1. Everything old is new again but everything is changing
This may seem like an oxymoron but consider the resurgence of Charlie Tuna, Chester Cheetah, and the Energizer Bunny. In times of flux, characters like Charlie Tuna give people a sense of comfort and nostalgia for the “good old days.” But a straight recycle is doomed to fall flat. Quality new and reimagined content needs to back up that splashy modern web page. Marketers need answer “Where’s the Beef.”
2. Digital is so Last Year
The term digital is so ubiquitous, it is redundant. Having separate budgets for ‘digital’ and ‘non-digital’ is outdated and pointless. Budgets should be a single amount with the objective of driving a return and helping the business succeed – that simple.
3. Chief Marketing Technologist is Becoming Increasingly Important
Why? Because it’s the ultimate culmination between the chief marketing officer (CMO) role and the chief information officer (CIO) role. It’s growing in popularity and there aren’t many out there. This title will become common as more marketing functionality becomes automated and dependent on technology. Many marketing budgets already are larger and faster growing than IT budgets.
4. Brands Suffer from Big Data Overload
Most brands have realized the potential opportunity in Big Data, but just as they are realizing it’s great potential, it’s becoming obvious that the insights available exceed their current capacity to leverage the sheer volume of data. Big Data’s power will elude many brands. You must find a partner that will help translate that data into business decisions.
4. Today’s Apps Become Tomorrow’s Services
Mobile lives in the same graveyard as digital. Smart notifications and mash ups of existing data are the future. The more computing systems are smaller, faster, and more convenient length of continuous engagement shrinks. Desktops to laptops (hours), smartphones to tablets (minutes), and by now wearables and connected devices start to be widely adopted (seconds).
5. The World is Getting Smaller
The pervasiveness of technology makes us yearn for a return to local charm. Some things and experiences simply don’t scale. According to Google research, four in five people use search to find local information. Where people are, actually says a lot about what they might be looking for and their mind-sets, intentions and concerns. The internet made the world smaller. Hyper local continues to increase in power.
6. Search
Information can tell us everything. It has all the answers. But they are answers to questions we have not asked, and which doubtless don’t even arise. – Jean Baudrillard
The holy grail of online search has been for websites to deliver upon the wants and needs of people based on them providing few, if no inputs. It is for this reason, that there is a rise of AI assistants.
8. Everyone Will Start to Understand AI
Simply put, AI engine can see patterns between seemingly unconnected complex searches to understand how they’re actually similar to each other. See you understand! This learning, in turn, allows it to better understand future complex searches and whether they’re related to particular topics.
9. Walled Gardens Butting Up Against Each Other
Social networks are closed systems. You can interact but you can never truly leave. Snapchat doesn’t lead outside the network, Instagram makes it challenging and Facebook is making every effort to keep users from heading outside of its walled garden. Even Twitter users are increasingly hesitant to click on links! Brands need to optimize for on-platform success and conversation, and minimize the Calls To Action and click throughs because this simply won’t happen in the walled gardens. Throw out your old social strategy – you should rethink each platform.
10. Millennials Need Personalization to Engage
The ability to tell 360-degree stories is here with video and mobile. Brands should be able to engage their prospects like never before. This is especially important for millennials. Technology enables this. Virtual reality, location-based marketing is becoming the standard drivers for personalization. Personalize content and you will drive engagement.
Written by Cole Mason