Marketers, look beyond the “next big thing.”

However, if you look at the big topics and trends in the industry over the past few years, you’ll see a pattern of focusing on grabbing the “next big thing” without taking a long-term view toward actual implementation and realization. You’ll find out soon. impact.

In 2022, it was the Metaverse. Earnings calls and marketing strategy presentations rarely ended without a hasty insertion of the “m” word. Although there was (and continues to be) confusion about what actually constitutes the Metaverse, there was still a rush to declare the launch of a “Metaverse” marketing campaign and an increase in popularity at industry events and awards programs. The flood of metaverse-related categories never stopped. .

These activations often take place within virtual games and social platforms, and are a legitimate growing area of ​​opportunity and interest for marketers, with a desire to join the conversation and hype around current industry trends. Now it’s wrapped.

As a result, industry discussions have skipped several steps in terms of understanding audience behavior in virtual spaces and uncovering the real impact these experiences may have now and in the future. I decided to do it. Instead, the story focused on the latest brands to come alive in the ‘metaverse’, with little attention to outcomes, impact and purpose, without contextualizing the brands within the current technological environment. .

In 2023, it happened again. Yes, I’m talking about AI. It’s been both interesting and disheartening to witness the sudden shift from the Metaverse to AI across industry headlines, events, and disciplines this year. Once again, the priority is to jump on the big news of the year and get on board while overshadowing the real potential that AI technology offers. With all the attention paid to AI this year, the term has become a stand-in for technologies that include even basic levels of automation and machine learning (both of which existed before his 2023 AI hype bubble) and what AI actually is. We missed an opportunity to educate them about what is there. So how should marketers think about it going forward?

It is easy to identify similarities between the Metaverse and AI. So you can see why the Metaverse and AI became major marketing stories in their respective years. Both are new forms of technology that, while conceptually easy to understand, are complex in nature.

They offer a level of accessibility and familiarity that allows them to be easily inserted into existing industry conversations, while also possessing a high level of technical sophistication that makes them feel exciting and forward-thinking. Another important element of the story arc is that both the Metaverse and AI gained traction following major technology industry announcements. For the Metaverse, Facebook renamed it Meta, and for AI, his ChatGPT was launched.

The speed and ferocity with which both the Metaverse and AI have become mainstream stories in marketing and advertising reveals our industry’s penchant for chasing the next big thing. When it comes to how we think about innovation in marketing, there is sometimes a huge emphasis on “newness” and being first, which can lead to the above scenario. This could mean a situation where one idea or technology dominates his year until the next “next big thing” comes along. . The result is that the focus remains firmly in one direction, producing a wealth of retrofitting ideas and technologies to suit the latest obsessions, as well as other forms of innovation that don’t fit so neatly into the general industry discourse. . It may be overlooked.

Now that we’re on the cusp of 2024, how quickly will AI be abandoned for the next technological advancement, as we saw in the early 2023 metaverse? Or will innovation in marketing and the stories we tell ourselves? Is there an opportunity to rethink how we think about

As an industry, we always stress the importance of identifying purpose and goals up front, but when it comes to new technologies and ideas, that can be forgotten. Innovation for innovation’s sake is of little value. The same is true for innovations driven primarily by industry hype. The focus should be on results, impact, and exploration rather than the need to follow the noise. After all, innovation is about finding better ways of doing things to achieve desired results, whether or not it can be tied to current industry buzzwords.

Future technology is exciting, but if you don’t fully understand it, it’s easy to miss out on areas of real potential. The appeal of the Metaverse and AI was that it was an easy-to-understand concept, yet created the possibility of talking about a technologically advanced future and “jumping ahead” of the conversation around us. A deeper understanding of these technologies as they exist today will enable better innovation and execution tomorrow. However, this is often overlooked when speed is more important than evaluation.

This is not to discount the potential impact that future technologies will have on our industry, nor is it to discount the need to talk about it. But there is an opportunity for the discourse surrounding them to become more enlightened. Looking at industry predictions for next year, my view is that the way we talk and think about innovation is evolving and we don’t need another “next big thing” to shape how we think about the future. That may be a little optimistic.