Conference Presentation, Fireside Chat, Panel, Interview
Marketing in the Digital Age: A Conversation with John Sculley and David A. Steinberg
- Marketing attribution will become a universal standard across all channels within 10 years, directly correlating spending to specific store sales.
- Business control will shift from producers to consumers driven by cloud computing, mobility, and big data, making customer opinions more influential than brand reputation.
- The industry will transition from "big data" to "fast data" capable of answering a billion options in a millisecond, with processing efficiency increasing to one second per report at one-tenth the cost.
- Predictive analytics will scale globally to provide individual-level insights, while Amazon and companies like Zeta will utilize millisecond decisioning based on user patterns and past purchases.
- Future data ecosystems will expand to include genomics, proteomics, and the industrial internet of things, with an estimated 50 billion wireless connected devices emerging in the early 2020s and sensors embedded in every good.
- Regulatory landscapes, particularly in the EU and regarding UK post-Brexit status, will enforce strict data localization and privacy rules, potentially motivated by protectionism rather than solely individual rights.
- Data sharing will face significant resistance and strict rules regarding finances or mental health, with customer consent remaining opt-in as the primary method for data usage.
- New legislation regarding data access and security will be subject to congressional action and potential Supreme Court testing, creating a complex compliance environment across all European countries.
- High regulatory costs for data hosting and compliance may restrict new entrants, protecting large incumbents while forcing large marketing agencies into a "pivot or die" scenario involving technology acquisitions.
- The mobile device will evolve into a "smart messaging" or "smart assistant" tool, a shift where Apple is positioned to lead through its control of iPhones, app stores, and Siri.
- The internet will advance into an era of immersive experiences via augmented and virtual reality, utilizing technologies like Microsoft's "halogen" to superimpose information on reality.
- Healthcare and medicine will evolve into a science of medicine over the next decade or two, with analytics accelerating across manufacturing, energy, and services sectors.
- Companies must adapt innovation into existing operations rather than discarding legacy systems, with brick-and-mortar retailers increasingly using digital technologies to inform in-store customers.
- Self-regulation will be a critical factor for long-term organizational survivorship, as violating customer trust regarding data usage will lead to business failure.
- The future of business will be driven by customer plans rather than traditional business plans, with new companies of significant scale emerging that are currently unknown.
- Zeta is actively building its marketing cloud through nine acquisitions and is positioned alongside major competitors like IBM and Salesforce in industry reports, while planning future co-founded ventures.