What Can We Anticipate for the Future of Marketing?

[Ryuzaki]

"What Can We Anticipate for the Future of Marketing?"

I feel like that's an important question. Not in the sense of us staying on the up-and-up, but more so for positioning ourselves now for the future. Not necessarily just SEO and IM, but marketing in general.

It's a weird question because marketing is directly tied to the medium, and the medium these days is digital, and technology is following Moore's Law. The game is changing so fast that it's almost impossible to future proof yourself like it was in the past. It's all about pivoting fast now.

BUT.

With our combined minds, insights, and conversation about it, can we predict in some fashion where things might be going and how to take advantage of this for our large brands or even for those quick churn opportunities?

I'm thinking about how things were one or two channels in the beginning. Physical mailing lists, physical subscriptions, telephone techniques. Then we started dealing with websites, email lists, retargeting pixels. Then we introduced even more channels like social media, search engine marketing. Now we are optimizing across all of these various channels by creating giant funnels.

But where is it going? It seems like, while the internet keeps finding more ways to tag on broader and broader channels to the TOP of the funnel... what's coming that we can inject into the middle or even the bottom of the funnel?

Mobile is going to do something eventually. Mobile and Tablets. It's not clear yet. They are still dependent on Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 infrastructure. Videos, display ads, opt-in forms, etc.

We have Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality ready to drop in our laps in 5 years or so in a widespread way. A.R. is largely going to be 1.0 and 2.0 as well.

Imagine people buying billboards out on the street but instead of them having anything on them, they are just green screens. And companies start doing CPM bidding on them.

Imagine your GPS overlay in your A.R. contact lenses with arrows showing you where to go, but alerts can pop up when you get near a pizza parlor, because you've been cookied enough times that people know you can't resist pizza.

Same with V.R. Ads in games, Ads in movies, Ads in magazines on e-readers. They are blank until someone looks at them, and the highest bidder wins if you match their targeting.

Also, The Internet of Things is going to pop off. Amazon is already selling little things like laundry detergent buttons you stick on your washer and drier. When you're getting low, you just press the button, get auto charged, and get a new bottle in the mail within a couple days.

The question becomes, what other opportunities are coming, and how can we use them for our marketing benefit?

 

[c4yrslf12]

Also, The Internet of Things is going to pop off. Amazon is already selling little things like laundry detergent buttons you stick on your washer and drier. When you're getting low, you just press the button, get auto charged, and get a new bottle in the mail within a couple days.

Sick. Link for those interested.

 

[CCarter]

The Global economy is changing altogether, rapidly. What was once a cushy job at some large corporation is getting replaced by software and data analysis. It's a good time to be a software engineer and analytics analyst to help create the structure and give an understanding to that new stream of data.

Mobile

Payment acceptance is the first level. Basically with a mobile device, you are directly connected to your customer. Once they download your APP and give you permission they own you until you delete that APP, and even then data storage man... I don't think it's going to become more pervasive though. But pranks, tricksters, and scammers will have a field day as with all new technology those that can adapt faster will succeed.

Mobile is going to be the medium where the internet lives going forward - there is no denying that. Imagine what that landline phone line used to be - you had to be at home or at an office to communicate with it. A cellphone eliminated that. Now do you really think that you'll need to be at home or at your office to "Internet"? No - imagine the physical desktop computer where you have to go and sit down to interact, that's gone... Once internet is everywhere the only purpose of a desktop computer is physical storage and with cloud store, there literally is no point.

What we need to figure out is how to get rid of this keyboard and mouse for good. There is things like LeapMotion and the voice recognition on phones like Siri and Cortana (yeah seriously that's the name Microsoft borrowed from Halo for their Siri competitor), so once we go fully mobile - keyboards are done. Only complex problems like software engineers or something that need direct inputs, for a while, will need them.

Outsourcing - Coming Back Home

In the past we, the American Earth Sphere, outsourced out product creation to the places with the cheapest labour - but now with the advent of robotics and smarter robots - places like China will no longer be able to provide the "cheapest" labor. Manufacturing is coming back home. What does that mean, tons of places that used to be known for their sweatshop will suddenly find themselves out of work. So mini-depressions are going to happen in places like China as they transition to a new type of economy for their workforce. And the only real answer is information/data as the new currency of the world. Again good time to be a software engineer or data person, bad time to be a person that's a labour that works their your hands.

Now if physical products come back home, that's not going to equate to an increase in jobs on the 'physical workforce', it's going to do the exact opposite. It's going to accelerate the demand for robotics in other tasks that a robot can do. You even start to see it at places like McDonalds where customers have kiosks where they can order their own food without a server waiting on them. You see it at grocery stores with self-checkout lines.

There is going to be a demand for these robots that can do these meaningless tasks, so again it's a good time to be a software engineer. All those people that do have those 're-stock' the shelf jobs, well guess what they'll be out of work or controlling the lines. Realistically all shelf stocking at stores will be able to be done at night when there aren't customers walking around, you see the potential when you have a robotic workforce that doesn't need breaks?

If you've got a job that software or a robot can do - you'll find yourself competing at some level then eventually being pushed out. And if your company is foolish enough to think they can survive it, well a smaller competitor with just robots will soon come into the field and undercut your whole operation and reduce costs of that good and go into a pricing war until you are out of business.

Basically you as the individual and us as the society need to get ready for a future where you'll need to use more of your brain to 'get a job' or do serious work.

Boom in Specialized and Small Businesses

Micro-business are starting to catch on. Business with 2 man operations doing $100K a month in revenue cause the software handles everything but the the live customer support to help users out when they get lost are on the rise. I've seen operations running out of small warehouse operations that used to take 20 man teams be reduced to 3 people cause shipping is automated, FedEx and UPS is scheduled at the exact same time every day. Heavy equipment is getting replaced by smarter robots and the operations are becoming extremely efficient. You'll only need 1 to 3 people supervising large operations that used to be handled by 100+ people. It's already happening.

Now with operations like Etcsy - people are creating products from their homes and having fulfillment warehouses handle everything else. (There is going to be a boom in fulfillment warehouses that run efficiently fully automated robots - IMO). And that's just the physical products.

For Digital Goods or service - again software engineers are going to be critical UNTIL there is a software created to eliminate the complexity of creating software - WAT... yeah that's right, when a traditional stay at home housewife can start a subscription based digital software company that aggregates data to 500+ people for $30 a month, that's a good $15K in income for her for something that would be originally extremely complicating to pull off.

The digital infrastructure is also changing rapidly, what used to be extremely difficult like creating digital software will become easier and easier when someone figures out the basic outlines of all software. (Here I believe there still is massive opportunity). Basically digital fulfillment warehouses that handle your customer base, data, security, and deliver, etc. It's coming...

People are going to have to become mercenaries, or specialize in a set of niches or skills that can't be easily replicated by software or robots. And that's tricky as the software and robots keep getting faster and smarter. Soon we might all be out of a job and not really care since the social costs of living are going to be reduced overall - but the trouble is as with places like China losing manufacturing - similar to America when it lost manufacturing - that transition period is going to be scary and hurt.

It's sort of funny when I see politicians on TV stating they are going to bring back manufacturing like that's going to increase the workforce. Think about it for a second, how can that actually be possible? If there is a workforce the costs of the good will go up, but no workforce the cost of goods will stay the same or rapidly decline - hence why we outsourced in the first place. So the only way to bring back manufacturing is to literally bring it back but not bring back the workforce. Long gone are the days where people will be using their hands to put together a car. Robots took over that a long time ago, and they'll keep getting smarter and faster.

At a certain point you don't even need to go outside. I get my food delivered, if I need to go somewhere I can call Uber to pick me up and drop me off, really the only reason to go outside is human interaction - BUT if there is a new medium that creates that human interaction like imagine a live video skype chatroom with other people in it - that'll reduce the need for that. Realistically you still want to go outside and party with friends and see people, but all of the non-digital society will become 'more social' while the "everything else" is being taken care of digitally.

The only advantage you as a human being has over the robots and software (besides getting money by creating these software and robots) is your human brain. Figure out a way to make money that requires more brainpower that can't be easily replicated - cause even the data analysis guy can be replaced by software as will the software engineer - But that's like 10-20 years off, maybe...

The problem is people don't think about the far future when it's far off. 20 years from now is nothing - but you need to start changing your course now so at year 19 you aren't one of the billions of people scrambling to figure out your future. Like in SEO - those people that saw the cliff coming new to build serious properties instead of spending their easy re-bill affiliate money on sports cars and now are completely broken talking about the good old days of SEO...

Andrew McAfee: What will future jobs look like?

Robotics, AI, the end of human work, and a coming Renaissance

 

[CCarter]

I want to add that creativity - the one resource that software, robots, data, and even most of humanity can not replicate easily is going to be a HUGE component of your future. Creativity is needed to make entertainment - movies, music, art, literature, and new ideas. We are rapidly going towards a society too nothing but smart creative people and complete drones that are glued to the TV watching nonsense cause there is "nothing to do". The choice is yours on which group you want to be a part of.

 

[Ryuzaki]

@CCarter,

Yep, we are quickly going to be further separated into content producers and content consumers.

Global Economy
I agree that we will be forced into socialism, which may or may not {descend|ascend} into communism. If done correctly it'll be fine, since most people are happy to be parented over by the government. Like you said, when the standard of living rises high enough, the cost of living low enough, and everything is automated, what else is left but to enjoy life.

Big Data
The main issue I see with data right now, is even with analyst geniuses on the case, some of this big big data is just not actionable on the level it could be. We have to come at it from a certain angle, correlate this and that, watch a signal pop out of the noise, and take action on that fractional minuscule aspect. You could do that from 100 angle and take a meta-review look at it and possibly find an extremely effective method that produces crazy results. After all, when it comes to human interaction and the application of creativity and intellect, time remains the constraining factor. That's part of the issue I see with big data right now.

Input Devices
I agree this is an issue and even invented a solution (abstractly) and didn't pursue it. Later saw someone on Kickstarter fail miserably at it by butchering the execution and the build. I wanted to create a ring that goes on your index finger that features a track button like we saw in laptops for a while. Just the little "pencil eraser" type of button you push around. Have that on your finger, plus with a click function.

That right now would be a transition step, unless it becomes socially acceptable for all of us to be blabbering out loud to our devices all the time and possibly crossing streams (unless we do voice recognition and amplitude detection).

For the further future, I envision pico-technology that is drunk or eaten, passes the blood brain barrier, and sits in the synapses of your neurons. It intercepts neuro-chemical-electrical impulses and translates it into input for your devices. It could even output back to you... now we're talking about completely "real" virtual environments. As you said, not only will we not need to leave our homes, but we won't need to unplug from our virtual utopias either.

I think Desktops will remain though and possibly gain prominence in the FAR future when we stop being physically mobile and start traveling virtually. We'll need ridiculous processing power at home, or at least storage and retrieval, because we will hit the top bounds of bandwidth for sure, unless we crack some quantum entanglement type of communication where information moves immediately (faster than light).

Specialization
Yeah, this has been the case ever since we formed tribes. This guy hunts, this girl gathers, this guy rules, this guy is the shaman, etc. This guy makes jewelry and pottery. Like you said, Etsy is THE exemplary display of how far it's gotten. You can have anything you want customized exactly how you want it. I have a leather laptop bag that perfectly fits only my macbook air, and it has my initials on it and all kinds of stuff. Same with my tobacco & pipe pouch I had made. Etsy blows my mind.

I'm not sure this has any broad application for us as marketers, but I think it will forced upon us and we'll be forced to go micro-niche as solo-preneurs unless we get positioned NOW as big brands.

Native Advertising
This, I'm most excited about. It's not new by any means but as far as going back to the original ideas in the thread, I think this is a great way for us to leverage our marketing skills. It's like guest posting without the author box at the bottom. The users don't know, the search engines don't know, and we win. I absolutely LOVE reading a magazine and finishing an article only to read the final line in italics that says "this article brought to you by Random Company". The company may not even be relevant, but dammit they impressed their brand in my brain now. It's slick.

I imagine this is going to play a huge role in A.R. and V.R. as mentioned above.

 

[Ryuzaki]

Gamification
Huge for the future. Everything will not only be personalized, but interactive and fun, exploiting our sense of false accomplishment (is it even false at that point?). We want progress, we want achievements to commemorate breaking plateaus and thresholds.

Imagine if a software/hardware company tied in with Apple/Android to have a health app permanently implemented, and then hooked in with Gold's Gym, Rush, and all the big gyms to have every single piece of equipment transmit data to and from the app. Hell, we might have implants instead of phones at this point that talk to our contact lenses.

You can extrapolate this concept to anything and everything. Complete monitoring of all activities you want (or don't want ) and automatic data cleaning and analysis w/ gamification.

Modular Everything
Related to specialization... what if instead machinery focused on specialization in a modular fashion. So that what we do is purchase "nodes" or "cubes" even that magnetically clip together or just have to be close for shortwave transmission. But each node can add a feature to whatever system you're building. I've seen this in music with synthesizers and effects processors. Imagine this in computers, the kitchen, lawn tools. That's getting out there. It makes the most sense in computers and any hardware relying on computing and electronics.

"I really wish my toaster could toast more than 2 pieces!" So I buy the expansion pack and slap it on there.

Just like RAM, ROM, GPU's, etc. It's already started. It can jump out of the realm of hardware, into software (plugins! themes!), and out into the IRL environment.

Inverse Paywalls
Some of you youngsters may not remember this. When VHS and VCR's were overthrown by DVD players, the first few generations made it impossible to skip advertisements on the DVD's.

Lots of news websites will let you and the search engines read the first couple of paragraphs of an article and then lock the rest behind a paywall. Just as many sites will allow you to pay a premium to remove advertisements. That's what I'm calling an inverse paywall.

My guess is that, when all real problems begin to be solved, companies will invent inconveniences and offer to allow you to overcome them (with money). This is exactly what these flash games and mobile games are doing (and destroying their own industry while they are at it). (Not to mention nobody beta or stress tests anything any more. They make the consumers do it for them). By frustrating the shit out of you, they extract money out of you. I see this as becoming more widespread in digital industries in the future.

 

[tim2963]

Mobile has come so fuckin far in the last 4-5 years. It is going to completely dominate soon, the main reason why YP.com has died off since 09-10. Nobody cares to download that shitty app, so to compensate for not getting much traffic they now have changed their "2" sponsored ads to up to "7". They are dying because of mobile.

I have some industries that are over 90% mobile searches now vs less than 10% Desktop.

 

[NeverFrugal]

Now do you really think that you'll need to be at home or at your office to "Internet"? No - imagine the physical desktop computer where you have to go and sit down to interact, that's gone... Once internet is everywhere the only purpose of a desktop computer is physical storage and with cloud store, there literally is no point.

Elon Musk's SpaceX Plans To Launch 4,000 Satellites, Broadcasting Internet To Entire World
Link: http://www.ibtimes.com/elon-musks-s...es-broadcasting-internet-entire-world-1960546

First the post in the 'Inspire A Newbie' thread with hundreds of millions in cash...now magically predicting the future.

All makes sense now.

CCarter = Elon Musk.

Thanks for the early heads up.

 

[Andrewkar]

That is a Great thread @Ryuzaki. I have something on my mind but no time to write right now. I will say just that in my opinion it will go the same way it always did but, technology will give us a chance to interact with every single person on a completely new and DEEP level. We are going to be able to gather their needs and wants before they even know about it. Tomorrow I will write more.

 

[emp]

Yes, great thread @Ryuzaki

Here is my take on some of these.

Just in time marketing
This is where all comnes together. Cross-device tracking, big data, local targeting.
The idea is to market to someone JUST as they need it.
This Orwellian future has quite a few hurdles to take, though. Data protection as the biggest one, followed by data collection itself, foll.owed by the right interpretation.
So, I don't think we'll see this soon, but there is a take away for you:
Think hard about the needs of your target customers.
When, why, and how do they need what you are selling?
How can you optimize these?

Recommendation engines
At their core, recommendation engines are big data. However, very few people are getting big data right.
To quote one of the guys I know in insurance data warehousing:

We'll get to big data once we manage to do small data.

Now, to show some of the potential, I'll highlight one of the companies who is doing it wrong:
amazon
Yes, I know they are making a killing - doesn't mean they couldn't do better.
Thing is: I LOVE amazon. For as long as they are around, I am throwing money in their direction, because I am a voracious reader and a lazy ass, so once I was able to order things other than books - yeah...

But their recommendations?
They suck.

So.. They have my full profile .. over ten years of orders, I even rate everything, they know where I live, how much I spend, etc, etc...
Yet they are unable to make sense of it.
(Which is a good thing for me, because they's own me)

Some examples:
I read books in English, almost exclusively.
Ever since I got my first kindle, I order every book I can electronically.

So what happens?
Since I live in Switzerland, I have to order books via amazon.de .. works fine....but
They now send me emails recommending:
A German translation, hardcover - of a book I already own in English on my kindle.

Another one:
I ordered a multitool on amazon, this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Leatherman-830850-Skeletool-CX-Multitool/dp/B000XU43IC/
(no aff link, don't worry)

I am happy, gave it a good rating.
For the next weeks, I get multitools recommended on the site, via email, etc..
How many of those things do I need, amazon?
And why would I need a different one, when I rated this as good?
..
the list goes on and on and on...

Another example of bad use of data:
I buy a book. And for a while (it seems to have stopped) Amazon would bug me 3 days after the purchase to rate the book.
This is on my kindle.
That program knows if I downloaded the book, how far I've read, What sentences I highlighted, my notes, etc.. If they'd want they'd know WHEN and WHERE I read.
but no.. amazon just send this email to me blind... purchase date + 3 days...

An example on how data is used well by amazon:
If you read a book in a series ... just as you near the end... a small layer will appear on top of the page.
"Would you like to continue? The next book in this series is [Book name] .. buy it now, and continue reading [Series name]."

You can bet your sorry butt I click that.
(This ties in with Just in Time marketing)

A year ago, I was on the online marketing conference here in Zurich and one of the spealers outlined how they divide "repeat buy" products from "single buy" products for recommendations.
The example was a pet store.
"repeat buy" was perishables, and consumables - things like dog food or cat litter.
These would be recommended at fitting times (average reorder time, etc)
"single buy" is things you very likey only buy one time - a dog leash, for example.

The marketing (email, on site) was much more targeted and seen as less annoying - and increased their revenue substantially.

So yeah - my take:
Recommendation engines

::emp::

 

[Andrewkar]

Yes, Just In Time Marketing is going to be next BIG thing.

About 15 years ago I was talking to a guy, he was a business owner (had clubs and import-export in Europe) and quite successful one. They guy was much older than me, I was around 16-18 and he was in his thirties. We got drunk with a few folks from my crew and then started brainstorming what is the next BIG IDEA that will change the way we live.

There were big things like cars, planes, nukes, PCs, internet, terrorism and now we have mobile. Of course, we didn't know about the last ones). So what would be the next big invention that can influence our existence? Well, we all were drunk that night so ideas were rather very funny at times but, that guy came out with something very interesting.
He said the next big idea is going to be a fully automated healthcare and everything related to health (fitness etc. you name it).

He said that at one day, we are all going to be buying "health" from machines just like we take cash from cashpoints these days. It was a quite abstract vision but, very interesting nonetheless.

Was he right?

This company http://www.proteus.com/how-it-works/ . They are working on a digital pill that will let know your GP whenever you took your pill or not. Even more, they have plans for more advanced pills that will analyze your health markers and give signals to the center whenever it thinks you are in trouble (your health markers reaching red lines...).

Now, this company is just at the beginning of this process but, I'm sure that the invention of a "pill" that is able to REACT (according to orders sent by the healthcare facility) and CREATE a right solution for the body out of body enzymes etc. is not that far away. Of course, it seems like impossible to get done and in fact it will probably look differently. Still, the main idea is there.

Now think about all that health and fitness industry. Or even about simple things, like getting hungry. I can imagine McDonald's serving those pills to it's customers together with chips and than having a full view at one's eating habits. Once they have this kind of "insider's" data, they can create a very precise and perfectly formulated offer and send it out by any possible means at their disposal. Talk about high CR rates.

Digital supplement's or body lotions containers for example. Once it gets empty it sends your order for a new one or, if you don't finish it at the time manufacturer have determined for it, you get reminders and warnings etc. Like @emp said, it's going to be a battle with laws and regulations but eventually, it will go through at one day or another.

So I think that the future, and I base this on my somehow limited knowledge of marketing and technology, is in the precise targeting HERE and NOW. Satisfying customers/clients needs and wants immediately (before our competitors...).

In the IM world.
Google is already providing some data if we look at real time traffic for example. It's limited but, it's a wave of future in my opinion. So I think that companies that will specialize in gathering and data evaluation, that can actually precisely describe behaviors of a single person, will do a bank in upcoming days. Retargeting and tracking behaviours is here already but, it can be taken to a completely new level.

 

[Andrewkar]

Another one http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20150516/MAGAZINE/305169971 Kind of outsourcing isn't it?

 

[turbin3]

One of the few things that seems to be consistent, is the continued decline of work ethic and morals. Trolling the shit out of people with products that support them in their lackluster endeavors, while banking at it, is timeless.

People will continue coming out with increasingly advanced technologies, and innovative new ways to tie their own shoes with a robot...but at the end of the day I think we are largely headed here:

I just hope we can get it over with during my lifetime (not likely), have a much needed reckoning, and begin the cycle anew. </pessimism>

 

[Sobol]

Holy hell.

When I began this thread, I expected a couple paragraphs about current trends in the industry. Needless to say, I got way more than I bargained for. However, this thread was exactly what I needed to hear. So many things in this thread ring true. I'm only 17, so I admit that I lack the experience to accurately predict the future, but I do have some value to add to this conversation. The change is already happening.

The big tech giants are already preparing for this type of world as we speak and develop our own plans. Apple's strategy is the smartwatch. Right now, the watch is a simple, dumb extension of a phone that doesn't do much. Their long term game is that the watch will be an unobtrusive, natural extension of you. They have already begun to turn exercise into a game, with great results this early on (See here).

Siri is an attempt to reduce reliance on google for simple queries while functioning as an interface for the watch. With the latest iOS 9 betas, apple significantly improved the speed of Siri's language parsing and is adding predictive features similar to google now, except with privacy in the forefront.

Google on the other hand, is using the future to gain more powerful insight. Right now, they are funneling tons of cash into artificial intelligence. Their endgame is a solution where they can pump a user's data in, compare trends with similar users, and provide optimal advertising. They will compare users by demographics and interests.

The best interface is no interface. That is why mobile took off. It is so much more convenient to pull out your phone for a quick query than to go to a computer and wake it up. This is also why "always listening" watches will take off, despite privacy concerns. This is why Netflix destroyed video rentals and is eating into cable. It's so much more convenient to watch shows on your time, without ads. Necessity used to be the mother of invention. Now, it's convenience. In modern countries, all of our physical needs are met. We will no longer have necessity in the future.

As mentioned earlier, the world will become divided into two groups. The creators (or builders) and the consumers. There will be riots when traditional jobs are turned into machines, similar to the industrial revolution with the luddites. Eventually, the world will work past that stage.

The price of technology to create quality products is always decreasing. Web hosting is dirt cheap, quality cameras and production software are easy to use. Raspberry Pi's and arduino's enable technical DIY projects. 3D printers will allow anyone to make physical products.

The world will not turn into communism, because human nature prevents it. There will always be ways to game the system, and always people to game it. Instead, society will evolve into a hybrid form of socialism. The consumers will be able to live just fine, but the builder will still be able to profit.

 

[contract]

1. Mobile will takeover more and more.

2. More garages will have CNC machines and 3D printers. People will start creating their own products in-house. May spark a trend for template/education/etc sites.

3. Ad units will get more creative.. Here's an idea: Instead of having to watch ~30% commercials during a TV show. You'll now see 5 ad blocks in the bottom of the frame will your tv show plays. Users can voice to their TV to "call "directly to say an Insurance/Local service ad, or voice "click" and the screen plays a brand video or goes to the website.

4. Video will get more relevant, but so will fast fact information.

5. People will still be mining the digital mines for gold. There will still be people selling shovels/tools.

6. Remarketing will get more personal/individual. The data on people will be intrusive, but powerful.

7. People will consume clickbait faster than ever, they will develop an addiction to entertainment.