Coaching
Emerging Trends In
By Thrity Engineer-Mbuthia
Every human being has a finite amount of time in their life. The born day sets them on a journey to live the life they have been given. What we usually don’ t know is when that life is about to end. So we are told, live for now and cherish each day. You never know what tomorrow brings.
Recently I remembered how a bottle of soda used to cost 95 cents. For those who don’ t know, that was currency in Kenya. To make it easy for those who cannot picture this, a bottle of soda cost approximately Kshs 1.( ONE).
Some of you are gasping, some of you are trying to do some math. As we think back to those days, when advertising was advertising, when people kept time, when people didn’ t have cell phones but still managed to communicate, life still went on.
Today, the universe seems to be so different. Computers in the palm of our hands, technology driving organizational processes, time moving so fast that days merge into each other. Can you even remember the time when there was no internet and getting answers to questions meant you had to ask others and engage in that activity we now see as strange- talking to each other.
Transformation they said. Digital transformation is the term. We must drive this transformation; we must embrace it. If we want to be ahead, we must move with the world. And what has this meant for marketers?
With all the emerging trends, marketers cannot afford to sit back and wait for sales to roll in. The discerning customer in 2025, will surely be looking for a customer experience that will blow their socks off. Dear marketers, you need a plan. Transform yourself. Today!!
Advertising is now embracing machine learning, augmented reality and virtual reality to engage and entice customers. Or has it? Technology has helped create experiential and exciting experiences for customers to interact with brands. Some years ago, Safaricom introduced the Bantering Billboard that used machine learning to speak to road users and give them a shout out. It was able to use technology to identify the make and colour of cars that stopped at a round-about and display personalised messages to them. Great for interactions.
Artificial intelligence is making life easier for millions. There is an AI tool for everything these days, and that sums up the generative AI debate. The tools generate whatever you need. Need a blog article? How about a press release? Need an Instagram post? A comprehensive content calendar? An assessment of the current marketing strategy? Ask CHATGPT and it can do this and more. Not to mention hundreds of alternatives to it; Deep Seek, Claude, Gemini, Sora. Brand awareness? Brand recall?( Perhaps marketers are needed after all).
And why bother with AI tools when you can get AI agents to do the work for us? Get an AI agent to take orders from you. It is now known as agentic AI. Imagine a scenario where you can focus on the
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