Let’s meet in Warsaw
I was in Warsaw recently (18-19.11.2014) on the Mediarun Festiwal 2014. We were invited by organizers to boost the event with our app Conventica . Additionally I got the chance to give a speech about the future of marketing and what happens, when technology meets the marketer. The Conference was great. I had a chance to meet a lot of interesting people plus I got to experiment with new technologies like Oculus Rift. As always there were some freebies like fruits and beautiful girls to talk to 😉
In this post I would like to briefly tell you the story of marketing, how the inventors have changed our daily life and what can we expect in the nearest future. These are the questions I tried to answer:
- What’s the history of marketing?
- When marketing has met inventors and how they cooperate together?
- Why modern marketer needs to understand technology?
- How the future marketer will look like?
Below you will also find slides from the presentation.
Mediarun Festiwal 2014 Damian Winkowski Desmart Conventica from DeSmart
Back to the roots – Why Prometheus has stolen the fire?
You know the story of Prometheus. There was a guy, who was brave and curious and he stolen the fire from Gods. They overreacted a little bit and punished him. Since then every day his leaver is ripped by an eagle. But what he did was unique. He founded a first piece of technology on Earth and he shared it with people.
Let’s jump to 1493. The printing press was invented. Johannes Guttenberg changed the world by giving a great tool to humanity. It was a start of mass communication and people could reach huge audience with newspapers or mails. Almost 400 years later Thomas Edison discovered a lightbulb, which was a Big Thing. At that moment of human history we had machines, electricity and we could go through Industrial Revolutions smoothly. We could speed up our work, produce more and stop being local entrepreneurs. Business distance wasn’t a limitation anymore so many companies expanded globally. The revenue of many companies grew like crazy and they needed a person, who could be responsible for promoting and selling new products. They needed a Marketer.
First marketers and why they failed (at least most of them)
If you have watched “Mad Man” you know that guy. Arrogant, alcohol addicted and selfish marketing person. He had huge budgets and sarcastic way of being. Some people wanted to be like him, but it’s not easy and not everyone is allowed to be a Don Draper. He uses TV, radio and newspaper as channels to reach his audience, but doesn’t measure his work. Times are changing and the World discovers new technology. In 70′ we’ve started using e-mails, websites and Wi-Fi few years later. The revolution knocks to our doors and the marketer needs to change. Fast. Except of machines we have now technology, that allows us to control and automate processes. We’ve created a software – the language for machines to communicate with them.
So let’s move to early ’80s to the mother-place of software – Silicon Valley. If you were there, you probably have seen thousands of startups and geeks. Maybe you had a chance to meet Mark Andersen, the most famous VC, who said these words: “The software is eating up the world”. He was 110 % right. The number of software created only for marketers was extremely huge (see below). Even marketers got lost.
What has happen to our world recently?
The marketer was confused, more stressed. He had to deal with many data and was overwhelmed for a while. He realised that people around him don’t like spamming marketing plus these new guys, called start-upers, created many new business models, that were different from current status quo. He discovered that 25% of population would connect their brain to the network (Wi-Fi). The Maslow pyramid was extended to 2 additional needs: WiFi and battery. People could now walk on the moon using Oculus Rift and feel like they’ve done it for real. Even finding love became an easy stuff. Now it required only a few swipes with Tinder.
Who is the NEW Marketer?
Larry Page is an inventor. Milions of people (marketers) are using AdWords and I guess the rest of his inventions from Google X will revolutionise the world. Mark Zuckerberg graduated from psychology and IT. Combining these two knowledges he was able to create the biggest social network site – Facebook. What do they have in common and why do they represent a modern marketer? I would say that first of all, they think about the user, not only the money. Secondly they are visionares with specific set of skills and they are curious about their topic. Thirdly – they want to help people to solve a specific problem. They are partially artists, partially scientists.
What should you do now, dear Marketer?
I have my own piece of advice for you. As an ex Googler and a person who spends time with successful marketers I can share a few ideas with you:
- Get curious about changes in technology and trends in Internet of Things
- Learn to use at least 2-3 tools, that allow you to analyse Big Data and predict the future. Then you might have a chance to give your followers, what they want instead of what you want to sell them
- Automate processes – you will deal with huge amount of data and you won’t be able to manage all of them manually. You need technical support – software + understanding how to use it
- Stay up to date – read a lot, talk to tech people and watch peoples behaviours – it all represent some trends and you might use it later to get in touch with your audience
- Experiment with software and hardware – It’s the only way you can discover new marketing ideas and be better than your competition
