While CES certainly provides an annual glimpse into the Future of Technology, exhibitor innovations not only influence marketing thinking throughout the year, but shape business decisions and even economic growth for the future.  Issues of Marketing and Technology have consistently been among the top concerns on marketers’ agenda, according to Annual Internationalist Insights Surveys that rank marketing priorities for the coming year. Without question, no part of marketing or the customer value chain has been left untouched by technology. Everyone wants to know what technologies matter most now.
 
Whitney Fishman Zember has many of the answers. As Managing Partner, Innovation & Consumer Technology at Wavemaker US, she helps brands and businesses understand technology-driven consumer-based insights, while uncovering new opportunities to harness technology to connect marketers with audiences in new and meaningful ways.

Jonathan Barnard is Head of Forecasting and Director of Global Intelligence at Zenith, the ROI Agency, where he is responsible for developing market-leading insight, analysis and thought leadership, as well as coordinating a global network of experts. A veteran of Zenith for twenty-five years, he has tracked more financial swings and business precedents than most.

Over the next three years, he expects the ad market to achieve its highest rate of sustained growth since 2000. According to Jonathan Barnard, “As consumers rely ever more on digital technology to connect and entertain them, and to inspire and fulfil their purchases, advertising is playing a greater role in driving sales and brand growth.”

If anyone could characterize the amount of change marketers have experienced or the breadth of their ever-evolving responsibilities, it is Bob Liodice, Chief Executive Officer of the ANA, one of the world’s oldest and largest marketing associations.  With a mission to drive growth, ANA serves the marketing needs of its vast member community that collectively represents more than 20,000 brands. 
 
Speaking with Bob Liodice on trends is akin to experiencing a condensed session on the evolution of modern marketing.  Our conversation continually touches on “hot button” topics ranging from consumer authenticity, purpose, sustainability, and diversity to innovation, measurement, transparency, and privacy, while also exploring what’s ahead and what matters most now.

Ben Jankowski has a knack for posing exactly the right question or directly stating an issue that others may have overlooked.  From talking about today’s “terrible digital ad experience” to figuring out how marketers can “create the kind of value that people really want,” his long experience and love for the business of media helps to push the industry forward. 
 
He is also part of a new generation of marketers driving ownership and change on important media topics and this work has helped shape leading industry initiatives including brand safety, cross-media measurement, and privacy.

Brian Wieser, GroupM’s Global President of Business Intelligence, has been at the center of advertising forecasting and media trend watching for a very long time.
 
As he tracks global advertising expenditures in key media categories— TV, Audio, Cinema, Out of Home, Print, and Digital, Brian Wieser believes that total ad revenue will exceed $1 trillion by 2025, or up significantly from its current $766 billion.  He says, “The pandemic has been an extraordinary catalyst for growth.”   While his 2021 global ad revenue forecasts reflect a 22.5% increase over the year prior when COVID-19 first began, he anticipates continued growth in 2022— as much as 9.7%.  And that figure doesn’t even include U.S. political advertising!

CEO of the World Federation of Advertisers, Stephan Loerke, believes that we may look back on 2021 as a turning point for the marketing industry on several critical issues.  A self-proclaimed optimist, he thinks the past year has laid the foundation for making the ad industry better, fairer, more open, and resilient.  He adds, “And that’s a good starting point to embrace with confidence the challenges that 2022 will throw at us.”
 
For Loerke, 2021 was the year that the industry got serious about climate change and the fact that marketing has a key role to play in the solution. His organization launched the WFA Planet Pledge in April as a framework and commitment to help marketers embrace environmental challenges.

“As 2022 – the Year of the Tiger – comes roaring in, it’s that time to speculate once again on what lies ahead for marketers,” says Doug Wood.  “So, here’s the top ten trends and challenges I see (in no particular order) that if unheeded may make brands the next endangered species (assuming they are not already).”
 
Doug Wood has practiced law for 45 years with a concentration in advertising and marketing. He is a Senior Counsel at Reed Smith and serves as General Counsel to the ANA, the Mobile Marketing Association, and the Ad Council, while advising major brands throughout the world.

The Zebra was started in 2012 with a single goal: to simplify insurance. And in doing so, they’ve become the leading insurance comparison site in the United States. Earlier this year, the Austin, Texas-based company raised $150 Million after doubling its revenue in 2020 to reach “unicorn” status.
 
Stephanie Junge-Filipek is Senior Director of Brand Marketing at The Zebra and builds her role around performance brand marketing and measurement. Named one of The Internationalist’s NEXT 50 in 2019, she has spent a decade in international media planning, buying and optimization for key digital brands, including travel leaders like Trip Advisor, Expedia and Trivago.

Taking a legacy brand in a new direction is never easy.  Doing so during a pandemic is certainly not for the faint of heart.
 
David McKillips accepted the role of CEO for CEC Entertainment in January 2020; CEC is named for its flagship Chuck E. Cheese brand and incorporates the Peter Piper Pizza and Pasqually's Pizza & Wings brands.

Rahul Malhotra, Head of Brand Strategy and Stewardship at Shell, sincerely believes that corporations can transform the world around us profitably, better, and faster than governments. For the last five and half years, he has been responsible for global brand strategy and architecture for Shell’s brand identity, as well as the company’s brand stewardship and employee ambassadorship. Plus, he has led an extraordinarily successful program to embed Shell’s Purpose into the DNA of employees and into the value propositions for all stakeholders.