It’s the end of the world as we know it…

In an intriguing new study, IBM posits four possible scenarios for the future of advertising. Of course, we all know how technology generally, and the internet in particular, has dramatically altered the landscape of our daily lives. But, other forces are also at work, allowing consumers to being selected the messages they hear – DVR, for example, allows users to simply skip all the advertising during a traditional 30 or 60 minute television program. In a world where advertising rates are determined by "impressions," this is a real blow.

IBM conducted a global survey of 2,400 consumers and 80 advertising experts and asked these groups to grapple with two juxtaposed ideas: the propensity for consumers to control marketing and the openness of advertising inventories (basically, the tension between whether consumer or ad producers will control content and delivery of advertising in the years to come). Depending where the balance is eventually struck, IBM sees one of four potential "new worlds" of advertising emerging by 2012.

You can read the whole report here: http://fuelingnewbusiness.com/2009/09/25/ibm-study-the-end-of-advertising-as-we-know-it/

According to the IBM study, the four alternatives are:

The continuum swings from "continued evolution," where advertisers are still largely in control, sending messages in the traditional one-to-many format in play today while adapting to new technologies like DVR, all the way to "ad marketplace," where consumers almost entirely self-direct the kind of advertising they want to see and share peer-to-peer the messages they prefer.

What do you think? What is the future of advertising in our ever-increasingly customized world?