Dale Lovell, chief digital officer at AdYouLike and author of Native Advertising, says: "In an ad marketplace where context is increasingly the criteria for success, the more data – and learnings from that data garnered in real-time – the greater the performance will be. "High-performing native advertising units combined with AI offer a deeper semantic understanding and granularity on campaigns. In fact, by the end of the year, any platform or partner without an AI capability for ad targeting will start to look increasingly dated." In addition to AI, marketers are turning to dynamic creative optimisation (DCO) to transform their digital ad experiences: a display ad technology that creates personalised ads based on data gleaned at the moment of serving the ad. DCO makes it possible for brands to engage in one-to-one conversations with users where situational data, environmental factors, time of day, weather, live information and user data, can all be added to increase the campaign relevance and performance. "We'll see more and more marketers embrace this in 2018," says Lovell. "Forget wider fads and spin – this is what now sits at the core of advertising innovation." Yet with technology's incredible ability to immediately and efficiently meet our consumer needs, comes a huge demand for brands to deliver impeccable customer experience. "The internet of things (IoT) has created a rise of'invisible digital', where technology is hidden in everyday objects and behavioural triggers generate data or output," explains Shirra Smilansky, CEO of Electrify Worldwide Ltd and author of Experiential Marketing. She adds: "2018 is the age of ultimate choice, where consumers expect authenticity from brands.