A great IBM report titled Beyond Advertising: Choosing a Strategic Path to the Digital Consumer came out two weeks ago and it is well worth reading if you are interested in understanding the future of advertising and marketing. The report drew on 2,800 online consumer survey responses and 70 one-on-one interviews with content, agency, distribution, and research industry leaders and discusses four new capabilities– cross-platform innovation, greater insights, open collaboration, and automated & digital processes — that are needed to make advertising and marketing work in the digital age.
Labeling the future “Consumer Centricity,” IBM details the need to meet consumers on their terms. Such a simple idea — put the consumer first. But as the report details, there are many institutional hurdles to jump. The researchers outline change suggestions for advertising agencies, content owners, and media distributors, raise questions about how this change can be accomplished, show examples of consumer-centric marketing as imagined in the future, and even throw in a music industry case study warning to help with the learning.
The report and an executive summary are available for free at IBM.
Kudos to IBM’s Institute for Business Value for putting this together.
