Since then, there have been at least three significant disturbances that have helped us identify a potential direction. And figuring out the effects of these disruptions could aid in the development of your plans for the content and marketing of the future.
Consumer time shifts and brand heritage are the first disruptions.
Wow, doesn’t that sound significant? Simply put, it means that things are moving more quickly and that there is a wider variety of content available to consumers.
You are probably well aware of the shift in how consumers consume and interact with materials due to time. But let’s finally disprove the goldfish hypothesis. If you’re not familiar with the idea, it states that people nowadays have attention spans comparable to those of goldfish.
No, our patience has decreased rather than our attention spans.
Any interruptive communication tests our patience, not simply interruption-based advertising. For instance, a recent survey indicated that Americans only pick up less than half of all cellphone calls.
We detest interruptions, but we also know that whatever content we do interact with can be quickly replaced by pressing a button. Is that TikTok video not to your taste? Up swipe Do you dislike the Netflix program? Backspace will immediately take you elsewhere. If you click on a search result and don’t get the response you need in eight seconds, what gives? To try once again, click return.
I’m more intrigued by the brand component of this disruption, though. The ability (or necessity, as some may say) to create a lasting brand legacy is increasingly being undermined by consumers’ lack of patience and the simplicity with which they can obtain alternative materials.
According to McKinsey & Firm, the typical lifespan of a company listed on Standard & Poor’s was 61 years in 1958. It’s been less than 18 years now. According to McKinsey, 75% of the S&P 500 companies are expected to be acquired, merged, or fail in the next five to six years, according to McKinsey.
With that quick evolution, product and service brands have in many ways started to resemble startups, fashion, or the media in terms of how quickly they are introduced, become well-known, and gain the audience’s trust before eventually losing popularity, outstaying their welcome, or being replaced by another.
In some ways, the content brands that these corporations have created (or purchased) are starting to matter just as much to the company as its goods and services.
And so we get to the second disruption.
Second disruption: limited physical presence
In the past 18 months, we have all become more acutely aware of how valuable physical presence is. Nothing can make you appreciate something more than having it taken away from you.
However, it’s noteworthy to note that during this artificial scarcity, new preferences are emerging. We humans are beginning to know that many things are better served in a non-physical depiction. Simply said, everyone places a higher value on their geographical location in the world.
For instance, the Great Resignation concept is not novel. According to the most recent ten years of labour statistics, the tendency has been present. There is no doubt that the pandemic hastened it. I now appreciate working from home, and more people ask if being physically present at my job location is now more valuable than it was before the pandemic. Additionally, we consider whether we really need to leave the house or physically be somewhere more frequently.
There will undoubtedly be a rise in demand for returning to a physical presence over the next year or two. There will be a need for delivery drivers, diners, business meeting participants, and spectators at sporting events and other activities. However, this physical presence might continue to be limited in some ways by supply.
What impact does that have on marketing and how crucial is content in marketing?
In-person events, which were formerly the most effective content marketing strategy, will now be considered a luxury as long as actual presence is valued more highly. This means, and it’s important, that the type of content we present at these events needs to be excellent and drastically different from what it has previously been.
This tendency puts a renewed and significant strain on digital content experiences right away. Why? Now, digital content platforms serve as a substitute for a physical presence. All of our digital content, including events, thought leadership, and other types of material, needs to be more distinctive since consumers have higher expectations and noise levels are only going to increase. You can understand how significant digital content experiences have become when you consider that Salesforce, a B2B firm, has invested millions of dollars to transform its Dreamforce conference into a B2B streaming service to compete with services like Netflix or Amazon Prime.
We have now reached the third disturbance.
Third disruption: A loss of faith in reality
The globe seems to be more divided than it has ever been in many aspects. In all honesty, it might be challenging to determine whether we are at any given time. We do, however, know that public confidence in major institutions is at an all-time low. We are engulfed in an epidemic of false information and pervasive suspicion of all of these organizations and their leaders, whether it be the government, mainstream media, corporations, or even non-profits.
Even though there are many issues that go beyond business and content marketing, we should acknowledge that this disruption presents a clear and present chance for us to influence the direction of marketing.
When the standard is so low, marketers not only have the chance to establish trust and truth as a value, but also possibly a responsibility (something to discuss over a fine whiskey).
Excellent marketing delivers value that consumers will pay for and that can make the company wealthy. However, not every client investment must result in a purchase of our standard goods or services.
Different ways exist for us to monetise marketing, such as through time, attention, referrals, personal information, brand loyalty, and even trust. All of this can be used to increase the company’s fortune.
The future of marketing and content
We can envision a future for marketing, if not the future of marketing, when we put these three upheavals into perspective. The future of content and marketing is the establishment of Trust and truth are supported by the requirement to develop and bring together audiences into distinctive digital and physical content experiences in the context of our customers’ declining tolerance for interruptive communication.
But how does that appear? How can we turn that into something we can actually build?
Well, I think this is going to come together in a unique way. Marketing and content are changing. Again. Ironically, though, marketing as a whole as well as content strategy are currently becoming more valuable and beneficial to the company.
How? Let me ask you this: What if the firm treated content and marketing as a practice and its output as vital as its existing products or services?
What if marketing were to be considered more than just a cost line for developing campaigns and producing content to convince consumers to buy the goods and services offered by a business?
Instead, what if marketing were viewed as a profit centre where its main goal was to provide experiential products for audiences that could be monetized in a variety of ways, only one of which was the expansion or continuous use of traditional goods and services?
What if content marketers and our strategy for providing value, generating revenue from consumers, and treating our content with the same importance as a product are the future of marketing in general?