There’s no doubt that technology will continue to shape the future of how we advertise. There have already been dramatic shifts in the past year, powered by technologies such as 3D, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and virtual reality (Abramovich, 2019). ‘With the rapid growth in hyper-connected consumers, VR and AI are assuming an increasingly prominent role in marketing and advertising efforts as a means to provide more authentic and personalized engagement opportunities… Technology is allowing us as marketers to push the boundaries in the brand/consumer relationship and, in the next few years, will transform the engagement model so that it’s much more curated and customized.’ (Breithaupt, 2019)

In a world that is creating more and more specific adverts personalised to a small demographic it begs to wonder where and how creativity can thrive; I believe the answer to this question lies in exploring the boarder methods of communication and immersion and how advertising companies can creative innovative ways to interact with their customer base, to this end I am excited to see how my career in such a sector will unfold.

Sociocultural

This section will discuss how changing habits on and offline has sparked the surged of specific targeting. It is vital to understand how the previously discussed technological advancements have consequently led to an industry thriving on private data and whether or not this is an advance that will have an overall positive impact on consumers.

With the rise of technology and the increasing number of hours that are spent on social media, targeted marketing has begun to thrive over the years. Targeted marketing is a form of advertising, including online, that is directed towards audiences with certain traits, based on the product or person the advertiser is promoting. These traits can either be demographic based on, economic, sex, age, the level of education, income level and employment or psychographic focused, based on consumer’s values, personality, attitudes, opinions, lifestyles and interests. Algorithms are put in place to sort this data that identifies consumers with specific needs or characteristics to match with appropriate products or brands. This sector of advertising started to grow exponentially, with an increasing potential to be in breach of the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing rules about harassment. Figure 7 shows how divided the opinions of the public are about this method.