The 2019 Digital Trends: Advertising in Focus report, produced by Econsultancy in partnership with Adobe, explores the key trends in advertising set to dominate the agenda over the next year. Advertising has long been thought of as the glamorous, headline act within marketing as a whole. The digital age has brought opportunities for advertisers, but also high-profile challenges such as declining levels of consumer trust, a perceived lack of transparency in the programmatic ecosystem, and inconsistent measurement. Advertisers are looking for ways to address these challenges while continuing to benefit from what remains a highly effective discipline for creating sustained brand engagement and sales. This report explores attitudes to technology and innovation, including how advertisers risk losing the balance between creativity and measurement, and the challenge posed by walled gardens that restrict access to data.

Advertisers embrace the potential that data-driven marketing presents. They want to be part of initiatives to drive improvements in customer experience but, to do this, they will have to examine the role advertising technology plays in the digital sphere and what good investment looks like. Finally, advertising executives are intrigued and, in some cases, ready to make use of artificial intelligence (AI). The potential for improved targeting and speed to market is not disputed. But there are many hurdles around compliance, with data privacy regulations, data transparency, brand safety, and ad quality to address first. The research is based on the responses of almost 800 advertising professionals who took part in the annual Econsultancy/Adobe Digital Trends survey carried out at the end of 2018.