Advertising and marketing are changing faster than ever. In the last 20 years, we've seen them go from print, radio, and television to social media and digital formats. But what's next? What will happen to marketing in 2020?

Robots, drones, or augmented marketing?

We decided to reach out to marketers across all industries and ask them to share their predictions.

Here's what they said:

Michael Brito

“Advertising will be 100% personalized by 2020. By then, there will be a multitude of devices (drones, wearables, new mobile devices), virtual reality, augmented reality and new social networks. Advertisers already have lot of data about consumers and that number will exponentially multiply, especially given how open Gen Z is with providing that data.”

Taylor Bell

“I think that we are going to see more brands using technology like virtual reality to connect with their audience. There is so much that brands can do to leverage this technology, and we've seen that customers want to interact with companies on a human level rather than being sold to, so what better way to do that than bringing a rich-interactive experience right into their living room.”

Neil Patel

“It won't exist in the way we see it. Advertising will blend into your daily life. For example when you are running out of bread your fridge will recommend a specific brand to you (ad)... in essence companies will be able to show you ads when it is most relevant for you.”

Leo Widrich

“With every month that goes by people accept interruptive advertising less and less. iOS introduced Safari-wide Ad block, more and more people use Adblocks online. Personally, I think we'll see an even bigger shift from interruptive to native advertising. Ads will be fully and completely baked into something that's inherently valuable to the consumer. It's the only thing that people will have capacity and tolerance for by 2020. Banners, sidebar ads, etc, I think we'll continue to be on the decline.”

Michael Leibovich

“Advertising will continue to become more social and multi-device tracking and segmentation will become the new norm. Retargeting will become more sophisticated. Content marketing will become an increasing challenge as the level of noise rises. Simplicity will win over.”

Jeff Bullas

"Advertising has been dominated by mass media and ad agencies for over 50 years. This will change as the evolution of marketing technology allows companies and brands to  take more control over their own content, brand awareness and marketing. This will include the use of influencers, user generated content and paid digital amplification of authentic content. You will see the rise of more brands taking back their marketing power from the intermediaries. More advertising will be done in house via digital marketing automation platforms straight to social and digital networks."

Tim Hughes

"Marketing will have totally moved online, the "Mad Men" of advertising in the past will be finally laid to rest. Broadcast advertising in all its forms will have more to personalised message. Content will be educational and people will be creating their own influence and communities."

Rony Daniel

“There will also be a switch from traditional print billboards to digital and interactive billboards. Just as we currently have a CPM auction model for display ads, it will be similar for billboards. With a few clicks of a button, a business can display their advertisement on thousands of billboards around the country.”

Kim Hagner

Advertising will become increasingly targeted, and specific to an individual's interests as so much data on your tastes and preferences is collected and the access and ability to leverage it is improving.  So, I think in 2020 as you are thinking how great a cup of coffee would be, a coupon code pops up on your Google Glass and a second later a drone delivers it from the Starbucks in the future.

Robert Glazer

"The strongest companies will have an established, streamlined process in place for understanding how their different channels support and influence one another (e.g. how affiliate supports SEO and paid social conversions and vice versa) and which combinations drive incremental sales. The leaders will have also figured out how to properly attribute credit to their different marketing channels/models. Technology will play an important role in this and advances will allow for more consistent measurement and cross-channel insight. These advancements will drive more down funnel performance-oriented relationships as well as cross-channel alignment and collaboration. In terms of performance marketing specifically, I believe the line between traditional affiliate marketing, partnership and business development will start to blur by 2020 as more relationships are tracked and paid in a scalable way. I believe that these types of partnerships will not only be highly lucrative, but also be fairly standard, whereas today it would be considered “non-traditional.”"

Ash Read

“Advertising in 2020 will be focused on experience and participation rather than broadcast. Social media has already started to bridge the gap between broadcast and participation. Consumers can now react to adverts and share their feelings directly with advertisers. But by 2020, I feel good advertising will create a unique experience for each person. For example, VR will give us the opportunity to create immersive, life-like experiences. For example, rather than simply creating a campaign focused on the World Cup, Nike or adidas could allow us to experience the World Cup and share the pitch with our favorite players.”

Matthew Heinrichs

“I believe we'll see a big shift from mass marketing and advertising to highly personalized, 1-to-1 advertising mainly through the use of messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, Snapchat and WhatsApp. Cross-device advertising has already made a huge impact in the space and the gathering of more personal user data will only continue to rise. I see advertisers getting very crafty with how they use that data in 2020.”

 John Paul Aguiar

"I think in your face ads will be a thing of the past. I believe that the brands that want to really be seen in 2020 will have to get even more personal and direct and targeted with their messages.The message must be delivered thru helpful related content, content created from the data customers are freely sharing.  Also learn to acquire user generated content and share that across all channels. Your customers want to be heard, they want to share their opinion, so why not let them, and then share their message freely.Your content strategy has to be about build relationships, educating customers on your products and or services and what your brand is really about."

Lilach Bullock

"The advertising industry has always strived to make use of any technological advancement and the only way to go forward is to keep doing that. One of the next steps that the industry will take is to make use of virtual reality, an industry that is sure to grow massively by 2020. Marketers will then be able to create advertising 'experiences' that will excite consumers and will blend ads and content together. Some are already pioneering this concept, and as the VR industry grows, so will virtual reality advertising. As people become more and more connected to their technology, marketers will also be able to learn more about each and every consumer and therefore be able to create truly customised ads. The more connected we become to the online world, the more marketers will know about consumers' purchase history, their passions and interests, their personalities, and perhaps, even their physical reactions to certain ads. Advertising and content are already blending together and I believe that by 2020, we will be seeing even more of that, whether it be audio, video or written.Advertising will evolve as technology grows - and while we might not know what the iPhone 10 will look like, and what other gadgets we'll be using in 2020, what we do know is that marketers will be there to make full use of the latest technology to better reach their audience."

Nathan Zaru

“Native Advertising! Click through rates are in the gutter, so this is forcing brands to make media that people actually care about. Native is still young, but it shows promise.”

Jose Gallegos

“Authenticity will continue to be the most powerful strategy to win over audiences and user generated campaigns will be key to building stronger online communities. I also think we are about to venture in the golden age of marketing experiences. We've seen how augmented reality experiences like Pokemon GO can disrupt the world. Advertising agencies will soon be producing better augmented marketing campaigns like we've never seen before!”

User-Generated Content remains an important part of the future of marketing. Talk to one of our UGC specialists today.