The 7 Megatrends of Media in 2014

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James Gross | January 3, 2014

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James Gross is the co-founder of Percolate, a content publishing platform for brands. The intersection of technology and marketing is in a constant state of flux, changing at the hands of both shortand long-term trends !s someone "ho runs a business in the s#ace, $ try to take some time at the end of each year to assess the landsca#e and understand ho" it "ill affect our business, as "ell as the broader "orlds of marketing and technology %ere are my thoughts on the se&en trends to "atch in 2014 You wont create content without promoting it. The idea of creating content for your 'follo"ers( "ill go a"ay as the #otential for the audience you "ould like to reach "ith your content becomes reali)ed *ith +acebook, ,inked$n, T"itter, $nstagram and -interest all rolling out smart ad #roducts, the #romise of being able to reach the exact audience you "ant to is here .ut, as "ith most things, it "on/t come for free $f you "ant the reach, you/&e got to #ay for it This is al"ays "hat ad&ertising has been about 0o" the #otential is 1ust bigger and better You have to take a mobi e!first approach to marketing. !ndroid, at "ell o&er 1 billion acti&ations, "ill continue to gro" in scale and #roliferation across the enter#rise and the rest of the "orld 2&ery #iece of content needs to be created first by asking the 3uestion, ho" "ill that look on a mobile de&ice and, more s#ecifically, an !ndroid4 "ocia p atforms wi focus on the rest of the wor d and continue to draft off mobi e penetration. The big #ush by the social #latforms "ill be in "iring and getting do"nloads for the 50 #ercent of the "orld that is still not on the $nternet 6obile #enetration has disru#ted the natural mono#oly that +acebook and T"itter ha&e had in social 7see8 *hats!##, 9na#:hat, $nstagram, etc ;, but mobile has also created a big enough o##ortunity for social that it doesn/t matter The o&erall #ie has gro"n, and 2014 "ill be looked at as building year as T"itter and others "ill march to"ard 1 billion users and +acebook "ill march to"ard 2 billion #rands wi start to adopt techno og$ that moves be$ond simp e prob ems. The trend is already out there that marketers are becoming the largest #urchasers of technology *hat hasn/t been seen yet is marketers becoming more so#histicated "ith the technology they are buying 6ost marketing automation and :<6 soft"are to date is for marketers looking to fill blank boxes, route customer ser&ice in3uiries, and build dashboards for re#orting *hile this "as im#ortant, it isn/t enough in a "orld "here your customers and your marketing strategy is mobile-first and real-time

%esign fina $ matters for enterprise software. +or the most #art, the largest enter#rise soft"are giants in the "orld ha&e largely been able to ignore user ex#eriences in mobile !s they ha&e co)ied u# to #rocurement and other #arts of the organi)ations that ha&e taken a to#-do"n, check-the-box a##roach to soft"are installation to date they ha&e been able to tell the indi&idual users to kick rocks "hen it comes to ha&ing a user ex#erience in mobile Those days are coming to an end, fast $f your enter#rise technology solutions don/t ha&e nati&e !ndriod and i=9 end-to-end ex#eriences, it is time to get the <+-s out >oung, fast-gro"ing tech com#anies that are built for the future and out to disru#t an irrele&ant user ex#erience &eb banners wi be down for the first time ever' and the$ wont come back. *e are starting to see this "ith some of the ?oogle !dsense data $n a social and mobile "orld, the ad is your content and your content is your ad .anners are still im#ortant but aren/t gro"ing like the rest of $nternet ad&ertising 7search @ social @ mobile; (hina is the most important countr$ to watch as it re ates to socia and mobi e. To find #atterns in studying "hat might ha##en next, it is im#ortant to be #ulling from the largest data set you can find :hina offers this "ith the scale and a culture that is largely mobile-first "ith its ado#tion of technology +ast-gro"ing com#anies like Aiaomi are #erfect exam#les of "hat to "atch, and also in 2014, "e "ill most likely see :hinese tech com#anies ac3uire a fe" B 9 tech com#anies Image via Flickr