What will marketing departments look like in 2020?
Last week I was in a brainstorming session with a bunch of marketing people a lot smarter than I am (I’m not kidding), and we were brainstorming on what marketing departments will look like in 2020. The discussion was great and we came up with a lot of interesting directions to explore.
Before I share some of the things we landed on, how do you think marketing departments will change over the next eight years? Feel free to answer here or in Quora where I posted the same question.
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2020, eh? Lot’s could happen between now than then. I read a few of the answers already posted on Quora and they sounded like descriptions of marketing departments for a much closer time frame. I say you’ve got to get out of today’s box and really imagine what the world will be like in 2020. The marketing department of 2020 will need to be a reflection of the world at that time. Like I said, I think a lot could happen by 202o. Just look at the past 10 years alone. The next ten will make today look like the stone ages. Maybe it’s just me, but my approach in imagining the what a marketing department must look like in 2020 would begin with taking a good stab at imagining what the world will look like first. So for example, researching the technologies in development that are slated to hit the market in the next ten years plus looking at what other major factors that may affect our culture as a whole (e.g. political, economic, etc.).
Think of it this way: In 1990, marketing consisted of roughly TV, radio, print, display and direct (mail, telephone). In 2000, the list of channels several dozen options (I won’t try to list them here). In 2010, the list is crazy long and included items nobody predicted back in 2000 (iPhones, social media, gps everything, etc). Want to take a stab at 2020? What will entertainment look like? What kind of breakthroughs are right around the corner? For example, will there be lifelike holographic capabilities by then? How will we be able to interact with it? How will such a thing affect communications and social interaction? What about quantum computing, black silicon, artificial intelligence (that’s a biggee), robotics, bio-technologies, technology implants, etc, etc. I think the trend is that everything in our environment will, in one way or another, be digitally enhanced, possibly intelligent to some degree, wirelessly connected and even aware of its surroundings (sensor technologies).
That means: as technology digitally blends into every inch of our surroundings and everyday lives, so will marketing follow suit. All marketing becomes digital marketing. All virtual and physical objects become targets for marketing play. The standard for marketing departments may be a bunch of tech geeks (but won’t we all be by then?), social behaviorists, number crunching analysts, creatives (of course), monetization specialists (it all has to translate to something, doesn’t it?), and whatever/whoever else we can throw in the mix to sufficiently figure out what we’ll need for 2030. Hmmm…
Deep thinking here TK.
I was talking to an exec at Google recently and he made the comment that Android will soon be in every possible place you could put software. Like toasters. Think about it.
And to that extent, I completely agree that where technology/digital exists, marketing will soon follow.
Great Post- Singularity is on its way. 3-D Nano-tube stacks on chips, Nano-bots in your blood stream realigning at the cellular level cancer cells. Bio-enhancements making us smarter, faster,and healthier. The interesting part is that we as humans will not have a shock to our systems since it will be growth in a step by step fashion and we will take it in course. Just take an I-Pad and put it into the hands of an adult in the 50’s or 60’s and they would believe it was a device that came from that spaceship they found in Roswell. Well that was my parents and now they think nothing of it and love how simple it is.
Like your take on the marketing aspects. I think that the areas that will be handled with technology will be the speed in which the marketing message in whatever form will be filtered, reviewed against your social graph,stacked against peer-review systems, and the level we will allow AI machine driven systems to take over decision on purchase. The bleeding edge is now doing this with the tools we have now. In 10 years the dumb smartphone mobile of today will be way beyond the current bleeding edge of today and will not even think about it.
It’s funny you say that about the toasters. I’ve definitely thought about not just smart appliences but social appliances. Here’s an example: A few months back I was brainstorming with a friend over dinner and began envisioning smart refrigerators that are social. So imagine that your fridge is web enabled and also equipped with such things as bar code scanners and other simple sensors to automatically manage your inventory, energy consumption, email you shopping lists or even place direct orders with grocers (nothing that hasn’t been talked about before), etc, etc. Marketers might do stuff like send your fridge coupons for competing products you are consuming, meal/recipe ideas based on available inventory and then suggest one or two more items to make it happen. Obvious stuff.
NOW imagine this: your fridge becomes social. What do they always show on MTV cribs? What’s in the refridgerator. People are fascinated by what others are consuming. Food goes hand in hand with being social. I bet you people would have fun sharing their fridges on Facebook. Watcha got in your fridge? Says a lot about people. Now it becomes a target for all sorts of apps related to diet lifestyle, social gaming and opportunities for marketing/branding galore. Check ins? “Tony just checked into an Odwalla Smoothie.” and scanned the “Like” QR Code with the fridge scanner, earning him points towards a free offer… plus keep track of my calories for the day. Nice.
Next up: intelligent and social wardrobe closets. Hmmm…..