Where are we with geek marketing? Almost a year ago, Steve Rubel threw up a great post where he coined the phrase geek marketing (I think he actually did this via an Advertising Age article). Anyway, Steve’s basic hypothesis was that the top management of many major corporations see the need for a new class of cross-trained digital “geek” marketer, who can translate mega-geek speak into a language that classic marketers can (more) easily understand.
So, now that companies have hired expert geeks internally (or externally) that can sort of lead the team through the digital innovation mine field…is it paying out or is it just another trend? Are the nerds really starting to get some long awaited (and maybe deserved) dot com bust revenge? Let me know what you think.
I have to agree with Steve…right now, the online channel is so versatile, and there is so much change, you really need an Internet marketing/brand manager to handle the complexity (classic online media, SEM, social media marketing, mobile, and on and on)…you need marketing NERDS.
Everyone’s technical expertise is getting better over time, esp. as Gen Y. starts to move through the management ranks, so the geek marketers of the future will have to be even more out on the edge and “in touch” to stay ahead.
With the amazing amount of data out there online, geek/nerd marketers & companies who can reach into this vast ocean and fish out the big ideas are going to win.
Ryan Jones is interested in marketing and good causes. He currently works in Global Brand Management at Procter & Gamble and resides in Geneva, Switzerland.
4 Comments
Dude, the Seattle Supersonics are moving to Oklahoma? That is crazy news!
Yes, that is at least the rumor…Oklahoma is BIG into sports. They will get behind whatever pro team lands there.
Peter Shankman has been a “geek marketer” for years. Rubel is a conduit for popularizing ideas that are already out there. Please don’t give him credit for inspiration when he is really more of an aggregator.
Geek marketers are alive and well and our influence is increasing in successful organizations. That said, staying “in-touch” and “ahead” is a challenge for veteran geek marketers. Digital marketing veterans need to evolve their skills from traditional (can there even be such a thing as traditional digital?) digital strategies and tactics to more of a precision marketing approach.
The reason geek marketers are absolutely needed today is more because of data than because of constant change in the space. An ability to draw simple, actionable conclusions from the mountains of data available is *very* difficult and is a way that the best digital marketers will continue to differentiate themselves today and in the future.