Digitization Speeding up

September is digital conferencing peak season. This September we attended dmexco in Cologne, Europe´s largest digital marketing trade fair, and Next Conference in Hamburg.

Digital services are booming. Every day, new apps and web-based services join the fierce competition for attention of a global user community. They add their share to exploding data volumes („the new oil“), while user “experience” seems to replace “information” as the driving force behind the ongoing internet revolution. “Experience” is now an omnipresent term in keynotes and talks with exhibitors. From 2017 on, the main intent will be creating impressive, consistent digital spaces of experience to promote brands or products. Information will be an optional extra, not the heart and soul of the presentation. This may be a bow to emotions as the last exclusive domain of the human mind: Centrifugal force of the self in an „egosystem of accidental narcissists“ - Brian Solis.Digital services are booming. Every day, new apps and web-based services join the fierce competition for attention of a global user community. They add their share to exploding data volumes („the new oil“), while user “experience” seems to replace “information” as the driving force behind the ongoing internet revolution. “Experience” is now an omnipresent term in keynotes and talks with exhibitors. From 2017 on, the main intent will be creating impressive, consistent digital spaces of experience to promote brands or products. Information will be an optional extra, not the heart and soul of the presentation. This may be a bow to emotions as the last exclusive domain of the human mind: Centrifugal force of the self in an „egosystem of accidental narcissists“ - Brian Solis.

Meanwhile we get accustomed to addressing not only flesh&blood target groups, but also those consisting of code. Search engine optimization was only just the beginning. Editing information to make it seem relevant to artificial intelligence algorithms will soon be the daily bread of marketers. Recommendation system bots in search of the best offer are hardly impressed by glossy pictures, they demand hard facts. This keeps product quality, service and production conditions on the center stage. The „Consigliere“, Nell Watson´s nickname for the digital secretary mentioned in her impressive keynote speech about man-machine-relations, keeps gathering influence.

Automated marketing communication is bound to be one of the dominant themes in the near future, touching everything from communication loops across media channels and real-time targeting of interest groups to highly customized web- and app content and „personalized“ dynamic pricing in online shops. All those instruments will be subject to permanent, performance indicator-driven adjustment to optimize budgeting; a controller´s dream come true.

Verbal and visual creativity, long the hearts and soul of advertising, seem to move to the sidelines now. They find new challenges waiting in immersive staging, especially in ping-pong games with virtual and augmented reality. VR gadgets like Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Microsoft´s Hololens are booming while the jury is still out regarding promising fields of application: Some would like to limit virtual reality to entertainment applications, others see huge chances in new approaches to co-working, training and networking.

Conclusions: Digitization is gathering speed. Technology is no longer a tool, it is a partner, taking up – or, as some, and maybe rightly, fear – away work while also promising new perspectives for humanity, for society and business which await exploring.