Giving control back to the customers is the future for advertising

An interesting post from Lucinda Holt on the Commerce 360 blog, this week. She discusses the way online marketing is moving, as well as making some predictions for the future.

Essentially, the control of consumed media is being given back the consumer: Sky+ has got us skipping through adverts, and iPods are drawing listeners away from commercial radio stations. This is also reflected online. Banner ads are losing popularity to pay per click advertising, which takes into account what the customer is interested in. There is also a move towards Web 2.0 endeavours such as MySpace and YouTube, although search engines are still playing an important part in developing the web space. Lucinda asks what the future for advertising is, now that it seems everyone is developing their own content.

Her solution is that advertisers should endeavour to become content, rather than piggyback off content. She cites Mastercard as an example. Their ‘Priceless’ commercials have been hijacked, providing the punchline for everything from World Cup defeat to Michael Jackson’s trial. Whilst they don’t publicly condone these films, it’s hard to deny that they’ve helped the campaign, delivering it straight to people’s inboxes.

So, is this the advertising of the future? And how far away is the future? And is Google concerned?