A peep into that enigma called the future

So I took a shot at writing something work related which may also find it's way into GroupM Malaysia's monthly media matters publication. 

“Reports that say that something hasn't happened, are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns;  there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns;  that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns- the ones we don't know we don't know.” 
― Donald Rumsfeld

It is 7 am on a Monday morning and your alarm has just given you that news. As you grudgingly head to brush your teeth, you switch on the radio en route. And then you realize your toothpaste is almost out and it won’t last the week. As you furiously post an update on Facebook or whatever it is that is the flavour of the time, the radio blares a familiar jingle from the toothpaste company that you never buy from, which is available now at the supermarket you always buy from. Coincidence?

Let’s make this more interesting. It is still 7 am on a Monday morning and your alarm has done what it has to do. Your toothpaste is almost out but your toothpaste has realized that much before you did. The smart chip on the toothpaste sent the message to your favourite supermarket which sent you a tweet asking you when you want it delivered along with the detergent and the six pack of your favourite beer which is almost over too. You tweet back with a hashtag that links to your credit card and there, you’re ready to sail.

In some marketers mind and probably their 2015 plan, this has already found its way. Yes, it is closer than we think it is. There are many phenomena which are bringing it closer to us – the spread of technology, the internet of things, a whole new generation bred on digital feed and access to information. Is the media agency of the future ready to handle this? Yes and No.

In order to answer that question, there is a line of sub text that we need to answer. What do we need to be prepared for? And how do we prepare ourselves?

So, what do we need to be prepared for?

The Known Knowns – Smarter and discerning consumers

The modern family doesn’t share life anymore, they share wifi. The penetration of the internet and accessible technology has now given everyone an all-access pass to geek territory. The freedom to consume, comment and create has opened up a new economy. According to a recent study by IBM, 90% of the world’s data was created in the last 2 years. That’s a line that sums up the past, present and future. As access to the internet and technology opens up to everyone, audiences will undergo a fission process to segment themselves into smaller groups. We have to imagine these groups as reservoirs of a certain type of content which unites 50% of the group at all times and 50% of the group sometimes. As consumers float from one group to another, they will form allegiances with some and experiment with others before they narrow down to a few. As content creators throw newer forms and themes of content as bait to consumers, these networks and segments will become much clearly defined. While the traditional definitions of audiences via age, gender and social economic status will remain, they will be sharpened by the content allegiances that they show. And from these segments will emerge media strategies.

The known unknowns – People and Data

The media agency business is built on and is growing on one asset – people. And any preparation for the future has to ensure that the people in an agency are well equipped to handle the challenges of marketing.

As you read through this last sentence, more than a thousand gigs of data exchanged hands within the radius of a kilometer around you. A data tsunami has already arrived and it is a widely agreed notion that access to data is the pre-condition to decision making. There are 2 main things are happening simultaneously – consumers are changing and vast amounts of data is being created. To embrace these (and together) there are a few basic fixes an agency needs to make.

Manage people

There are seismic shifts in the way people behave and act. The increasing freedom of speech and opening up of multiple avenues of expression has had some social scientists bewildered while others have come up with their own explanations. In either case, never before has the media agency needed social scientists as it does now. As consumers segment themselves not by age or income but their state of mind, it is this mind that needs to be cracked by people who possess deep (and sometime almost superhuman) powers of observation of behavior. Increasingly, all expression will need to be decoded and reverse engineered into thought and motivation from where marketing starts. Students of psychology, sociology and anthropology will increasingly find more space in the media agency of the future as the decoders of action.

Manage data

Roughly speaking there are only two forms that information exists in – the type that you have found and the other type which you haven’t. As marketers we constantly create data through our campaigns and discover data through competitive analysis, campaign planning and consumer analysis. Most of this data assimilation requires heavy investment in searching, indexing, storing and then visualizing and presenting and then repeating the cycle multiple times. If this was being done at a large technology company there would be several teams doing this so why not at a media agency?

In the foreseeable future, as Story-tellers the role of the media agency would have morphed into a sponge which will absorb smaller service providers into one mass. To those who believed that the separation of the creative and media functions would not work, it will be a vindication and to all others it will be a welcome change because it will redefine the industry and make it a marketing services function. As we create meaningful stories around brands and consumers, there will be a diverse skill set that a marketing services company will need. No one really knows what the future holds. The great economist John Maynard Keynes once said ‘In the long run, we are all dead’. But while we can, let’s predict the positions that will open up at a marketing services company:

1.      Head Data Scientist – This is a quantified self on overdrive. There will never be a discussion with this person without the mention of data. He/she will be expected to quantify the value of everything from a content idea to the ‘right’ price for a sponsorship. This individual will come with domain experience in analytics and broad experience in services. Can be found in entry level positions at knowledge hubs of consulting companies.

2.       Project Manager – This is the client representative at the agency and the agency representative at the client. He/ she is possibly the only one with the pin stripes. The typical MBA who spends 50% of his/her time in the client’s office understanding business issues and the rest of the time translating them in various terms to the team at the agency. Can be found within the agency, trained with a professional MBA and retained in the agency.

3.       Consumer Pulse keeper – possibly the most interesting profile who decodes consumer actions and creates meaning in everything. A philosophical mind qualified in the study of humans and carries diverse experience. Can be found in broadcast journalists and qualitative researchers.

4.       Programmer/ Developer – This is the guy (yes guy, at the risk of sounding sexist) who will turn around with the technological backbone to execute ideas. Fast coder, effective communicator and skill builder. Can be found in tech start-ups.

5.       Trend spotter – He/ she has her eye on everything and know just enough to alert on the impact of anything, from political policy to banking reform to transport strikes, on how a brand can create ideas that are realtime and impactful.

To create true magic for brands and meaningful stories for consumers at the same time, all the above must come together in a synchronized manner which has to be orchestrated by the account heads in a hands-on fashion. As much as this sounds like a tempting future of the agency, it comes with it’s share of risk. The role of the agency heads and CEO’s in shaping this with clients is as critical for clients as it is for the financial health of agencies.

In sum, let’s just say that the future knows what we are up to, so as long as we keep re-inventing ourselves, we can keep the future on it’s toes!