety and depression, fatigue, and reduced cognitive and emotional abilities.
Burnout has been having a moment of late—first basking in the dull afterglow of the COVID-19 pandemic, then helping fuel the mass job departure movement known as the Great Resignation, and finally continuing to plague workers as they have navigated the economic uncertainty that has defined the past several years—and its impact has been particularly acute in the advertising industry. And even with the Great Resignation no longer wreaking havoc, the folks who remain in the agency world have only seen their burnout risk rise amidst heightened pressures to deliver new dollars, fewer co-workers to share the burden, and increasingly smaller budgets. Given these pressures, it’s no wonder that more than seven in 10 agency professionals feel their job is harder today than it was just two years ago.
The impact, inevitably, is exhausted employees making more pitches with less time to prepare—and then, for the clients whose business they do win, having fewer hours to actually optimize and analyze campaigns. Not to mention the lack of employee engagement and talent retention woes that burnout exacerbates, particularly among younger generations of workers. So, burnout leads to more than just a stressed-out staff: it has a very real, very negative business impact for all parties.
Burnout is no fun—like, at all—and trying to just power through it only further exacerbates is effects. Fortunately, many employers have begun investing in an array of benefits to support their employees’ mental health and general wellness. Whether it’s giving inflation-based bonuses, bringing mental health professionals on staff, adopting half-day Fridays, or providing paid subscriptions to mindfulness and meditation apps, these kinds of perks and gestures are one way companies can show their staffers that they care about their wellbeing and are taking measures to support them in the battle against burnout.
But while these employee-friendly benefits are both thoughtful and effective, they ultimately serve to treat the symptoms instead of addressing the underlying illness that prompts the burnout in the first place. In order to effectively tackle those concerns, leaders will need to holistically address the way they do work. Here are three good places to start:
During a time when so very much is complicating people’s everyday lives—from global wars and crises, to economic turbulence, to political polarization, and more—a little empathy can go a long way in establishing a stronger relationship between employers and employees.
Basis Technologies’ own Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Lois Castillo, wrote up a great blog post that features a list of four strategies for leading through turbulence, including acknowledging what’s going on, establishing systems of care, addressing situations head-on, and giving folks a (well-deserved) break. In it, she shares the following bit of wisdom:
“Your people are your best asset: They’re the heart of any organization. You need them healthy and vibrant and committed. As leaders, if we don’t consider all the external stressors that are affecting our people and make sure we’re providing an environment that mitigates some of that harm, then our employees won’t be able to come in and focus on the job at hand.”
It’s a great reminder of the importance of taking the time to understand and support your people—both as a marketing leader, and as a human being.
Nurturing workplace cultures built on appreciation and open communication is another way advertising leaders can prevent burnout among their staff. According to Gallup, employee appreciation boosts productivity and engagement, but many employers don’t offer it frequently enough. This is likely especially true in the agency world, where long hours and tight timelines make it easy for employee recognition to fall by the wayside.
Additionally, a recent survey found that nearly 90% of agency professionals feel that most people outside of the industry fail to appreciate the role that advertising plays in supporting the modern internet. This lack of external recognition, combined with internal pressures to continuously deliver for clients, can exacerbate employees’ feelings of being undervalued and unheard. Over time, this can lead to increased stress, decreased engagement, and burnout. And if workers are left to navigate these feelings on their own, burnout can quickly give way to larger challenges, such as low employee engagement and high team turnover.
To improve employee appreciation in their workplaces, advertising leaders should ensure they regularly acknowledge individual and team success, as well as create systems to recognize and celebrate particularly outstanding work. To support open communication, leaders can create channels for employees to give feedback and voice their concerns, as well as ensure all employees have the chance to participate in regular one-on-one meetings with a manager to check in on overall wellbeing and workload. For younger employees, setting up mentorship programs can be a particularly impactful way to reduce burnout and increase engagement.
Overall, by taking these proactive steps around appreciation and communication, leaders can reduce the causes of burnout and ensure their teams are able to recognize and mitigate the symptoms of burnout early on.
Beyond the care and consideration that can help foster a healthier workplace environment, employers can help prevent burnout by providing their staffers with the tools and resources they need to do their jobs efficiently, effectively, and satisfyingly.
In digital advertising specifically, there is ample room for improvement to the tech stack status quo. For agency teams, the campaign process can be a tedious, mind-numbing, time-consuming slog. Part of that comes from the complex and fragmented nature of media buying: More than half of agency professionals currently rely on six or more tools as part of their adtech/martech stack, with 17% juggling 10+ tools to manage their clients’ campaigns. To put that in perspective: On the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, astronauts piloted the semi-autonomous rocket to the International Space Station using just three large touchscreen panels. And as valuable as the work we do is, digital advertising shouldn’t be harder than flying a rocket to a floating laboratory in the middle of space.
However, there is one key thing that the future of digital advertising and the future of space travel have in common: leveraging innovation to empower users. By embracing the possibilities afforded by advertising automation and AI, marketers can tap into new efficiencies that both save time and money, and can create a more employee-friendly job experience.
Automated functionality like inventory forecasting, bid multipliers, algorithmic pacing, machine learning optimization, group budget optimization, bid shading, automated billing, and automated dashboard reporting can combine with convenience features like trend benchmarking, inventory forecasting, inventory directories, in-platform communications, and unified reporting to create a simpler and more enjoyable job experience for media buyers. Additionally, AI tools can help streamline workflows, reduce inefficiencies, and give employees more time to focus on high-level, creative, and meaningful work. Given that agency leaders and employees alike feel that inefficient processes are the biggest challenge facing their teams today, taking the time to test and implement innovative solutions that reduce inefficiency can help reduce employee burnout. Investing in the right tech can be daunting, but investing in the right tech can make for a more rewarding workplace (and, incidentally, a more profitable one).
Burnout is a beast, and the digital advertising industry is far from immune to its wrath. The campaign process is in-depth, complex, and relentless, and today’s marketers are asked to deliver more ROI despite spending large chunks of their weeks on small, repetitive tasks. Add in external economic pressures and top it off with global instability, and you’ve got yourself a workforce that’s often burning the candle from both ends under what feels like a rocket booster.
By leading with empathy, fostering appreciation and open communication, and empowering teams with the right tools, agency leaders can help protect their employees and prevent burnout from setting in. And who wouldn’t want to work somewhere with a promise like that?
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Want to know more about the state of advertising agencies today? In our 2024 Advertising Agency Report we share insights from industry professionals, exploring how they feel about their jobs, their agencies, and evolving challenges and opportunities shaping the industry.
It seems like the holiday season starts earlier every year. This is especially true for advertisers looking to connect with holiday shoppers, given that consumers are shopping earlier and earlier—in fact, 16% of US holiday shoppers have already begun!
Though many of the same themes and trends that shaped last year’s holiday season—such as earlier shopping and price-conscious consumers—will hold true in 2024, there are new factors that will shape the landscape as well. In particular, political advertising for the US presidential election will drive ad inventory prices up and heighten brand safety challenges, adding some additional complexity for marketers working on holiday campaigns.
Considering all of the above, proactive and intentional planning now will help advertising teams to foster meaningful connections with audiences and drive revenue for their teams and clients.
After modest growth in 2022, total US holiday retail sales showed similarly slow but solid growth last year. This is largely due to prolonged economic uncertainty and consequently tighter consumer budgets, as well as a shift in discretionary spending towards services and experiences rather than retail. This year, retail holiday season sales are projected to grow by 4.8%, a sign that growth rates are falling back to earth after outsized pandemic and post-pandemic leaps in 2020 and 2021.
And just how many people will be (or are already) shopping for the holidays? 2024 research from a GWI x Basis ImpactIQ Research Panel found that 95% of all US adults participated in the holidays in 2023, and that nearly all adults are set to celebrate at least one holiday in 2024. Among those who celebrate, 77% say they plan to buy gifts for others this year. And though most shoppers say they plan to spend either the same or a bit more this holiday season, 54% say they feel financially burdened.
As such, while the 2024 holiday season represents a significant opportunity to connect with most US adults, budget adherence and financial planning will be top of mind for many of them. For advertising teams, highlighting discounts, promotions, and budget-friendly options will help ensure that target audiences feel confident in their purchases while staying true to their planned budgets.
With the supply chain issues and economic instability that have marked the past few years still fresh in their minds, 2024 holiday shoppers are concerned about stock shortages, raised prices, and delayed shipping during the holidays, according to the GWI x Basis ImpactIQ Research Panel. As a result, they’ll shop earlier, with the holiday season effectively starting pre-September and lasting all of Q4. In fact, one in two holiday shoppers plan to begin their shopping before Halloween this year. Spooky, right?
Launching holiday campaigns early and incorporating messaging around efficiency and preparedness can cater to shoppers’ desires to avoid delays and out-of-stock items. By promoting early deals and the benefits of shopping ahead, teams can capture the attention of proactive shoppers, boosting early sales. The big takeaway? When it comes to holiday campaign planning, the time to act is now.
Every four years, the peak of holiday shopping happens to coincide with the US presidential election, as is the case in 2024. Although they operate outside the political sphere, marketers working on holiday campaigns must understand how political advertising for this year’s election cycle will impact the broader marketing landscape in order to plan effectively for their holiday campaigns.
This year, political ad spend is projected to reach between $10.2 billion and $12 billion, representing a potential increase of between 13% and 30% from the prior presidential election cycle. And, political ad spend data from Basis platform in 2022 and 2020 demonstrates that about 50% of the year’s political spending happens in the 30 days leading up to the election. Considering that this time period coincides with the holiday shopping season, and that Black Friday and Cyber Monday will happen just weeks after the election, advertising teams should anticipate CPMs to be exceptionally high during this time.
And what of election advertising’s potential impact on brand perception? Given how divisive political content and ads can be, the election season presents heightened brand safety risks, including the potential for ads to appear next to negative political content or alongside political disinformation or misinformation. Marketers working on holiday campaigns will need to up their placement control, especially in the month leading up to Election Day, to ensure their ads are shown in premium, non-divisive environments. To accomplish this, marketing teams can leverage allow lists and block lists, invest in premium content via programmatic guaranteed and PMPs, and may choose to avoid social platforms where divisive political conversations are likely to run rampant, such as X. Given the negative sentiments that often accompany political ads, teams working on holiday campaigns this year will be well-served to craft a strong brand safety plan now to avoid problems as Election Day draws near.
During the 2023 shopping season, the top sources for winter holiday purchase inspiration were suggestions from family and friends, online searches, and social media, according to the GWI x Basis ImpactIQ Research Panel. In 2024, 44% of shoppers feel that online tools, including AI tools, will be essential for them when getting organized for the winter holidays. The takeaway for marketers? Technology is playing an increasingly vital role in enhancing the shopping experience.
Given that many shoppers rely heavily on online resources and digital channels to get inspired and organized for the holiday season, omnichannel marketing with a focus on digital channels offers a prime opportunity to reach consumers in ways that complement their buying journeys. To that end, here are a few things to keep in mind:
With third-party cookie deprecation on the horizon (though, admittedly, further on said horizon than it was earlier this year), teams that proactively plan to capture, organize, and leverage customer first-party data this holiday season will set their campaigns up for success—and prevent scrambling when the 2025 holiday season rolls around.
By getting data collection and storage processes organized now, teams can avoid having to fix problems later, freeing up time and resources to make the most of the data they have collected. This might include optimizing a brand’s website for data intake, as well as ensuring a brand has effective systems and technology for standardizing, organizing, and storing that data.
This is also a great opportunity to leverage loyalty programs, newsletters, and other opt-in programs to collect customer data to create personalized advertising experiences. It’s a win-win for advertising teams and consumers, as it allows teams to deliver impactful campaigns and shoppers to save on their holiday expenditures.
Once advertisers are set up with efficient systems for collecting first-party data, they can find privacy-friendly and regulation-compliant ways to leverage it for personalized marketing. For example, advertisers can create targetable audiences with a CRM or CDP to sharpen their focus and to make their creative more relevant and effective. Advertisers can also take advantage of new AI-driven personalization and content generation tools—technologies that 72% of US digital retailers believe will significantly impact their businesses this year—to create personalized ads and shopping recommendations.
Though holiday celebrations may seem distant, the reality is that consumers are starting their shopping earlier and earlier. Deliberate planning now can help brand and agency leaders prepare their teams to adapt to consumers’ spending behaviors and preferences, cater to their budgetary concerns, adapt to the added complexity of the upcoming election, and craft winning campaigns that resonate with audiences and drive sales. And, by improving their systems for collecting and leveraging first-party data, leaders can ensure their teams are set up for success in 2024—and beyond.
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Looking for more insights on how to make the most of the 2024 holiday advertising opportunity? In our new research report, we explore insights from a GWI x Basis ImpactIQ panel of 2,000 US consumers and unpack the key trends that will define holiday shopping this year.
The question of how to of build and maintain trust between agencies and their clients has been a topic of discussion for decades. Yet the strained alliance between agencies and brands seems to have grown even more tenuous of late, with nearly half of marketers saying their agency’s client relationships are more strained today than they were two years ago.
Considering the numerous challenges facing agencies today—from rising rates from media partners, reduced client budgets, and subsequently shrinking margins, to signal loss, to the talent crisis, to an increasingly fragmented media landscape—it’s not all that surprising to see these strains impacting relationships with clients.
“An agency CEO summed up the gravity of the situation for me recently,” says Michael Olson, EVP of Client Development at Basis Technologies. “He said, ‘The business of agencies right now is staying in business.’”
In the face of these myriad factors contributing to the strained relations between agencies and their clients, agency leaders should adopt practices to build trust with their clients—a worthy priority, given the impact trust has on the quality of agency/client relationships and on generating new business, with more than three-quarters of marketers finding their agencies through word of mouth.
To foster more trusting, fruitful, and longstanding partnerships with their clients, agencies must invest in developing and nurturing their client relationships, providing transparency whenever possible, and working to reduce siloes amongst their team.
In 2023, a whopping 55% of brands said that they were likely to end their relationship with their primary marketing agency in the next six months. In this fraught and competitive landscape, agencies must earn their clients’ trust by finding ways to invest in those relationships beyond the scope of work itself.
“Clients need their agency partners to deeply care about their businesses and fully understand how they operate,” says Kelly Boyle, Group VP of Client Strategy and Insights at Basis Technologies. To do so, agencies should allocate time for staying up to date on what’s happening with their clients’ businesses—for instance, reading their earnings reports and press releases—as well as keeping tabs on their clients’ competitors, so they can bring a heightened level of fluency and insight to their interactions. “Even something as small as knowing and using your client’s internal lingo can serve as a meaningful signal that you understand and are invested in their business,” says Boyle.
Like any relationship, communication is key: When asked in a 2023 survey how agencies can become better partners, the most common answer from brands was “communicate effectively.” To improve communication, agencies leaders might opt to set up regular, high-level leadership check-ins with their clients to touch base on the overall partnership. This gives leaders a chance to ask their clients how the partnership is faring from their point of view and whether the agency is meeting the clients’ needs, allowing them to better address any misalignments or areas of growth. This kind of regular, open communication creates an opportunity for clients to share high-level feedback, and it gives the agency the chance to respond and adjust accordingly—before the client opts to end the partnership. It also creates a prime opportunity to realign on clients’ needs and goals. “When there’s a breakdown in communication on desired outcomes and needs between an agency and their client,” says Olson, “that relationship is likely going to break.”
Overall, a little goes a long way in terms of nurturing client relationships. By finding small ways to go the extra mile in terms of understanding their clients’ businesses and fostering intentional communication, agencies can make significant headway towards building long-lasting trust with their clients.
The many challenges facing agencies today have resulted in reduced transparency, which can weigh down agency-client relationships. A lack of fee transparency, for example, is a rising point of contention that (while often viewed as “necessary” by agencies facing intense financial pressures and shrinking profit margins) can erode trust with clients.
Boyle points to overselling and underbidding as another common practice by agencies looking to win new business. Unfortunately, overselling when trying to lock in new business leads to a host of other issues that work to undermine client satisfaction, as agency workers must try to deliver on what was promised at a reduced rate, which can lead to understaffed accounts and employee burnout. This is likely a contributing factor for brand marketers who rank “dissatisfaction with value” as the number one reason they end agency relationships. Overselling can also create a breakdown in trust, as clients feel that agencies weren’t transparent about their capacity during the pitching process.
While financial pressures may drive agencies to be less transparent than their clients would prefer, agency leaders must find ways to meet brands’ expectations. For example, to reduce the negative impacts of overselling, agency leaders may look to foster more alignment between their teams who pitch clients and those who eventually serve those clients, which can ensure that pitches are as clear, honest, and genuine as possible.
Being transparent about your team’s limits is another way to set realistic expectations and develop stronger relationships. While agency leaders might fear that saying “no” to a request undermines their value, being honest about limits can actually serve to build trust. “Agencies want to say yes all the time to please their clients,” says Olson. “But when an agency says yes to something and then fails, that’s another strike against them for the client. My recommendation is to own what you do well, and don’t shy away from saying no to things that your team can’t deliver on.”
By demonstrating that they understand their clients’ need for transparency and that they are taking measures to meet that need, agency leaders can get in front of this common point of contention and foster more trusting partnerships.
Media complexity and fragmentation in the marketing landscape have led to agencies working with an increasing number of siloed data sets. More than half of agency workers’ tech stacks consist of six or more tools, which is likely why about 20% of agency leaders plan to increase their investment in data management tools within the next year.
When data sources are siloed, agencies lack a single source of truth—a disconnection which can lead to clients hearing different things from different people in the same agency, which serves to undermine trust. Data siloes also reduce data accuracy and can result in faulty data analysis.
Even more, data siloes bog agencies down with manual data consolidation, standardization, and verification tasks, which limit their speed and agility. As such, the lack of data consolidation at agencies is a contributing factor to why only 31% of marketers on the client side are satisfied with the speed and agility their agency partners bring to the table, despite 92% of those same marketers feeling that speed and agility are important. “Once everyone from account services to billing to media operations can operate off a clean data set, everything moves incredibly fast,” says Olson.
Investing in systems and tools that automate data consolidation has a host of benefits that strengthen agency-client relationships, even beyond building trust and increasing speed and agility. For example, the ability to access a single source of truth via unified data sets supports better marketing personalization for consumers and better satisfaction for agency employees, as it reduces the laborious manual data consolidation in which many agency workers get bogged down. It also gives agency workers more time to focus on strategic and creative tasks, which improves the quality of their work (and which tend to be far more satisfying than hunkering down with some spreadsheets.) All in all, because of the many ways it allows agencies to better serve their clients, reducing data siloes is one of the most impactful actions agency leaders can take to strengthen their client relationships.
At their core, long-lasting and fulfilling agency-client relationships are built on a solid foundation of trust. As agency leaders navigate the many challenges facing their businesses today, focusing on improving client trust via nurturing client relationships, offering transparency, and reducing data siloes will be critical for not only staying in business, but gaining a competitive advantage.
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Want to find out how agency leaders across the US feel about the challenges and opportunities that are shaping their futures? Check out our 2024 Advertising Agency Report to get all the top takeaways from our survey of agency professionals.
If it seems like everyone around you has been getting the adventure itch lately, they’re in good company: More than 90% of Americans are planning to take a trip in 2024, with 50% intending to travel more this year than they did last year.
While concerns over inflation linger, with 54% of Americans reporting that the economy is impacting their travel plans, more than half still have ranked travel as a budget priority for 2024. And with "relaxing and recharging” ranking as the number one reason Americans want to travel this year, it seems that a good portion of consumers value the opportunity to unwind enough to feel that travel is worth the splurge, despite inflationary concerns.
Airlines, hotels, and other travel businesses looking to connect with these budget-conscious, relaxation-seeking consumers face new and unique challenges, from shifting consumer habits to rapidly evolving technologies. To set their teams up for success and make the most of the opportunities available to them in 2024, marketing leaders will need to understand these challenges and implement fresh strategies to address them proactively.
Inflation has been a constant thorn in consumers’ and marketers’ sides in recent years, with consumer price inflation increasing by a whopping 19.32% between January 2020 and April 2024. Many consumers are adjusting accordingly and have begun dedicating more of their budgets to travel: Where only 24% of Americans planned to set aside $4,000+ for travel in 2023, that number has risen to 52% in 2024.
Still, price is still top of mind for many consumers—15% have cancelled or postponed a trip in 2024 due to the cost of travel—and travel marketers would do well to factor that into their advertising messaging, emphasizing discounts, low rates and bundles while highlighting value for price-conscious consumers.
Loyalty programs should also be front-and center, as 50% of US consumers in 2023 were airline travel rewards members, and 49% were hotel travel rewards members, according to a panel done by Basis Technologies in partnership with GWI. By crafting ads that highlight value and low rates, travel marketers can speak directly to the factors that are most relevant to consumers.
The initial years of the pandemic brought about many shifts in consumer behavior that are still with us today, including (but certainly not limited to): An explosion of remote work, a renewed focus on health and sustainability, increased digital engagement, and a heightened sense of budget-consciousness. All these factors are now driving new audience segments and travel trends.
For example, the rising number of people who now work from home has helped spur the formation of a new audience segment: “bleisure travelers,” or people who travel for a combination of business and leisure. At the same time, solo travel has increased by 42% among US consumers since before the COVID-19 pandemic, according Basis/GWI research. And, surprise trips are gaining ground amongst US consumers this year, with 52% of travelers interested in taking a vacation where the location and all the accompanying details are a surprise until departure.
Each of these audiences display unique characteristics and behaviors that advertisers can use to connect with them more effectively, and travel marketers who want to reach them should adjust their tactics accordingly. This could be by leveraging a customer relationship management (CRM) platform to collect, organize, and research customer data; using machine learning technology to analyze first-party data and identify patterns, trends, and other insights; or investing in a researcher (or team of researchers) to organize and dig into existing data so it can be used effectively. Regardless of which method(s) they use, advertisers must consider the unique wants and needs of these new and emerging groups and adapt their campaigns to meet those needs.
Which leads us to our next challenge…
While personalization in digital marketing has become a must-have for all industries, it’s particularly impactful for travel and tourism brands. In fact, 86% of travelers say they’re looking for personalization during their travel experiences and interactions. And personalization isn’t just a trend on the marketing side—businesses are leaning into it to improve product and service experiences as well.
Delta Airlines, for instance, uses personalization technology to deliver personalized in-flight entertainment, onboard amenities, and more to customers. Hilton also leverages customer data—specifically, data obtained through their Hilton Honors loyalty program—to provide a more intimate and individualized customer experience.
Marketers should personalize the experiences they curate for consumers to complement personalization on the product and services side. For example, a hotel brand might craft one variation of ad creative that emphasizes amenities that would appeal to families, and another that’s geared toward solo travelers. Or, a tourism company that offers immersive local experiences might target audiences 21+ with creative that features alcoholic beverages.
Capturing audience information and leveraging it, however, are two different things entirely. Marketing teams need systems to both collect this data and connect it to their CRM platforms to create personalized advertising experiences. The challenge? Many marketing teams today use a variety of point solutions to navigate the complexity of the digital media landscape. And, as a result, many travel marketing teams struggle with poor data quality and a lack of data consolidation.
There are a variety of ways to address this, from upping your team’s number of data analysts to investing in tech like customer data platforms (CDPs) and universal reporting systems. Marketing teams with robust and secure systems for gathering, storing, and making the most of customer data will be well-positioned to create meaningful and personalized campaigns—especially looking ahead to the cookieless future.
While it might be tempting to imagine that Google will continue to delay the loss of third-party cookies in Chrome in perpetuity, the cookiepocalypse will inevitably arrive, and it will do so in the not-too-distant future. According to Google’s latest announcement, the tech giant’s current goal is to begin cookie deprecation in early 2025. If all goes according to plan (which, granted, is a pretty big “if”), that means travel brands and agencies only have about six months to get their ducks in a row before losing the targeting and attribution enabled by third-party cookies. As such, it’s critical that travel brands and agencies proactively strengthen their team members’ fluency with cookieless targeting and attribution this year in order to set their businesses up for success once third-party cookies are gone for good.
In terms of cookieless advertising solutions, activating first-party data should be a top priority, as most travel brands have the ability to collect large amounts of first-party data from customers and prospective customers through their interactions on brands’ websites and social media pages. However, that data is often siloed across many different third-party vendors, preventing advertisers from leveraging it to its full extent. As such, travel brands must adopt systems like CDPs—which can collect first-party data from many different sources, process and standardize it, and perform real-time segmentation for targeting—to unify their first-party data and use it for cookieless targeting and attribution. CDPs can also empower advertisers to map out their consumers’ buying journeys to assist with attribution.
Contextual advertising will also be an essential targeting solution for travel advertisers in a cookieless world. Given that the majority of US consumers use digital resources to research their trip accommodations before booking, there’s a big opportunity for travel brands of all kinds to connect with consumers in ideal moments as they plan their vacations.
To better connect with their target audiences throughout their customer journey, travel marketers need to keep a pulse on shifts in consumer behavior. By first identifying key shifts in consumer behavior, travel brands can ensure that audiences are seeing the right messages at the right time.
What might this look like in practice? Well, a brand who wants to earn solo travelers’ dollars might focus on streaming video ads to build awareness of their products and services, since these travelers often watch online videos to occupy their down time on their solo travels. Teams could then retarget these prospective travelers via paid search or native ads as they move from awareness towards consideration and purchasing.
Or, a travel agency working with a brand that wants to reach road trippers might focus on connected TV (CTV) and other digital video channels during early stages of the customer journey, as well as roadside digital out-of-home (DOOH) billboards, since these travelers watch a lot of online videos and spend a significant amount of time on the road. With retargeting, advertising teams can then place additional, personalized ads across digital channels like audio (for the drivers listening to their favorite music and podcasts) and social media (for the passengers posting photo dumps of their travels) to move these customers further down the funnel. By both leaning into current consumer trends and thinking holistically about their path to purchase, travel brands can make meaningful connections with travelers throughout their individual journeys.
For travel marketers to ensure great experiences for their target audiences and consumers, it’s critical that they embrace the latest technological innovations. And the last couple of years have seen particularly rapid advances in this area, as generative AI has become more popular with consumers and advertisers alike.
First and foremost, travel companies need to ensure their customer-facing technology ensures a great experience, as consumers’ path to purchase is increasingly digital. As noted previously, most US consumers use digital resources to research their trip accommodations before booking, with more and more younger consumers in particular using generative AI tools to assist in their travel planning. And consumers are increasingly reserving their travel digitally, which is driving a growth in digital sales. Data from Vivvix and Pathmatics show that the travel brands who spend the most on advertising are also the top digital advertising spenders, indicating that top brands are tailoring their strategies in response to the rising preference for digital.
For brands, perfecting a digital presence will help with both garnering new customers and retaining existing ones. At the very least, a brand’s digital presence must ensure a good customer experience: When prospective customers see an ad for a company but encounter overly-complex or faulty tech when they click on it (i.e., their click brings them to a “page not found” error on the company’s website or to a hard-to-navigate app), that experience can have negative impacts on conversions, not to mention customer loyalty.
Additionally, travel marketers should take advantage of newer technology-driven tactics to maintain a competitive edge. One prominent example of a technology-enabled tactic that travel advertisers can embrace is dynamic pricing. Advertisers working for airlines and hotels can use factors such as time of year, day of the week, and corporate versus leisure travelers to estimate the right price point to drive conversions. Using technology backed by artificial intelligence, it’s possible to make these adjustments based on daily changes in market demand. Some pricing engines have the power to update fares as often as every 15 seconds, and businesses are starting to see the huge difference this makes in bookings.
Though this new technology-driven strategy can result in significant benefits for travel advertisers, it can also present distinct challenges. To use dynamic pricing requires much more than just investing in the tech: Marketing teams must also rework their data management processes, including integrating CRM and revenue analytics. This can be made even more difficult if customer data is messy or has not been consolidated to a single interface—another reason why it’s so important for travel and tourism advertisers to prioritize data quality and tech stack consolidation.
More and more travelers are looking for environmentally sustainable travel options, with 80% of travelers worldwide agreeing that sustainable travel is important. And while it’s true that marketing teams may not have much say in their company’s larger sustainability initiatives, there are ways they can prioritize the environment through their advertising practices.
First and foremost, marketing teams should avoid greenwashing at all costs. Making sustainability claims that a brand can’t back up is inauthentic and diminishes consumer trust. And, these damages often extend beyond tarnishing a brand’s reputation: Making false or misleading claims can negatively impact customers’ experiences with the products or services they provide.
Additionally, there are strategies that digital advertising teams can use to help minimize their carbon footprint. One such strategy is to prioritize capturing audience attention over serving as many impressions as possible—especially since anywhere from 30% to 40% of online ads are “not ultimately viewed by consumers.” Another is by streamlining internal processes to reduce the amount of computing power needed for a typical campaign workflow. Rather than using many point solutions, consolidating to a single, automated platform for every step of the campaign can help advertising teams further minimize their environmental impact.
By leaning into sustainability, even in ways that may not be immediately apparent to consumers, travel and tourism brands can back up authentic statements about their commitment to the environment—and in doing so, match their consumers’ values.
All in all, one of the most important factors in marketing teams’ success this year will be how well they understand their consumers’ behaviors, values, and expectations.
To meet the needs of these travelers, marketing teams must be flexible and intentional, consider the entire customer journey, lean into personalization, emphasize their value in an authentic way, and adapt to innovations in technology. It’s a lot to consider, but hey—so is making all the arrangements for a memorable getaway!
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Agency marketers working in the travel industry are adapting not only to shifting consumer behavior, but also to massive changes taking place in the advertising industry and in the agency world specifically. Curious as to how your agency peers feel about their jobs, their agencies, their industry, and the challenges and opportunities that are shaping their futures? Check out our 2024 Advertising Agency Report to find out.