2018 has been all about AI and its progression into mainstream. The impact of AI in shaping daily living; in the form of smart home devices like Alexa and Google Home, is just the surface layer of what we see developing in the digital advertising arena. With so many advertisers now beginning to understand that data is key, the success of AI in delivering true value, in my view, will require the right combination of human, data and market intelligence.   Brands willing to invest in talent, data, and technology will gain significant advantage in 2019.
Over the last 12 months, European agencies and brands have continued to assess the effectiveness of their digital measurement method and have begun embracing the migration from traditional KPI’s such as CTR’s to outcome driven KPI’s powered by AI. Eighty two percent of Senior Digital Marketers across Europe are looking to increase their investment in outcome-driven media over then next two years, according to our recent Outcome Media survey (see below for full results). This ‘outcome-driven media’ focus is all about planning and optimizing campaigns against KPIs – often tailor-made – that align to a client’s ultimate marketing and business objectives
If I were to jump on the 2019 prediction bandwagon, I predict it will be all about innovation, specifically in media channels that have yet to fully embrace digital as an enhanced route to consumers.
The IAB estimates radio and digital audio advertising to triple in the next year.   With large and growing audiences and a mobile focused environment, digital audio offers advertisers a unique opportunity to reach a consumer when screens are not in use (commuting, working, exercising etc) with an impactful personalised message.

 “It's a great media format because literally you get inside someone's head”  - Terence Kawaja, Founder & CEO, Luma Partners.

Video will continue to present even more opportunities. Short video messages between six and 15 seconds are playing an increasingly important role in marketing, especially when advertisers leverage omnichannel strategies. They help increase brand lift, recall, and intent to purchase. In a study by Facebook, six-second ads delivered an 11% increase in estimated ad recall, a 12% increase in return on ad spend, and a 271% increase in video completion rate over 30-second ads.
Influencer marketing is also ripe for liftoff...over 60% of respondents in a recent survey have taken a blog reviews or social media posts, viewed on a device, into consideration while shopping in-store. If brands can ask themselves what outcome they are hoping to obtain, they will find a range of innovative solutions available for the taking.

“A year from now, you’ll wish you had started today”- Karen Lamb (author)

2019 will be about innovation, automation and AI powered technology, resulting in better customer experiences.  Those who look to stay ahead of the curve and embrace the opportunities will yield the best outcomes. Change is the only constant and 2019 has some big changes ahead.

Xaxis recently completed a research project. Working alongside the IAB, we surveyed business leaders in marketing and advertising to find out what they thought of artificial intelligence (AI).
The results are encouraging. They show an industry that appreciates the importance and the challenge of AI. You can download the report here.
But I’d like to take a short break from talking about AI — or just about AI — and turn instead to human intelligence.  Most respondents to our survey said they were ‘somewhat confident’ in their understanding of AI.
But only 16% of advertisers and 15% of those who worked in agencies said they were ‘very confident’. Just 21% of advertisers and 33% of agencies say they’re using AI to drive growth, which is surely the point of almost everything we do in business. And that matters.

From data, to insights, to outcomes

The advertising industry needs AI. There is no way we can make use of the volume of media inventory or the amount of data available to us without it. With AI, we can identify audience segments, build scaled lookalike audiences based on those segments, then deliver tailored content which we optimise and personalise dynamically while the campaign is running.
It’s exciting. This is a great time to work in advertising. But our industry’s conversation is so focussed on artificial intelligence that we run the risk of neglecting something just as important: human intelligence.
To extract value from data, you need to turn it actionable information; something a business can use to achieve a measurable and positive outcome, whether that’s a rise in online conversion rates, driving footfall to stores, or something else. That’s what we do at Xaxis.
Where’s the talent and why should we care?
For that to happen, you need not just AI but also humans with the right skills, knowledge and experience. At the moment, that mainly means data scientists and analysts as well as planners and creatives comfortable working with data. As an industry, we just can’t get enough of these people — literally.
According to research by IBM, US market demand for data scientists is set to rise by 28% between now and 2020. Unless the supply of qualified candidates is increased, roles will go unfilled. The situation is much the same in Europe. A study by the EU Commission estimates that the continent needs to find 346,000 more data scientists by 2020 if vacancies are not to go unfilled.
In such an environment, brands and agencies will undoubtedly find it hard to track down, recruit and retain the data-talent they need to get the most out of their investments in AI.

What we need to do 

According to a recent report by a London recruitment agency, entry-level data roles are scarce. 45% of the job listings analysed in the study asked for post-graduate degrees and 64% specified previous work experience in data analysis as a requirement.
The same report found that 93% of data jobs offered a salary that was above the UK median — on average, more than double it. If positions are going unfilled now, even at a salary almost twice the national average, what’s it going to be like in a few years when the number of data- AI-related roles has exploded?
There are two logical responses to this skills gap. The first is for advertisers and agencies to find themselves a partner who can provide access to the necessary data expertise.
Skill clusters are a well-known phenomenon in areas such as engineering and software development. They also operate in AI and data-based industries such as programmatic advertising. Find the right adtech partner, and you’ll have access to just such a cluster, giving you the expertise you need to bridge the skills gap.
The second response is a collective one. We need to change the way we think about the talent pipeline, about who would make a good data-scientist or analyst, and about what qualifications and experience we need. If we don’t, in a few years’ time we’ll find ourselves competing with investment banks, software developers and even the space industry for talent that gets more expensive and harder to find all the time.
So, as well as talking about the AI-revolution — which we cover in this report and which we should all be excited by — let’s also start talking about the human intelligence we need to work alongside AI: where we can find enough of it, how we can recruit it into advertising, and how we can retain it.
To find out more about the challenges the AI revolution is going to throw up for advertisers and the ad industry, download our report. It’s free.

The complexity in digital advertising today can be blamed for everything from a lack of transparency to unwarranted cost elevation and malicious fraud.
The challenges are most evident in programmatic advertising, which eMarketer predicts will capture more than 83% of U.S. digital display spending this year. There are so many players handling individual pieces of the programmatic supply chain that some are inevitably “bad ones who destroy value," in the words of IAB President and CEO Randall Rothenberg.
Siloed buying and media management have added further complexity and cost, making it harder to prove the efforts are working towards a coordinated outcome that serves an advertiser's overarching business strategy.
The programmatic specialist, the addressable TV buyer, and the experts in so-called walled garden platforms may work in tandem, but with divergent KPIs.
Add in the further complexity of myriad premium publishers in multiple geographies with varied requirements, languages, and standards and it's no wonder eMarketer also notes a slowdown in the rate of growth in programmatic.
How Simplicity Will Add to Growth
It's time for that to change. The agencies, platforms, partners like Xaxis who serve marketers need to be experts in handling advertising technologies in order to drive results that serve clients' business strategies.
We can stop using complex and obfuscating jargon — brand vs. performance, micro-DSP vs. DMP and SSP, cost-per-click vs. engagement scores, mass buys vs. incremental reach — and start speaking the language of business.
We are not delivering programmatic, nor technologies, nor marketing KPIs. We are making them work in concert to serve the clients' needs and deliver business outcomes. Clients should be charged based on those outcomes, not incremental media spend.
Instead of becoming a line on a media plan, we need to understand clients' needs and propose solutions. We need to deliver real results that serve the larger goals, encompassing the most efficient forms of messaging in the most effective ways possible across every platform and every screen.
By focusing on business outcomes, we simplify what we are offering to clients. We remove barriers to understanding and add clarity. We are not offering marketing KPIs nor technological lingo or steps along the advertising supply chain. We are offering simple value that any executive can understand. We are offering ROI.

John Wittesaele, President EMEA

EMEA President, John Wittesaele leads Xaxis across 25 markets. With a strong focus on client-centricity, he formulates strategy and oversees operations to deliver growth and provide the best programmatic media solutions across the region.