Even as vaccine developments provide a clearer timeline for a pandemic recovery, 2021 is set to be another volatile year for marketers. If anything, the digital ecosystem is primed for a bigger shakeup as Apple’s controversial tracking changes go into effect, multiple Big Tech antitrust suits take shape and Google formally starts to sunset third-party cookies.
On the consumer end, marketers must contend with a fractious public that remains sour over the thorniest presidential race in modern memory. Chief marketing officers, put through a ringer of a year marked by a brutal health crisis and mass protests for racial justice, will need to balance purpose-minded tendencies with intensified mandates around areas like data and commerce — all on shorter timelines than in the past.
