Marketing 2010: Sharpening the Conversation

Marketers, agencies, and media companies today face a changed environment. Consumers are now media producers, programmers, and distributors. The convergence of media and technology, combined with the fragmentation and personalization of media, is affecting the connection between marketers and consumers in unprecedented ways. The mix of media channels has shifted from a one-way broadcast model to a set of dynamic two-way media forums. Now, consumers not only talk back to marketers and interact with marketing messages, but they also reshape and distribute those messages through
global communities.

With this shift comes the potential for more direct dialogues between marketers and consumers. Marketers can take control of the relationships and create new opportunities to directly reach, connect, and influence consumers. In the past, marketers couldn’t listen to consumers in real-time, or predict what they were going to do or say. But now, they can. And, they do.

How, then, do marketer capabilities and relationships need to change as disruptive technologies transform the marketing value chain? To answer that question, the Marketing & Media Ecosystem 2010 study was recently conducted by Booz Allen Hamilton jointly with the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), and the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA).

This project was the first cross-industry partnership of its kind. Over two hundred and fifty marketers, including seventy-five industry leaders—ranging from operational marketers to agency and media executives to digital strategists to Chief Revenue Officers to CMOs to CEOs—participated in surveys, interviews, or both. Together, they identified the ways in which the complex media environment is reshaping the marketing ecosystem.

And they spotlighted the priorities, capabilities, and partnerships that will be increasingly required across the marketer-agency-media value chain.

The Marketing & Media Ecosystem 2010 study highlights six key trends:

• Marketing as Conversation. Listen, facilitate, and create advocacy. Marketing is less about pushing messages at consumers and more about co-creating experiences with consumers.
• Media: The New “Creative.” Marketing message distribution—timing, context, and relevance—is as important as creative execution.
• Marketing + Math. Data quality, quantity, and accessibility have brought math to marketing. New digital tools, predictive models, and behavioral targeting will turn insight into foresight.
• Mind the Gap. Marketing spending in digital media is far from commensurate with consumer behavior shifts—when will the divide between traditional and nontraditional media end?
• The “Digitally Savvy” Organization. Technology without an aligned organization, the right talent, and a progressive culture is inadequate. Functional skills are rising to the level of brand strategy.
• The Network Effect. Partnerships and collaboration among agencies, media companies, and marketers
  will grow in number and depth. New players will assume important roles and continue to reshape the value chain.

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