The world of marketing became unrecognizable. You adapt, or you go bust… I worked for ad agencies for decades, and began in the 1960’s. Ah… This takes me back to the countless hours I spent with my coworkers and bosses in dingy offices and boardroom meetings. We were dressed in suits and often had cups of coffee on hand. Chatter everywhere. 

“This’ll be our next big campaign!” The boss would eagerly announce, and we were confident that it would succeed. 

As long as the commercial was decent, it was almost guaranteed! The strategy was the simplest yet in the 60’s and 70’s in the original timeline, and the 50’s and 60’s of the new one: Spend more on commercials that’d reach all 3 TV channels that were in existence, and air them during prime time! 

We adapted to airing in more channels, but our confidence began waning in the 1990’s in both when our commercials weren’t drawing in as much revenue, nor as many clients. The net revenue from the commercials we made for the national Mega Bowling Tournament were keeping us afloat each year, but our boss was exasperated. 

“Our sales are declining, and we’re losing clients! They’re giving up on us, and we’ve got to do something!” We tried buying more commercial slots across different channels out of the 100+ channels that now existed, but it led to another demoralizing boardroom meeting… The revenue we brought in wasn’t enough to offset our costs…

---

Paige was visiting her friend Myra, and was lying on the couch in the living room while she scribbled down some ideas on a clipboard. She had a cup of tea on the coffee table, and sat up to take another sip of tea. 

“Are you done yet?” She asked Myra.

“I finished my promo post on Magebook, and I’m finishing this chirp on my Chirpper page.” Myra had short light blue hair, bronze eyes with rectangular, navy blue-framed glasses, and wore a T-shirt with a long flowing skirt that had a vertical gradient of color on it. Myra sat at a desk across the room, which had a large holographic touchscreen and keyboard. Myra tapped a button on the screen to post the chirp. 

They paused to think about whether to work on the promo images for the next episodes they’d publish, and opened the file for their next webtoon episode. 

“Heh. I like having early access to the next episode, but I’m not going to spoil it!” Paige said with a chuckle when she walked over, and looked at the screen. 

“Could you please help me narrow down which of these panels I want to use as the preview?” Myra asked.

“Sure.” Paige looked at the screen as Myra put their right pointer finger on the screen, and scrolled down on the webtoon file. “That one would be the right size without cutting out anything important!” She said. 

“Hmmm… It might be difficult to place the series logo on the image without it obscuring anything in the foreground.” Myra said with a bit of concern, and scrolled down to another panel they wanted to use for the preview… 

---

The spread of the internet shook up the old era of advertising, and brought it to its knees the most… Consumers gained more of a voice and power. Creators who didn’t have the capital to get published, and advertise through traditional means now could at a low or no cost, and could compete against the big companies. 

The agency adapted through the 90’s and 2000’s, but the 2010’s were the end. I brought a paper out of my purse and looked at it wistfully. A notice dated to a year ago that announced the layoffs of their social media department with my last day of employment… I believe this could’ve been prevented. Darn, this brings me back to boardroom meetings in 2011… 

“It wouldn’t catch on!” Some of my colleagues and bosses shouted. 

“Why should we have a department for that?” They questioned. 

After a lot of back and forth, they set up their social media department, which I was hired for, and counted on being early adopters to help them with their reach… Broadcasting is easy, but building engagement and content to interest businesses to work with us, and consumers to use their services, is a lot of work… 

—-

“Although that ad agency you worked for went under, I’m envious it had its own social media department, and I can’t afford to hire an assistant to color, or make the backgrounds for me.” Myra told Paige with a sigh. “I don’t want to skimp on the quality to be on schedule again.” They added. 

“No offense taken at all!” Paige said sympathetically. “Your challenges are similar. Having you still been doing everything by yourself?”

“Yeah. I missed an update last week— I’ll use this panel for the preview on Magebook and Chirpper, and for the thumbnail on the site.” They said, copying and pasting a panel from the webtoon file into another window. “This’ll be perfect without spoiling the twist!” 

“Good!” Paige waited for Myra to finish the two images. 

Myra wasn’t finished yet, and opened the webtoon file for the next episode after it. “I should have these prepared with the episodes, but that last episode took more time than I usually spend.” Myra explained. 

“I could help make self-promotion a lot easier for you!” Paige cheerfully offered with a mischievous smirk. 

“That sounds like it’d be too good to be true, but I’ll listen.”

“We can go back to the 90’s or early 2000’s when self-promotion was a lot simpler! That’s a constant between timelines!” Paige said with a chuckle. 

“Would you be allowed to do that for me?” Myra asked with surprise.

“The Academy let me as long as I don’t mess around too much.”

“I should put all of my files on a USB drive to take with me, if I’m going to promote there.” Myra said, turning off the holographic screen from the wearable computer on their hand. 

A few minutes later, Myra transferred the files from their computer, took it off, put on their jacket, and put the USB drive in a pocket. 

When they were both ready, Paige cast a circle. A trio of glowing white butterflies surrounded them, and moved counterclockwise in a circle while Paige focused her thoughts and her time travel spell. 

——

In this timeline, technology debuted years earlier than they did in the first. TV became a household item about a decade earlier, the wearable computers that are commonplace in 2017 may not have become common until about 2020. The previous timeline ended before then, but the trajectory was towards wearable computers being small and powerful enough to be practical. 

We just arrived in the year 2000, and went to the library to borrow a computer that Myra could use since they did not live at that house back then… We had to plan for some places not existing, and always the risk of a time paradox. 

“I think that’s my parents” Myra nervously whispered to me. I glanced around and saw a couple who looked like they could’ve been Myra’s parents, accompanying a younger version of them. 

They were heading in the other direction and didn’t seem to notice us, but we quickly shuffled behind a shelf, and walked over to the computers. 

“That was a good catch.” I told Myra. If we saw a younger version of them, then we avoided a time paradox. 

“That would’ve been bad.” Myra said with a nervous laugh. “The internet was a lot simpler in this day.” They said more confidently. 

—

Paige offered to help Myra find a good host for their series. All seemed to go well for a few minutes. I gave Myra my recommendation when a huge pop up ad for a magical girl webtoon took up half the screen. “FREE TO READ!” It read in bold, flashing red text. “READ MY WEBTOON!” It read in two places in bold flashing red and green text. 

“They’re just as obnoxious as I remember!” Paige said with a laugh. “It takes little effort to self-promote this way!” 

“I’d almost want to  that way! Myra added, and chuckled. Their worries about balancing their work with their webtoon with their time networking with other creators, being engaged with their series, always having promotional posts ready to post and the ideal times while they balanced a job and daily tasks, could be felt. They could’ve gained a head start over their peers without most of the work. 

“I shouldn’t do that.” They said. “It’s coming back to me. I saw these near the end of when they were widely used, but no one liked them. It’s going to be more work, but I’ll continue the path that I’m on.”

“Heheheh… I wasn’t entirely serious when I suggested that, but it’s funny to me that as technology kept changing, the old methods of advertising, broadcasting, were still being repeated for decades. Innovations were often dismissed as fads. If I could convince them, I’d tell my old ad agency to take future technology more seriously and use it more to its potential.”

“Could you without causing a time paradox?”

“I could! Time travelers are immune to existing with our past selves when we visit the past!” 

——

The ad agency I worked for still worked in the same building, and I brought up to my bosses to use future technology more to its potential to create content that’ll appeal to customers and clients… That’s what Myra has steadily been doing. It’s steady work, but my bosses didn’t learn though. The agency’s social media department shut down by the time I returned to the present!