It’s the most wonderful time of the year. It’s time for every person with a computer to write a blog post about what’s going to change next year in the world of marketing. If you think I didn’t make every single one of those words a link because I ran out of articles to link to, you’re wrong.
What’s going to separate our roundup from the rest of the pack? Well, it’s simple — this isn’t a list of predictions about what the next big thing is going to be. Instead, I went around and asked my colleagues what they were most excited to work on next year.
Without further ado, here’s what they said:
“I see 2020 being the year Client Success replaces Client Service in marketing. I’m not satisfied only giving clients what they’re asking for. I’m excited for my team to get out ahead of and solve the problems our clients don’t even know are coming.”
— Phil Dupertuis, Director of Client Services, North America
“As digital communications continue to get more saturated and the barrier to entry continues to fall lower and lower, it is getting harder and harder for brands to stand out via email and social media. Combine that with a lot of the data restrictions being put into place limiting who can and can’t send marketing messages, and brands are realizing they can’t exclusively rely on digital channels.
This has led to a comeback in quality direct mail, which I for one am extremely excited to get more into. Sending creative, well-designed direct mail is a way for brands to stand out without having to worry about the same kinds of privacy restrictions being applied to email, and there’s something extremely satisfying about making tangible objects.”
— Jason Feller, Business Unit Director and Strategist, North America
“This one is easy for me, because I get to lead Salted Stone’s expansion into EMEA. Opening our Dublin office means we’re expanding the global reach of our agency and renewing growth within our current ecosystems, especially HubSpot. Implementing mindfulness with our team and in our work will be important as we adapt to the new culture, develop new partnerships, and tackle every new challenge!”
— Sabrina Roussel, Business Unit Director and Strategist, EMEA
“I’ve got a laundry list of things I’m excited about:
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- Pumping as much personality as we can get away with into every project
- Utilizing subtle animation and motion effects as much as possible
- Experimenting with incorporating 3D / mixed medium / abstract photography into our work
- Increasing our focus on accessibility and inclusive design
- Continuing to develop our product design workflow
- Collaborating even more closely with other production teams”
— Mitch McKenzie, Creative Director, North America
“As we move into the 2020, our drive for convenience is making speech an increasingly important channel. ComScore predicts that 50% of all searches will be accomplished by voice search next year. To me, that’s electrifying — I can’t wait to dive further into how to incorporate speech into our client’s strategic vision.”
— Tony Eades, Chief Strategy Officer, APAC
“SEO and SEM in general are always changing, so I’m always excited about the road ahead. There’s almost no solid ground — you have to keep learning something new to be effective. Whether it’s conversational content, the battle for snippets on SERPs, or the increasing role that influencers will have on search, I’m ready to get down to business and work with our team and our clients to find new ways to win in 2020.”
— Renée Smith, Technical Marketing Team Lead, North America
“I am definitely going to get that sandwich Renée is eating in 2020. She’s never given it to me before, but I feel really good about next year.”
— Capone, Renée’s Dog, North America
“I’m ready to start totally destroying the silos between customer success, sales, product, and marketing teams. Brands are realizing that the interaction between all these different departments can lead to incredible results, and I’m so excited to help them get there.”
— Talar Malakian, Business Unit Director and Strategist, North America
I’m not going to quote myself because that’s ridiculous. I’ll just say that what’s most exciting for me heading into 2020 is that we’ll be able to take everything we’ve learned about making digital storytelling increasingly interactive and compelling, and that I’ll be starting the new year with my ambitions for what we can accomplish higher than ever.
