How do you see the skillsets needed for the marketing profession changing?

– They are changing quite dramatically and it is not just about technology making huge strides. The way technology changes our daily lives and the way we communicate with each other also reflects in the way marketing is being perceived. In order to create engaging marketing campaigns & messages it is more crucial than ever to be able to understand your target audience and to create hyper personalized communication channels. Way back in the mad men era it was all about reaching as many people as possible, now it is about reaching the right people, at the right time, with the right message. This entails being able to understand how to get appropriate audience data, analyze it, and utilize it. Marketers also need to understand transmedia storytelling principles and how to send engaging messages that cover several platforms.

What will be the next evolution of mobile marketing that we can expect in the coming years?

– Hyper personalisation. Being able to create super personal interactions and communication will be crucial to the overall success of every campaign – even more so when it comes to mobile marketing. Nobody wants just some random cold outreach messages anymore, especially not on such an intimate device as the phone.

Currently, what are you primarily looking for in your digital marketing efforts? Awareness or engagement? Why?

– It has always been about engagement. Now more than ever. As the panic hit, lots of competitors are shifting to spraying and praying and hoping that by increasing their potential target something might stick and new customers will get on board. We’re looking more into increasing engagement rather than widening the audience though as everybody’s budget is tight during those difficult times and hence it is imperative to get the right engagement going in order to actually increase marcom success.

With the exponential rise of technology, is there still room for offline marketing?

– Asking a tech / digital guy about offline marketing… 😉 I do think there’s room for offline marketing and even think it could be a very engaging addition once in a while. Back when offline was still the standard, the addition of websites seemed like a nice addition – we could now see how this could be turned around. If you’re doing a good job at ‘stalking’ (don’t stalk!) your audience, making them also see (or even better: engage with) you offline here and there could be the final push they need to give your brand a try.

With the advancement of AR & VR, how do you see these being utilised in digital storytelling?

– Most definitely yes. AR has been used quite a bit already and is surely on the way to becoming a stable in digital storytelling as it is rather easy to utilize. VR is still facing a few obstacles as it requires appropriate hardware to run but with VR devices becoming smaller and more affordable it is just a question of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ VR will become an important part of digital storytelling. The last year has quite likely boosted the acceptance of all things tech which could lead to an increased adaption and implementation speed in regards to technologies such as VR.