Subscribe

Digital Decoded

Rethinking Your Digital Marketing Roadmap with Daniel Alvers and Mitchell Atkinson

Digital is reshaping how we work, how we as consumers buy, and how we as marketers connect with our customers. It is creating, destroying and reshaping industries. The disruption is constant and the speed of change is accelerating.

While it’s tempting to only focus on the present, it is equally as important to look to the future when thinking of change, and work that into your current thinking. This is the challenge Daniel Alvers and Mitchell Atkinson of Katanya set a crowded room at ICON Melbourne XQ in June.

Rethinking Your Digital Marketing Roadmap was an encore of their presentation given at the ICON XQ conference in Sydney this past October. The Digital Decoded series challenges the audience to consider the past, present, and future of technology, decode how technological advances in the past have impacted the way we live our lives, and then describe how today’s advances will impact our lives and the way we conduct business in the future.

The audience was challenged to look towards the future when making business decisions in the present.

Technology changes how we interact

The session began with a discussion of the past – What was the audience’s first electronic toy, their first mobile phone, how fast was their internet? Nokias were a ubiquitous answer for the audience’s first mobile phone, and brought back memories of playing Snake on a black and green screen not even an inch wide. The audience discussed that, the same way the introduction of the Nokia 3310 in 2000 brought us together when we were apart, technology in 2019 is changing the way we live in different ways. Dating apps such as Tinder have transformed the way people date, and Netflix has revolutionised both the production and consumption of movies and TV.

We engaged the audience in thoughts of emerging technology and how they will change our organisations for years to come.

So what is in store for the future? Well, according to the audience, technology such as Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual and Augmented reality are the front runners for change. Already these technologies have become integrated into our daily lives by automating real world tasks, and enhancing the real world with additional information.

Anticipating your next competitor

The first activity of Digital Decoded asked the audience to look 10 years into the future, to 2029, and picture themselves as the CEO of their company. Knowing what they do about technology, what kind of company did they imagine they would be, or what would they be doing differently. Discussions varied in topics, but there was a strong theme of concern and excitement around the potential for artificial intelligence in the spaces of chatbots and automation.

The second activity reigned in the scope: Imagine themselves 5 years into the future, and this time they were the Chief Marketing Officer. Audience members revealed they were worried for their position in the short-term in the advent of Artificial Intelligence. Copywriters, for example, were anxious that their skills could be replaced by a cheaper software that could mimic a human’s writing.

How you can implement change that delivers meaningful improvement

Daniel and Mitchell then challenged participants to consider when change is beneficial. They presented the hypothesis that change should never be simply for the sake of change; there must be some level of improvement. This improvement can arrive in three dimensions: it can add value, it can delight, or it can create ease.


Change that doesn’t deliver ease, delight or value is worthless change.

The audience was asked to look at their company’s horizons: what were their activities and goals six months, 12 months, and 18 months into the future? Through the activity set to them by Daniel and Mitchell, they identified their most pressing goals and activities, prioritised them, and implemented a timeline to address them.

The result of this activity? Clarity of mind, and a clear path for the future. Audience members felt empowered, and were excited to share their findings and the activities with their own companies.



About the Digital Decoded Series

The Digital Decoded Series brings together people who are tied into this DNA. They’re helping their organisations take advantage of new opportunities, avoid new risks, and create disruption within their respective marketplaces.

The events are designed to be interactive, to get you thinking and to give you something tangible which will facilitate continuing those conversations with your team, your organisation and your network.

Strategic Planning Workshops

This Digital Decoded series was sponsored with ICON, and we were very happy to present it. Through Digital Decoded, Katanya helped organisations take advantage of new opportunities, avoid new risks, and create disruption within their respective marketplaces. Katanya can help benchmark aspects of your digital efforts and provide advice that can be factored into your digital roadmap.