Like the advent of the radio, the internet, and other transformative technologies that came before it, 5G will allow marketers to better engage consumers by transferring large volumes of data at rates far faster than current 4G technologies permit.

With more data flowing more quickly between networks and devices, marketers can initiate real-time communication with consumers. Companies could, for example, ping a user’s smartphone with a relevant message as he passes a store or tap facial recognition technology to develop personalized ads.

The shift to 5G, or fifth-generation cellular technology, is “an evolutionary step,” Charles Hu, chief technology officer at PMX Agency, told Digiday. “What [5G] allows us to do is have a more stable and faster exchange and retrieval of data, so we can do more complex advertising.” 

This year, major carrier Verizon rolled out 5G in select cities across the United States. It will still be some time, however, before the 5G infrastructure is in place to do that kind of transformative, complex advertising. Jason Leigh, a telecom industry analyst at IDC, a market research firm, notes that 5G deployment will “be deliciously messy.”

So as the technology rolls out over the next one to two years, the most marketers, advertisers, and publishers can expect is faster download speeds and lower latency connections.

Not that there won’t be tangential benefits to that speed. Jeremy Lockhorn, vp of experience strategy for mobile and emerging technology at SapientRazorfish, pointed out in Digiday that by effectively eliminating delays associated with 4G networks, 5G would “result in faster ad load times and happier users,” and in turn likely curtail the use of ad blockers.

Enabling new technologies to reach consumers

Currently, such formats rely on special, expensive high-end technology. 5G will make them much more accessible. Jeff Malmad, managing director of Mindshare North America’s Life+, explained it as a world in which marketers “aren’t going to be constrained by [bandwidth],” and “can showcase whatever you like and have a rich, deep experience.”

They’ll also have access to an abundance of data. An estimated 29 billion connected devices will be online by 2021, a trend accelerated by upgrades to 5G networks, according to Ericsson. That means machine-to-machine communication—think your smartphone connected to your TV, to robots, to street lights, appliances, vehicles and more.

“It’s thinking about everything being connected,” said Craig Elimeliah, managing director of creative technology for North America at VML. “The phone becomes the remote to all the things around us that have this capability of interconnectivity.”

More connected devices likely means more content consumption, which in turn means more data and a clearer picture of individual consumers, which can help marketers generate more personalized ads.

All of this is likely still a ways off. While a recent GSMA report notes that North America is estimated to be at nearly 50 percent adoption of 5G by 2025, “long-term monetization [of the networks] may require greater maturity of the 5G ecosystem – particularly for the more innovative and mission-critical services.”