dmexco 2016 Connects Trends with the Real Economy

At dmexco, leading brands and outstanding thinkers show where current and future business potential can be found and how it can be further optimized within the context of technological development. We support the development of new business areas for our partners by focusing on the latest future-oriented major themes that are among the current drivers of the digital economy. At dmexco, the key trends are connected with the daily developments of the real economy and the commercial potential of the future is defined.

The key trends of global digital business that will be addressed at dmexco 2016 include the following:

  • Digital is Everything — Not Every Thing is Digital

There’s no doubt that the steady expansion of digitization is unstoppable, and that it’s being driven by technological as well as content development. But we’re also seeing an increase in the number of critical voices that warn us to be careful. And it’s true that many consumers are still trying to establish a personal balance between the analog and digital worlds, between total networking and innovative content on the one hand and the deliberate setting of limits on the other. To the media, marketing and communications industry, which is always hot on the consumers’ heels, we recommend a high degree of “digital caution” and balance as it offers its innovations.

  • Connecting with Consumers in Virtual Reality

Ever since the success of Pokémon GO, it’s undeniable that virtual reality is real -- and that it could soon become one of the most important marketing platforms. According to a forecast by the investment bank Goldman Sachs, in the next ten years goods valued at €158 billion will be sold worldwide via virtual and augmented reality. At many points in dmexco we will discuss how we can establish networks between ourselves and real-life consumers in an increasingly virtual world. And in an additional area of the trade fair called the World of Experience we will demonstrate concrete examples of how virtual reality and drone technology are being combined and utilized.

  • Turning Video Into the New Visual Ad Experience

“A picture says more than a thousand words.” In the era of Instagram and other image-based communication channels, this truism acquires a whole new meaning. The competition for customers’ attention can be won only by those companies that generate real emotions. Moving images in particular have the potential to move us. However, in daily marketing activities videos are still all too often used as a byproduct for extending the TV experience. Moving-image advertising functions completely differently on TV and on the Web. Visitors to dmexco can find out how to take advantage of the potential of video more effectively by listening to representatives of the leading brands in the Motion Hall, the new forum for video and content producers, platform operators and multichannel networks.

  • Creating Customer Experience in a Fragmented World

In the fragmented and complex consumer world of today, it’s becoming increasingly important to enable the completely connected consumer to have seamless holistic experiences. In the new Experience Hall at dmexco, brand representatives and innovators will discuss how we can use IoT technologies, wearables, artificial intelligence and augmented reality to create very personal customer experiences. In view of the complexity of these topics, it’s entirely fitting for us to experience these best cases and demonstrations directly.

  • Using Deep Learning for Programming Individual Experiences

Automated commerce with an advertising inventory is well established in the field of digital marketing today. Can we also use programmatic ad buying to create ads and use moving images for the purpose of producing customized films and distributing them to specific target groups instead of using “one-size-fits-all” videos? Opinions are (still) divided regarding this question. The fact is that all efforts to individualize ads are based on very precise data analyses. In addition, the improved integration and networking of the creative industry is long overdue, and in the absence of such developments this topic has been discussed for much too long in purely technical terms.

  • Enhancing Performance Through Cognitive Data

Cognitive computing is expected to make the findings of big data analyses more precise and more results-oriented. If we are to successfully make the transition from media planning to target group-oriented planning, cognitive computing would be helpful. In a world that is fragmented into thousands of platforms and channels, where users increasingly move only in hermetic circles, we therefore can’t avoid looking to cognitive computing for answers.

Of course at this point we can only describe a small selection of the current developments that will be discussed and presented during the two days of dmexco. No other event for the digital economy provides a more comprehensive overview of the key trends and their potential for current and future business. So it’s no coincidence that today dmexco is mentioned in the same breath as the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the Mobile World Congress (MWC) and Cannes Lions — the Fab Four leading global trade fairs on the annual schedule of the digital industry. As the most important events in the digital hemisphere, they have top priority in the appointment calendars of the marketing, media and technology industry.

dmexco is One of the Fab Four Events of the Digital Industry

The fact that the industry’s digital journey reaches its high point in Germany every year is the result of the targeted positioning of dmexco, in terms of both content and scheduling, in the annual calendar of the digital marketing industry. Whereas CES, MWC and Cannes Lions became the melting pot of the marketing industry much earlier, dmexco attained its position within the Fab Four systematically by first addressing the trends, then their possible variations and finally real-life business. Thus it perfectly rounds out the annual schedule of all the decision-makers of the digital industry. As a two-day show consisting of a trade fair and a conference, dmexco marks the end of one business year and rings in the new one. In 2017 the schedule of events will start all over again.

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