The Future of

Digital Marketing
Executive Summary

http://advertising.msn.co.uk

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Marketing is undergoing a period of

intense change, and there are several
inflection points on the horizon which
will have a transformational effect, so
that by the middle of the next decade
every facet of marketing will have been
changed radically by the digital revolution.
To date, the emergence of digital
technology has caused great debate,
and in some sectors has led to
revolutionary change. While small
advertising such as classifiers and
personals has moved online in a
wholesale way, brand advertising has
been affected in a more marginal way.

Most innovation has been in the form of media firsts finding new
places to stick advertising. Until very recently there has been little progress
in targeting. The proliferation of media has in some ways made demographic
targeting easier. But it has done this at precisely the same time that
demographics have been declining in relevance as a predictor of
consumer behaviour.
There are, however, huge changes on the horizon.
Developments in technology will be the catalyst for fundamental change
in the ways consumers use media, and consequently on how they consume
marketing messages.
The broad themes of the new media consumption landscape will be:

Media consumption will become less

collective and more individual
Sophisticated, multiple pathways to
individual consumers will develop
All media relationships will become
interactive to a greater or lesser extent
Consumers will increasingly determine their
own use of media in a much more complete
fashion, including deciding when they will accept
marketing messages and when they wont
Metrics which measure viewing rather
than engagement will disappear

http://advertising.msn.co.uk

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Marketing plays a vital business function in connecting

consumers with things they want to buy. For marketing
to service the new needs of business, and for it to profit
from rather than suffer from the changing world of media,
it will have to adapt in a radical way.

The new age of marketing we are about to enter will be about:

Relevance
Interaction
Relationships

Relevance will be key to ensuring that yours is among the

few marketing messages with which your target consumer
will truly engage.
Interaction will offer individual consumers unique experiences,
feeding back information to the brand.
Relationships will be the vital pathways by which marketers reach
consumers, including relationships with media, with brands and
with fellow consumers.

The importance of these three factors will compel

marketers to exploit more fully than at present
the inherent advantages of digital media, including:
the addressability of individual consumers rather
than a broadcast model
interactivity rather one way communication
learning about individuals and their behaviour
and using this information to determine what
information and entertainment to service them
with in the future

http://advertising.msn.co.uk

THE FUTURE OF DIGITAL MARKETING

About MSN.co.uk
MSN is a division of the Microsoft Corporation
MSN is the UKs largest portal attracting over 15.6 million
visitors per month in the UK (Nielsen//NetRatings June
2005) and more than 420 million unique users worldwide
(MSN Internal Data). Owned by Microsoft, MSN is available
in 41 markets and 21 languages. MSN offers a wide range
of Subscription products including Hotmail Plus and MSN
Premium with state of the art parental controls, spam
filtering software and photo editing tools.
MSN provides a number of world class innovative
communication and information services including:
MSN Hotmail, the UKs most popular free web-based
e-mail service with over 7.7 million users in the UK
(Nielsen//NetRatings June 2005) and over 190 million
active accounts worldwide (MSN Internal Data)
MSN Messenger, the UKs number one instant messaging
service on the internet with 8.8 million monthly users
(Nielsen//NetRatings June 2005) and over 155 million
active users worldwide (MSN Internal data)
MSN Search, one of the UKs top search sites with
over 5.8 million users. (Nielsen//NetRatings June 2005).
MSN Search is available in 32 markets worldwide and
14 languages. MSN Toolbar is available in 47 markets
with 53 million installed worldwide.

For further information on The Future

of Digital Marketing, or if you have any
comments on this report please contact:
Chris Ward 020 7434 6500
chriswar@microsoft.com
For Press Enquiries please contact:
Ben Philipson 020 7025 6575
ben.philipson@redconsultancy.com
Ruth Thomas 020 7025 6573
ruth.thomas@redconsultancy.com

http://advertising.msn.co.uk