In 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two students at Stanford University, developed and launched an algorithm for the World Wide Web, ranking URLs by importance. Today this algorithm is known as ‘Google’.
Thanks to Google and the World Wide Web, marketing is facing its biggest challenge of the last 100 years. Marketing is not only about creative ideas, clever adverts and catchy slogans, it is also about online algorithms, quality scores and well-coded websites with structured content. It’s not only about art, it’s about science.
The integration of technology into our society has meant that traditional marketing, such as print and radio advertising, now needs to work alongside digital marketing such as search engine marketing, online advertising and social media.
When I studied marketing at University, it was a Bachelor of Arts (BA Hons). I believe this is still the case, but now there are elements of marketing that are more suited to a Bachelor of Science. On this point, I also believe that all marketing-related University courses need to move with the times and incorporate search engine optimisation, social media and online marketing, so young marketers are well educated in skills that they can use in the real world.
In this real world, I see a changing landscape. A marketing industry that for the first time values the technical department as much as the creative department. In turn, this makes marketing more quantifiable, more measurable, and therefore more accountable. It can only be a good thing for businesses.
Steve Landon, Landon Marketing and Design. www.landonmarketing.co.uk 01722 238105.
