CES 2012 exploded this year. It's always been big, but this year it got REALLY big.

Once we look beyond the latest gadgetry hype, however, there are a number consistent themes for the online ad industry...

Greater Accessibility

Consumers are going to have a lot more affordable ways of accessing the internet via multi devices in 2012. It will not necessarily be the products on show at CES but this latest innovation cycle will speed up the diffusion of innovation. Consumers will genuinely have greater access to multi platform connectivity which opens up some interesting opportunities for those on the buy and sell side and everything in between.

Measurement Systems

Greater consumer adoption of connected devices really starts to create the pressure on the main measurement behemoths to come up with new ways to measure across screen. Google could start owning this for themselves and the Google-Kantar tie up is surely a sign of things to come. If we as an industry want advertisers to invest in the new opportunities that
multi devices create, then we better be prepped with the ability to help them measure it all.

Big Data Just Keeps On Getting Bigger

If you think that big data is big now, wait until machines start computing data across all devices in real time. This might be a bit of a pipe dream right now but the need to store, structure and fuse all of this unconnected data is going to be a major battleground in the next five years. It’s going to become the foundation for any company operating in this space and it’s going to be the most transformative part of this industry.

Buy Side Tech

There are going to be a few key players that bring all of this together. The obvious candidates spring to mind but the race to own the stack is already happening. But aside from this, piecing together every channel across every device is also going to create more fragmentation at the same time. You can imagine there will be a new wave of FNAC's (feature not a company, thanks Omar). Which will then spark another wave of M&A and so the cycle continues.

Sell Side Commercial Models

Perhaps an interesting opportunity in this multi-connected world lies with publishers who have access to consumers across these multi-devices. Publishers being able to package audience across their assets will be incredibly powerful. A holy grail (there increasingly seems to be quite a few) for marketers is communicating a story with their consumers, in true sequential messaging, from one screen to the next. It seems miles away, but this certainly creates a stronger position for publishers who can execute on this.

Creative Agencies Get A Seat At The Ad Tech Table

A central creative proposition will become more important than ever. This means that creative agencies start evolving and get a lot closer to ad tech. Whether this manifests itself by these agencies working more collaboratively with their sister agencies within the large groups, or by employing savvy ad tech integration experts, creative agencies will become pros in ad serving, targeting and measurement across screen. They simply have to.

The Consumer

Lets not forget that yes, a new multi-connected, multi-device world creates many interesting opportunities for those operating in the delivery side of things, but it also becomes really exciting for the consumer. Apple is already piecing it together with iCloud. Consumers really do become in complete control of content: where they consume it, when and how. This then fuels a new wave of consumer-focused apps, designed around content and agnostic to the delivery mechanic. Exciting times, even more exciting than the latest HD-3D-LTE-SMART- TV!