If Only …?
It’s 2025 and as you unlock your office door, all systems spring into action, including the coffee machine, so that by the time you’re settled at your desk, the coffee is brewing, Siri is running through your list of emails (if that’s what they’re called in a decade’s time) and your staff are checking in via video technology from their global locations.
This is the world of the not-so-distant future.
As you check the sales figure and flick on your social media channels to see how your brand is doing against its competitors, you feel uncomfortable when you again confirm that practically all B2C retailers in your market are being watched on video platforms that have long out-performed the old channels like Facebook and Twitter.
Now even more than ever, you realise that had you followed the advice of the marketing pundits and pushed video firmly to the fore of your marketing strategy in 2016, your product sales would be competing favourably with the brands that commissioned multiple high quality videos.
Sweeping aside the sales figures and banishing thoughts of missed opportunities, you plug in your Babel ear-piece and make sales calls to the strong leads you have in several countries.
Everything is going well, until the inevitable request to see your product in action.
“I don’t have a video of the product” you admit, “but I have some great photos of it in various stages of action.”
There’s a pause at the other end of the phone and then “I’m sorry but we need to see the product working. It’s crucial we understand how it performs and how easy it is to use. Perhaps you’ll come back to us when you have a product demonstration you can share.”
You pull out the Babel earpiece and throw it on the desk with a sigh.
It’s now you need another coffee; you think “it’s a pity that someone hasn’t invented a hologram assistant that can make a brew,” and then a small voice in your head adds, “… it’s a pity you didn’t have the foresight to make those damned videos!”