Is it all just bullshit bingo? The most overestimated trends in 2019

At conferences and private meetings between marketers and agency managers, new marketing strategies and technologies are discussed every year. Then suddenly everyone thinks they have the “cure”, which all too often results in too much money being invested in the wrong channels and tools. DMEXCO wants to protect you from this and has asked four marketers which trends for the year 2019 they see as merely being bullshit bingo.

Beate Rosenthal, Global Director Digital & Media, P&G Health:

Platform criticism is annoying

“Criticism of the platform dominance of Google and Facebook is ever-present. Wrongly so, in my view. We should bring more Silicon Valley optimism to this discussion. Criticism is only useful if it spurs people on to their own ideas and inspires them as much as the offers from Google and Facebook to improve the world in their own way.”

Pure storytelling is out.

“Content marketing itself is a totally overrated trend. At least if one understands it as inventing content within the framework of a storytelling strategy. It would be better to focus more on story finding. This consists of finding and telling authentic stories.”

Maike Abel, Head of Media Communication Nestlé Deutschland AG:

The staggering euphoria of Blockchain

“In theory, blockchain can make a huge contribution to managing security and transparency requirements in the field of media as well. Anyone who takes a closer look at this topic will quickly notice, however, that neither today’s computer performance nor server capacities are designed for media purchasing transactions based on blockchain. It feels like the whole market is in a euphoric testing and learning process without producing convincing solutions. Therefore, my assessment is that it will take at least another three to five years before we can expect a market-ready application for media.”

Tim Alexander, Chief Marketing Officer for Deutschen Bank´s Private and Corporate Client Business:

A fool with a tool is still a fool: IT is not the cure

“Agencies and advertisers have rightly put a lot of effort into upgrading their technology in recent years. This was necessary to keep pace with the growing number of digitalized customers and their needs. No one has truly been able to keep track of all the old and new applications now being used by companies. Many of them are only used in the lowest range of the respective technical possibilities. It is an overestimated trend that technologization will continue at the same pace and with the same depth of change in 2019. It is important to be clear about the goals of the company and marketing and to find the best positioning for them, hopefully a new one, because the greatest innovation today is how we work together in marketing and enable our employees to keep pace in the digital transformation.”

Still no breakthrough in artificial intelligence

“I would like to be surprised in 2019 by commercially convincing approaches to using AI in advertising and marketing. There is no question that AI will remain a relevant trend next year. But unfortunately I don’t see a real breakthrough in 2019 either. Although advertisers could bring us commercially compelling AI solutions in the production of advertising materials, targeting and many issues in the field of marketing automation and customer segmentation, for example.”

Kirsten Brückner, Director Marketing & PRMobile.de:

“It is not yet sufficiently clear whether trends like blockchain will become relevant for marketing. And if so, how. It is also not yet clear whether other topics like influencer marketing will have a relevant and sustainable impact. In 2019 we will see whether these topics are overhyped. The excellence of other trends still needs work to achieve maximum impact. This is true of voice, for example, but also of value creation through the use of data. Personalization can be significantly strengthened in many areas to generate more value.”

The bottom line:

It’s actually quite simple: chasing trends in itself is of no use. First, marketers need to take a look at the big picture to define the strategy for 2019 and then develop the appropriate technologies and strategies based on this. Even in the case of content marketing and influencer marketing, which have been in use for some time, it is important to check the value for your own marketing. Not everything makes sense for everyone.