Every year many agency execs indulge in predictions about the dramatic shifts and trends taking place in the world of technology, marketing communications and media. My intention however was to simply decipher a few observations on the dynamic changes the marketing world might witness as a result of this changing socio-economic environment, coupled with some developments on media tech platforms.

1. THINGS TO
WATCH OUT
FOR IN 201910

2. Every year many agency execs make predictions about the dramatic shifts and trends taking place in the world of technology, marketing
communications and media.
My intention however is to simply decipher a few observations on the dynamic changes the marketing world might witness as a result of this changing
socio-economic environment, coupled with some developments on media tech platforms.
Today, all around the world, people are not just more empowered and informed but they also are far less trusting of businesses, brands and social
platforms in some cases. People are not necessarily looking for the next shiny object, but often something that is authentic, simple and adds value
(perceptive or real).
To say 2018 was a tumultuous year for the media industry would be an understatement. For instance, simmering issues with privacy and data integrity
came to a boil at Facebook, with effects felt at the highest levels of government. And there are many such issues we witnessed as an industry.
While one could easily list a few trends we see becoming more prominent in 2019 like further consolidation in the AdTech market; or greater use of
Artificial Intelligence in most marketing applications, more interactive use of mobile marketing etc but instead I find greater value in focusing on the
broad changes we will start to experience as an industry as a whole.
These changes I believe make for not only the most challenging but the most exciting times to be in media.

3. 1OWN EFFORTS TO
PARTNERSHIPS &
COLLABORATIONS
With margins under pressure, marketing budgets will be
tighter – compelling companies to seek out brand alignments
in partnerships and mutually-beneficial collaborations.
Leverage the skills and offerings of others instead of investing
unnecessary efforts in own.

4. 2HIERARCHY TO
SELF-ORGANIZATION
Push decisions down to the edge of the organization,
where information is the freshest and most salient:
the cash register, the production line, the call center,
and sales representatives.

5. 3BRANDS WILL BE
THE NEW MEDIA
Over the years we have seen several brands like Red Bull,
GoPro, Nike generating their own consumer data and sufficient
user generated content thereby becoming an independently
run media channel on its own – evident from their large
followings and subscriptions to their Instagram and YouTube
channels.

6. 4SPEED OVER
PERFECTION
Speed up interactions. Accelerate the speed of interaction
as much as possible. Tech and Automation will speed up
response time. Evidence of this is already being witnessed
on platforms like WeChat in China driving Social commerce.
Chances are it would soon gain importance on other
popular social platforms as well.

7. 5QUICK DECISIONS
OVER PERFECT
ANALYSIS
Encourage teams to drive quicker decisions instead of
hours of debating and unproductive meetings.

8. 6REVISITING BRAND
BUILDING EFFORTS
Short-termism seemed to have taken over boardrooms
lately. However many large corporations are now starting to
feel the pinch with tactical approach dominating the
marketing efforts. We will now start to see this trend being
reversed with equal emphasis on brand-building to drive
brand preference within these highly cluttered, price parity
markets.

9. 7AGILITY WITHIN
PROCESSES
While processes help follow a method and eliminate any
potential errors that may arise due to adhoc executions,
the key would be find a fine balance between rigidity and
agility within processes

10. 8RECONSIDERATION
OF OFFLINE / ONLINE
SPLIT
While digital marketing has its own advantages with reach,
contextual targeting and strong ability to drive measurement,
businesses will soon realize an equal importance on the role
of Offline channels

11. 9EXPERIMENTING
OVER CONVENTIONAL
FORMULAS
This is a time where the market dynamics won’t fit in the
containers of the past. Conventional rules and formulas may
not work. Possibly an interesting time when we will see
marketers experimenting and testing out new ideas to beat
the competition and appeal to ever-distracted audience.

12. 01FADING OF
THE INFLUENCER
CHARM
Consumers feel betrayed by brands having misused
Influencers purely for their following, completely
disregarding either brand values, consumer relevance or
cultural context. A fine line will be redrawn between an
expert or an opinion leader and these so-called Influencers,
to regain trust in brands.

13. THIS IS NOT THE
END OF THE REPORT,
BUT HOPEFULLY A
START TO OUR
CONVERSATION IN
THIS NEW YEAR!