• by Keith Richey , February 6, 2020

The next decade certainly promises plenty of change in the brand-marketing world. Whether it's artificial intelligence (AI) making headway, over-the-top television gaining critical mass or mobile platforms changing the way we share content, technology will keep marketers on their toes.

But how much change will we see in the next 12 months? Here’s is a trio of trends I expect to see develop during 2020.

Prediction #1: The CMO thrives. The title of chief marketing officer (CMO) has been under siege. In 2019, McDonald’s and Johnson & Johnson got rid of their CMO roles, transferring power to titles like chief growth officer and chief customer officer.

Those historic brands hold sway in the industry, so many industry observers believed such moves signaled big-time trouble for the future of the CMO. However, if CMOs embrace data as the lifeblood of their brands in 2020, they will make a noteworthy comeback.

In fact, that comeback may already be underway. Coca-Cola just reversed its two-year-old decision to do away with its global CMO title by bringing it back and naming Manolo Arroyo for the role. CMOs like Arroyo have more data than ever, and that data can bolster advertising and marketing better than before. When the CMO thrives, data will be at the center of the story.

Prediction #2: Privacy era emerges in full. In 2020, CCPA (California Consumer Protection Act) and GDPR (Global Data Protection Regulation) will change the way companies approach compliance. The laws are there, and so is the consumer demand for data privacy—nearly half of U.S. consumers feel they have little to no control of their personal data. This big development is not going away, and now it’s a marketing concern rather than just a checkbox for IT to tick off during software selection.

Brands like Apple will continue to show they are privacy-minded, and digital platforms will become more transparent about how they collect and use consumer data. On the B2B level, software vendors will need to stay ahead of this ever-changing regulatory landscape. 

Prediction #3: Short-form video rises even more. In 2019, young consumers thrust short-form video back into the international marketing discussion because of use cases on various mobile platforms. We’ll hear more about the format—whether the videos are five, six or 10 seconds—in the next 12 months, as it will emerge in advertising and marketing across channels, including news sites, streaming platforms and professional communities.

Business-to-business (B2B) brands will also increasingly use these short-form clips. Thanks to social media platforms, these efforts can be targeted while allowing salespeople to find their buyers and use short-form creativity—tug at their heartstrings, make them laugh, solve their pain points—to get prospects into the funnel. It’s the wave of the future in B2B: consider that 60% of millennials prefer to watch a company video over reading a company newsletter.