iMedia Industry Update: Creating the Future of Marketing Innovation By Kurt Indvik "Every organization is going to be affected by exponential technology...Do you want to play with it so you can make an opportunity with it, or do you want to be playing catch up and reacting to it?" So muses Lina Yang, director and futurist for the Advanced Technology Lab of The Hershey Co. At iMedia, we whole-heartedly agree, and that's just one of the reasons we're excited to have Yang as one of the featured keynote speakers at the upcoming iMedia Breakthrough Summit, Oct. 26-28, in Atlanta. Companies today are bringing in or cultivating their own futurists like Yang, whose sole job is to help drive that pursuit of innovation. Hershey's own CEO calls his confectionary enterprise a "knowledge company" dedicated to understanding its customers as deeply as possible and delivering products that resonate with them now and in the future. More and more startups are getting the attention of brands through brand hacks and other test investment. Atlanta-based Coca-Cola is well known for its 70-20-10 marketing budget rule: 70 percent of marketing budget is for "now"; 20 percent is for "new"; and 10 percent is for what's "next." The beverage giant will be represented on the iMedia Breakthrough Summit stage by Doug Bush, director of global social media platforms and strategy at Coca-Cola. Over the last several years, the "lab" concept has been a great example of investment growth in innovation and the future -- not only by academic institutions (often funded with corporate dollars), but also by myriad marketing organizations and leading agencies. An excellent example is Westfield Labs, a division of the global Westfield shopping mall conglomerate. The lab, based in San Francisco, is headed by digital industry veteran Kevin McKenzie, who will deliver the opening keynote at the iMedia Breakthrough Summit this year. Is your company making the organizational and investment changes necessary to propel brands and careers -- yours in particular -- into the future? Hershey, Coca-Cola, and Westfield are. We hope to see you at the iMedia Breakthrough Summit, where we'll be fueling this dialogue with both great content and lots of fantastic networking among the best and brightest minds in the business. Request your invitation today! See Kurt's full industry address here. Sincerely, Kurt Indvik VP, Business Operations |