FUTURE OF
WORK
WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF WORK?
The emerging work landscape scarcely resembles that of the previous generation, during which workers could expect to work for one company throughout their entire career. Increasingly, work roles are fluid, workers earn a living through multiple temporary gigs, work can happen from anywhere with WiFi, and many entry-level jobs are automated.
The future of work is marked by an increased use of technology and dissolving borders between departments and roles as workers race to keep their skills up to date.
WHY SHOULD MARKETERS CARE?
The future of work affects marketers in three major ways. First, marketers face fewer barriers to assembling high-performing teams than in the past, both for short-term projects and long-term hires, if they adapt to the changing nature of work. Employers that rigidly stick to traditional work models, such as the nine-to-five schedule, are less attractive and will have a harder time persuading the best talent to come work for firms that don’t embrace the future of work and its inherent flexibility.
Second, successful marketers must adapt their old tactics to new ways of doing business. For example, the B2B marketer must engage with businesses that sell novel services, like cloud storage solutions, or operate on a novel business model, like direct-to-consumer online retail.
Finally, to stay relevant, marketers must understand the “why” behind the shift toward Chief Growth Officers and how this new approach to marketing can improve performance, regardless of job title.
HOW CAN IT HELP YOUR BUSINESS?
Understanding the future of work gives businesses a competitive edge across several operations: securing talent, retaining talent, optimizing the org chart, reaching customers who increasingly interact exclusively online, and capitalizing on automation. An understanding of this evolving landscape frees companies to create meaningful solutions for today’s newest business challenges.
IPG Media Lab works with some of the world’s largest brands to drive innovation in media, marketing, and business models. As the dedicated innovation initiative of the UM family of agencies, they’ve worked with companies of all sizes, across numerous verticals. Chad Stoller and Adam Simon of IPG Media Lab discussed the types of conversations they have with marketers around innovation, gave us a behind-the-scenes look at how IPG Media stays innovative, and asked whether one can truly measure innovation success.
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SEO was a lot simpler in a less-crowded marketplace; you could optimize by keyword for your product, industry, or customer demographics and watch your traffic grow. In 2021, however, not only is the online space left with little metaphorical keyword elbow room, but search engines have gotten smarter to keep up with consumer demand. People search more conversationally due to voice assistants like Alexa and Siri, and AI-powered chatbots learn more as they’re being searched, which also contributes to a natural semantic search style. If marketers want to make sure their SEO efforts are being noticed, there are several ways to do this, all of which embrace this more casual way of searching consumers are employing – “long-tail keywords,” those with fewer search results but a higher conversion rate; “keyword clusters,” which group product identifiers that can single out your brand; “natural language processing (or NLP)” which rely on qualifiers like “what” and “where” to make a search less-robotic, and the overall conversational style that voice search and chatbots have made more prominent as of late.
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WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF WORK?
The emerging work landscape scarcely resembles that of the previous generation, during which workers could expect to work for one company throughout their entire career. Increasingly, work roles are fluid, workers earn a living through multiple temporary gigs, work can happen from anywhere with WiFi, and many entry-level jobs are automated.
The future of work is marked by an increased use of technology and dissolving borders between departments and roles as workers race to keep their skills up to date.
WHY SHOULD MARKETERS CARE?
The future of work affects marketers in three major ways. First, marketers face fewer barriers to assembling high-performing teams than in the past, both for short-term projects and long-term hires, if they adapt to the changing nature of work. Employers that rigidly stick to traditional work models, such as the nine-to-five schedule, are less attractive and will have a harder time persuading the best talent to come work for firms that don’t embrace the future of work and its inherent flexibility.
Second, successful marketers must adapt their old tactics to new ways of doing business. For example, the B2B marketer must engage with businesses that sell novel services, like cloud storage solutions, or operate on a novel business model, like direct-to-consumer online retail.
Finally, to stay relevant, marketers must understand the “why” behind the shift toward Chief Growth Officers and how this new approach to marketing can improve performance, regardless of job title.
HOW CAN IT HELP YOUR BUSINESS?
Understanding the future of work gives businesses a competitive edge across several operations: securing talent, retaining talent, optimizing the org chart, reaching customers who increasingly interact exclusively online, and capitalizing on automation. An understanding of this evolving landscape frees companies to create meaningful solutions for today’s newest business challenges.
“We seem at a crossroad in redefining what it means to work, to be an employer, and to contribute value and talent in newfound ways. Purpose will bring the future into focus.
We can choose to use advances in technology merely to drive more efficiency and cost reduction, or we can consider more deeply the ways to harness these trends and increase value and meaning across the board—for businesses, customers, and workers.”
Jeff Schwartz
Principal
Deloitte Consulting
Key Stats
ANA Marketing Futures and eMarketer have come together to deliver key stats and forecasts on the trends that will shape the industry for years to come.
Related Content
Want to take a deeper dive into the future of work? ANA Members have access to brand stories, case studies, and expert webinars you won't find anywhere else.
The Future of Work
Google. May 2019
Google shared data on the way that the employees of business-to-business companies work and how marketers can reach them.
Lead from the Heart to Unleash Your Team's Potential
ANA. August 2019
Ben Harris, president of Production Solutions, and John Perell, director of strategy and member experience at Smithsonian Institution, reviewed the latest scientific research and corporate success stories to explain ways in which leaders, managers, and team members can effectively increase employee engagement.
How to Remain Relevant in Transformational Times
ANA. October 2019
Rishad Tobaccowala of Publicis Groupe shared three observations on the nature of the future for business and five recommendations for preparing for it.
Download Now!
The future of work is marked by an increased use of technology and dissolving borders between departments and roles as workers race to keep their skills up to date. Increasingly, work roles are fluid, workers earn a living through multiple temporary gigs, work can happen from anywhere with WiFi, and many entry-level jobs are automated.
ANA Marketing Futures spoke to marketers and experts across industries to get their opinion on the evolution of the workforce, and created a guide for to help brands thrive in a dramatically shifting workplace.
Download the full report today!
Jeff Schwartz
Principal
Deloitte Consulting
“We seem at a crossroad in redefining what it means to work, to be an employer, and to contribute value and talent in newfound ways. Purpose will bring the future into focus.
We can choose to use advances in technology merely to drive more efficiency and cost reduction, or we can consider more deeply the ways to harness these trends and increase value and meaning across the board—for businesses, customers, and workers.”
Key Stats
ANA Marketing Futures and eMarketer have come together to deliver key stats and forecasts on the trends that will shape the industry for years to come.
Related Content
Want to take a deeper dive into the future of work? ANA Members have access to brand stories, case studies, and expert webinars you won't find anywhere else.
The Future of Work
Google. May 2019
Google shared data on the way that the employees of business-to-business companies work and how marketers can reach them.
Lead from the Heart to Unleash Your Team's Potential
ANA. August 2019
Ben Harris, president of Production Solutions, and John Perell, director of strategy and member experience at Smithsonian Institution, reviewed the latest scientific research and corporate success stories to explain ways in which leaders, managers, and team members can effectively increase employee engagement.
How to Remain Relevant in Transformational Times
ANA. October 2019
Rishad Tobaccowala of Publicis Groupe shared three observations on the nature of the future for business and five recommendations for preparing for it.
Download Now!
The future of work is marked by an increased use of technology and dissolving borders between departments and roles as workers race to keep their skills up to date. Increasingly, work roles are fluid, workers earn a living through multiple temporary gigs, work can happen from anywhere with WiFi, and many entry-level jobs are automated.
ANA Marketing Futures spoke to marketers and experts across industries to get their opinion on the evolution of the workforce, and created a guide for to help brands thrive in a dramatically shifting workplace.
About ANA Marketing Futures
Knowing that marketers are increasingly challenged in their efforts to keep up with the latest trends and technologies, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) tasked itself with creating a program designed to help marketers anticipate—and prepare for—the future of marketing.
ANA Marketing Futures is what emerged. With a focus on innovative topics and emerging trends, ANA Marketing Futures provides resources that will influence and inform via member cases, research studies, and insight from industry innovators. Check back often to learn about emerging trends and become inspired to take steps toward the growth of your business.
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Phone: 212.697.5950
Email: marketingfutures@ana.net
