Fast Company & 8 Tips on the Future of Marketing

Ok, so this is not going to be a Valentine's Day post.

The current issue of Fast Company features a compelling article, "The Future of Advertising" by Danielle Sacks that raises some key points for all marketing-related agencies, including PR:

• Marketing can't just be entertaining. It must be useful.
• Marketing can no longer be just glossy concepts perfected before going to the client to approve.
• Digital is incremental, experimental, continually optimized, in perpetual beta.
• Digital will change how you make money, staff projects, price things.
• Digital isn't just one channel -- it's a medium that blooms thousands of other mediums, leading to fragmented audiences via fragmented access points (search, geotagging, iPad, mobile apps, and social networks.
• While there has never been more to reach consumers, it's never been more ways to connect.
• Creating more work for less money -- which means that agencies of all sorts are paying the know ho of being in an industry that doesn't know to protect its own interests, according to Jean Marie Dru, Chair of TBWA.
• The rules will keep changing.
  

Sacks cites an article Dru wrote in Advertising Age, "Endless Pressure on Price Traps Agencies, Clients in Death Spiral," which is also worth reading.

What will the future of marketing be in 2011? It's clear that marketing will continue to evolve, and quickly. We think it's clear that companies can no longer sit on the sidelines of social media as a fad. For more of what we think, check back soon for our annual list of trends.