• by Joe Marchese , December 23, 2008

What form must marketing take to survive and thrive in a changing media landscape? What role will the agency play going forward? These are some of the questions many in the marketing community will be mulling over holiday breaks. Like a cliffhanger before a commercial break (that you can't TiVo past), 2008 is quickly coming to an end by posing some intimidating questions. Want to see what happens next? Stay tuned and watch the drama unfold in 2009 after a short break. Not that patient? Read on.

 

A shift is coming to marketing. The shift will bring with it new demands on marketers, but with even more new opportunities. You don't need a crystal ball to figure out what is coming, just a healthy respect/empathy for the consumer (who, if you haven't heard, is in control), an eye on those in your field who are innovating to meet the shift -- and a memory of lessons learned from past shifts in marketing.

Respect the consumer. Respecting the consumer isn't a new mantra, but when the consumer is also your source of media distribution, it takes on a whole new meaning. Respect that people are not just consumers of your offering, but that they also will be your MOST effective means of message distribution. As Seth Godin noted in "Permission Marketing," and continues to point out on his blog, the actual value people demand from engagement in marketing activities evolves. Think about it: What was the role people played in your most recent marketing program? The consumer role in creation and distribution in the marketing process has significantly increased in just the past couple of years. Don't just evaluate if your marketing program respects people, apply the same scrutiny to those you choose to partner with.

Follow the leaders. In any shift, there are always those that are ahead of the curve. Learn from them. Trial and error breed success. Sometimes that hardest thing to challenge, even in the face of overwhelming need, is the way things "have been done." It's understandable that organizations simply can't throw the baby out with the bathwater and change directions overnight. The key will be to promote an organization in which change can occur, not to push change. Publicis' VivaKi  represents, in my mind, just such an attempt [Disclosure: SocialVibe is a launch partner of VivaKi]. Marketers will come to expect more from their agencies as marketing efforts represent a growing connection to the consumer. Marketing will not occur in the linear, bucketed approach of research, planning, distribution, feedback. Effective marketing will cross these disciplines in a much more iterative fashion. Agencies need to be organized to deliver this approach.

History will repeat itself. There was a time when search marketing was not a business "established" marketers sought to be in. The reasoning was that search marketing wasn't bought like traditional media; the "always-on" nature of search was significantly different when compared to the traditional campaign-based engagements, and the margins weren't good enough. But search was too important to overall marketing objectives and began to inform many other marketing decisions.

The discipline of search marketing continued to grow. Today you can't walk through the major holding companies without tripping over their highly profitable search marketing divisions. New media marketing services will be much the same. My prediction for 2009 is that there will be a group of specialty social/new media planning/buying/management shops. These shops will grow out of nowhere as they show how effective marketing can be after the shift. Whether these shops are inside or outside of the agencies handling digital today will be decided by those agencies' ability to redefine the nature of their services.

2009 will undoubtedly be a tough year for everyone, but it will also be a year in which many industries shape their future. Are you up for the challenge?