We can see the gradual emergence of a whole new category of middle-class jobs: a realm of work that (given time and luck) could begin to close the chasm in American employment. These new middle-class jobs are what you might call smart jobs. They’re innovative and high tech.

The Economic Rebound: It Isn’t What You Think

As the US economy slowly rebuilds and the smoke from four years of charred capital starts to dissipate, we can discern the shape of the next 20 years of job growth. What we see is an economy unlike any we’ve ever known.

As you might expect, smart jobs tend to cluster in cities—but not always the cities you’d imagine.
Revived downtowns can help keep their most creative young people from moving away.

It’s not too early to glimpse the contours of what the recovery will look like.

via The Economic Rebound: It Isn’t What You Think | Wired Magazine | Wired.com.

Follow @craighepburn and @TomAtNokia

1. Marketing as Conversation. Listen, facilitate, and create advocacy. Marketing is less about pushing messages at consumers and more about co-creating experiences with consumers.

• The message is only one input to a conversation
• New digital tools for expression have dramatically expanded their power of voice
• Advocacy is a more important marketing objective than awareness (+50%)
• Marketing will be about leveraging and activating consumer groups — turning consumers into prosumers: Brand evangelists, equipped with the right tools and motivations, can be the new 30-second spot
• Consumer insights are more important now (80%)
• Generations have shortened from a 10 to a 3 year time frame
• Currency of consumer segmentation and insight has evolved again—first was demographics, then psychographics, now “behavographics.”
• Ethnographyshould be part of the marketer’s tool kit (30%)

• Kevin George, a GM/VP Marketing at Unilever (Axe), says:
• Observing what customers actually do, rather than what they say they do
• Changed the culture to one that actively encourages taking risks
• Start by defining the type of experience we want consumers to have with our brands, then determine the right media channels that deliver that experience
• More and more digital channels are the best for creating that two-way dialogue
• The most important thing is that we don’t let the technology drive the strategy
• Focus from the very beginning on creating a conversation about your brand between consumers, not just brand to consumers
• Work with retail partners to develop execution strategy two years before launch. That has changed with retail, and it is changing with media companies

2. Media: The New “Creative.” Marketing message distribution—timing, context, and relevance—is as important as creative execution.

• Media sourcing becomes automated
• Experimental budgets, media innovation funds, and experimental line items are becoming standard practices.
• Reduce up-front spends
• Monitor and adjust both media buys and creative messaging in real-time
• Media mix should be adjusted every 36 hours
• Media sourcing will look like the equities market in five years (+50%)
• ~15% of your budgt for experimental budgets and media innovation funds are critical
• Centrally controlled innovation fund (25%) with “venture capital–like model”

3. Marketing + Math. Data quality, quantity, and accessibility have brought math to marketing. New digital tools, predictive models, and behavioral targeting will turn insight into foresight.

• Need integrated databases and PhDs in statistics, quant jocks, engineers & rocket scientists
• Marketers now all have to understand the power of algorithms
• One centralized database that overlays CRM, media behavior, and creative effectiveness with granular levels of sales information (80%)
• Technology, data capabilities, and speed will establish competitive advantage

4. Mind the Gap. Marketing spending in digital media is far from commensurate with consumer behavior shifts—when will the divide between traditional and nontraditional media end?

• The gap is significant, and it is growing
• Digital media presents marketers with unique opportunities to engage consumers, generate data, and establish relationships
• Organizational barriers also contribute to slower change

5. The “Digitally Savvy” Organization. Technology without an aligned organization, the right talent, and a progressive culture is inadequate. Functional skills are rising to the level of brand strategy.

• Stymied by lack of senior organizational support (+50%)
• Functional capabilities have become more important across all sectors
• Recruiting talent with adequate digital knowledge is of top concern

6. The Network Effect. Partnerships and collaboration among agencies, media companies, and marketers will grow in number and depth. New players will assume important roles and continue to reshape the value chain.

• The entire agency model ‘value network’ is based on the value of an idea, and each agency wants to protect, block, and own that idea
• Marketers must act as integrators
• Media and creative agencies should be rebundled, but there is little consensus on the appropriate type of agency to play the lead role (75%)
• The race to own technology, data, and talent

Here you will find the nature and extent of the changes required.

• Ability to read and speak (big) data
• Agile learners
• Deep understanding of digital
• Integrated-marketing capabilities
• Industry-specific knowledge

The 6 Ways Digital and Social Media Changes the Game for Leadership – John Bell

1. No one rules by authority but rather by influence
2. Listening directly to customers and stakeholders is a leader’s greatest tool
3. Adapting to digital and social technologies and customer behaviors requires a SWAT team-mentality
4. We need an organization of great communicators not just a leader or spokespeople
5. Always be piloting
6. Some of leadership ought to be crowdsourced; judgment should not

A Year in the Life of a Social Media Strategist – CMS Wire

Why Digital Talent Doesn’t Want To Work At Your Company | Fast Company

Digital talent won’t want to work at your company if:

• Every element of their work will be pored over by multiple layers of bureaucracy.
• Mediocre is good enough.
• Trial and error is condemned.
• Your company is structured so it takes a lifetime to get to the top, and as such there are no digital experts in company-wide leadership positions.
• Your offices are cold, impersonal and downright stodgy.

When all of these digital-talent deterring points are addressed, company leadership has effectively and proactively demonstrated the company’s dedication to a digital transformation. It is at this time that their words, a broadly communicated firm stance on the significance of the company’s digital goals, will make the most impact. Without this conspicuous top-down support, politics in the organization or simply one influential disbeliever can hinder the effort, limit the extent of digital integration possible, and discourage valuable employees.

Watch how future technology will help people make better use of their time, focus their attention, and strengthen relationships while getting things done at work, home, and on the go.