The personality trait of a disruptive marketer is centered on what, according to Daniel Gilbert, is believed to be the brain’s greatest achievement: “its ability to imagine episodes that do not exist in the realm of the real, and it is this ability that allows us to think about the future.”
The ability to imagine a future state is the human brain’s most important attribute. And it’s the thing we need to use more of—ignoring the obvious and conventional—in the world today.
Google’s Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg noted one way they ascribe to this “future state” forward-thinking philosophy: people who work at Google don’t do it into silos anymore. That would be too conventional in terms of the twenty-first-century definition of a knowledge worker. According to their book How Google Works, [Google employees] are multidimensional, usually combining technical depth with business savvy and creative air. In other words, they are not knowledge workers, at least not in the traditional sense. They are a new kind of animal, a type we call a “smart creative,” and they are the key to achieving success in the Internet Century.
We know that the brands of the future will look a lot different from the brands of today. However, many brands are taking a long time to figure out exactly what they will look like. And all the while, the clocks are ticking and the business models are being burned to the ground. We know that over the next twenty years, machine intelligence will play a much larger role in value creation. Mobile devices and the Internet of Things will change how we engage with others.
It is only by algorithmically programming all the routine processes that organizations will be able to free up the creative space for differentiated and innovative offerings. The time previously spent “managing machines” and pouring resources into operations will be re-purposed into creative output. This is one reason companies that put more emphasis on free time to explore ideation and innovation have an added advantage in the new economy. Reshaping the economy from one based on knowledge to one based on creativity also involves reshaping the way marketing will work.
Disruptive Marketing…
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