The New Rules of Multichannel Marketing

Modern businesses are now required to adapt to a new form of communication strategy within a highly interactive and interconnected digital ecosystem, known as the "Echoverse." This emerging environment consists of a complex network of feedback loops and interdependent influences between consumers, brands, media, investors, ecosystems, society, and artificial intelligence agents. These different actors continuously interact and influence one another through a vast network of digital channels, platforms, and devices, creating a dynamic space where messages circulate, amplify, modify, or weaken due to ongoing interactions.

Key Characteristics of the Echoverse

1. Multi-Directional Communication

Messages flow in all directions, originating from any point and spreading through multiple interactions. Every actor within the ecosystem is responsible for sending, receiving, and modifying information.

2. Blurred Roles

Traditional sender-receiver roles have become increasingly ambiguous. Any actor can initiate conversations, modify messages, challenge narratives, or reinforce them, acting as both a content creator and a consumer simultaneously. This dynamic contributes to continuous changes in the system, as each participant influences and is influenced by others.

3. Continuous Evolution of Messages

Message development is shaped by feedback loops and active participant engagement, meaning that messages are constantly evolving and adapting in real time.

4. Collective Value Creation

Meaning is no longer generated by a single entity but rather emerges collaboratively from all actors—both human and non-human. Every participant adds context, interpretation, and resources, contributing to a shared ownership of communication through ongoing interactions.

How Marketers Are Adapting to the Echoverse

To understand how marketing professionals are adjusting to the Echoverse, we conducted a review of 64 academic articles on marketing, using automated text analysis—a computational methodology designed to gather, organize, and predict outcomes based on vast amounts of unstructured textual data.

This approach offers valuable insights into the Echoverse, which is inherently text-based, revealing that digital communications are dynamic and multi-directional, allowing messages to spread rapidly among various stakeholders.

Our analysis identified four primary marketing goals that professionals seek to achieve within this ecosystem:

1. Amplifying positive messages while minimizing the spread of unwanted narratives.
2. Tailoring content to enhance consumer engagement, ensuring their needs and preferences are met while increasing revenue.
3. Leveraging product reviews to influence consumer behavior at both individual and societal levels, as well as to identify new market opportunities.
4. Enhancing brand performance by strategically utilizing the Echoverse to strengthen brand presence and reputation.

These marketing objectives have been relevant since the early days of the internet, but they have become even more critical with the expanding accessibility of digital information, interconnected networks, and the rise of AI-driven interactions.

A New Framework for Marketing Strategies in the Echoverse

Traditional marketing strategies have largely focused on one-way or two-way communication between brands and consumers, following approaches such as:

• Promotional Marketing (one-way communication from brand to consumer).
• Relationship Marketing (two-way engagement to build loyalty).
• Engagement-Based Marketing (interactive strategies where consumers contribute to marketing efforts).

While these methods remain important, they do not fully align with the current digital landscape, where multiple actors—including AI—play crucial roles in shaping communication.

Reclassifying Marketing Communication Strategies

Communication theories typically categorize three main approaches to understanding how meaning is created and interpreted:

1. One-Way Communication: The brand (sender) designs a message that is received by the consumer at a specific moment in time.
2. Two-Way Communication: Brands and consumers (or multiple consumers) collaborate to create shared meanings.
3. Multi-Directional Communication: Messages emerge from multiple sources and continuously evolve over time.

Most marketing communication strategies to date have relied on one-way or two-way interactions, focusing primarily on direct engagement between brands and customers at specific moments.

However, within the Echoverse, the boundaries of brand promotion have become more fluid and diverse. A brand is no longer just a company, product, or service—it can also represent concepts, individuals, or ecosystems that communicate both social and commercial values. This could involve a single person, an individual assisted by AI, or even an AI agent operating independently.

By integrating communication theory with marketing strategies, we propose a new classification model consisting of:

1. Promotional Marketing – Increasing brand awareness through one-way messaging.
2. Relationship Marketing – Strengthening customer loyalty through two-way interactions.
3. Engagement Marketing – Encouraging consumer participation in brand activities.
4. Echoverse Marketing (New Strategy) – Recognizing that communication is multi-directional, interactive, and co-created by a broad network of human and AI actors.

How Marketers Can Adapt to the Echoverse

Unlike traditional brand-driven marketing strategies, the Echoverse requires multi-directional engagement, where human and AI participants interact dynamically to influence message evolution and brand perception.

Here’s how marketing professionals can successfully navigate this new environment:

1. Facilitate Co-Creation and Shared Ownership

Marketers should empower stakeholders to co-create brand narratives.

Example:

• When Drake released the "Hotline Bling" music video, he deliberately included multiple dance styles to encourage fans to create viral memes and remixes.
• Mad for Makeup, an Indonesian cosmetics brand, built a self-sustaining Instagram community with over 1,000 members, transforming consumers into paid brand partners.

2. Create Guided Learning Opportunities

In the Echoverse, brands do not control the message—instead, they shape the learning environment in which messages evolve.

Example:

• Prebiotic beverage brands Poppi and Olipop leverage user-generated content and influencer reviews to educate customers and drive product adoption.
• Poppi's crowdsourced marketing campaign significantly boosted sales by encouraging customers, creators, and influencers to contribute content.

3. Develop a Continuous Learning Mindset

Marketing teams must embrace constant learning and adaptation to thrive in the Echoverse.

• Employees need data analysis skills and AI literacy to engage effectively.
• Companies like Anthropic (an AI safety research firm) now hire specialists to educate corporate clients on maximizing AI potential.

AI and Brand Engagement in the Echoverse

AI is already transforming marketing. Leading brands—including Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Slack, Duolingo, Expedia, Starbucks, Lowe’s, Netflix, The Economist, Nestlé, and Sephora—actively leverage AI to enhance customer engagement.

AI-powered marketing tools now:

• Plan and execute ad campaigns
• Optimize audience targeting
• Generate personalized content
• Enhance brand messaging and identity

Example:

• LEGO transformed its customer community into product developers by encouraging fans to design new LEGO sets.
• LEGO is already integrating AI to enhance participation and engagement in its brand ecosystem.

However, AI-driven marketing also presents challenges:

• Intellectual property concerns
• Fake AI-generated content affecting brand trust
• Managing community expectations around AI involvement

A recent study found that AI-generated social media posts were perceived as 3% more credible than human-written ones, raising concerns about misinformation.

The Future of Marketing in the Echoverse

To succeed in the Echoverse, marketing professionals must:

1. Define clear brand strategies to guide AI and human-driven co-creation.
2. Educate both human consumers and AI systems about their brand’s identity and values.
3. Encourage widespread participation while ensuring authentic engagement.

Ultimately, brands must shift from controlling narratives to orchestrating interactions, embracing a collaborative approach where meaning is co-created, rather than dictated.