In this special edition of Marketing Horizons, hosts Ruth Stevens and Cyndi Greenglass review the 2021 marketing trends they believe will have a significant impact on marketers in the year ahead. Some fads have already faded, but some new ones will continue to disrupt and drive business results in 2022. And a bonus: Are you thinking about how to up level your career this year? Ruth and Cyndi also give us a preview of the exciting careers emerging for marketers.
Science and technology will be used to improve marketing methods and results
Nancy Harhut discussed how behavioral science helps marketers understand buyer’s comfort levels and typical buying patterns.
- The BYAF technique gives people the option to say it’s up to them as a different way of presenting an offer or message.
Seb Reeve discussed “digital first.”
- Customers are going to digital platforms instead of contacting call centers. This information can be helpful for call centers later in the customer process utilizing AI.
- Marketers need to make sure their digital communications are sharp and supporting.
- AI is enabling us as communicators and not replacing us.
Everything needs to be centered around the consumer
Paul Leinwand and Samrat Sharma from PriceWaterhouseCoopers discussed how everything is centered around the consumer these days.
- We are going digital and the retail experience is changing.
- The pandemic has given us the opportunity to embrace true digital adoption.
- We need to embrace what is right for the consumers needs, not the brand’s wants and it needs to be frictionless.
It is expected that $42 billion in digital advertising will be diverted to fraudsters in 2022
Dr. Augustine Fou discusses ad fraud and how it has been affecting programmatic buying.
- We need to stop focusing on vanity metrics and stop thinking about how many people are reached and how many times, we need to change our mindset to the technical side.
- Privacy laws will help divert fraudsters, but they often find ways around it.
- We need to not shout our message to our market, but rather pull in people with the product offerings.
- Go direct to publishers instead of using programmatic buying to avoid ad fraud.
Walled Gardens are emerging with the death of third-party cookies
Heather Blank discussed walled gardens with the growth of the privacy laws.
- With discussions of eliminating third-party cookies, we are going to need to build up first-party data gardens.
- Walled gardens are not necessarily good news for marketers. Large corporations could create paywalls and cause more challenges with digital marketing.
- Without a persistent ID, conversations will become fragmented.
Marketing is being incorporated into more positions at companies and continues to evolve
Theresa Kushner made the bold question, is marketing dead.
- It’s not fully dead, but it is seeping into additional departments, showing the need for marketing.
- This brings a need to diversify your knowledge as marketing roles are moving into the strategy department, customer management department, etc.
Ron Jacobs points out how marketing has evolved into direct marketing.
- Direct response communications have become the language of marketing communications online.
- Direct marketing is being embraced across marketing principles.
- Specializing is becoming crucial as we need to reach niche audiences.
- PR is broadening to communicators.
Embrace Data and take charge of accountability and measurement
Scott Brinker discussed how martech has grown and continues to grow.
- Tools needed to manage customer data today are different from the early days of database marketing.
- We need to look at technology as an enabler to our creativity.
David Raab discussed why CDPs are important.
- We have to search for new technologies with the business result in mind. We have to understand the gaps in our business and identify the missing functionality that any new technology will help us fill.
- Despite the proliferation of MarTech that is in our lives to help us understand our customers and better manage our customer relationships, it's all about the people and the business solution and the technology is a facilitator.
AI will bring more marketing tools, including intuitive chatbots
Koen De Witte discussed how chatbots are being humanized with AI.
- Chatbot technology is evolving and providing solutions for marketers.
- There’s a lot of potential to be discovered in the future.
Careers for marketers and growing and evolving
Laura Marino discussed the growing role of tech in product management.
- We need to be technology savvy to really have a seat at the C-suite, especially in B2B.
Bridgette Borst Ombres discussed how PR is growing into other fields.
- PR isn’t just stories, it’s much more of a communications professions that takes us beyond traditional marketing.
R. Scott Gillum discussed how agencies need to evolve.
- For those who are mid- to late-career, there’s more flexibility opportunities for agencies to work fully remote and hours based.
Meet the Hosts
Cyndi W. Greenglass is a founding partner and president at Livingston Strategies, a data-informed, strategic consulting firm that helps clients develop, execute, and measure their customer communications with a close focus on results. Cyndi has razor-sharp strategic skills matched by impeccable on-the-ground savvy and tactical abilities. She is an Adjunct Instructor in the Data Marketing Communications online master's degree program from West Virginia University.
Greenglass has twice been named into the Top 100 Influential BTB Marketers by Crain’s BtoB Magazine and was the 2012 CADM Chicago Direct Marketer of the Year. She is a member of the Board of Advisors for BRAND United and has taught, trained and presented at over 50 conferences throughout the world.
Ruth P. Stevens consults on customer acquisition and retention, for business-to-business clients. Ruth serves on the boards of directors of the HIMMS Media Group, and the Business Information Industry Association. She is a trustee of Princeton-In-Asia, past chair of the Business-to-Business Council of the DMA, and past president of the Direct Marketing Club of New York.
Ruth was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in Business Marketing by Crain’s BtoB magazine, and one of 20 Women to Watch by the Sales Lead Management Association. She serves as a mentor to fledgling companies at the ERA business accelerator in New York City.
WVU Marketing Communications Today: Horizons is presented by the West Virginia University Reed College of Media, which offers renowned online master’s degree programs in Marketing Communications. Interested in growing your career with a master's degree in Data, Digital or Integrated Marketing Communications? Request more information today!