The Age of the Innovator
February 24, 2009Even with a global depression, new rich web technologies continue to open up new possibilities and opportunities in new media, constantly changing and evolving our understanding.
For marketers, the Internet used to have some clear boundaries; email, usenet, irc provided communication, while the web was for media content. In order to make sense of this emerging world, we followed the rules of offline media. Marketing communication on email mimicked direct mail marketing, while advertising on the web was an extension of the advertising already being done in print and TV.
Web technology has moved on, however, and has become dynamic in a way that simply doesn’t fit with any offline model. Content and communication have blurred into social media, and marketing has to move on also. In this new world, new approaches are required that are as dynamic and interactive as the world they occupy.
For technologists, too, this emerging world presents a unique challenge; one where, once again, the expected rules no longer apply. The market has low barriers to entry, and the winners are not those who consolidate, but those who can stand out through innovation. This innovation does not necessarily require money or even experience; as with marketing, it requires creativity and dynamism.
What becomes clear is that in this exciting environment, the skills and techniques required to succeed as a marketer are the same skills and techniques required to succeed as a technologist. The edges of either discipline have entirely blurred and as such, they can be considered at least co-dependent and at most, one and the same.
Technology and marketing must create and exploit markets in unison. There are plenty of examples where one has led the other; Twitter’s technology has created a vast market, but as yet Twitter have no cost-effective method of monetising it. MSN and Yahoo!’s paid-for email storage products made sense from a marketing perspective, but the technology wasn’t innovative, and simply couldn’t create enough market when Google’s free Gmail service launched with a more innovative business model.
So there is the key to great product; creative and dynamic innovation should be the goal in both technology and marketing, with both efforts balanced and synchronised.
