What does your crystal ball say?

A little over six months ago the marketing gurus at CMO.com cast predictions that programmatic content would evolve, Millennials would lose their luster and Gen Z would take main stage, Podcasts would be the new radio, ad blocking would become problematic, thinking worldly and acting local would prevail over all, companies would realize the value their in-house talent produces, consumers would be challenged by real world vs. viral experiences, everyone would be craving health and wellness and that your data’s privacy would be at risk.  A lot to digest I know, however a few of these did in fact hang around and are very much still relevant a half a year down the road. Then there are some that just completely flopped and never really were realized – something I eluded to when I said the predictions were downright ugly and uninspiring. So, where do we stand today? What are the latest and greatest predictions from these same marketing gurus from CMO.com? Let’s take a glimpse shall we?

1. Vote TV – traditional ads will hit the spot (Yawner alert!)
2. Marketers will be at odds with agency partners – media buying ethics 101 (Say it isn’t so!)
3. Ad blocking takes center mobile stage (Yippy!)
4. Olympics saga – now our most sacred is comprised (disease and deviants’ unite…UGH!)
5. China is a blue ocean or is it? (wanna go for a ride?)
6. Content bellies up – partnerships and co-branding take on ad blockers (a work around?)
7. Social plays nice with news – fulfilling a need (feeding frenzy!)
8. A.I. makes SoMe debut (gorge fest anyone?)
9. Siri doubles down – voice-only messaging will progress (or is this yet another work around?)
10. Word aversion reaches new low… enter emoji’s on speed (AND we thought texting was bad now you won’t have to use words at all)

While the political ads, media buying guidelines, ad blocking programs, corruption in the wake of the Olympics, China’s maturing market, digital assistants’ evolution and A.I. are not really igniting my imaginative side; one thing is really disturbing… the further destruction of the written word. Folks this is a bit on the ridiculous express side! We are feeding into the total and mass deterioration of human intelligence! I can understand many things in the marketing world (photos are in fact worth a 1,000 words), but this prediction smacks in your face the raw reality that we aren’t headed in the right direction in terms of intelligence. I can understand using photos to enhance messaging/content, but not to outright replace words in general to communicate fully. This is one that I truly hope fizzles and in six months it’s not on the list of 2017 predictions.

“The best way to predict your future is to create it.”

- Abraham Lincoln