A Chief Strategy Officer’s Key Predictions On Digital Marketing Trends To Come

The ongoing collisions between marketing and technology are designed to make consumers’ lives easier when interacting with brands, but it’s also going to make many jobs obsolete, says Jeff Rosenblum.

As cofounder and chief strategy officer of Questus, a digital marketing agency in New York City, and author of —which released in January and hit No. 5 on the Wall Street Journal’s Business Bestseller list—Rosenblum considers himself a disruptor in the world of marketing and advertising, and he’s sharing his projections for digital marketing trends to come in 2022 and beyond—of note for branded merchandise pros who should be aware of competitive developments in the binary world.

When interacting with brands, Rosenblum says the predominant changes we’ll see, as consumers, are:

The AI used on websites and social media apps, he says, is ever-developing to identify users’ behaviors and provide them with ads they’re actually interested in. But for the past century, marketers have relied on a disruptive model, serving consumers ads while watching TV, listening to the radio or flipping through magazines.

The problem with these ad mediums, Rosenblum explains, is they’re no longer as effective. What happens in many cases, particularly with TV ads and younger demographics, is that users will DVR over it, fast forward through the commercials, flip through their phones or leave the room while ads are playing. Companies receive data that their ad is being watched, but it’s incorrect, and the ad is not reaching audiences as intended. 

Rosenblum says the use of AI, which is powered by the popularity of ecommerce, allows companies to move away from these disruptive mediums and toward empowerment by serving consumers targeted ads, thus making their lives easier, and providing brand experiences to give them something to want to participate in; a concept he elaborates on in the book.

Examples touched on stores with virtual try-ons, like sunglasses and cosmetics. However, he also says that because companies have been using disruptive ads for so long, it’s what’s customary and comfortable, and some are finding it difficult to pull away.

A challenge that’s to come for consumers is that AI and other technologies will soon replace basic task jobs, resulting in job loss.

Rosenblum explains that he’s an investor in a robotics company that develops robots to clean office bathrooms in skyscrapers. These robots clean bathrooms more efficiently than humans and do so at a fraction of the cost. Being a first-generation model, the associated cost will continue to drop and may eventually become available to consumers, much like when VCRs became popular and affordable in the 1980s, despite originally costing over $1,000.

This is the exact type of scenario, he says, that will play out with AI and jobs.

“A lot of us are going to lose jobs unless we get extraordinarily educated, so we can create more value out of ourselves than we can see from robots, AI and chatbots,” Rosenblum says.