From The GCAi Desk: Kevin Grady’s 6 Predictions For The Future Of Branding

The GCAi Digital Marketing Team met Kevin Grady, the Global Head of Design and Communication at Siegel+Gale, at a recent Ad Club of Western Mass luncheon. Grady gave an outstanding presentation, during which he offered these six predictions for the future of branding:

1. “Brand as a campaign – short lifespan, as opposed to guidelines”

Whereas branding guidelines used to be intended to last years or even decades, Grady predicts brands will become more ephemeral and campaign oriented. In our increasingly dynamic and changing culture, he sees brands becoming more fluid and changing out of necessity in order to stay relevant and top-of-mind.

2. “The customized brand – a brand has many faces”

Grady believes that brands will soon become customized and tailored to the different audiences a company targets. Imagine Nike, the athletic apparel and equipment company, using different branding to target men and women, basketball and soccer players, and other specific demographics.

3. “The death of advertising – no more interruption, just welcome information”

Grady foresees a day and age in which we will only be exposed to advertisements that appeal to us on an individual basis. Gone will be the days of sitting through hours of commercials for products we have no interest in.

4. “The AI Brand – intelligent brands that seek out consumers through data”

Data and analytics are becoming more commonplace in companies around the world. Businesses will soon use data to measure and analyze the behaviors of consumers, and then produce highly targeted branding campaigns to appeal to them.

5. “The Self Generating Brand – brands created from automated analysis of consumer demands”

We’re already seeing this happen to an extent with companies like Amazon and Google, as they advertise products to us based on our web history and online shopping behaviors. Soon, however, Grady expects that companies will know what we want and when we want it before we’re even aware of it.

6. “The post retail brand – it’s about IP and ideas vs. material and distribution”

Using Airbnb and Uber as examples, Grady suggests that businesses will soon make a shift from producing and distributing material goods to the dissemination of intellectual property. He imagines a world in which everyone owns a 3D printer, or whatever technology is relevant at the time, and companies simply sell algorithms for their specific product or good which the consumer can then produce at home.

Despite Kevin Grady’s success in the branding industry and obvious knowledge of its trends, he encouraged us to take his predictions with a grain of salt. After all, Grady mentioned, The Jetsons predicted we’d be commuting to work in flying cars at this point and yet that hasn’t happened. Nevertheless, Grady’s projections seem plausible and evidence-backed. It will surely be interesting to see the development of branding as we move forward, and to see if Grady’s predictions come true.