The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is becoming an increasingly important place for ad agencies and brand marketers to go to find out what s next. It has escaped few that consumers are spending more and more time with digital and mobile devices. Optimizing content experiences for consumption on these devices and the services they are running is key.

Here are five take-aways from Digital Hollywood’s industry track:

Brands Are Shifting Budgets from Renting to Owning IP and Creating Franchise Content

Brands are starting to realize that they can move from renting to owning IP (Intellectual Property). This means that the brands will fund more original content rather than advertising in and around existing content. Forty-five million Americans have installed ad-blockers today, according to AOL Digital Prophet David Shing on panel about the future of advertising. The trend is to go direct to the audience with that ad blocker-proof content on their social channels.  

We are doing a lot of things with brands this year that will support that, said David Freeman, Co-Head of Digital Talent and Packaging, Creative Artists Agency.

If you add up how much brands are spending on branded content in all it s different forms, it adds up to more than what they spend on traditional (interruption) advertising, Mark Howard, Chief Revenue Officer, Forbes Media.

Brands Should Seriously Consider Experimenting with AR/VR Content

The most well-attended conference sessions at Digital Hollywood’s CES track were related to AR and VR. Questions from the audience alluded to skepticism towards it becoming a mass phenomenon, because the user experience still leaves room for improvement. However, with massive bets from Microsoft HoloLens, Facebook’s Oculus and Google Cardboard, this is the technology to watch in 2016.

We are fully aware of that Virtual Reality might fail to take off. It s a real possibility. Which is why AMD is very interested in talking to content creators. We need more really good VR content, said Roy Taylor, Corporate Vice President and Head of Alliances, AMD.

Traditional Media Is Building New Forms of Content Studios

Scripps, the parent company of cable channels like HGTV and Food Network, recently launched Scripps Lifestyle Studios. It s just one example of traditional media companies getting serious about video content for social media channels (and opportunities for brands to get involved).

Scripps Lifestyle Studios now employs around 100 people, mostly millennial women, and it produces content for new platforms like Snapchat for example, says Chris McCown, VP, Video Product Management, Scripps Network Interactive.  Millennials are a huge focus for us in the coming year.

Marketers Across the Board Should Target Micro-Communities

It s the opposite of mass-marketing, whether you are using influencers to create communities like Under Armour is doing with their connected fitness group or Fortune creating an exclusive mobile app for the list of people who are 30 under 30 so Fortune can connect with them and they can connect with each other.

We target people who care about health and fitness and create communities that adds value to the users lives, says Warren Kay, VP, Advertising, Under Armour.

Going from AdTech to MarTech

An interesting discussion speakers engaged in at the speakers lounge concerned the difference between AdTech (Advertising Technology) and MarTech (Marketing Technology). As digital media advertising (and venture capitalists) shift their focus away from banners and other forms of low-engagement marketing, the term AdTech is losing its allure. The new industry buzzword is instead “MarTech,’ which is more inclusive of new forms of digital marketing. Expect to see MarTech used a lot in 2016.