At this year’s Advertising Week conference, marketers also will be talking about ad-free streaming and transparency in ad buying
When Advertising Week kicks off Monday in New York, ad-industry executives will convene to discuss all the hot new marketing trends, from the branded emoji craze to location-based targeting to artificial-intelligence-driven marketing.
But beyond the excitement over newfangled approaches, there also will be plenty of hand-wringing over the very future of the ad business as it comes under threat.
In the digital world, the growing popularity of ad-blocking is the crisis of the moment, threatening the nearly $60 billion online ad industry. But it is just the latest source of heartburn. Marketers are also worried about piracy, fraud fueled by electronic “bots,” transparency in ad-buying and the need to ensure that their ads are actually viewable instead of hidden in corners of websites.
Marketers are asking “who and what do I trust,” said Bob Liodice, chief executive of Association of National Advertisers, Inc., a trade group that represents many of the country’s largest marketers, such as Procter & Gamble Co.
Tens of thousands of advertising, technology and media executives will partake in the 12th annual Advertising Week conference. Companies such as Facebook Inc., Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal, Google Inc., and a host of ad agencies and ad-technology firms are expected to show off their latest ad products and services. Their mission: dazzle marketers such as General Electric Co., MasterCard Inc. and Under Armour Inc.