Technologies such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality, 5G and IoT are going to significantly disrupt how consumers engage with brands in every industry. Marketers must embrace this new paradigm, which I call the Fifth Paradigm, to stay ahead of the game.

Surviving the tech revolution takes more than creative strategies or beautiful assets. Today’s marketing leaders must stay at technology’s leading edge to reach consumers on new planes and continue to break through with stories that matter. So, how do we do it successfully when everything around us is changing dramatically? At our core, we must stay curious, educated and ready to adapt.

Be a know-it-all. Don’t limit your understanding to your own industry. Instead, consider new technologies’ implications for other market sectors and their potential for consumers on the whole. Doing this is an effective way a brand can stay ahead of innovations with great potential. Blockchain, for example, first made waves as the framework for cryptocurrency networks, but the technology’s intrinsic trustworthiness has broader benefits, including greater transparency for marketing supply chains and deeper insights for consumers on the impact of their purchases.

Think like da Vinci. Modern marketing is both an art and a science. To keep their brands relevant, marketers must stay up to date on the evolving technological landscape. That means growing beyond a creative specialty to truly understand the latest technologies and relevant data; then putting that education to work as a creative force. 

Work like a general manager. To effectively drive their companies’ mission, marketers need a broad understanding of what their business does and how it works. Technology is an integral part of that. When armed with the “what” and the “why”, marketers are better prepared to deliver the “how.”

Reach consumers in new ways. Every connected device is a device for marketing — even our appliances. But as technology reaches deeper into consumers’ everyday lives, brands must proceed carefully to deliver highly contextualized messages without intruding. For example, smart speakers help consumers all the way from discovery to purchase, purely through the medium of sound. How does a brand show up, as there is no traditional visual real estate to showcase their brand? Brands need to look at audio representation of their brands. And no, a jingle is not a holistic representation of their brand! 

2020 has ushered in a new reality – between the effects of the pandemic and the accelerated speed of technological growth – everything we know has changed. Marketers need to quickly educate themselves to better understand the landscape and learn to connect with people in new, non-intrusive ways in order to thrive. In my upcoming book titled Quantum Marketing, I go into more detail on how marketers can thrive in this imminent future.

If interested, you can preorder today on Amazon