For anyone that was in a cave on October 21st and didn’t hear that it was the exact date that Marty McFly traveled to in Back To The Future. Many TV shows and articles were comparing the cool, futuristic things they showed in the movie to what we actually have in today’s reality.  The movie wasn’t terribly far off!  We’ve come close to hover boards with the self-balancing scooters.  We have very realistic 3D movie effects, like the Jaws shark Jumping into Marty’s face. Nike is even selling self-lacing shoes in honor of the movie.

For some reason, the movie didn’t address where marketing would be in this then-futuristic world.  But let’s take a look. Where Marty came from, 1985, marketing was largely direct mail – you know those metal things we have in front of our house where they put paper and we call it snail mail?  That used to be how companies communicated with their prospects and customers.  It took weeks, if not longer, to pull together a mailing and then a few days before anyone even saw it.  That would be the opposite of “right time, right message”.  Fast forward to 2015 and we have automated programs that send relevant communication or allow them to view an online ad regardless of the website they’re visiting at exactly the time they are trying to resolve a pain. I’d call that “hoverboard cool”.

Back To The Future’s predictions were around 30 years ago. What do you think marketing will be in 2045?