After reading this headline, I couldn't help but think "THAT'S ME"!

Enter the Hybrid Marketer: Where Mad Men Meet Tech Nerds

At the Apps for Brands event this past Wednesday, I moderated a panel that looked specifically at how marketers should attack the construction of a branded application. But one question we didn't get to address was: How much do marketers need to know about app development anyway?

The truth is, advertisers and brand marketers are entering a brave new world -- one where code is on par with content. The 21st-century ad isn't something to be looked at, it's something to be used. Our reliance on mobile tools, such as apps, position them as the perfect vehicles for brands. "Consumers" are now "users." So are "marketers" now "developers"?

"In order to make a successful app, you need to have these core competencies, or work with companies that have these core competencies, that are beyond marketing," said Ad Age's Nick Parish during the pre-panel call. J.B. Holston, president-CEO of NewsGator, saw this as his company's role. "Our clients would rather not have to worry about keeping up with latest and greatest [in platform releases]," he said. "They can focus a lot more on the brand, more what is the right expression of the brand here, rather than 'How do I use the video capability of the next generation iPhone?'"

But Matt Galligan, CEO and co-founder of CrashCorp, also a tech company, said that having someone who at least can help a creative team understanding how the software should look is very helpful. "I think having somebody like that, even if they are not the ones coding the app, helps bridge the gap between the technical and the creative," he said. "As we talk to various brands and agencies about working with our technology, there is sort of a disconnect."

AKQA gets around this with a "creative developer" role, which I've also heard referred to as a "creative technologist." People in this hybrid position work directly with developers to oversee the realization of an idea. "Pure creatives don't have the language to speak with developers," said Rei Inamoto, AKQA's chief creative officer. "These people act as translators."

Inamoto also pointed to the need for brand managers to have a new hybrid mind-set. "We need to educate and cultivate a new breed of people who understand tech from a marketing and brand perspective, who have a consumer mindset." These "brand technologists," as Parish called them, also lend a software company vibe around an agency.