<div>It was meant to be an event that gave a glimpse into the future of advertising. Perhaps it was only appropriate that Nikesh Arora, senior vice president and chief business officer, Google Inc. strode in wearing the right accessory – the Google Glass!<br /><br />Well, the Google Glass, when one tried it on, gave an immediate sense of one’s bearings in the present. It told you about the traffic situation in Delhi, for instance. But future gazing - or guessing - was left to Arora, who took on questions on where advertising was headed in the age of Digital.<br /><br />Pointing out that the platform shift to digital media was the most disruptive media shift ever in advertising history - bigger than radio to TV – Arora said that we are headed towards a future where advertising control would be with the user. <br /><br />The user will decide which ad to view and when – so advertisers would have to reconcile to that. <br /><br />We are also headed to an age of personalisation where advertisers would have to look at each screen and figure the context of usage and deliver ads accordingly. “We all live in a multi-screen environment but unconnected screens will soon become useless,” said Arora.<br /><br />Asked if this degree of personalisation and context setting would spell the end of mass production and delivery of ads, Arora said perhaps not. He said it’s impossible to imagine an advertiser creating 6 million unique ads tailored to each user although with artificial intelligence and advanced algorithms it could be possible. “But I would say, mass will not go away – perhaps 3 million ads would be customised and 3 million delivered mass,” he said.<br /><br />That set the ball for the next question. With technology making it possible to generate accurate user profiles and deliver relevant context based advertising, would that spell the death knell for big agencies dishing out traditional creatives?<br /><br />To that Arora said brand building would always need a creative mass push while performance marketing would rely on technology.<br /><br />And of course, the showstopper of the event – the stylish and surprisingly comfortable Google Glass - did sidetrack the discussion a fair bit. To the million dollar question as to when we would see it launched in India, Arora firmly ruled out a commercial push here or elsewhere in the world any time soon. “At the moment we are only sending it out to developers to work on it,” he said.<br /><br /> </div><table width="610" cellspacing="12" cellpadding="12" border="1" align="center"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><strong>Google’s 5 Cs On The Future of Advertising</strong></span></td></tr><tr><td><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"><strong>CHOICE</strong>:</span> <strong>Ad views will be voluntary</strong><br />Users today have lots of choices - millions of sites, millions of Yutube channels and there will be millions of apps - all just a click away. There are also new technologies like DVRs, and ad blocker. We need to move to a choice based economy, where users choose what they see -- not just for content but for ads.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"><strong>CONTROL</strong></span>: <strong>Users will participate if we provide enough value and control</strong><br />When we give users control, we know they take it. For example, Ads Preferences Manager EX. Twice as many modify their ads preferences so they can receive more relevant ads, than choose to opt out.<br /><br />Our industry’s current tools are world-leading but can still be improved. It’s vital that we invest in the next generation of user control.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"><strong>CHARM:</strong></span><strong> </strong><strong>Ads will be more interactive and beautiful — at scale</strong><br />The internet offers an incredible medium of sight, sound and motion. We have many examples of beautiful interactive ads but they are mostly one offs. It takes a lot of energy and resources to create these. We need to enable beauty to run at scale.<br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"><br /><strong>CONNECTED:</strong></span><strong> </strong><strong>Ads will help people live their lives on the go</strong><br />Already it’s getting hard to tell if something is a mobile, tablet, or desktop...What are they? Not sure? Doesn’t matter. We should be focused on the users<br /><br />Mobile and smart phones are so new that many of the ad models are still being worked out.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"><strong>CALIBRATION</strong></span><strong>:</strong> <strong>All ads will be measured -- and clicks will only be one measurement type</strong><br />In order for marketers to create ads that users love, we need to improve how we measure ad performance. So we need metrics for brands that are as meaningful as the click has become for performance advertisers.</td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /> </div><div><br /> </div>
