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As 2017 comes to a close, I’ve been thinking a lot about the future and what next year might have in store. Here’s what I’m both excited and concerned about for 2018:
Advertising will get better. For so many of us, it seems impossible to make ads truly more relevant, placements more effective, campaigns more efficient and ad experiences more delightful. There are so many barriers, so much inertia in the status quo. However, it is getting better. We are all getting smarter. There are small victories every day, and things will get even better next year.
More talent. This consolidation and disruption will not be a pleasant story for everybody. Many jobs will be dislocated in the process, but there is a silver lining. Many very talented people in advertising will come into the market looking for new opportunities. That is great for disrupting companies that are growing. We thrive on talent.
Little progress in marketers’ transforming their departments from cost centers to profit centers. This issue worries me the most. For the advertising industry to achieve its potential, marketers need to define themselves and their efforts by how much growth they deliver for their corporations, not how cost-effectively they allocate and deploy budgets.