The Changing Face of Marketing

What is happening in this country?!

The Royals won the World Series (the ROYALS?!) - the primary debates have been DOMINATING social media (debate Twitter is my favorite Twitter) - and EVERY SINGLE BEER will soon be owned by the same monopoly.

At least marketing never changes.

Except it does. And it’s not just agencies & big brands who are at risk! Even startups are constantly finding new ways to communicate their unique value propositions and gain market share.

It's certainly not going unnoticed by brands, either! Recently, PepsiCo exec Brad Jakeman had some choice words for the agency audience at the Association of National Advertising's annual conference, saying the "global alignment agency is a dinosaur concept."

He even called digital marketing the most ridiculous term he's ever heard, saying: "There is no such thing as digital marketing. There is marketing -- most of which happens to be digital."

So how can we adapt? If marketing is changing (and it is), what's the path to staying relevant and not losing clients & customers - or worse, being replaced by robots?

One of our StrategyHack community members, Ashley, told us about how she's using interactive content to "tell brand stories in new and exciting ways." She said the struggle against content fatigue is real, and that the power of interactivity helps her "stand out in a sea of static blog posts and PDF eBooks."

Likewise, another community member, Matt, told us the story of his natural transition from the role of marketing community manager (where he spent his time monitoring channels and posting content) to that of a full-on strategist where he performs audience audits, plans & strategizes content, and also looks at analytics. He said it "felt like a natural evolution from the Community Manager territory and one that has long-term potential and will continue to expand as a discipline."

So the bad news is that brands are waking up to the idea that marketing MUST evolve, but the agency model hasn't yet taken note (although StrategyHack is actively working to change that). The good news, though, is that individuals just like you and me are expanding our minds and skills to deliver more value usher in a new era of marketing.

Do you have ideas about how the marketing model needs to change? Have you been screaming something for months (or years), waiting for people to notice?