Far too seldom do we carve out the time to step back and look at the big picture. What’s coming around the bend? If I’m planning for today, how will we be ready to adapt to the unknowns of the future? If you’re reading this and thinking “Yeah, I need to do that”, then you’re in the right place. Today, we welcome futurist David Houle to Brand Story, Inc.
I’ve known David for nearly 20 years. He consulted with TeamWorks Media when I was young enough to think I had all the answers. Houle, known as the “CEO’s futurist”, has always been ahead of the curve. In his previous career was on the senior executive team that launched MTV, Nickelodeon, VH1 and CNN Headline News, and won a pair of Emmys and a Peabody award for the film, Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream.
What does the future hold?
He’s also spoken to more than 4,000 CEOs on future trends impacting a variety of markets, including content marketing. In addition, he’s quite-literally, written the (mini) book on the coming year, 2021: A Look Ahead – Acceleration/Collapse/Rebound, as part of a master series of books on the decade of the 2020s.
David and I dig in on key elements of this book and tackle an entire decade of trends and forecasting meant to help you step back and assess the big picture.
On this episode of Brand Story, Inc., we address:
- The acceleration/collapse/rebound construct for content marketers.
- Home as the “cockpit of the starship” and how we should be reimagining content through this paradigm.
- 2021 predictions (and beyond) with trends on branded content, streaming, podcasting, and social media platforms.
- Legacy thinking and why and how large media companies are fooling themselves on their readiness for the decade ahead.
- Museums as content engines and the abundant missed opportunities.
- VUCA leadership applied to content marketers.
- We explore Minneapolis-based STAR Marketing, a branded environments company that’s a great case study in real-time adaptability creating their new company My Backyard Studio.
- The futurist email inbox and social follows.
Put on the snowshoes, head out for a walk, and clear your head to allow yourself to think big picture with the help of David Houle. We all need these prompts.
We want to hear from you. Share this podcast, give us your feedback and hit me up with topic suggestions and guest ideas. Brand Story, Inc. is for you, so let’s make it great together. You can ping me on LinkedIn or follow me on Twitter @_JaySharman. Thanks for listening. Enjoy!