Ever get that feeling of despair, sinking to the point of hopelessness, you lose your appetite and feel a sharp needle go through your heart? No, its not to be confused with the breakup saga or a loss of that deal you’ve been working on for months. I recently came across an article where a savvy journalist was explaining the earnest feeling of loss for the freedom of journalistic media and the berthing of his dreams as reality of current scenarios in print media hit home.

I had to ask myself…why do we lose our vision and dreams along the way, when all we have to do is embrace change as and when it happens. Yes, social media, digital kindles, online media, mobile phones and laws and bylaws is the veracity and obliterating media as we know it. Adding to this our kids are on digital devices and mediums 24/7 and the old emotional bond between hardcover printed media is slowly but surely waning, but hey…such is life. Do we cry a river, or do we look at these as new opportunities to revolutionise and transform our way of thinking? Adapt or die.

At one point I had a strong urge to call such a journalist and say to him, “you have a talent to write a strong piece on voicing your opinion, you utilized social and digital and you got my attention and that of many. So how about using this medium to transform that talent you have into something you feel you have lost? Use what presents itself as the “problem and loss” to your advantage.

 

Print Media, Printing is far from dead or over…it has transformed into a mountain of opportunities, be it not the way “we used to do it”. Gone are the days of monotonous print, branding or journalism, it has transformed and morphed into a “new way of print or marketing”. We as print providers have to align ourselves with technology and “out the box” thinking to see new and awesome opportunities that present themselves.

With “BigData” in the front door, we have to look beyond the frightening new and unknown. It is an exhilarating opportunity to relook at business and reinvent our industry to align with this “Transformer”. We need to use analytics without creeping out our customers and start using such data to better assess their behaviours? Technologies such as Amazon’s Alexa, or virtual assistants baked into every smartphone like Apple’s Siri or Google Help, already make use of advanced algorithms that can learn from the user and adapt to their needs. This is machine learning in action. AI (Artificial Intelligence) at its best, and what an awesome tool to compliment what we do.

 

Technology is moving and so should we – cloud is filling up and already new technology to deal with this mass data is on the lips of many. Adding to this not all is rosy and we can’t trust all we hear and see as we have learnt with “fake news” on the increase. So keep it real and keep it factual. For marketers, we are born “questioners” and it is sometimes understandable to try and test as you go along. This AI will take the “risk” out of the trial and error and make it more calculated without the emotion attached to it. Understandable some could say that this emotional connection, is what makes us great at what we do. Point taken, but what if you could get it right 10/10 times instead of 5/10 times. Emotional victory for ALL with the desired outcomes and ROI?

That said all this ties back to passion and adaptation alternatively, eat dust and become yesterday’s news like 3G technology. Are we ready to face all that goes with change?   Someone once said scepticism will give way to pragmatism, wise words. Either we embrace it and learn all there is to learn, or become an X and O and fade into 404 error that is surely to be your outcome.