Marketing is not for the faint of heart. If we didn’t know that prior to 2020, we sure do know it now. Change has come about rapidly over the past few years and that doesn’t look to slow down anytime soon. 

What will marketing look like in 10 years? Some leading marketers shared their thoughts, which touched on these topics:

New Customer Experiences

• Kirk McDonald, North America CEO at GroupM.
  • Kirk says that there will be a merger of digital and physical experiences across touchpoints. To build customer relationships based on trust, support ad value, marketers will need to meet customer expectations for connected, frictionless interactions across all touchpoints, and touchpoints will need to be based on privacy, technology, purpose and sustainability.
  • Experiences that take the responsibility of initiating action from the customer will be needed. AI and machine learning will be a part of delivering tailored experiences on demand.

Personalization and Privacy

• Yonca Dervişoğlu, VP of Marketing at Google EMEA.
  • Yonca believes in the power of technology to make life better and unlock human potential. She is particularly excited about AI’s potential to aid in delivering the right message at the right time to customers – at scale and in accordance with the individual’s privacy preferences. She believes that by 2032, her “dream state” for ads will be reached, where ads are sources of information for everyone, perfectly relevant, and meeting the highest standards of privacy.

Ethical Brand Building

• Alex Schmider, Director of Transgender Representation at GLAAD.
  • Gen Z will all be adult consumers by 2032, according to Alex, meaning that this most racially, ethnically and culturally diverse generation will be very selective about how and where they spend their money. This group is more critical than their parents and grandparents about their consumption, demanding that brands reflect their values and communities, both in brand policies and external advertising. It will take more than a catchy ad to win over Gen Z.
  • It will take more than advertising to tell a brand’s story in 2032. Consumers will want to see brands using careful product development, ad campaigns and company culture to become respected members of society.

Transformative Shifts

• Chaucer Barnes, CMO at UnitedMasters
  • Chaucer says that consumers will have more control over the way they engage with brands with new types of experiences. Consumers will have more opt-in and opt-out decisions available. AI content creation and more immersive formats will help with more prolonged consumer attention.
  • Human staff will engage more in identifying problems creatively rather than solutions. Branded spaces, whether physical or virtual, licensed or custom built, will become more resurgent as brands look to promote their goods, services and values.

Building Brand Trust

• Simon Kahn, VP of Marketing at Google APAC
  • Simon says that controlled messages from brands are no more. Today’s consumers want engagement via conversation and co-creation. By 2032, the relationship between brands and customers will exist across all touchpoints, including what the brand says and what it does.
  • Responsible data usage will be a fundamental part of telling a consistent brand story across all touchpoints, at all times. This will require a close relationship between marketers and the organization’s information keepers.

Returning to Connection

• Marie Gulin-Merle, Global VP of Ads Marketing at Google
  • Marie says that while some sci-fi films have presented dystopian threat perspectives of marketing in the future, she sees a much different future taking shape, where people are given the ability to help create the experience. Consumers will have the ability to grant, deny or rescind a brand’s connection to them.
  • Marie sees a future where compelling and impactful campaigns will work together with user privacy. She sees this leading back to the essence of marketing: connecting brands and products to consumers.