WRITTEN ARTICLE IN THE DRUM - MARCH 2019

“What role will marketers play in the cyber conflicts of tomorrow?”

For The Drum magazine's special cyberwarfare issue, we asked marketers around the world what place their industry and their peers will have in a world where words are weaponised and smart communication is replacing combat as a way of warfare.

Nicole Yershon, chief executive and founder, Nicole Yershon Collective

It’s certainly not a simple question. To start with, the role of the marketer has to be broadened into digital anyway – automation, AI (machine learning), robotics and so on – and the minute that happens security goes right to the top of the agenda.

It’s already happening, with dramatic learning curves required in every sense around GDPR and personal data, and the focus on keeping firewalls on increasingly special/high-value data.

This data, and the insights being harvested from it, are what differentiates a business from its competitor.

As a generalization, the current type of marketer will still be doing their traditional day job, passing this type of thought and work to another department, perhaps to those working within IT under the chief technology officer or chief digital officer.

They are not measured in knowing everything, but do they know the right people who know more than them and connect the dots to solve the right problem?

I’ve made it my mission to know all these people in these spaces, because that is my day job.

The future marketer has to be a smart warrior, because it really is a war out there.