Jon Wuebben Says the Future of Marketing is Now

Quite honestly, I don’t read and review a lot of marketing books these days. They tend to say the same thing over and over. But when Jon Wuebben, author of not one but two books on content marketing, asked me to review his new book Future Marketing: Winning in the Prosumer Age, something told me to read it.

Rather than covering the same tired digital marketing topics, Wuebben, a fan of futurist authors like Dr. Ray Kurzweil and Alvin Toffler, applies their theories about the future to marketing. It turns out, they all saw it coming. The technology. The social networks. The sharing of information. It’s fascinating to line up their predictions to marketing, even if they weren’t specifically aimed at marketing.

Wuebben: A Futurist in His Own Right

Anyone who is as well-read as Wuebben in what’s coming down the pipeline probably can do his own predicting, and it’s no surprise that Wuebben does so in the latter half of his book. First, he stresses that content marketing is marketing, and that it’s not going anywhere, though its format will continue to evolve in exciting ways (spoiler: VR is well on its way). (For a content marketer like me, that’s fabulous news.)

He goes on to predict what marketing will look like in 2021 and 2030. These years seem so far away right now, but really, they’re right around the corner. I won’t spoil it by telling you what his predictions are, but suffice it to say: having a heads up gives you the opportunity to plan ahead now rather than be left behind (again).

Wuebben’s book does an excellent job of providing examples of how brands are using future marketing today, which is inspiring for businesses that want to get an edge on the competition without waiting for a given marketing tactic to become commonplace. His book is food for thought. We’ve seen such leaps and bounds in marketing in the past five years, so why should we expect that to change? I for one am excited to see what’s in store.

If you care about marketing trends before they’re mainstream (and believe me: you should), pick up Future Marketing.