Standalone social media companies and digital marketing agencies will disappear in the next decade

Yahoo's recent purchase of Tumblr is an evidence to support that standalone social media and digital marketing agencies will disappear in the future. There are mixed views on the outlook of the digital marketing service providers. However, I believe that as the marketing industry evolves, silo digital marketing agencies don't meet advertisers' complete marketing needs will be streamlined or consolidated.

According to a European business school study (http://bit.ly/1aSdGzC) , surveyed 2,000 marketing students through Europe in March and April 2013, the future of marketing will be based on "content marketing" - focused on build brand recognition and image and gain customer confidence: 

70 percent believe TV advertising will remain RELEVANT in 10 years
70 percent believe advertising will shift focus to ENTERTAINING rather than SELLING in 10 years

I believe that effective marketing can only be achieved through multiple channels and an ecosystem. Specifically, social media does not cover the entire population. There are significant segments who are outside of the facebook, twitter and digital group. Second, social media marketing is most effective when used collectively with other media channels such as, Search, PR, and TV advertising .

Regarding TV adverting  it will remain as an important and an effective part of the marketing channel. But the medium in which video advertising is most effective and cost-efficient is yet to be determined. Depending on the target segment  industry and campaign purpose, advertisers need to balance marketing efforts between traditional cable TV, facebook, and twitter.

Regarding advertising's ENTERTAINMENT content, there will be increasing demand for digital marketing to have entertainment content. Looking at the predecessor of digital marketing channel, radio and TV have gone through this increasing entertainment transformation  For example, first advertising used radio and TV for brand marketing. Later, drama shows on radio and TVs became soap opera because soap company used it as an entertainment platform for marketing purpose. Another example is the Super Bowl ads, through the past decade, the entertainment content of the spots have elevated by great magnitude.

In short, marketing is not restricted to a platform or the format. Marketing is a dynamic set of strategies and tactics by which brands communicate with the target customers and to be a part of the consideration set before time of purchase. Standalone social media companies and digital marketing agencies will disappear as advertisers evolve and adopt a multi-channel, muti-media, multi-platform, multi-format marketing strategies and tactics to communicate and influence their target audience.