This is the season when marketers, just like everyone else, try to predict what lies ahead in the new year. Throughout 2023, Cisco Marketing has been looking at the latest trends and how they will shape the future of marketing. Fresh out of Cisco's recent Partner Summit and Marketing Velocity Executive Exchange, we would like to share some insights with you as you prepare plans for 2024!

Welcome to the era of change, where the marketing game is always evolving. As marketers, it's essential for us to track all changes, keep our finger on the pulse, and stay up to date with current trends.

The line between consumer and business buyer is blurred and we now realize it doesn't matter -consumer or business, we are marketing to humans and the way we consume content is rapidly changing. Did you know:

• 68% of online experiences start with a search query (Brightedge Research)
• 79% of brands use content to generate leads (SEMrush)
• 70% of consumers bought a product after seeing a video about it on YouTube (Google)
• 63% of B2B marketers use content to boost customer loyalty (Content Marketing Institute)

To understand the bigger picture, watch the marketing trends video I shared at Partner Summit during the Marketing Velocity Executive Exchange and enjoy the session recordings.

Carrie Palin, Cisco SVP and Chief Marketing Officer, included her thoughts on the rapid change in marketing in her keynote presentation: Greater Together with Future-Ready Marketing. Carrie highlighted three pivotal trends: AI, encompassing the buzz surrounding generative capabilities, applying a digital-first approach, and the cultivation of modern legendary teams, and delved further into how our company is going to turn these ideas into action.

Apparently, the marketing world is abuzz with AI excitement. As keynote speaker Mitch Joel stated in his talk: at its core, Generative AI tools are reinventing the very essence of marketing.

The topic of Building Legendary Teams was explored deeply by Luxy Thuraisingam and her panelists during their roundtable discussion. The evolving reality raises certain questions, such as: How the roles of sales and marketing have and will continue to evolve. The conversation during the BIS Marketing BIS Panel Session: The Art of Sales and Marketing Alignment: Empowering Growth provided some interesting answers.

Having insight into trends ignites our drive to respond. Here is another interesting statistic: According to Zendesk, 73% of consumers want to be able to seamlessly move between channels, while per McKinsey only 12% of digital platforms are highly integrated. With this in mind, Cisco is excited to announce that we are embarking on a journey to integrate our own industry-leading co-marketing experience: Cisco Marketing Velocity.

Imagine a seamless experience where finding the right asset, campaign, or learning takes just 5 clicks or less. Growing demand by precisely targeting leads with integrated account-based insights and find campaigns to help grow your market for managed services, SaaS, and SMB customers. And for the first time ever, we are bringing Marketing Velocity Central and Marketing Velocity Learning together so you can execute your end-to-end co-marketing strategy on a single, integrated platform. Watch this video to experience the vision.

We have already made significant strides in this multi-year journey by simplifying our navigation, offering more imagery for co-branding opportunities, and improving styling for a better overall experience. And there is a lot more to come!

Have a wonderful holiday, I wish you peace, happiness, and relaxation!

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