Categories: Articles

What's Next For Marketing?

**Who isn’t fascinated with where the world is going?**
In this day and age, the most paranoid amongst us (yes, I’m talking to you!) have to watch both our backs… and our fronts. The competition is everywhere… and the competition is anywhere. Take a cold hard look at your next door neighbour’s garage this coming week, because it is more than likely that your industry’s next massive disruption is happening in an environment that looks just like that. Only the paranoid survive, as they say. But, we’re at that time of year, when the topics of discourse – in print and online – not only look back at what happened in 2014, but look into what the next year (or decade) will bring.
**Framing the future.**
How do you feel about the myriad of articles that are plowing into your newsfeeds over the past few weeks that have some variation on the topic of “what’s next?” It’s my job to see, think, do and care (thanks, [Avinash Kaushik](http://www.kaushik.net “Avinash Kaushik”). It’s my job to care. It’s my responsibility to study, understand and direct this copious amount of thought leadership, and distill it down into something reasonable and actionable. With that, I can’t help but realize that what’s next is not where the attention needs to be paid for marketers. Sure, take a glance at wearable technology. Yes, virtual reality seems like it’s getting closer and closer to being something more. Everyone is still talking up robots and augmented reality. The future is upon us. Is this relevant for brands? Probably. But, we have a lot more work to do on the home front before we can seriously worry about the horizon at this point.
**Why?**
While presenting at the [HubSpot](http://www.hubspot.com “HubSpot”)’s [Inbound marketing summit](http://www.inbound.com/ “Inbound”) this past year, my close friend, [Christopher S. Penn](http://www.christopherspenn.com/ “Christophe S Penn”) from [Shift Communications](http://www.shiftcomm.com/ “Shift Communications”) asked me to discuss the future of marketing at the [FutureM](http://futurem.org/ “FutureM”) event (which was taking place at the same time). For me, the future, really is today for marketers… and it’s ours to lose.
**Here’s why…**

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.