The Future of Marketing has a Powerful Influencer: The Dead
Future of Marketing Institute
Global forum on teaching, research, and outreach on future of marketing topics | Schulich School @ York University
I see dead people in the future of marketing.?They’re everywhere.
The Marketing Dead will rise up en masse from the grave to get into our brains. They don’t want to kill us as that would defeat their whole purpose. The goal of the ‘marketing dead’ will be to influence us to purchase more goods and services. ?They will try to get us to drink more coke, eat more burgers, purchase a life insurance policy, go to a sporting event or join the gym. They will want us to buy things and have experiences that people who are alive enjoy.
The goal of the ‘Marketing Dead’ will be to influence us to purchase more goods and services
The marketing dead won’t be created by a new super virus or demonic forces.?They will be created by digital marketing agencies like 72andSunny or Digital Domain and trademark companies such as Authentic Brands Group, Beanstalk and CMG Worldwide.?Check out the impressive list of dead celebrities under contract at CMG.
CGI Technology:?The ‘Old’ Standard
Digital Agencies have been recreating the marketing dead for over 20 years using standard CGI technology.?In recent years, digital agencies created CGI Bruce Lee to promote Johnny Walker Blue and digital Audrey Hepburn to peddle Galaxy chocolates. The marketing dead is already big business. However, many CGI examples in the past made celebrities look cartoonish or fake. In the Bruce Lee commercial, the CGI is speaking Mandarin – while the real Bruce spoke Cantonese.?The voice is all wrong.
In the future, the marketing dead will be hyper-realistic and powered by emerging technologies including artificial intelligence and holograms. In addition, the marketing dead will undoubtedly appear in the nascent Metaverse.
Emerging Technologies:?Artificial Intelligence and Holograms
A key technology driver to recreate the marketing dead will be Artificial Intelligence.?Commonly called ‘deepfakes’, this AI technology is becoming commonplace and allows users to make incredibly accurate recreations of people.?Perhaps you have seen Deepfake Tom Cruise on TikTok or Salvador Dali on YouTube. ?Eerily accurate ‘voice cloning’ using AI is now possible with as little as 15 minutes of an audio recording of a person. ?As technology continues to advance, it will become increasingly difficult for the average person to determine if a celebrity spokesperson is real or an AI creation.
While deepfakes are now easy to create, the more interesting aspect is emerging hologram technology which can display the marketing dead in hyper-realistic 3D formats.?Technically, a hologram is a photographic technique that records the light scattered from an object, and then presents it in a way that appears three-dimensional. ?Perhaps your earliest memory of a hologram was Princess Leia in Star Wars (1977) or the shark that sprung from the movie theatre marquee to terrorize Marty McFly in Back to the Future (1985). I remember watching both of those films sitting in an actual movie theatre. Ah, those were the days, my friend.
In recent years, hyper-realistic holograms of the dearly departed have emerged including Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson in Las Vegas and Tupac at Coachella.
These 'big show' holograms are created for spectacle and entertainment, rather than selling products. They can also be very expensive to make. However, the price of creating basic holograms is decreasing rapidly. In addition, the technology to produce holograms is increasingly available to both large and small digital agencies.?We may soon see holograms of dead celebrities on home desktop devices like Gatebox.
Instead of Hatsume Miku in the Gatebox, imagine a holographic Anthony Bourdain on your night table.?He wakes you in the morning and suggests a Starbucks coffee on the way to work.?In shopping malls, we might see life-size holograms from Gatebox Grande or Portl. ?How would you like to have a life size, hyper-realistic Kobe Bryant invite you into a Dick’s Sporting Goods store at the mall? ?
Perhaps a hyper-realistic Kobe Bryant hologram will invite you into a Dick’s Sporting Goods store at the mall
Going a step further, what if the holographic Anthony Bourdain is connected to your Fitbit and knows you had a poor night’s sleep???I believe that in the future the Bourdain hologram on your night table might say something like “Bad night you had their buddy...can I order you a double espresso at Starbucks today?” ??If you say ‘yes’, the hologram may tap into the Google Duplex network and order the java for you.?Then, you can simply zip into the Starbucks drive-through on your way to work.?It sounds crazy, but it’s not necessarily crazy. I believe this is where technology is heading.?And if you want to put advertising into the mix, maybe advertisers will be able to bid on which coffee chef Bourdain recommends.
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Marketing Dead in the Metaverse
These days, it seems like no article on the future of marketing would be complete without a discussion of the Metaverse.?The Gartner Hype Cycle is in full swing on this technology.?I think we will see the marketing dead IRL in a mall and in the Metaverse. ?We are already seeing major talent agencies such as Elite World Group going all-in on the creation of hyper-realistic celebrity avatars for the Metaverse.
When a celebrity dies, do we really believe that their Metaverse avatar will be shut down??Just the opposite.?We may see carefully planned and scripted ‘Day of Death’ events.?When a celebrity dies, I expect we will see avatars or holograms of them emerge within hours to console their fans.?And while fans are grieving, won’t a special wine or spirit help ease their pain? Perhaps the deceased celebrity will suggest their favorite apéritif be delivered to their home using a special discount code.
In the future, I also believe we will see the emergence of 'Perpetual Contracts'.?These will be long-term contracts between the celebrities and management companies to maintain their AI powered avatars and holograms after their death. ?Many celebrities will likely generate a lot more money dead than alive. ?When James Dean died his net worth was about $2 million. The digital resurrection of James Dean is likely to surpass that by orders of magnitude.
The Marketing Dead is big business and one that will continue to grow. ?After all, evolution of technology and death are two things we cannot escape. ?
Thanks for reading.?If you like my content, please share it with a friend.
Dr. David Rice?is a Professor and Executive Director of the?Future of Marketing Institute.
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