The Futurist: Predictions for 2021 and beyond

If 2020 taught us anything, it was to expect the unexpected. But in spite of a global pandemic that changed our world forever, a closer look reveals that many of the changes our industry felt were not unexpected at all. Digital transformation for enterprises, a rise in the importance of livestreaming, an online consumer culture — marketers (including this magazine) have been forecasting these changes for years.

It’s not so much that COVID-19 changed our plans, but accelerated them into hyperdrive. Only those too slow or unwilling to change saw themselves left behind as the world went digital. Procrastinating is no longer an option; the future that was so comfortably futuristic to us a year ago is now here, and for businesses going forward, it’s sink or swim.

So what comes next? For this feature we reached out to four experts — Louis Lai, head of sales, Philip Morris International; Eiswein Wong, founder of Start PR; Tim Lee, founder of QFPay; and Max Lenderman, publisher of CAMUS (US) (both of them are speakers of the Business of Design Week) — to get their thoughts on the challenges, the skill sets and the trends that will matter in 2021 and beyond.

Q. Can you name the biggest challenges caused by COVID-19 in the marketing industry?

Louis Lai: Physical interaction to enhance communication with consumers is no longer an option for many businesses.

Eiswein Wong: Hygienic risk is one of the most significant obstacles when marketers decide whether offline campaigns should still be organised, like the [Hong Kong Book Fair] this year.

Tim Lee: The change of consumer behaviour. First, they cannot go offline, secondly, they cannot travel overseas.

Max Lenderman: Structural and operational cracks that were visible but ignored at agencies and advertising holding companies have opened up beyond repair, leading to redundancies, reductions, mergers and shut-downs. Clearly, the thin margins that many agencies and clients ran on were not padded enough to sustain a massive downturn.

Q. What is the most impressive response to these challenges from any stakeholder you have seen in the market?

Wong: “Shall We Talk”, a mental health promotion initiated by the Advisory Committee on Mental Health, is one of the educational campaigns that created human touch via a series of online events. The campaign was launched earlier this year when the Hong Kong citizens were suffering from the influence of COVID-19, successfully creating emotional resonance using Eason Chan’s well-known pop-song. To a certain extent, this case proves the power of correct content with correct timing.

Q. Economic downturn seems to persist in the near future. To succeed or even survive in challenging times, what must brands and marketers do?

Lai: Continual innovation is vital. The pandemic has given an opportunity to businesses who chose to leverage technology and digital pathways to deliver consumer-centric solutions and has helped accelerate the transformation of a company and an industry to become better at meeting customers’ needs. Additionally, investing in the right people is crucial – up-skilling of the talents will be a key to success.

Wong: To be outstanding, we have to develop great content that moves the audience along with strategic planning. Not only to create touching, hilarious, visually appealing or academically valuable content, but we also need to be time- sensitive to hunt for socially relevant content to get featured on the news.

Lee: When customers are all online, you need to be online as well. Your store needs to be online, your salesperson needs to be online, your campaign needs to be online, your payment system needs to be online, and you need to have more differentiation to attract online customers, such as livestreaming.

Lenderman: I think we must start asking the real existential questions: Why are we in business? Why are we still doing the same thing we did 20 years ago? What real and meaningful value do we bring to our societies and humanity in general? And what did we really learn about our organization when the shit hit the fan?

Q. Given hygiene reasons, do you agree that the domination of cashless payment will accelerate in the future?

Lee: Cashless is a global trend. COVID-19 is actually accelerating the growth, as mobile payment is the base of e-commerce which is largely used today due to the pandemic. Once the behavior is adopted, cash will be terrible to use.

Q. Some may argue that the need/ importance of physical events cannot be completely replaced by virtual events. To what extent do you agree?

Lenderman: Anything is possible where experiential thinking harnesses the social, collaborative, networked, personalized, immersive and responsive digital platforms that we use. Experiences are now possible regardless of time, place, language and levels of participation. The trope that is often used postulates that the more digital our lives become, the more physical experiences become more important. What the pandemic has shown us is that this trope is too simplistic and dualistic. It’s not either/or; it’s both.

Q. Looking forward, what will be the biggest challenges and trends going in 2021?

Lai: Digital transformation will ensure success in this new world. Digital and innovation will continue to play a crucial role when businesses are going through their transformation journey. Companies should significantly improve their internal capabilities through organizational agility and digitalization in order to stay resilient during uncertain times.