The Times they are a Changin’: A Look at Converging Technologies and Promotional Marketing

Keep up on new technology trends or risk being left behind.

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Business and technology move quickly, which is why it is important to occasionally take a moment to gain perspective how far things have come, and where they are going. The last several years have seen a drastic shift in available mainstream technologies as well as applications for those technologies. We have seen advances in a variety of areas such as cell phones, social networking, miniaturization, and internet technology amongst other converging technologies. This has led us to a point where we are set to leap into a new generation of marketing techniques and delivery platforms.

Where we’ve been:

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In the mid-late 1990’s we saw websites and, more importantly, e-commerce websites emerge as a necessity for retail businesses. This caused innovations in search engine technologies, web marketing, web advertising, and affiliate programs that added an extra dimension to business promotion. From the year 2000 to around 2006, there were a few major innovations that changed the marketing game, such as more targeted advertising abilities, better visitor analysis, better e-commerce features, better usability and online merchandising. Blogs also rose to prominence during this period, along with content aggregators (such as Digg and Reddit), pod-casting, online pay-for Mp3 services (such as iTunes), RSS news feeds were popularized, Youtube pioneered user-submitted video, and more ample online news platforms evolved as well. Each of these innovations was game-changing in the sense that they each created massive opportunities for those that were willing and able to integrate those new platforms into their business and marketing model.

Recent developments:

It wasn’t until the last 2 years, however, that we saw the biggest and arguably most important technological innovations since the late 1990’s. There are 5 things that have recently converged to change how we look at not only marketing, but business in general:

1. Cell phones - One of the most immediately impacting developments, the cell phone has yet to reach its full potential. The ubiquity of the Smart phone has made it possible for not only the road warrior, but the average user to be connected 24/7 via email, text message, GPS, and internet browsing. Through recent (and continued) innovations in processors, batteries, motion-gesture technology, touch screens, 3G wireless access, and new interface technologies, the smart phone is set to possibly replace the computer as the primary source of internet access. The smaller screens and unique limitations as well as opportunities that smart phones provide will continue to drive a whole new marketing methodology in the near future.

2. Social Media - Probably the single most important development with regards to marketing, social media has changed how people interact with the web. No longer is the web a place where

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only tech-savvy people can participate,but it is something where everyone can share their thoughts. Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Twitter are critical new platforms to watch, as they are incredibly successful, and have not yet even matured as market delivery platforms. Do yourself a favor, if you haven’t already, get involved with these platforms, and at least be sure you understand how they work. People are getting networked and connected like never before, and you can’t afford to be left behind.

3. GPS - GPS has been around for a long time already, but has never really been a major market factor until the last couple years. GPS usage in driving and navigation has jumped in the last few years, and has become more of a factor in where people go for dinner, where they stop for gas, and which routes they take to get there. Not only that, but GPS mapping has become more and more tied into the internet, and social media in particular. In the near future we will begin to see the real capabilities of GPS from being able to geo-tag photos of people you know, to being able to provide a visitor coupon based on their geo-position in relation to their nearest restaurant.

4. Search Technology - We have yet to see the full impact of this convergent marketing technology, but there are new developments in the Search Engine world that will revolutionize t

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his area by finally realizing the dream of a more “semantic” web. These technologies will take human-style queries and return useable information. The recent release of a project code-named “Wolfram Alpha” has demonstrated just how far these technologies have advanced. For instance, in the Wolfram Engine, should you ask it for “Champaign, IL county retail sales” it won’t return a page with links to web pages, rather it will scour the web for raw data. It will then pull that data together, repackage it, and put it into a human-useable format. In this instance, it will tell you a dollar amount, generate a chart with last year’s retail sale in the county by month, show you the 1-year maximum sales for the county as well as the minimum, display various currency conversions for the amount provided, as well as provide the breakdown of those sales by wholesale, retail, service, and manufacturing. Never before have such capabilities been available, and it will be in the next few years that we will finally be able to realize the full potential of these new web search advances.

5. Computers and the Web as a Total Media Delivery Platform -

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For the first time in its history, the web, through services like Netflix’s video-on-demand service, Hulu.com, Joost, and MTV.com, has become a total media delivery platform. More and more computers are making their way to the living room, and the line between a computer and an entertainment center is becoming more and more blurred. This is causing the death of traditional media such as cable and news media outlets. Look for more and more opportunities for aggressive marketing in these areas as these technologies mature.

What it means for you:

What this all means for you is that, for better or for worse, there is a marketing and technology revolution going on that, once finished, will see major changes in not only how your business approaches promotional marketing, but in how it operates. There will be big winners, and there will be big losers by the time this all shakes out, and it will be up to your organization how well it adapts to these new opportunities. No one knows exactly where each of the above technologies will end up as of yet, but one thing is for sure: the future is happing now.

As an industry leader in promotional marketing, Powertex Group is dedicated to ensuring that we are always on the cutting edge of developing technologies. We strive to make ourselves leaders in all aspects of marketing, which is why we have such value to our promotional partners. To learn more about how these upcoming technologies can impact your promotional marketing efforts, give us a call today at (800) 588-7111. Email us at customerservice@powertexgroup.com. Visit us at: http://www.powertexgroup.com.