SXSW interactive continues to be a place for people interested in the future to connect and discuss their passions. While I try to see what the future holds for marketing, I also always approach the event with a certain amount of humility, since "predictions are hard, especially about the future". Frequently, things we don't expect to have much of an impact on businesses will surprise us. So here's some practical observations and some future-looking thoughts on marketing.

Practical observation #1

It's all digital now.

I took part in a digital marketing workshop while at SXSW and was struck by the sheer breadth of things that fall under "digital marketing". Saying that you're a digital marketer is like saying you're a business owner. Yes, that's more descriptive than saying you're just a human, but it doesn't communicate much.

Even agencies focused on supposed traditional advertising (TV ad buys) are pulling analytics into one dashboard that shows all of the information together. All marketing is digital marketing.

Practical observation #2

Moving towards a world of more software means that marketing will increasingly integrate deeper into products.

The whole "software is eating the world" trend remains alive and well. As more companies become software (And a corollary of mine: more companies will depend on more software), marketing will become more integrated into other business processes. As people move towards more Software as a Service (SAAS) offerings, it's not hard to see marketing being in charge of things like user adoption in order to improve renewals. This means that marketing will be less a stage and more of an ongoing process at every point of usage.

Practical observation #3

We're moving towards a multi-device, post-cookie world.

One item I heard a few different marketers bring up was the idea of moving past cookie tracking. While the main fear was that regulations could cause cookies to become treated differently or highly discouraged, this should be something we're working towards for other reasons.

Primarily, we're in a multi-device world. Cookies work on one device. Trying to track people between different devices is very difficult. Factor in their phones, tablets, laptops, work computers, work tables, smart TVs, and other smart devices and you begin to see that not only is tracking across multiple platforms increasingly difficult, it could also be inadvisable. Will individuals really want to see work-related ads while watching TV at home?

Forward-looking observation #1

Encryption is going to become more important; adjust you marketing accordingly.

The reports coming out about the National Security Agency have caused quite a stir. Just how much information they have and what they're doing with it was a major topic of discussion at the conference. Many international companies are now promoting services that keep your data off of U.S. soil so that it's never under the NSA's jurisdiction.

The common solution for preventing the NSA from accessing your information was Encryption. While some individuals are focusing on this, many companies could have plenty of concerns about their information being accessed or copied somewhere else. Even without state secrets to protect, you don't have to be crazy to be concerned about how safe your information is with the NSA. Big collections of information are obviously big targets for those who are out to create problems.

The move towards encryption means that targeting customers with your marketing might get increasingly difficult. Combined with the move to a post-cookie world, don't be surprised if more existing marketing tools start to become less effective because of it.

Forward-looking observation #2

Prepare for the internet of things.

Perhaps this can be connected to my observation about full-cycle marketing, but as we get more connected devices in our life, don't be surprised if usage information becomes an entirely new class of analytics that drives marketing. Users aren't generating data from their devices yet? Maybe send them an email with installation instructions.

iBeacons, a bluetooth standard that Apple has incorporated into iOS 7, will take this a step further. iBeacons allow for push notifications to be sent based on a geographic location. If you have the Apple Store app on your phone and visit a physical Apple Store, you can actually see this in action. Using this in retail marketing campaigns obviously opens up some intriguing opportunities.

Forward-looking observation #3

Bitcoins?

I know, I know. What do bitcoins have to do with marketing? Well, to be honest, I'm not sure at this point. But there's a lot of really smart people who think there's a legitimate opportunity in bitcoins as either a currency or as a transaction mechanism. Bitcoins solve the problem of being able to pay someone without having to trust them. Much like giving person $20 in cash doesn't require any real trust between parties, bitcoin is able to emulate this same type of transaction.

Marc Andressen has speculated that, among other things, bitcoins could be the answer to ending email spam. Imagine if emails were only transmitted if they contained a miniscule (think $.000000001) amount of bitcoin. It wouldn't cause the average marketer much trouble, but spammers are working in much higher quantities. They would quickly lose their incentive to spam if it cost them significantly to get their messages out.

Outside of that, we'll just have to see. Bitcoin is open-source, so a lot of people are trying out their own variants right now to see how they can improve upon what's there. Whether it's bitcoin, or a different crypto-currency, don't be surprised if online payments soon happen very differently.