Creating brand experiences for and with consumers requires technology. Obvious right? Then why do marketers and their IT departments still remain segregated in so many businesses today?

Internet week in New York (the East Coast’s response to Silicon Valley – some have even dubbed it Silicon Alley – a gathering of all the digi-heads and tech fanatics on this half of the country) has just finished (now in its 5^th year).

One of the seminars I attended looked at digital disruption, and not just in how digital has disrupted consumers, or given headaches to marketers as they attempt to find new and innovative avenues in which to speak to these new hyper-consumers (ahem, please see our nVitro The Hyper Individual).  It also addressed the change among the C-Suite – no longer can the suits at the top carry on with life in the business world as usual.  Their window office will not protect them from the digital age and those who ignore the call of digital integration will feel it  -  most acutely on their bottom lines…

Thus, the CM-I-O is born (chief marketing and information officer).

While in the analog world, information technology specialists and marketers remained decidedly and determinedly separate within the company walls, this brave new world, with its rising and unending importance of digital technology, requires these Chiefs Of to become increasingly integrated. Meaning that IT must now jump in bed with their ad and marketing teams – merging marketing practice with the technology that supports it in order to create a consumer-friendly, fast paced and effective brand interface for engagement.

Both sides of the corporate brain -  the creatives and the techies  – now form the internal power couple put  on the quest to engage the consumer in ways meaningful to their life today and tomorrow.  And the reason for this internal merger is simple: excellence in marketing ideas (driven by the CMO) requires excellence in the delivery of ideas (driven by the CTO/CIO).  And as data increasingly becomes more of an business asset, silos of information within a company can cause chronic illness that will only lead to early brand death.

And it makes sense, an obvious and natural transition. Transparency is increasing faster and cost is decreasing faster now than at any other time. So why keep the IT team in the basement when good IT can facilitate new systems of customer engagement? IT enables things such as Concierge Living to be brought to life, allowing for brand transparency and excellence in our demanding 24 hour consumer society. This shift in corporate leadership and co-operation is strategic and we expect increasing numbers of brands to join in – and rapidly so.  As Matthew Jauchius, CMO of Nationwide Insurance, put it – “What can you do without technology?”.  The number of activities is shrinking almost daily.  More, responding in real time across social media is marketing GOLD – technologists can empower marketers to respond, effectively and timely, through these social mediums.

The lesson? Technology should not be viewed any longer as simply an expense, but used strategically as a business asset and enabled to drive competitive advantage from within. Marketers do the dreaming and then work with IT to find a way to make those dreams come true.

Some big brands have already seen the light, blending these roles or forming unique partnerships – internal Bro-mances and Sisterhoods, if you like – in an attempt to bring the 21^st century customer into focus and streamline their processes. Motorola, Nationwide, International Hotel Group… are just a few of the big names speaking at Internet Week who are pioneering the world of the CM(I)O  -  and according to them, with great success.

Innovation needs the consumer and the consumer today is integrating digital into all aspects of their life.  Marketers must now do the same.

Are IT and marketing meshing in your organisation?  If so, what differences has your brand seen?  If not, do you think this should become a critical part of the agenda moving forward?  We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Our first blog from Heather Corker, VP of the newly opened Future Foundation New York office, taking a look at the latest trends, news and views from the USA.

The national dish here is not curry, but take-away – in any form.

New York City has long been famous for its 24-hour mentality. But technology today has added another dimension to this 24 hour society; more, social media has made instant access – all hours access – available to everyone, not just in the city that never sleeps. The End of Adventure is playing out quite nicely on the streets of America today.

One of the biggest differences I’ve noticed jumping the pond from the UK to the US is just how much more social Americans are – but not in the traditional sense. While mobile platforms and their functionality were adopted far more quickly in the UK and Europe initially, Americans are more actively involved in the everyday, on-the-ground use of social media via their phones as they go throughout their day.  Using every form of social media not just to show the world what they are doing and who they are doing it with, but to find the information they need.

Yelp, in particular, is not a new concept. It has been around for ages, but pray for the business that receives a bad review -  their end may be night.  Be it because no one wants to waste their hard earned cash on a venue or experience that is only, well OK; or because our time is too precious to be spent at any place other than the best of venues, with an excellent happy hour, the best flat white in the city or food which worthy of an instagram mug shot  -  in New York, cafes, salons, Laundromats live and die by their Yelp review.

If there were ever any doubt that transparency is now integral to every business-consumer relationship, this is it.  There is simply too much choice and too many new venues to wade through – very little is now left to chance. If walking down the street and in need of a quick coffee, bite to eat or a spur of the moment mani-pedi where do I turn? Even in a hurry, mediocre will just not do. So I don’t leave it to chance, I leave it to Yelp.

In fact today, not only did I look up the nearest  mani-pedi salon to my home; I ensured it had received no bad reviews in the last 6 months, on any site  -  because you are only ever as good as your latest review. In the last week I have used online review services (why ask a friend when I can ask my phone?) to book my hair appointment, find a venue for happy hour, book dinner, “discover” a quiet, cool cafe to spend my Sunday morning reading the paper, and found a gym to join (who have very kindly provided me with a free one-week trial while I determine whether or not to jump on board). The list, as you can tell, could go on.

But these habits speak to a bigger social trend -  the need to share. It is my fellow citizens – the collective of New Yorkers and tourists alike – who are banding together to make sure that not one of us need have a bad experience. Or that we are at least warned of the possibility ahead of time.

What consequences does this have for businesses? How must they now interact?  Now that consumers are talking to each other, brands need to join the conversation -  and they must offer complete transparency.  You’ve heard this, we know.  But getting the response right is critical.  Brands must acknowledge where they have gone wrong, answer questions and reply to bad reviews. Talk to your consumers like friends, not as a potential sale.

People are social. Brands need to get involved.

For more on nVision US or our NY office, please contact Heather Corker – heatherc@futurefoundation.net

nLighten is our new book review service, designed to summarise the books we are reading at the moment and bring some of the key insights to you in bite-sized format. First up is Andrew Keen’s Digital Vertigo, which focuses on the potential negative consequences of our increasingly public and increasingly Social lives.

As Social seeps ever more into consumers’ lives, shaping our interactions and relationships, an increasing number of social analysts are taking a critical look at what this change in human relationships means – how will it shape the future for the construction of personality?  What will it mean for the future of creativity, inventiveness, entrepreneurship…? And, if gone unchecked, could it be the undoing of us all?

Hitting on our Murdered by Modernity trend, Digital Vertigo warns us about the potential downside to our increasingly public lives, arguing that we need a new way of explaining and seeing the human connection at a time when our lives are “literally all becoming data”.  He asserts that social media has, for the first time, combined two opposite human desires – “radical individualism” and“social inclusion”. Through our social networks, we can now be both individualist, while at the same time remain socially included and connected. Keen cautions that we have been tricked into thinking that everything social is Good. That collaboration, sharing, complete transparency… is the path to a better, more inclusive world.

However, Keen asserts that humans need a counter to our access-all-hours world, a bit of anonymity and privacy – a) to allow us the freedom to think and be creative and develop ideas, products, movements; and b) for the development of personality. The more we live our lives in the public space, Keen argues, the more fragmented we become – the result leading to weak individuals and weak societies.

He asks the question, are we falling in love with something that doesn’t really exist? In the Social world we are not human or connecting in a human way; we live in a reputation economy (see FF trends Accumulation of Social Capital / Performative Leisure) and are thus self seeking, only tweeting, blogging, liking or sharing things which will in effect enhance our own social status among friends and strangers. Would we genuinely share something if we did not get some sort of societal kick-back in return? Andrew Keen is not so sure. He thinks we have been conned into believing that we want it, love it and now, to a certain extent, need it to help us organise and live our lives.

Social is increasingly stealing our ability to remain unknown, unseen, but is this openness the good witch or the bad witch? Should internet companies, social media, holders of cosmic amounts of consumer data, be held responsible to do ‘good’, to be The Good Company (see nVision passim)? Is that what businesses, in the business to make money, should really be about? Or, should consumers take the reins and be active in controlling what personal information they will allow to be used by such companies? Will we, as consumers, strike a balance? Find the middle ground between unending public posting and display of our lives and the actual, real, value it generates for us? And, should government have a role in herding consumers towards this balance / keeping companies in-check until we arrive?

Earlier this week, the Future Foundation held its latest nVision Express Seminar here in Shoreditch – an event which gives clients a chance to hear about our latest thinking and most exciting new content in an intimate and interactive setting.

For our first 2012 event, we decided to REWIND things and update our view on a selection of the emerging nVitro trends we’ve identified over the years – asking how they’ve been developing in the early part of the 10s and what further changes we can expect the rest of the decade to herald.

On the menu for the day were the following themes:

Wish You Were Shopping Here! + We Pop! UShop – which look, respectively, at the ways in which brands are reinvigorating the high-street shopping experience and using temporary “pop up” shops and events to engage consumers (in the picture, we show “The Unusual Umbrella Emporium” from Hendrick’s Gin – a temporary bar-cum-museum in London’s Covent Garden).

Heavy Meddle Parents – a trend which references the changing role of parents in the lives of their adult children, touching everything from the emergence of new responsibilities and support structures to the increasing levels of financial assistance being offered.

Johnny Cashless – the seemingly unstoppable spread of cashless payments throughout more and more commercial contexts.

At a time when many retailers and brands are struggling to entice reluctant, budget-sensitive shoppers to the high-street, our first discussion looked at the drive within the retail world to evolve locations into havens of technological and experiential interactivity – how shopping is being transformed into a fun and engaging experience and a leisure activity in its own right. We then concentrated on pop-up retailing, asking whether it is now, perhaps ironically, a permanent fixture on the high-street. But while more and more brands seem to be employing temporary activities, it is a form of retail which continues to hold serious appeal.

Our discussion created quite a buzz, sparking questions such as:

“When will discounting and promotions end?”

“How can brands deliver over-the-top service, do promotions and still stay in the black? What is the proof of success here?”

“How can we build customer loyalty into promotions?”

Next on the agenda was the shifting role of parents. Which responsibilities are parents assuming for adult children? How are they responding to adult children who still need support – financially and even emotionally – as they leave university and look for work? Will stay at home grown-ups (STAGS) have more money to spend frivolously? Or will they be saving? Will it be parents who actually start saving for their children’s pensions? Will there be a cross-generational influence on what younger or older citizens are interested in consuming – due to their proximity in the home? Will STAGS become a norm – or are they just a recessionary feature?

We then closed the seminar by returning to the world of retail and placing a spotlight on the rise of the cashless payment. This is a trend first ushered in by the birth of NFC technologies and which has quickly encompassed the world of mobile payments and the mobile web. These systems are buoyed by consumer desire for convenience and simplicity, with prototypes of mobile payment schemes being trialled across the globe – even the London Olympics will have an official NFC-enabled mobile phone for athletes to use when making purchases at the games. As we move towards an ever more streamlined, efficient and connected existence, will we see soon migrate from a cashless to a potentially wallet-less experience on the high street? More, if payments all go mobile in the future, what does this mean for the future of clerks and cash? And how can companies tackle the outstanding concerns which still trouble consumers, most notably over security?

What are your thoughts?  How comfortable are you with a mobile only world? Is this something to be embraced or just another step towards a society which is Murdered by Modernity?

We’d love to hear your comments about any of the topics above. nVision clients can also request copies of the Seminar presentations by contacting their Account Manager.