The development of visual advertising in the era of data analytics

The purpose of this study is to explore and investigate the evolution of visual advertising and how data analytics has impacted these changes. This thesis aims to describe the evolution of visual advertising, what is its role in business, what are the communication theories used in advertising, digital marketing and the development of technology and how it has impacted the creation process of visual advertising. Lastly, the emergence of data analytics will be considered and how it has been used in visual online advertising. The research method chosen for this study was qualitative research. The empirical study is based on four interviews. More specifically, a combination of two structured interviews and two semi-structured interviews were conducted. The interviewees are each marketing professionals with a lengthy background in the field of advertising. Secondary data was collected and used to support the empirical data. The findings indicate the role of marketing and advertising in business has shifted to be an integral part and a strategic tool of an organization. Visual advertising or the visual elements in advertising, on the other hand, have not faced significant changes due to the development of technology or data analytics. The only notable changes in pictures are related to colour, presenting people in images, composition and effective usage of text. In addition, the need for personalized, informative content and targeted advertising seems to be most significant changes in advertising. In terms of the research into data analytics use in combination with visual advertising, the results indicate that A/B testing testing, which refers to comparing two versions of a page or an element on a page to see what performs the best, has potential as a tool to measure visual elements in advertising