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 guest blogger this month is author, entrepreneur and ideas guru Tim Drake. His distinguished and varied career has seen him head up the Client Services team at global advertising  agency BBDO; set up a retail business which achieved a turnover of £17m; establish 3 think tanks for CEOs; and pen a number of  groundbreaking books including You Can Be As Young As You Think, and, most recently, How to Make A Difference.  Here Tim explores some of the guiding principles behind How to Make a Difference.  Tim is also a Future Foundation nVoy.

Yes, there’s a growing desire to make a difference and add value to society. And it could be game changing.

My book How to Make a Difference takes a close look at this, and uses Future Foundation research as a starting point to do so. The Future Foundation research in question confirms that in 1980 people who felt, either strongly or moderately, that they wanted to “fulfill myself as an individual” amounted to just 30% of the population. By 2011 that figure was 60%. Conversely, people saying “I want to own more things than I do now” has declined.

There are several reasons for this. A major one would be that long term rising affluence has coincided with debilitating stress brought about the competitive pressures of globalization. This has induced an urgent need to find meaning – a still centre in our lives – where we can get in touch with our purpose and validate our existence as human beings. The rise in social media has accelerated this desire to express and enjoy ourselves through what we experience – travel, culture etc – rather than what we own. And it has been given added impetus by the Gen Y imperative to find identity and fulfillment through collaboration, rather than individual self-expression.

How can brands capture the energies and enthusiasm of people who are turning away from merely material possessions? The answer must lie in helping them make good things happen. This will require a supercharge to the CSR agenda to bring it even more centre stage for brands.

The good news is that it will have to be genuine, because consumers can smell hypocrisy at fifty paces. So the brand management at all levels – and their creative agencies – now have the opportunity to innovate some ground-breaking stuff.  Not only that, they’ll feel good about themselves and their brand because they will know they really are making a difference.

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.

In our Ageless Society trend, we argue that evolving lifestyles and attitudes are challenging age-based assumptions and stimulating support for more age-inclusive marketing communications. Indeed, as many within the upper age brackets look forward to enjoying the autumns and winters of their lives in relative good health and financial comfort, any notion that reaching one’s 60s, 70s, 80s or beyond should involve an automatic rejection of concern about such areas as physical appearance, fitness and fashion is being challenged. And driving this forward have been a) rising longevity b) growing acceptance that we will need to work for longer into our lives and c) the majoritarian belief that people should make an effort to look their best at any age (a statement for which support peaks at 77% among those aged 75+).

Broadly speaking, we thus posit that age is becoming much less of a determining factor across such areas as technology, leisure, fashion and media consumption – and that marketing messages are shifting accordingly. In particular, the idea that fashion and beauty campaigns should speak only to young(-ish) groups falls under ever greater pressure. And it is in this context that we look with interest at H&M’s 2011 Christmas campaign. Long a brand willing to feature models drawn from a wide demographic spectrum – as we saw through its use of Daphne Self in the late 00s – the fashion retailer’s latest posters present a diverse range of protagonists, often juxtaposed within the same image. One of the posters thus presents Jerry Hall (mid 50s) alongside her daughter Georgia May Jagger. Another unites singer Bryan Ferry (early 60s) with his son Tara.

Of course, we recognise that there will always be occasions when certain age segments will respond to age-specific communications. But targeting older consumers with products designed explicitly for “old” people will certainly become less and less common. In turn, instances where younger and older individuals are invited to choose similar but age-appropriate styles and designs from the same brand will grow. Indeed, as age boundaries progressively weaken and more brands adopt age-neutral approaches to marcomms – particularly when it offers the opportunity to broaden customer bases – the Ageless Society mindset will get only stronger.