Marketing is experiencing exponential growth due to a lack of technological invention today. The dominant business models for the Internet were invented in the early ‘90s. A decade later Silicon Valley set the foundation for social media. Following Twitter’s debut at SXSW in ‘06, the catalysts for disrupting consumerism peaked.

Given respite, marketers retrenched from the threat of social and mobile. Slower moving consumers proved more targetable, more profitable again. As the pace of new technology stalled, new uses of older technology actually accelerated. Instead of inventing new technologies for everyone, innovators (Airbnb, Instagram, Uber) tapped preexisting tech to solve highly specific business problems.

Even when tech slows, ideas don’t. And invention always returns. This cycle between invention and innovation will alter the entire marketing landscape. 10-year gaps between dot com and social bubbles suggest we are due for the next cycle in 2016. Signs abound at SXSW.