Surefire Digital Marketing Trends for 2019

In the time-honored tradition of click-bait listicles predicting all things wondrous and earth-shaking that are going to happen in 2019, here is my little contribution (only five. Yay!) to the junk that’s already there.

But which of these will you debate?

Rise of AI Rise of Punditry in AI in Digital Marketing: 2019 will be the year in which punditry on AI in marketing and advertising reaches its zenith. Every third marketing guru will write words and words on AI how it will ineffably change marketing and yet say nothing that we could use. Read a sample. Or another one.

Well, one could pompously state something inane like “2019 is *the year* of AI in advertising or non-committal like “we will see marketers *increasingly* use AI in 2019” but then a post like that couldn’t be titled “surefire”. Fact is, beginnings have been made by ad tech companies like Sizmek and Xaxis, and Google, Amazon, Facebook and Adobe already, and we will see more and more of us using AI as products get sharpened and ready-to-play. But jumping off a cliff into the waiting arms of AI in 2019? Naah.

Top 100 influential AI and Influencer Awards: 2019 awards season will include Top 100, Top 50 and maybe lifetime achievement awards in these categories. Watch out for AI and Influencer Marketing leaders thank their kindergarten teachers upwards for this achievement on LinkedIn.

Jokes apart, this shows that these are rising professions which have attained a certain amount of stability. If they can round up more than 100 mid-senior individuals who will be persuaded to turn up at Taj Land’s End Mumbai to receive these awards, that’s a sure sign, isn’t it?  

30 is the new 60 for Digital Marketers: If you are above 35 and call yourself a digital marketer, chances are that you’ll be invited for a polite conversation with the HR in 2019. The bad news is you’re no longer hot property, your collection of shiny award statuettes notwithstanding.

Let’s admit it: Digital Marketing “Heads” are getting younger, and most such jobs require only five or six years, or at best ten years of experience. And in social media, it’s no great shakes to have ten years in the bag before you cross 30. Even Instagram is hardly ten years old. If this reality hasn’t shown itself up in 2018, it will definitely make its presence felt in 2019.

So what could you do? I personally think there will be increasing demand for digitizing marketing at small and micro-business levels, particularly in the restaurant and grocery industries as they struggle to come to terms with the changed dynamics of food and grocery ordering apps. If you have the energy to do the legwork – and legwork must be done – there’s a certain amount of money for the taking here.

Bonanza year for entry-level Digital Marketers: Two reasons – First, general elections, and the rise of political social media marketing (conditions apply). Second, IT services giants - the Wipros, HCLs and TCSs of the world - are looking for you. UX and Analytics to start with, but they’re looking for content, search, social media (Listening too) and ad tech talent as well. Jump on it. The IT biggies are nothing like agencies, and are far more constrained and process-oriented in their culture, but you could have a stable, long-term and satisfying career. Ask me – I spent 13 happy years in TCS.

We will get somewhere with that GDPR thingie: Your legal teams probably spent 2018 going through the thick and thin of what it takes to be compliant and have asked your IT team to get on with the implementation. Quite likely that they didn’t know you existed / cared / were affected by it, so 2019 is the year that you will get back into that uncomfortable space between your legal and IT.

In the principle of “make hay while the sun shines”, you could use the GDPR opportunity to turn your passive website lurkers to active, connected people you can build relationships with. Easier said than done, I know – but you can always give me a call ??

Thanks for reading till the end (I *am* surprised). Happy New Year!

PS: If you’re an employee of one of those award-giving outfits, my apologies. It’s nothing personal!