Middle of September 2018 Cologne again became the center of the world for digital marketing technology. This year at the DMEXCO the main industry trends were prominent: Artificial intelligence powered by big data, blockchain applications, video content, augmented reality, programmatic advertising, hacker culture, influencer marketing, marketing automation and customer centricity.

While CMOs and Heads of Corporate Communication are only one target group for these new technologies besides Chief Digital Officers, developers, programmers, media planners and other IT geeks, the impact of these technologies on marketing and communication heads are becoming more and more profound. With the help of artificial intelligence the promise of personalization and the connection of all customer touch points in the seamless journey is today more realistic than ever before. Linked with augmented reality technology like Microsoft‘s Holo Lens Apple‘s AR-Kit, or the Magic Leap we are seeing the early years of technologies that are set to substitute display based devices like smart phones.

Besides these more recent trends, even well established concepts like programmatic advertising are still booming: In 2018 already an estimated 60% of digital advertising purchases have been conducted in a fully automated way. While customer centricity becomes more and more a reality, the pressure on marketing and communication responsible managers remains very high. In the next decade, we will see even more fundamental change as many technologies are maturing and become ready to be applied in an „old economy“ context.