Investing in the Cloud

Another year, another Cannes -- a smaller, quieter version. The twin forces of global recession and massive technological changes are forcing the ad industry’s most celebrated festival to change -- just like the agencies and clients that attend it. The Cannes organizers have added new categories in recent years, like design and PR, to keep up with these changes. But I believe we’ll soon need new categories to honor marketing programs that are technology driven.

Cloud computing is one of the hottest topics in IT circles, but it should be equally discussed among marketers. It’s another technology trend that’s already having a tremendous impact on consumers. And where consumers go, marketers need to follow.

Cloud computing is fueling intense interest as a way to reduce technology costs within organizations. But the same dynamics can fuel savings in marketing costs by enabling brands to shift to a new, ongoing dynamic with consumers, one that doesn’t rely on the costly media expenditures of our campaign-centric advertising world.

Let’s start with some simple definitions. When we speak about “the cloud,” we’re referring to any kind of Internet-based service that allows its users to upload, store and share personal “stuff” online. If you upload a video to YouTube, that video is in the cloud. If you upload a photo album to Flickr, those photos are in the cloud. If you sign up for Facebook or MySpace, your profile lives there, where it intermingles with hundreds of millions of other members on the social network. Medical records will soon move to the cloud as companies like Walmart and Dell are investing enormously there. And so on.

The final barriers to technology adoption are cost and simplicity, and the cloud has an answer to both. On the cost side, netbooks are lowering the bar of affordability for people and entire societies that could not previously afford the power of technology. On the simplicity side, everything you do in the cloud is accessed through a Web browser or a mobile application.

There is absolutely no reason why brands can’t get into this game. At its core, cloud-based marketing is powered by a simple idea: be useful to your customers and they in turn will be loyal to your brand. The cloud is a massive engine of technological utility, with myriad ways to be useful to customers.

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