In this issue:
- In Our Opinion: The Age of Smart Everything is Here
- Career Opportunities:
- CMO – Growth Markets
- CMO – Start-up Mobile Advertising/M-Commerce
- Managing Director, Social Media
- Blog Roundup:
- Blog – Social Media Has Gone Mainstream
- Blog – Social Media Has Gone Mainstream
- Articles:
- The Dangerous Tension Between CMOs and CIOs – Harvard Business Review
- How the “internet of things” Will Replace the Web – by Christopher Mims
In Our Opinion by Jeff Gundersen & Lola White
The Age of Smart Everything is Here
As we arrive at year end 2013, the horizon ahead is full of promise as both Wall Street and Main Street continue to exceed expectations. Consumers and businesses are spending and investing, CEO confidence is rising, and these factors have led to companies hiring, acquiring, and expanding into new products, markets and services. Advertising & Media projections call for growth in excess of 5 % in 2014, a growth level in spending that marketing services and media companies have not seen since 2007. This is accompanied by a greater level of CMO hiring than we have seen since the financial crash in ’08-’09…and this is being driven by overall economic growth and the arrival of innovative new digital marketing technologies. The rapid growth of digital, mobile and “the rise of tablets” are clearly contributing strongly to overall growth in consumer spending. Just check the recent results of Cyber Monday…the single largest internet shopping day of all-time. Cyber sales increased +19% vs. prior year and 35% of all internet commerce came from mobile devices.
We are reprinting an article from Quartz, written by Christopher Mims (@MIMS), titled “How the ‘internet of things’ Will Replace the Web.” Consumers are now connected 24×7 (not only via mobile smartphones and tables, but also various mobile apps and performance systems – i.e., Nike Fuel). We are entering a new era of technology-driven marketing, social business and technology-enhanced home appliances which are enabling enhanced customer engagement and experience at unprecedented high levels. People have been saying “this is the year for mobile” for a decade and history will prove 2013 was indeed mobile’s “coming out party.”
As we approach the holiday season, we send our best holiday greetings to all our clients and friends. We wish each of you a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2014!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Lola and Jeff
THE WORLD IS YOUR BROWSER
As always, we welcome your input and comments. Contact us.
Career Opportunities
CMO – Growth Markets
CMO – Mobile Advertising/M-Commerce Start-up
Managing Director, Social Media
Blog Roundup: Did you catch our recent posts on our blog?
BLOG: Social Media Has Gone Mainstream
I can remember attending a B2B magazine CMO Awards luncheon late in 2012 when the moderator asked the panel of 15 CMOs for their 2013 business outlook and top marketing priorities. Almost every CMO said their top 2013 marketing priority was investing in Social Media, however, none of them knew what this would look like for their companies. So in effect, this was a “leap of faith” CMOs knew they had to take to catch up with consumers who were connecting through social media channels including Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and YouTube to share their brand likes, dislikes, and reviews.
Fast forward to year-end 2013 and Chief Marketer magazine (www.ChiefMarketer.com) announces “Social Marketing has gone mainstream.” According to Chief Marketer’s 2013 Annual Social Media Survey, 77% of marketers are integrating Social Media into their annual marketing strategies, plans and campaigns. In addition to coupons and discounts, marketers are offering unique content as a reward for engaging with the brand socially, and over half of marketers are including Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest links in all marketing messages.
ARTICLES:
The Dangerous Tension Between CMOs and CIOs – Harvard Business Review
Business is largely about competition and, even within organizations, a healthy dose of rivalry between colleagues can be a good thing. However, a survey just conducted by Accenture Interactive (see The CMO-CIO Disconnect) points to a downright unhealthy relationship in many C-Suites which can do nothing but damage to firms.
At a time when many executives say that improving digital reach will be a significant differentiator for their companies, our research shows that two of the most important digital leaders — the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and the Chief Information Officer (CIO) — do not trust each other, understand each other, or collaborate with each other. Thus, even though both marketing and IT professionals say they want to be more collaborative, meaningful collaboration is unlikely to occur.
How the “internet of things” Will Replace the Web by Christopher Mims
We’ve already written about why 2014 is really, finally the year that the “internet of things”—that effort to remotely control every object on earth—becomes visible in our everyday lives.
But most of us don’t recognize just how far the internet of things will go, from souped-up gadgets that track our every move to a world that predicts our actions and emotions. In this way, the internet of things will become more central to society than the internet as we know it today. The web will survive, just as email survived the arrival of the web. But its role will be reduced to that of a language for displaying content on screens, which are likely to be more ubiquitous but less necessary. Here’s a closer look at the internet of things that’s already here, and where it’s headed.
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