While the trends of yesteryear won’t suddenly disappear in the new year, there is a slew of new ones on the horizon. Marketing, and particularly digital advertising, is in a constant state of flux thanks to advances in technology, consumer preferences and new legislature (hello POPI Act!).

media update’s Aisling McCarthy explores four trends that will shape the digital advertising landscape in 2019.

Here they are:

1. Prepare for voice search

Voice-enabled search has been slowly picking up steam over the last few years, and various studies have predicted that it will be the next big thing in marketing.

Marketers need to understand what their audience’s communication preferences are, and then use that knowledge when creating content.

Voice searches tend to be longer than their textual counterparts. For example, when searching for nearby Italian restaurants, the search may appear as follows:

  • Text: Italian restaurants near me
  • Voice: Hey Alexa/Siri/Google, what Italian restaurants are near me?

Keep this in mind when putting together your 2019 marketing strategies. Currently, digital advertising content relies on SEO phrases and keywords that target written search queries. However, voice search require its own kind of SEO keywords that link to the kind of language people use to find what they’re looking for.

In 2019, marketers need to prepare their content by matching the tone, grammar and vocabulary of everyday spoken language in order to be easily discoverable via voice search.

Want to know exactly how to adapt your marketing content for voice-search? Try using long-tail keywords and phrases in your SEO instead of abstract words. Also, try to anticipate the questions that consumers would search to find you – and then create your content in the form of an answer to that question.

2. AI-powered everything

Over the past few years, AI-powered technology has become more and more mainstream. It has boundless applications and can be used in numerous industries – and marketing is no exception.

So what will AI bring to the world of advertising? Marketing has become more data-driven, which means that the demand for data-processing systems is increasing. Enter, AI.

From chatbots to appointment scheduling, AI will continue to assist brands in various ways – many of which we cannot even imagine yet.

In advertising, specifically, AI will be used to improve efficiency and take customer-centric advertising to a whole new level. Marketers of the future will learn to rely on AI systems to enhance trend analysis, better customer profiling and develop personalised strategies.

Purpose-built systems that can process vast amounts of information and act on the results can ensure that marketers have more time for doing human tasks and less time dealing with data.

3. Video, video and more video

Video content continues to skyrocket in popularity – especially thanks to platforms like YouTube, Netflix and Twitch. Subsequently, video advertising has quickly followed suit, with adverts running before, after, and even in the middle of, videos hosted on these services.

As consumers have become more sceptical of advertising, marketers have had to focus their efforts on native advertising and content marketing. So instead of creating a video intent on promoting a product or service, advertisers began to blur the line between advertising and regular video content.

To get the most of out this kind of advertising, marketers can work more with content creators and influencers, optimise their content for mobile viewing and integrate shareable video content into websites and social pages for maximum exposure.

Experts have predicted that video will account for around 80% of all Internet traffic by the end of 2019. Scary stuff!

4. AR in multimedia advertising

Brands are already experimenting with augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) as ways to engage with their users. Think high-quality, immersive storytelling and a way to connect potential customers with your products and services. Plus, it offers users a unique and interesting shopping experience.

Imagine browsing through a couch catalogue and being able to view exactly what each one would look like in your living room before making your purchase. With AR, that is easily possible.

American retail store Ikea is at the forefront of the AR and VR adoption with an app called Ikea Place as well as a VR store. The app lets users choose from over 2 000 pieces of furniture and really see what it looks like in their homes before buying. How cool?

While AR technology is still in its infancy, it shows a lot of promise for the future. The ability to add digital properties to physical objects is a game-changer for industries like marketing, which thrive on multi-channel interaction with consumers.

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With these trends in mind, you can start putting together your 2019 marketing content. But how do you know if it should be long-form or short-form? Check out these Five steps to choosing the right one.