Looking into the future is never an easy thing to do. The past is littered with individuals you have made bold predictions, only to fizzle out. Where are the flying cars? What about hover boards? We’re talking about real hover boards – the kind from Back to the Future.

These aren’t going to be bold predictions of entirely new technologies, but it will take a look at trends that exist today, and how we can expect that to continue in the future.

Virtual Reality

This is relatively new. Now that the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive have hit the market, we’re getting our first real look at this tech in consumer’s hands. There is a long way to go between now and when this technology is mature, but the lifecycle will be quick. Remember, the iPhone was introduced in 2007. Only 5 years later, half of America, and two-thirds of people aged 18-44 had a smartphone in 2012. Technology moves quickly.

It’s hard to say how this tech will be applied to digital marketing. The biggest application in the world of VR continues to be gaming experiences. It’s unlikely we’ll see many digital advertising opportunities in gaming, beyond the usual product placement. Gamers have generally rejected it. If VR translates to watching videos, and somehow browsing the web, it could be a major factor.

Mostly, digital marketing with VR will likely be like be all about the content. If an advertiser can create great content and experiences for VR, it’s probably their best shot at capturing this audience.

Ad Blockers

They’re only going to get more prolific over the next half decade, so advertisers need to get used to it. The good news is that the technology blocks the most annoying form of digital ads: the web banner. The bad news is that even in 2015, ad blockers cost advertisers 22 million.

Web banners are not a very effective way to advertise anyway. Engagement rates are low, people hate them, and there’s nothing new happening in the development of banner technology. If you’re going to annoy people, they’re going to seek out ways to stop you from being annoying.

The fear with ad blockers is that they’ll get more aware about blocking content by advertisers. It’s already stretched beyond banners to some search and video ads. This will become more problematic. Once blog articles, videos, and stories are flagged as ads, even if it is good content, it will slow down the viral nature of things. That alone may be enough to disrupt a brand or campaign.

Programmatic Advertising

Probably the most exciting part about digital marketing will be where the computer A.I. will take us. We’ve already had a preview with the programmatic advertising of today. As the technology gets smarter and more aware of consumer habits, it’s really exciting to see how advertisers will use this method to place their ads.

It’ll also be interesting to see how this technology gets applied to various areas of advertising. If it can somehow be worked into affiliate programs, and branded content, that could be a whole new world.

The technology will also be simplified greatly from what it is today. It’s not far-fetched to look ahead and see a time where even the majority of small businesses, that know very little about programmatic advertising, are able to use it themselves – without the help of an agency.

Suomy / Pixabay

Content Marketing

Content is a major part of digital marketing in 2016. You can expect this to get more important in the next five years. It’s one of the most effective forms of attracting attention in a positive manner that consumers respond well to.

Creating relevant content will probably be a staple for decades to come, it’s just that the type of content may change. Photo and video content are big now, but the future will hold technologies we don’t know about today. We already touched on VR, but 360 video is starting to really show some legs, live streaming is about to hit critical mass, podcasting is peaking, and the next five years will likely see expansions of new mediums that are barely known today.

More User Collaboration

Digital marketing is still a relatively static endeavor. Sure, social media and some community sites would argue that’s not true, but most of the time it’s a user absorbing some content or advertising and moving on.

Interactive media hasn’t really caught on the way people thought it would. It turns out that brands are pretty bad at creating interactive experiences other than the social media / latching on to communities that already exist. Interactive components are still limited to an extreme minority that chooses to interact. (People who play Facebook contests, submit photos, etc.)

Some brands have created sites that wow the user, but these are few and far between. Expect to see a lot more of this in the future. Once we figure out how to engage each individual user with a game, a mystery, a selection of choices they have to make, user collaboration with the brand will take over the simple absorption of content and advertising.

Going Viral at Will

Not to ruin the party, but this is almost a certainty. As brands get smarter about what types of content go viral, you can bet they’ll exploit that for their benefit as much as possible. They may even get to a point where an algorithm will tell them the exact steps needed to make it happen.

It’s possible that your future timeline will see content that was paid for, and you don’t know it. If an advertising company figures out the formula, you can be sure they’ll be selling that formula to any advertiser they can.

Video Gets Professional

YouTube has made major strides in this department. Amateur content makers have become professionals as the prosumer market of DSLR’s continues to expand. Drone footage, special effects, jibs, and dollies have all become affordable for the average person.

You’ll see more content from advertisers developed specifically for the web. Now that it’s easy for the average user to create a professional series of highly watched content, that means advertisers will too. You’re already seeing some of the most prolific YouTubers cash in. Expect advertisers to skip the middle man where they can and just create this content themselves. If this sounds like pie-in-the-sky, think about how pro-athletes are sponsored. Casey Neistat brought to you by Samsung, doesn’t seem impossible.

TBIT / Pixabay

Privacy Rules

Advertising has likely hit its peak in tracking consumers. The amount of info that’s tracked is through the roof. The blowback has already started as legislators try to deal with cookies and do-not-track features. The “right to be forgotten” laws in Europe will hit North American shores in the next five years.

I don’t think tracking will ever go away, but I wouldn’t expect this rich data to expand much beyond today. If Americans had any idea what was being tracked, you’d see more people install ad blockers, cookie blockers, private browsers, and even use VPN’s. It may seem far-fetched today, but in five years, today’s tech-savvy kids will all be five years older. Major shifts can happen in a small amount of time.

Predictions are difficult, but following the trends should give us a clue to where things are headed. The great news about living five years in the future is that even more information and content will be available discussing the best marketing options of the day.