The potential for targeted, personalized advertising -- enabled by new mobile device adoption -- is a key area of interest for digital marketers. Advertising spend on smart watches will reach $68.6 million by 2019, that's up from an estimated $1.5 million this year, according to the latest market study by Juniper Research.
The study found that market growth will be fueled by the entrance of high-profile brands, such as Apple, into the smart watch arena, combined with the ongoing mainstream acceptance of wearable technology.
Juniper believes that the emergence of an additional mobile screen would stimulate interest among advertisers. However, until a significant user base is reached, most ad-spend is likely to take the form of ad-hoc marketing campaigns.
Juniper also notes that leading brands will need to devise and implement new advertising formats, specifically designed to fit the limited size of a typical smart watch screen.
Additionally, the behavioral differences between smartphone and smart watch usage are likely to provide a further challenge. With the smart watch user viewing the screen for seconds, rather than minutes, advertisers will have much less time to engage people with their ad message.
Programmatic Advertising to Lead
Juniper also suggests that programmatic advertising is one of the main drivers within the digital advertising marketplace.
Real-time bidding for ads has evolved over the last couple of years from low levels of implementation to becoming an integral component in the digital advertising realm.
All types of advertising formats are now being traded between advertisers and publishers in the ad exchange markets, where it used to be a place where only the excess or remnant publisher inventory was bartered or sold.
Other findings from the market study include:
- Native advertising formats are becoming popular due to their ability to mimic the look and feel of the webpage.
- An evolving array of entities are involved in the digital advertising value network and the complexity is increasing as more technological advances come into the fore.
- Rich Media advertisements are becoming increasingly prevalent, particularly with regards to in-app advertising.
