Marketing isn’t what it used to be. Sure, the Brand Bowl takes place adjacent to the Super Bowl each year, but if you are a business owner, leader, or marketer, it is safe to say that your role is changing.
For the doomsayers, this change is scary. In fact, there are countless pundits out there proclaiming a sentiment of doom for the marketer. I believe those statements are primarily baseless, however, what those provocateurs are trying to say is something more substantial and it reads like this…
Marketers who are still doing marketing the way marketers have always done marketing are going to be obsolete.
While there are many reasons that this line of thinking is correct, I want to discuss two specific changes in the workplace that are going to make certain that this prophecy becomes reality.
- Technological Advancements. I was thinking about calling this Big Data and Analytics, but really it is so much more than just those two things. IoT, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, mobile, and so many other tech advances are really changing the way we market. Not only are they changing how much we know about our customers, but also what we know about them that can help us to better design products and services for them. Once we do that, we have to market to them so they can discover our business. This is why I said above that the marketer won’t go obsolete, but rather the marketer who doesn’t understand how the old principles of marketing are advancing with the times. In short, we must make data collection a priority, and then utilize the data to create more personalized experiences that build revenue, profit, and create greater consumer loyalty. Sounds easy, and with all the data we have it should be, but it isn’t because even with all the data and AI in the world, it takes people working together harmoniously to successfully market in the modern workplace.
- Collaboration 2.0. It would be easy to lump this into the technology advancements category but I refuse to take something that is inherently human—like communication—and make it about technology. What I will say is the technology that is powering collaboration is providing rapid fire power to the way teams work together regardless of where they are, when they work, and what their workstyle is. Over the past year, we have seen new companies rise from nowhere, like Slack, to become a popular tool in the workplace. Simultaneously, market leaders like Microsoft and Cisco have come out with tools to reshape the way teams collaborate as well. In fact, Microsoft calls its product “Microsoft Teams” and this is because the tools they’ve developed allow people to take a plethora of physical and digital work environments and create easy to operate, real-time, and asynchronous work environments that incorporate voice, video, data, presence, and more. Even better? These highly secure environments allow teams to work together more efficiently, while in the case of Microsoft Teams, not forcing them to leave their work environment.
Embracing Technology and Collaboration for Modern Marketing
In the past, so much of marketing was about the creative, but now data contributes to the creative decision-making process. With the advancement of data collection and analytics, marketers move from a world of gut driven decision making to a highly-validated, data driven approach that brings more people from different backgrounds into the mix. Teams of data scientists, brand marketers, agencies, and product teams now need to work together to make sure all the information and new technology is leveraged in a way that measurably increases ROI. This is why embracing new technology is only half the battle. The rest comes down to creating the most fertile, collaborative environment within an organization for creativity and execution. Ads of today are data driven, collaboration driven works of art, built in the wake of strong teams embracing technology and communication in their modern marketing.
Ready to Get Started?
If you are an Office 365 User and you are interested in learning more about how to get started with Microsoft Teams, Microsoft offered this nice simple tutorial.
This article has been brought to you in part by Microsoft. The opinions belong to the author. For more info check out the launch insights from Microsoft
Daniel NewmanDaniel Newman is the Principal Analyst of Futurum Research and the CEO of Broadsuite Media Group. Living his life at the intersection of people and technology, Daniel works with the world’s largest technology brands exploring Digital Transformation and how it is influencing the enterprise. From Big Data to IoT to Cloud Computing, Newman makes the connections between business, people and tech that are required for companies to benefit most from their technology projects, which leads to his ideas regularly being cited in CIO.Com, CIO Review and hundreds of other sites across the world. A 5x Best Selling Author including his most recent “Building Dragons: Digital Transformation in the Experience Economy,” Daniel is also a Forbes, Entrepreneur and Huffington Post Contributor. MBA and Graduate Adjunct Professor, Daniel Newman is a Chicago Native and his speaking takes him around the world each year as he shares his vision of the role technology will play in our future.