This post is by Rebecca Batey and Sarah Fitzsimmons, Insight Team at Time Inc. UK.

If you ever needed convincing that the consumer marketplace for advertising is changing, and becoming more complex with more avenues than ever before, then Marketing Week Live and Insight 15 certainly proved that. It is clear that there has been a shift in power over to customers and consumers. And with more information than we know what to do with, how can we truly understand what our consumers want?

Time Inc. UK's Insight team spent two days at this year's event, and was able to identify five key emerging trends to help us better understand consumers.

1. The industry needs to shift away from a pure KPI focus

Having the largest market share has often been the key measurement focus for brands in the past, yet attention now needs to be drawn towards engaging and building a fan base. With an increasingly digitally-aware consumer it is now more important than ever to understand emotional engagement and define clear actions in order to market effectively. Whether changing the language of a message or communicating through a more appropriate channel, it has never been more vital for brands to understand and act on their consumers' intentions.

2. A psychological understanding of the consumer could promote better results

Ben Christensen, Digital Consultant from Experian Marketing Services spoke about understanding the customers' genuine intentions through their personality traits rather than the segments they are commonly penned into. Taking into consideration the five big personality traits – openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism can open up the opportunity to better understand how, when and why consumers purchase. It may sound obvious but with results like 'highly open people spending 7x more' and 'people of high conscientiousness using nominated delivery 8x more' it clearly is important to take in to account the psychology behind purchase behaviour and to plan and create campaigns built around the basic functions of the brain.

3. Dated research methods are no longer viable

At least they are no longer viable as a method alone. Although they serve a purpose, they should be substantiated and supported by more contemporary research which explores the more emotional aspect of consumer behaviour. It's apparent that there has been more of a shift towards neuro insight techniques. Silver Spoon and Neuro-Insight UK spoke about measuring emotional responses to advertising. It is important for advertisers to identify which key messages emotionally resonate and which images are stored in the memory, which in turn can influence sales and brand advocacy.

4. Personalisation is key – handing over a sense of control and power to the consumer

In a world of information overload, the customer desires control and more filtered content, personalisation can cut through the audiences' disengagement. Ultimately, consumers are willing to pay more for a better service. Take Very.com for example, who have experimented with personalisation, by using geographic location tracking to display suitable products based on live weather conditions in an online shopper's area.

5. Digital advertising this year will make up a larger share of media advertising spend than all other traditional formats combined

We all know how integral digital is and will be in the future, but this prediction emphasises the point even more so. In an ever more digital world, measurement is key as well as brands continuing to evolve and develop their social media strategy. According to comScore, 40% of ads don't even get served, and if you're not effectively measuring your advertising you'll never know whether it has or not. Digital must be integrated in to everything we do, and must maintain a consistent message with all other advertising.

So, bearing all of that in mind, what does the future hold? When you consider that just 10 years ago Twitter, Google Maps and iPhones didn't exist and Nokia was market leader, who knows where we'll be in another 10 years' time.