Video with some key messages from me: a penny for your thoughts (Freedom Labs): from Ego to Eco
From 2009 but still one of my favorite videos about my work (and nice audio / video collage)
114 posts categorized "Marketing2.0"
January 24, 2012
October 19, 2011
Mobile advertising must be content-based (review of my talk at MMA Forum in Sao Paulo
RCR Wireless has collected some good snippets from my talk at the Mobile Marketing Association Forum in Sao Paulo, yesterday (download the 15MB high.res pdf here):
"Futurist and author Gerd Leonhard explained during a keynote address today at the Mobile Marketing Association Forum in São Paulo that customer trust was vital. “If we don’t trust Google, Twitter, Facebook, we leave them and they will die,” Leonard said. However, the key pillar to a solid strategy of mobile marketing is a focus on content. “Advertising is becoming content, marketing is curation, mobile is empowerment, brands are publishers, marketers become storytellers and consumers are participants,” explained Leonhard.
The future passes through the end of “mass-anything” and marketing has been dramatically impacted by the increased role of technology. “There is no difference between online and offline. Disconnected screens will be the exception, they will disappear,” said Leonhard. With all devices connected, network traffic will explode. All of this will culminate in changing how companies approach their mobile strategy. The point is how they will interact with customers. “If you want to succeed you have to give them control, as much as you can. Customers will love you,” Leonhard said, adding that empowerment, participation and engagement are the key points..."
See the Twitter buzz from the event, during my talk
September 19, 2011
Good read: Rolling Stone Australia: albums - the next generation (quotes Gerd)
Jason Treuen from Rolling Stone Australia interviewed me for this piece. Best quote from me, imho:
According to leading music futurist Gerd Leonhard, such diverse approaches are just the start of the “complete fragmentation of the music format”. With the convergence of audio, video, graphics and gaming via the net, he predicts the album will soon be eclipsed by the music ‘experience’, embodied in any combination of apps, interactive videos, augmented reality apps or a 3D television concert using interactive controllers like Microsoft’s Kinect. “We’re going back to the understanding that playing music is about an experience, not about a download for the cheapest possible price,” he explains. ”With apps and websites and 3D, I’m given an interface which makes it easier to immerse myself in the experience… You can’t copy that. If you can get immersion from your fans, you have their wallet.”
August 02, 2011
New futurist conversation with Ross Dawson: Open vs Closed Systems (video)
Here is another episode from a series of videos I made with my friend and fellow futurist Ross Dawson, in Sydney, last month. Read his entire post here, and check out Ross's video channel here. And be sure to visit GerdTube:)
Via Ross's post: "Here are a few of the points we make in the video:
* Many executives want to know whether and why they need to open up their business models and customer interactions
* Open systems are faster, more viral, have more innovation, and are more fun to work in
* Apple is the only prominent example of a closed system that is working well
* There is a long and gradual trend to open systems, but progress is rarely linear and it hasn’t shifted as fast as we may have expected
* Platforms and open source have been significant wins for open systems
* There is a battle between ecosystems – you want to be open within the space but compete with other ecosystems
* Android within the platform is open – arguably too open – yet it competes with other mobile platforms it in fact so has boundaries
* Being too open can make things slower to progress, for example with quality assurance issues
* The development of a highly interconnected world creates more need for open systems
* APIs have provided a huge boost to the Internet economy
* Google’s early move to expose APIs to many of its products provided the impetus for this to become standard practice across the net
* A key issue is the pace at which commercial organizations should open out their models
* Facebook has become more open over time due to customer pressure, however now that Google+ has provided a ready way to export personal profiles that changes the competitive landscape in social networks
July 25, 2011
Mobile Marketing Futures: my presentation at the MMA's CEO/CMO Summit
Mobile Marketing Futures: Futurist Gerd Leonhard @ MMA CEO/CMO Summit
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June 14, 2011
Video and PDF: keynote at Norway Media Days 2011: Data is the new Oil
This is an important topic, I think - let me know how you like it. Topics: why data is the new Oil, why most content will be paid for by 'attention', the radical convergence of media and what it means, the total redefinition of 'consumer', going from 'the network' to 'The Networked' etc. Download the low-res PDF: Download Data Oil Gerd Leonhard Bergen Public LOW RES
Data is the new Oil: paying with attention is the future of media
View more presentations from Gerd Leonhard
March 17, 2011
New video: TedXWarwick: Friction is Fiction (the future of business)
18 minutes can be quite short, I think; I always feel a bit rushed as a consequence. But either way, I would love to get your feedback on what you think about this fast-paced presentation; so please leave your comments below or email me. To make this a bit easier, here is the PDF (18MB) of my slides: TedXWarwick Gerd Leonhard PDF. Provided under the usual creative commons attribution non-commercial license, just like all my other slideshows and videos. Most other TedXWarwick can be found here. You can download my book "Friction is Fiction" here (free and hopefully 'friction-less' PDF), or buy a dead-tree version here.
March 03, 2011
New presentation: the future of business in a connected world (FPA Boston)
This is an edited version of my presentation given at the Financial Planning Association's Business Solutions Conference in Boston (twitter stream here). In my 45-minute talk (the audio version will be available, soon, I hope) I talked about how business is changing from being 'egosystems' i.e. centralized, empire-dominated, in-silos, in-broadcast-mode and top-down, to networked, mobile, social, decentralized and inter-connected.
I am showing some examples of successful networked businesses and what makes them tick, plus I comment on so-called Social Media and why it goes much beyond having a facebook page or a blog. I discuss how to deal with disruption, fragmented market places and ultra-empowered 'consumers', and point towards curation, filtering and added values as the strategy for success.
A truly networked business is the only way to prosper, going forward. Enjoy. Share.
The Future of Business in a connected world (FPA Boston Presentation)
View more presentations from Gerd Leonhard
December 27, 2010
Short interview at ICTQatar: the future of media, music, advertising... and futurism
This is a nice, short video (8 Min 20 sec) that was recorded right before my presentation at ICTQatar, in Doha, on December 6, 2010. I cover various topics including what a futurist actually does, what my new company, The Futures Agency, does, where the music industry is going, what is happening as far as privacy is concerned, my thoughs on digital content piracy, and much more.
November 24, 2010
New video: Heartbeats in Conversation with me (future of branding, advertising & media)
Here is a video interview with me, recorded at one of the nicest hotels I have ever been at, the fabulous Lydmar in Stockholm (in September 2010). Sounds Like Branding presents Heartbeats In Conversation With, a series of short conversations on relevant topics for marketing and communication; first out is a conversation between Heartbeats’ CEO Jakob Lusensky and me. The video is subtitled (in English) because the background noise is fairly loud (sorry about that). Jakob and me covered quite a few topics here, from the rise of the connected, digital, mobile economy, the future of advertising and the current status of the advertising industry, to the shift from buying copies of content to just having access to media as a service, and the future of TV.
November 14, 2010
My guest post on the DDB blog: The Future of Marketing & Media - Data Is the New Oil
"This guest post was written by media futurist Gerd Leonhard. Named "one of the leading Media Futurists in the World" by The Wall Street Journal, Gerd works as a futurist in the media, telecom, technology and communication industries. He is also an author, blogger, keynote speaker and strategist and is the CEO of TheFuturesAgency and a visiting professor at the Fundacao Dom Cabral in Sao Paulo / Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
With the explosive growth of the Internet, mobile devices and social networking, a connected world is indeed a very different world. Just witness the meteoric rise of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and the demise of the recorded music industry as we knew it. I would go so far as to argue the only reason advertising in its pre-Web 2.0 form (a global business worth approx. $400 billion per year) ever existed was simply because we were not yet truly connected as today's mobile, social and real-time Internet did not yet exist.
Now that it exists, most of us will no longer tolerate interruptions, meaningless pitches, garish popups, Las Vegas-style skyscraper ads or junk email. We are looking for truly personalized offers, real meaning, solid relevance, timeliness, and yes, transparency and truthfulness. In other words, we will be looking for merit and values that are geared 100% towards us, not to everybody else, or someone else. Think micro-sprinkler systems, not fire hoses; droplets of expression, not spigots of noise exploding off empowered consumers (many of which in fact loath that very term).
Clearly, if brands and their marketers, ads and messages do not provide real value (remember: only time is a truly scarce value now), we will quickly lock them out of our lives and put them on the 'infinitely ignored' list. One might therefore argue that advertising is indeed becoming content (contvertising, anyone?), since relevant and desired, opted-in and followed content is usually quite valuable to us as we spend time on it, while irrelevant messages that encourage us to purchase items we don't even need are just noise. And the Internet has been so fabulously great at increasing the noise level that the time has come to turn that noise into meaning, to take the firehose of data and turn it into a clever sprinkler system.
The key question for marketers, as ever, is: how can you cut the noise, how can you be relevant, be truly wanted, make a better match, and benefit from meaningful connections? How can you turn the act of selling into content, into engagement, into mutual appreciation? Is that even possible? This is where we get to the enormous value of Data.
According to an April 2010 Wired.com post and a related IDC study, the total universe of information available to us already amounts to 800.000 petabytes of data. If you stored all of this data on DVDs the stack would reach from the Earth to the moon and back! By 2020 the digital universe will total 35 zettabytes, or 44 times more than in 2009, keeping in mind that an estimated 75% of all data is already generated by the users themselves.
This makes total sense when you think about it: forwarding a link, rating a site, commenting on a blog, twittering, sharing bookmarks, allowing cookies on your computer, sharing your location, logging into websites, liking something on Facebook -- everywhere we go, everything we do, every move we make around the Net (and soon, elsewhere, as well) -- creates click-trails, leaves digital breadcrumbs, produces data exhaust, and creates what I like to call meta-content, i.e. content around content.
Now, just imagine faster mobile Internet access at a much lower cost (or even free, courtesy of Google and O3B); much cheaper, yet more powerful and smart, mobile devices, connected devices that are not phones or computers but things, objects and products; BRIC+Africa coming online at a furious pace; and computing shifting from tethered computers and mouse clicking to tablets, touch-screens and finger-sweeping, and from downloading to cloud-tapping, which without a doubt will generate seriously more data than ever before, and at an increasing faster rate. The mind boggles (and possibly recoils) over the possibilities and over the huge challenges that these changes will pose, as well. But no matter what one's concerns may be, I think we can safely state that data is indeed the new oil, a metaphor that originated not with me but most likely with the ANA's Michael Palmer and Clive Humby.
Whoever gets to sift through this data, slice and dice it, move it around, make it useful, clear its legal and fair use, and just make sense of it all, is probably going to be more powerful than Shell, Exxon or Mobil have ever been (BigG and BigF emerge as distinct options here). This will, of course, require very careful and sensitive fine-tuning, with utmost attention to giving full control to the user, period. Regulation will be required but should, in my view, not be hastened; however, something that we must certainly come to grips with is that privacy will become something that we must act on to get back, rather than attain or retain by mere default. Those shiny new and very powerful tools of sharing and self-publishing do require that we accept and handle new responsibilities, as well - now that all of us can easily and constantly connect, we also need to learn new limits, new do's and don'ts - and the purveyors of this new power need to help us rather than merely seduce us.
The bottom line is that the data that all of us are increasingly generating and constantly spreading as most of us are switching to an always-on mode, will be at the core of all future success in marketing, branding and advertising -- and for that alone it's roughly worth $1 trillion, already (counting advertising spend, marketing and communication budgets, data-mining etc).
In a truly connected world, i.e. within the next few years, marketers will need constant and deep access to that data, in all its various forms and levels of permissions, because without this data their efforts will be utterly useless to the people formerly known as consumers ( today's users, followers, friends and participants). If the future TV does not know a fair bit about who we are, where we are, what we have watched, for how long, who we have shared shows with, what we have commented on, how we rate things; or if - worst case - we decide to just pay a bit more and keep our click-trails and our data off the grid (yes: Think The Matrix), then the marketers' job will become a lot harder, if not impossible. Matches can't be made, relationships can't be forced, brands can't be followed, connections are interrupted. Yelling is dead, and engagement needs permission - a tough but extremely rewarding challenge.
Getting too little or bad data -- or not understanding it-- will literally mean running out of gas in the middle of the desert. Therefore, the mission is to keep it all fueled up. And just like oil, there will be a myriad of issues (hopefully, not wars) that will arise with the responsible and fair practices of drilling, pumping, shipping, refining and dispensing of data. But without a doubt these issues will be solved in due course because this Data-Oil is very potent and because the responsible use of it will light up so many households that sufficient incentive for problem-solving exists. Telecom companies and mobile operators will want in on this game, as well - after all, it's their networks that make this all work (for now).
My prediction is that we will see a huge influx of companies dealing with the various aspects of data drilling, shipping, refining and remixing, and that the next Exxon or Mobil may well be a data-slicing company. Agencies, marketers and brands need to embrace the challenges and experiment: Get into the new Data-Oil ecosystem. "
Posted in Strategy on November 8, 2010 
DDB BlogStrategyNovember 8, 2010
November 12, 2010
Social Media (R)Evolution: the new look of business (video, Schwab Impact 2010)
I just received the video of my talk on Social Media and The Future of Business at the Schwab Impact 2010 conference in Boston, and it came out quick well, 14 minutes or so, well worth it I think --- but you tell me! The Youtube version is here. PDF is on Slideshare.
November 04, 2010
The Future of Classifieds, Advertising and Online Selling (ICMA 2010 presentation)
Here is the high-resolution, slideshare version - enjoy! You can download the PDF via Slideshare.
The Future of Classifieds & Selling (ICMA 2010, Vienna)
View more presentations from Gerd Leonhard.
September 30, 2010
New video: 5 customer engagement trends by Gerd Leonhard (future of marketing)
A short, new video of an interview with me, kindly produced and provided by mycustomer.com, recorded after a recent keynote engagement at the Tradedoubler conference in London, September 23, 2010, containing some useful nuggets on the future of marketing and advertising - take a look and let me know how you like it.
September 22, 2010
The Future of Advertising: Interaction before Transaction (AdTech London)
Here is the high-resolution PDF of my talk at AdTech London yesterday. Some of the key points:
- Data is the new Oil
- Interaction before Transaction
- Social Networks are Broadcasters (and the biggest, actually)
- Targeted and personalized advertising will support a lot of 'feels like free' content
- Get ready for the Tribalization of Business
The Future of Advertising: Gerd Leonhard at Adtech London 2010
View more presentations from Gerd Leonhard.
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