Advertisers demanding more than "click-through" metrics: Nielsen's 2010 trends

Though the overall advertising environment in 2009 was glum by most accounts, a number of trends are nonetheless continuing to take hold as the industry evolves to meet new marketplace realities, says advertising industry market researcher, The Nielsen Company.

Most notably, Nielsen said, advertisers are beginning to look at the media mix more holistically and to take seriously the increasing need for accountability beyond simple "click-through" metrics. They also are starting to embrace burgeoning social networks and consumer-generated media as advertising and branding platforms that can help them bring consumers closer to a product or brand.

Nielsen's advertising trends for 2010:

1. Optimising media convergence will become top priority: Continued corporate mandates and pressure to measure ROI will lead to a better understanding of media convergence and how various media work together. The ability to accurately measure activity and link online ads to offline purchasing behavior will be critical.
2. New models will emerge to take advantage of smartphones: Accurate mobile measurement will be required for advertisers to stay head of the snowballing growth of that media platform.
3. More cross-media ad campaigns will surface: The massive growth of online video games played and shared online is leading the way for more successful interactive and cross-media advertising campaigns to appear. Growth in the adoption of such advertising across screens and activities will increase.
4. Commercialization of social networking hubs will increase: Social media will provide a new sales channel for establishing product awareness and commercializing brands to better support traditional advertising or text-based ads.
5. More interesting and interactive online ads will appear. Increased use of more creative advertising and content models online such as video, attention-seeking page takeover ads and mechanisms for greater interactivity will drive the next era of web development.