Online to Offline Green Paper

This Green Paper, produced by The IAB’s Performance Marketing Advisory Group, considers the current online to offline market landscape from the perspective of the digital advertising and marketing industry, the source of many of the technologies which are fuelling rapid changes in consumer behaviours.

At 39% of total UK adspend (IAB/ PwC Adspend, FY 2014) digital advertising is evolving into the most exciting advertising platform since TV began captivating its audiences with mini-dramas worthy of Oscar status, thus transforming how brand advertising worked.

The parallel development of performance marketing through affiliate marketing and lead generation models (£1.1bn spend, 2014: IAB / PwC Value of UK Online Performance Marketing Report) is similarly maturing.

This combined digital spend is virtually half a marketer’s budget. That online purchasing influence (and e-commerce) is on the increase is very apparent to retailers and brands. So is the fact that people still enjoy physical shopping: 87% of retail transactions are made in store. Making sense of this and responding with strategies that optimise marketing investment and the customer experience across any of the channels people choose to use is a critical business challenge right now. Maybe this is because technologies and new digital marketing channels are entering a more developed era where it is possible to better connect people across all channels and devices.

Is the industry doing enough to change, influence and adapt to consumer behaviour? That question, and others pertinent to this industry, are explored here in some detail.