Technology is Fueling the Change for Marketers: Co-Interview with @danielnewmanUV and @hessiejones

A few weeks ago Daniel Newman and I launched our book called, EVOLVE Marketing (^as we know it) is Doomed. 

When Daniel and I started this project, our original intent was not to develop a book about transformation. Our practices, what we’ve learned, and how we’ve applied Marketing in the last few years had changed; for many of my colleagues in this space, the methods we apply are intuitive.

Yet there are still many who question ROI of these new standards.

Many have been resting on their laurels and sticking with the old methods because that is within their comfort zone. After all, those “practices” had been pillars of success for them…. at one time. The way they used to do things worked … back then; they must now realize those things aren’t working … not anymore.

For Dan and me, our experiences are different. Dan is younger. He’s a Millennial. He’s grown up with technology so it became a natural vehicle and resource in business.

For me, I have had to rethink everything I knew about direct marketing and traditional practices. When I transferred that knowledge to the web in the mid-90’s it became pretty clear that this new learning curve would be steeper… and harder. I discovered in the process that there was tremendous opportunity to leverage technology to access relevant information in real time; to make better decisions.

EVOLVE is a book as much about transformation as it is about business sustainability. Technology has increased the pace at which information is consumed, transferred and amplified. At the same time, it has created a “certain” ease for marketers and business to better understand their customers. It has also put the consumer squarely in the position of control, a turn of events that brands must now accept and adapt to.

This book is about a journey — one that we’ve both taken.

This post will give you some perspective on what led us both here.

My questions for Dan:

1. As someone who has lived as a digital native your foray into business automatically engrained technology as part of how business should operate.  What was your experience like in the beginning?
2. As a young CEO you were probably introduced to practices  (marketing, sales etc) that had already been baked into the company’s DNA? Were they working? Did you see opportunities to change those things?
3. Based on your experience you decided to venture into entrepreneurship, in particular, within the technology space. What was your motivation for doing this?
4. Today, what is the single biggest gap that you see in business? Why do you think that is?

Here are Dan’s responses:

Dan’s questions for Me:

1. Your foray into marketing started before digital was anything like it was today. Speak to the 2-3 biggest changes and maybe 2-3 things that stayed the same (if any) as we enter 2015
2. This idea was originally to do this all as a written post…however we chose video. The movement from content being seen as just written is underway. How do you think brands are doing at pushing the envelop for diverse content?
3. How do you think privacy laws are going to affect marketers going forward? With laws just coming into play, it’s been the wild wild west, but will it stay that way?
4. Verdict Time: After so much work went into this book – do you believe marketing is doomed?

Here are my responses (it’s only longer because Question 1 was a behemoth:)

We would love for you to buy the book and let us know what you think of it! In the meantime, please feel free to download Chapter 1.

Hessie Jones

Founder at ArCompany, and Director, International Council on Global Privacy and Security by Design Hessie is a  seasoned digital strategist, and intelligence analyst having held senior positions for top ad agencies including Ogilvy, Rapp Collins, ONE and Isobar Digital. She also has extensive start-up experience in AI technologies, social tech, online publishing and artificial intelligence like Yahoo! Answers, Overlay.TV, Jugnoo and Cerebri AI. Hessie is the co-author of EVOLVE: Marketing (as we know it) is Doomed! She is also  an active writer for Forbes, Cognitive World, Towards Data Science and Marketing Insider Group.