As we consider the major Trends for Marketing in 2020, think, just for a moment how much the data evolution from last two decades have impacted our world. There’s no two ways about it, data has, and will have profound implications on all manner of products we’re marketing in 2020. Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler do a great job of driving the changes home in their new book titled,  Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think  in which they note:

“Two decades ago, most well-off citizens owned a camera, a video camera, a CD player, a stereo, a video-game console, a cell phone, a watch, an alarm clock, a set of encyclopedias, a world atlas, a Thomas Guide, and a whole bunch of other assets that would easily add up to more than $10,000. All of these come standard on today’s smartphones, or are available for purchase at the app store for less than a cup of coffee. In this, our exponentially enabled world, that’s how quickly $10,000 worth of expenses can vanish. More importantly, these things vanish without too much outside intervention. No one set out to zero the costs of two dozen products. They set out to make better cell phones, and the path of the adjacent possible did the rest.”

And while the last two decades have dramatically transformed our world, the next decade ought to provide even more substantial movement on that front.  Lee Rainie and Barry Wellman explain in their new book, Networked: The New Social Operating System,

“This is a future that has already come to pass in many respects. There is already a mad rush in Silicon Valley to create products to embed social interplay in most kinds of information and media encounters, and it will likely accelerate going forward. Moreover, in coming years a wider Metaverse will emerge as relatively ordinary objects—as well as computers and phones—will become ubiquitously networked with each other, and networked individuals will be able to augment their information through direct contact with databases and objects that have become smarter and more communicative.”

So what’s all this got to do with marketing? Well, that’s the interesting part. As we move into 2020 the increased pressure from collapsing data integration will demand new products, currently unimagined marketing platforms, and an increased reliance on leveraging marketing campaigns from one platform into another.

Marketing in 2020 and Today

What this means is that smart marketers, today, need to be thinking about how they are leveraging campaigns from one platform into another. Take for example the TV show, (coincidentally enough called) Leverage. They have cross-leveraged their TV show into a brand new Leverage Sync app.

Think about it, until recently, TV shows were entirely mono-directional. But with this new app, the Leverage team has engaged their audience in a new and unique way. In order to compete in the Marketing game in 2020, you’re going to have to catch up with this trajectory and move farther down the path — fast. And whether we’re writing new apps for television, or merely following a #TwitterTrend,  integration and reaching customers in new ways is a tablestake as we move into marketing in 2020.

The data implications are limitless, but as Brian David Johnson, a futurist at Intel Corporation cautions in an article for the World Future Society titled The Secret Life of Data in the Year 2020:

“But as we begin to build the Secret Life of Data, we must always remember that data is meaningless all by itself. The 1s and 0s are useless and meaningless on their own. Data is only useful and indeed powerful when it comes into contact with people.”

And therein lies the key to data implications for marketing in 2020 — it has to be useful and meaningful.

What does it mean for marketing in 2020?

The opportunities (and pitfalls) are truly limitless and as long as we’re adding value to consumers we should be prepared to see truly revolutionary concepts move from imagination to reality as we move toward marketing in 2020.

What do you think? What will be the most profound change in Marketing in 2020?

About the Author:

Tisha Oehmen

Tisha Oehmen is a professional brand strategist and a leader in the branding field. She has been named a member of the Global Guru’s Top 30 Brand Gurus. She is also the co-founder of Oregon-based Paradux Media Group and the best-selling author of the book, Finding Brand: The Brand Book Tutorial.

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