A Forecast
of the Future of Marketing.
“The
AI is the future of marketing”, “Digital Marketing is the future”, “Metaverse
is the next big platform for advertising”, “Web 3 is the future of marketing”.
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Maybe.
Maybe not. As much as we love technology, watching brands invade your privacy
does become a bigger concern after a point. You might have seen ads based on
the topics you were discussing with your mates even when your phone was locked.
Brands invest a lumpsum amount in digital marketing. But, the influence of
these ads outside the purchase media or apps does start to roll down with
respect to time. In fact, at times, it tends to walk the negative side of the
influential axis too. The chaos of ads and saturation of information dumped is
too high.
Now,
let us understand the future of social media first. Considering the last 5
years, there have been a lot too many social media trends. Unfortunately, we
remember only a handful. A research showed that the working class is ‘getting
irritated’ of the social medias because of the saturation of information and
dumping of excessive ads. The very primary use of social media was to connect
and socialize. It is what even introverts found comfortable to communicate
through. With the increasing number of reels, tiktoks, advertisements and
‘influencers’, it is becoming yet another adulterated platform. The very fabric
of the ‘social’ media is being disturbed. What was meant to be a 2-way
communication platform is now turning into ‘Sit and Watch’ platform.
So,
coming to the marketing point, the working class, who actually owns the
purchasing power, is losing interest in social media. Our attention span has
dropped down considerably over the years. From test matches to ODI’s, ODI’s to
T-20’s, most of us are now following only the last few overs of the T-20s. 90%
of the Youtube ads which cannot be skipped cannot be recalled by the audience.
The brain is conditioned to either ignore them and focus on the periphery of the
screen or to pay attention to something else (Even zoning out into the thin
air).
Everything
in this world works in a wave form. Few enjoy the Sine waves, few rise through
the cos waves. In short, there are troughs and crests wherever you go, whatever
you do. Brands have enjoyed the crests of the marketing mediums for a while and
now are sitting on the descend towards the trough. It is a never-ending wave.
So, what do the brands do now?
Firstly,
respect the privacy and stick to ethical ways of marketing. Although this could
seem like a silent phase in marketing, we have to remember that the silence and
pauses in music can be beautiful too. Brands can simulate a rare spike in the
adrenaline or dopamine rush of the audience but trying to do that every single
time won’t help them at all.
The
best way is to build back the attention span and retain life long customers by
doing so. Brands will have to work out the ‘how’. Sustainability refers to the
human mind too and brands need to be aware of it. Focusing on exploiting the
wallets of the consumers for the balance sheets of the company will only harm
the long-term progress of the brand. Maybe the trend of writing ‘Old School’ in
the bios on social mediums is a sign that brands should think about going ‘Old
School’ for a while in the world of too much information and too little
attention span.
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