Although I have only been in Marketing for ten years, I often reflect on how marketing existed during each decade. I grew up during the nineties, and I remember many advertisements and how full of attitude and social angst that necessarily might not be allowed in today's society. Now Marketing jobs and careers are very diverse, with SEO, Digital Marketing, Email Marketing, and Social Media Marketing all becoming more common fields than traditional marketing. We also live in a digital age where the nineties version of the television is now in the form of our smart devices and computer screens. What happened?  

I believe the wonder of marketing is losing what I call the "Human Element."  What could that mean? I sum it up to that "gut instinct" or "shoot from the hip" idea that made so many things that many people could remember. Toys, Video Games, and kid's drinks like Caprisun or Sunny D had cool commercials. Now I am sure consumer trends pointed out to marketers using traditional marketing research were widely used, whether in sample sizes, surveys, Neilson ratings, and more. Still, in the digital age, we collect that data because people who use social media, click or search for things are already automatically collected. Now that data is funneled into a program and, or an AI that will tell marketers what we should do. In the second decade of the year 2000, marketing is now being automated, and I predict in the next twenty years, Marketing Automation will be perfected, and all of the marketing will be AI-driven, with no human element controlling or suggesting who or what to market. Commercials and ads will change as well, no longer being catchy but being reinforced on social platforms like TikTok or the next major social media thing. 

Splash images and text, AI voices of celebrities, 15 seconds, viewed several times a day, will program individuals to want or need an item that they say or perhaps think. If you have a smartphone or smart device such as a Google Nest or Amazon's Alexa, they are always listening to the sounds or words that are said around them. If you say out loud, "remember the Game Elefun or Connect Four," there's a good chance you will see an ad for those games come across your social media or web browsing experiences. 

There is no wizard behind the curtain. It's merely the progression of technology. Now, is that a bad thing? Not at all, but surely marketers might be out of a job since technology will do it for us. I accidentally stumbled into marketing because I enjoyed graphic design, photography, and videography. That evolved into web design, and with modern technology making videos and doing email blasts are a breeze just by using your smartphone. Yes, they require constant creativity, but that's the joy of marketing. 

In my job as a marketer,  I spend my time reading the analytics, but I look for fun and engaging ideas to preserve the Human Element in decision-making. Arby's on social media has to be one of my favorites because, for a time, they were making cardboard ads of popular memes and Anime references that were trending. That told me that someone in that corporate office had an idea and executed it without needing an AI. 

Now I am not saying Marketing is doomed, but that spark of creativity, aka "the human element," should be needed because technology is not perfect, but again memorable marketing should foster that creative element within marketers in their decision-making processes. 

What are your thoughts?