Death, Taxes, and Digital Outpacing Traditional Media

A significant, yet certainly not wholly unexpected milestone is happening this year. According to the super smart people on the internet, digital ad spending will surpass traditional ad spending in the United States. These people go on to say that by 2023, digital will account for two-thirds of total media spending.

A whopping $129 billion dollars will be spent on digital advertising this year.

As robust as industry growth is the major players are far from complacent. Google holds still about as long as hyperactive six-year-old double fisting cotton candy at an amusement park. Big, somewhat schizophrenic changes made back in December seem to make working with Google easier and more difficult at the same time.

Facebook also just announced changes to enhance the disconnect they are experiencing making both advertisers and users happy all at the same time. I didn’t think that would be possible, so we’ll see how these latest changes work for both parties.

As an aside, they stumbled out of the gate last Wednesday with a lengthy disruption that cost them more money in one day than we’ll collectively ever see in our lifetime. That’s what happens when you have 2.3 billion worldwide users.

Surprisingly, Facebook and Google won’t be the huge harbingers of growth that they’ve been these past ten years. This is based primarily on their need to balance the wants of advertisers with the privacy of the end user.

The big winner is Amazon. Here’s a self-encompassed digital platform with everything you need to be worth billions today and more billions tomorrow. They have everything they need to waste money on private rocket trips to space.

Think about advertising in a space with a ton of data on what people buy and when people buy it. Oh, and it has a fully secure, simple and nearly failsafe payment and fulfillment process. (I hate using two ands in one sentence, but Amazon makes me do lots of things I don’t like.) If you sell consumer packaged goods or direct to consumer brands, Amazon is your promised land.

To give you some idea of just how dominant Amazon is becoming in the digital advertising space you’ll see approximately 9% growth in the US digital ad market … Amazon’s growth will be upwards to 50%.

What’s all this mean to you?

Well, ReThinc is not quite ready to displace Amazon, Facebook, or Google. But we most certainly can navigate them on your behalf.

ReThinc Advertising is well positioned to help your brand succeed in a rapidly changing marketplace. The digital passing traditional milestone is affirmation that staying ahead of all the changes, all the nuances, and all the progress in this space is an appropriate priority for us.