Moore’s Law isn’t a new concept, but it is just as relevant as ever. Coined by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore back in 1965, it refers to the idea that the number of transistors per square inch on a circuit board doubles every two years. As a general rule, this also means that computer hardware tends to double in speed – or half in price – every two years.
It’s a well-known concept amongst technology circles, but it hasn’t necessarily reached mainstream cultural penetration in the same way as, say, Isaac Asimov’s three laws of robotics. But if you’re a marketer, it’s worth familiarising yourself with the idea and getting to know how it applies to marketing and marketing technology.
That’s because cheaper and more powerful technology will make marketing technology easier and more accessible. That’s particularly true when it comes to cloud-based marketing automation platforms and other tools that are able to process huge amounts of data. With this ability to process data comes the ability to serve up personalised marketing, helping you to increase the relevance of your messaging and ultimately to boost the likelihood of people converting into customers.
The Moore’s Law of Marketing
Another way of applying Moore’s Law to marketing is to think about the amount of competition that brands have in their news feed as constantly doubling every two years. It’s not an exact figure that’s backed by any data, but it’s certainly true that it’s getting harder and harder to cut through the noise and to be seen on social networks.
In fact, this is one of the reasons why Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites keep on having to rejig their algorithms to change what appears in their news feeds. The good news for us is that it’s all in an effort to provide people with the most relevant pieces of content possible, and so our job then becomes to create content which caters to them.
But this then brings us back full circle to the idea of Moore’s Law and how it allows us to access ever increasing amounts of computing power. With growing amounts of processing power at our fingertips, this means that we can start serving up personalised content at scale. And when you couple this with the internet of things and our ability to embed computer chips and mobile connectivity into an ever-increasing array of devices, it’s clear that Moore’s Law is having a huge effect on the way we market to people.
Conclusion
A great example of these new devices is MediaTile, a recent client of ours. They provide digital signage that can be used in real world settings such as events, and the increasing availability of signage like this when coupled with our ability to deliver more personalisation is turning the marketing industry on its head.
As for what we can expect from the months and years to come, Moore’s Law states that the number of transistors on integrated circuits will continue to double for the foreseeable future, and this will continue to make processing power – and cloud computing power along with it – cheaper and cheaper as time goes by. This is good news now that we’re relying on marketing technology more than ever before.
Dane
Dane Cobain is a published author, freelance writer, book blogger, poet and (occasional) musician from High Wycombe, UK. Before going freelance, he worked as a social media marker, now specialising in writing about publishing, technology and marketing.