At the Online Publisher Association submit this last February Rishad Tobaccowala gave a presentation on his thoughts for the future of digital advertising and marketing. Following up on predictions he made in 2002, he bases his predictions of the future off the success of those made 10 years earlier. A genius in the field, I break down the most important keynotes and take aways from his wise word: Content, Brands, and Just Doing It
Digital Leakage ::
Once something is produced and goes digital, it breaks through every barrier, even those not predicted. A great example of this is the iPhone. Not only did the iPhone impact phone companies like Nokia, is also took a toll on camera companies and gaming systems.
The takeaway: ”Competitors to an industry are never who you believe they are - they are always someone coming from a conjoining space,” said Rishad. There are always new people, commerce is merging and separate channels of communication are almost distinct. In the future, competition is going to be crossing so many channels that it will be emerging everywhere from all different kinds of companies, and is not limited to a specific field.
The Future ::
Audiences
Companies are going to need to focus on the voice of the consumer, not just the users. Distractors are 4x more likely to speak out against a company then advocates will. If they don’t listen to distractors companies will not be able to get through the negative attention to advocates or consumers.
Also, humans are analog in a silicon world - we have feelings. Everything is not about data, and in order to connect with audiences attention is going to need to be brought back to personal feelings and needs, not just selling the tangible product.
Content
Bottom line: There is too much of it & it’s losing value. Distributing content in real time, as soon as possible, is where the $ is, not in the content itself. Which leads to….
Data
Society is going to need to find a way we can extract the insides from data. Data becomes meaningless when there is to much of it, and soon we aren’t going to be able to find the important stuff.
Brands
Brands will remain important & be done in completely new ways, with an importance on brand building, story telling & integration
Story telling will be most important - meaning, are you authentic? part of the community? tangible?
New brand building is going to be based around tangibility. The most important thing for companies is going to be the delivery of the product, not false advertising
Rishad’s Advice for the Future ::
Stay relevant - don’t make others change, change yourself
You have to do, can’t just think
2 Ways to change a company: change people’s mindsets or change the people
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Learn more about Rishad: @rishadt. rishadt.tumblr
Watch Digital Marketing: The Way Ahead
