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"We're there now. It just is. Can we just move on? Please?" he says. "The average marketer needs to be in this mindset because it's an incredible time of opportunity and those who don't take the leap of faith will get left behind. But, at the moment, the opportunities are being discussed in the wrong places; among tech folks. We need marketers to join the conversations, as that will change the way technology goes to market and the kind of solutions that are built. Marketers don't need to be geeks, but they do need to understand this stuff."

You need to ensure you're communicating a clear and consistent message that is 100% customer-focused and don't confuse consumers with technology integration for technology's sake

The problem, according to Coplin, is that it can be hard for marketers to see the potential in emerging technology, especially when presented with an "ugly term like the internet of things".

Consequently, rather than talk to marketers about "rainbows and unicorns", he is on a mission to give them concrete evidence of transformative marketing to fire their imaginations about the possibilities ahead. He cites Microsoft's Christmas tie-up with John Lewis (see below) as a shining example.

Some marketers, though, need no convincing that the dichotomy of physical and digital is over. "If you're thinking about these two worlds as separate entities, I'd argue you shouldn't be working in a marketing department today, even though we're in the infancy of application (of this technology)," says Steve Cobelli, global digital marketing manager at Jaguar Land Rover.

Cobelli's ambition is, as far as possible, to make the physical and virtual worlds appear as if they are one, by making the transition between the two so seamless that the customer doesn't notice the changeover. For example, mindful of how vital the virtual experience is in the research phase of buying a new car, Cobelli hired agency Connect to overhaul his brand's online car configurator. Now, customers can send their ideal configuration to their local dealership so that when they go to test-drive a car, they don't have to waste precious time explaining their needs.

"We also empower our customers by giving them a code that they can give to the retailer to bring up their configuration. This way, if they haven't sent it in advance, they don't feel their time is wasted once they get there," he says.

This may seem a simple procedure on the face of it, but behind the scenes, linking the physical and virtual worlds can often be complex and challenging. In this case, it involves accommodating more than 7m possible configuration combinations.

As Cobelli points out, it frequently requires organisations to change the way they work and how departments are aligned. "You need to ensure you're communicating a clear and consistent message that is 100% customer-focused, and don't confuse consumers with technology integration for technology's sake. Crucially, if you make a digital experience integral to the customer journey and it affects the physical retail experience, you need to ensure sales staff interacting with the customer understand this."

Nonetheless, even Cobelli, who clearly has a forward-thinking mindset, still has the word 'digital' in his job title, which could suggest that structurally, his organisation is still approaching the onand offline worlds as discrete.

It's just life

One business ahead of the curve is Contiki. As a youth-travel brand targeting millennials, it has to be, explains Alexis Sitaropoulos, group marketing director. "We're primed to take advantage of the fact that lines are blurring - or, in many cases, being destroyed - between the physical and virtual worlds. Just as millennials don't care whether they are on a tablet, phone or PC, the divides between what is digital and what is real are being torn down. Millennials look at you strangely if you talk about a 'digital' or a 'social' channel because, to them, it's just life. Sending a WhatsApp message is the same as talking to someone, so it's imperative to be considerate of how those two channels interplay."

Our technology provides a bridge between the physical and virtual world

This blurring works to Contiki's advantage because travel is consumed in the moment. By embracing this new world where a virtual reality is becoming just 'reality', it is able to keep consumers' experience of the brand alive and make it more tangible long after the actual experience of a tour is over. To do this, it has been working with tech firm Stackla, which pulls together what customers say about their Contiki experience.

Andy Mallinson, managing director, Europe, at Stackla, explains: "We aggregate the content which is naturally being shared by its travellers and help Contiki tell a brand story, which it can, for example, storyboard on its website. Our technology provides a bridge between the physical and virtual world."

By doing this, the digital experience has become such a valued part of the brand, according to Sitaropoulos, that if it were restricted, the brand would become much less attractive.

"Five years ago, there was only the product experience. Now, if we marketed a trip but said you're not allowed to post photos on social media, the value of that trip would go down significantly," he says. "The fact that our brand story isn't told by a marketing team, or by a shiny TV ad, helps us, because it adds realness and believability, which resonates with our young consumers. It does mean letting go and putting your brand in the hands of consumers. That takes guts and makes you trim away those layers of sheen on your brand and present them in a real way."

This flow of content isn't just from the physical world (the tour) to online: the process also happens in reverse. For example, Contiki takes travel selfies gathered online and plasters them all over its coaches. Similarly, it uses customer feedback from social media in its hard-copy brochures. This reverse information flow is being seen in businesses that started with an online focus, too, such as Airbnb and Net-a-Porter, which produce high-quality print magazines to amplify their brands in the real world.

Elsewhere, the Premier League is a good example of a brand using digital to improve the physical experience. Cathy Long, head of supporter services at the organisation, worked with Future Platforms to create an app designed to help football fans attending matches, particularly at away venues.

"Going to a stadium can be daunting and stressful because supporters are worried about how their team is going to perform," she says. "We wanted to take that stress away and make it easier to access all the information they need on the day in one place. We had some useful conversations with Future Platforms at the start and I quickly realised that, rather than think about it as 'producing an app', we had to think about it as producing a solution to a problem, which happens to be through technology."

Through digitally mapping a fan's journey the team analysed potential stress points, such as parking, traffic and access to tickets. It created a simple-to-use app, which notifies the consumer of important information like where to collect tickets and whether traffic congestion is affecting routes to the stadium. This mapping process has also led to physical improvements in the stadium environment, such as more rest points for disabled fans.

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