The Future, Presented by LinkedIn with Help from Top Marketing Thought Leaders [Videos]

What does the future hold for marketers? We don’t have a crystal ball handy, so we turned to the next best thing: an assortment of the industry’s brightest and most respected minds.

The result of this collaborative effort is LinkedIn Presents: The Future, a new video series featuring influential thought leaders, many of whom you’re sure to recognize. Drawing from their own unique experience and expertise, these trailblazers helped us peer ahead to anticipate what’s coming down the pipeline in four critical cornerstones of marketing:

B2B Marketing

B2B marketing a field that is undergoing rapid change here in the digital era. Effectively marketing to businesses requires a different set of tools and tactics than it did even two years ago. How will the world of B2B continue to transform moving forward?

Michael Brenner, Margaret Molloy, Doug Kessler, and others weigh in on their excitement about influencers, AI, data-driven personalization, and employee engagement (as well as their disappointment about the lack of flying cars).

Sales and Marketing Alignment

To borrow a term from Star Trek’s futuristic universe, the “prime directive” for today’s businesses is an increased focus on collaboration between sales and marketing. Once entangled in an adversarial dynamic, the two sides are now aligning around a common goal: skyrocketing revenue.

Ann Handley, Lee Odden, Heidi Cohen, and others discuss some of their favorite feuds throughout history, and explain why they believe the days of contentious rivalry between sales and marketing have come to an end.

Advertising Agencies

Speaking of Star Trek, our contributors unleashed their inner nerds in sharing fantasies of space exploration and androids to lead off this glimpse into the outlook for advertising agencies. But then marketing stars like Mark Schaefer, Tequia Burt, and Joe Pulizzi bring things back to Earth with some genuine insights on the top priorities for proactive agencies going forward.

Content Marketing

It’s not necessarily the final frontier, but content continues to be the centerpiece around which entire marketing strategies orbit. While that isn’t likely to change any time soon, the fundamentals of this foundational element are undoubtedly evolving.

What will content marketing look like several years from now? Heather Sparks, Jay Acunzo, Tim Washer, and others share their thoughts and envision a discipline powered by democratization of creation, sustaining attention shares, and increased relevance.

If you’ve got 10 minutes or so, you can watch all of these videos in succession by visiting the Future of Marketing video hub. Also, make sure you subscribe to the LinkedIn Marketing blog for ongoing coverage of each digital marketing staple.