Buying media one impression at a time. A friend and media specialist says to look for accelerating advances in programmatic media in the coming year. It will go beyond display, iVideo, paid social and mobile to eventually encompass virtually all media buying.

Real-time bidding means buying blocks of time at auction and knowing that some people within that block will be right for your message, and some won’t. According to Jay Sears of The Rubicon Project, programmatic media buying reduces the buy to the impression level so that machines evaluate each impression’s value based on what they know about your target. Through a data management platform, data about prospects (from the buyer) are matched with compatible media content (from the seller) in milliseconds, and then aggregated so that purchases can be made to scale.*

Think of it as an electronic marketplace like NASDAQ – only the currency is advertising impressions. Some say that in three years, particularly with advances in streaming TV, the overwhelming majority of media will be purchased programmatically.

Latinos will pay you back in loyalty. Latinos tend to be brand-loyal, more so than non-Latinos.

• 70% of Latinos consider themselves brand-loyal, versus 65% for non-Latinos.
• For health and pharma, they’re 35% less likely than non-Latinos to buy private-label (generic) brands.
• 36% say they are much more loyal to companies that show appreciation for Latin culture by advertising in Spanish.
Source: Univision Simmons NCS/NHCS Spring 2013

Marketers need to be sure to address the in-language and in-culture needs of this burgeoning community from the outset of their strategic planning to best leverage this greater propensity for loyalty. While adapting your marketing strategy and “transcreating” content may add to your expense, you’ll likely see a return to that investment in retention and repeat purchase. For long-tail products such as insurance and investments especially, be sure your revenue model goes beyond acquisition to factor in increased loyalty.

The right healthcare touch at the right time. While most of the attention of ObamaCare has been on getting people insured, that’s only the first step in improving health care in the U.S. The next step is getting them the care they need, effectively and efficiently – in other words, working toward better health outcomes. And it’s where the power of information and near-instant communication is going to pay big dividends.

For group and individual plans, our client Xerox is using real data and predictive modeling to deliver the right message to the right insured member at the right time using the right medium. Messages include personalized tips for healthier living, advice for managing specific conditions and reminders about taking prescribed medications. Media include emails, text messages and social – automatically selected based on the member’s preferences.

More and more medical records are being digitized. Mobile devices are connecting more and more people. As Xerox is finding, the result of these two trends can be a noble one, and good business: better health outcomes at lower overall costs.

Visualize you value proposition. We’ve always encouraged our clients to come up with an “elevator pitch” for, say, a 15-story ride – no more than 20 seconds. But when was the last time you met a prospect in an elevator?

It’s more likely you’re in touch with her by email, social – some form of digital communication. Which is why we now encourage our clients to think visually when describing what they do. In other words, turn your value proposition into an infographic.

Our friend Curt Battles of New Canaan Advisors helps his clients envision creative uses for commercial real-estate assets somewhere along the continuum of “Seed, Sprout, Sapling, Tree.” For a sophisticated set of services, this mnemonic is pretty easy to grasp, and it can be represented visually. Such an approach can help launch conversations and, in Curt’s case, it can help prospective clients find what they need along that lifecycle continuum.