Commentary

Technology Allows Search To Become More Creative

CES will showcase more than 20,000 new products to 150,000 attendees in the coming week, including an array of gadgets and mobile devices. I don't have the answers as to where search marketers will put budgets this year to reach consumers, but here are a few stats to help you determine the best strategy.

Global technology sales are predicted to fall 2% to $950 billion in 2016, according to the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), formerly the Consumer Electronics Association or CEA, which puts on the CES tech show annually. The organization expects virtual reality sales in the United States to grow 440% to $540 million this year compared with last year, which means search marketers will have many more opportunities to explore creative advancements in advertising.

Drones will see revenue more than double to $953 million. Revenue from 4K ultra-high-definition televisions will rise 65% to $10.7 billion.

It's important for search marketers to start thinking about how they can use advertising and marketing to explore new ways to reach consumers through, well, search. Think of automatic identification and the ability to trigger an advertisement on a device through sensors. It's not magic, but rather technology, artificial intelligence and knowledge graphs individually built by Google, Bing, and Yahoo that cluster like information across a variety of devices. It's about native advertising and content from Yahoo and adMarketplace, and smart technology from Yext, Magnetic, and Yieldbot.  

Sensors have become common, partnerships will flourish, automotive manufacturers will increasingly highlight tech features, and of the $950 billion consumers will spend on technology worldwide, about 25% will come from North America.
Smartphones remain the dominate units shipped in 2016, with CTA projecting shipments will rise 5% to 183 million this year. Revenue from smartphone sales will reach $55 billion in 2016, up 4% from the previous year.  

Mobile will drive more of the search advertising spend this year. eMarketer estimates that marketers will spend $18.54 billion on search ads running on mobile in 2016, rising to $22.18 billion in 2017, and $25.11 billion in 2018.

Video consumption also will play a role in 2016. An eMarketer research note points to the Q3 2015 Adobe Digital Index, which reveals the share of smartphone digital video starts worldwide was 18.1%, up from 13.6% the prior year. The share of digital videos viewed on a smartphone rose 33.0% year-over-year.

CTA estimates that tablet sales will decline in 2016 by 9%, compared with 2015 after significant growth during the past five years. Revenue from sales will fall 12% to $18 billion.

Laptop unit shipments are estimated to reach 27.6 million in 2016, up 2% compared with 2015. A rise in sales of 2-in-1 computers, those including convertible laptops and detachable tablets, will drive the expected 48% growth to 11.7 million units sold in 2016, about $8 billion in revenue.

And what do we need to view the content on a larger screen? The CTA projects revenue will reach $19 billion for all TV sets and displays in 2016, on par with 2015, as volumes drop 1% to just under 40 million units.

This year the industry will see unit sales for 4K Ultra High-Definition (UHD) TVs takeoff, driven in part by the market introduction of next-generation technologies, with shipments of 4K UHD displays projected to reach 13 million units, up 83%. CTA expects revenue from 4K UHD displays in 2016 to top $10 billion, marking a 65% increase.

 

 

 

Next story loading loading..