Been traveling a bit and checking out the marketing landscape across the US. Like a Barak Obama convention, the keyword is "change. "
Agencies, creative directors, and especially marketers are ready for change...but afraid of it nonetheless. Change means uncertainty with jobs and whole approaches to the market. The basic question that change really brings to mind is "if we change will I have a job?"
With the US economy struggling and unemployment just today at a 5 year high, these are very real questions. Don't change and save my job or change and makes thing better, but...?
I recently did an interview with a major IT magazine. I could hear it in the questions being asked and in the articles that were written - will Cloud Computing take my job? (Or in the case, this jobs of my IT readers)
I want to say "NO, you are all safe." But reality is change, even good change, brings pain. The entire information (IT) industry brought change like none other before...guess what? Accountants, sales people, clerks, factory workers, and many more all had to adjust. A true disruptive technology is no different.
So back to marketing and advertising and change...should you encourage change and be on the forefront or wait and try to preserve the status quo?
It all starts with the marketers. The pay the bills in advertising. The can not wait and try to preserve their profit. WHY? Because their competitors won't. If their competitors remove cost and increase efficiency and they do not...bad things happen. They can not wait, but must always become better at what they do...including their marketing.
The domino effect goes from there...agencies, service providers, magazines, media...
So change is popular and needed in marketing. It is gaining momentum in the US and even more so around the world...but more on this later.
more later,
David
