It is that time of year - time to predict what we think will happen next year (I don't mean things like Reading to get promoted or england to regain the Ashes, although I hope those predictions do come true!). I am talking about what will be the trends for marketing in 2009. Of course, it goes without saying that they are virtually all related to digital & mobile marketing in some way. That is a given. Hopefully, this will give you food for thought when you are planning your marketing activity for the next 6-12 months. Here goes, in no particular order, as they like to say on the reality TV shows...
1) Gadgets as marketing tools - so many of the key players are developing gadget opportunities and this is probably the hottest topic when I am teaching digital marketing. Gadgets on Vista desktops, on iGoogle, on facebook etc etc. These give brands that permanent real estate to interact with their consumers. Of course, you need to create useful applications and we can't all provide news feeds and weather reports. What can you offer consumers that will help them and entice them to place your gadget on their desktop. For me it is a currency converter, amazon search bar and recipe of the day (bizarrely, as I am not exactly a gourmet!)
2) Barter - this is a bit left field! Budgets are shrinking and marketers are looking for ways of doing more with less. Surely barter is the answer. What do you have to swap in order to get their services for free? Are you an accountant that could swap 2 days auditing for 2 days training for example? This has to be a huge opportunity for someone like Yell or the Fed of Small Businesses - a barter portal for their members / customers. Sadly neither company has shown me any evidence that they have the vision to do something so radical.
3)Video - we have the broadband speeds, we are turning to BBC iPlayer & YouTube and the like in huge numbers. How will you bring your content to life with video and then where will you distribute them - YouTube, Podcasts on iTunes....? How will you take the content of your next customer seminar / event and share it with people who are not in the room?
4) SME's - Sadly more of us will be made redundant (not me, I'm self employed already!), this recession will hit marketing jobs hard. That probably means a huge growth in entrepreneurs, consultants and start ups. Small businesses can promote themselves using digital and compete like never before - it is so easy and low cost to blog, set up a facebook group or do some paid search with Google. If you are a small business and you are not doing it. Now is the chance to start. The growth in search revenue from Google will surely come from this sector next year as they can self serve their own ads.
5) Mobile - of course - we have mobile phones with web, pda's and lap tops with wifi everywhere. We are always on and connected, we want access to the info we need now, wherever we are. I am not suggesting spamming people direct to mobile using text or video messages, I am saying think about what your web site looks like on an iphone or blackberry and how will mobile consumers interact with you. People have gotten so used to voting and responding on their phones that they'll expect this all of the time. Consider QR codes if you are not using them already.
6) Broadband accessibility and speed - Consumers will become much more discerning about how and where they log on. Does your office / coffee shop / hotel have free wifi for visitors? If not, why not? If you want customers to stay, make it easy for them to work or update their facebook page or check out the latest sports news whilst they are in your space. Consumers will also be more discerning about the speed of their broadband as they look to watch video via BBC iPlayer or YouTube. Home broadband providers won't get away with the catch all "up to xx MB per second". The average UK household only gets 3.6MB per second despite the broadband providers advertising speeds much faster than that with their "up to" claims. Thanks C5's Gadget Show for building awareness of these issues.
7) Election Fever - I was listening to the Editor of the Economist talking on the radio about their predictions for 2009 - The World in 2009. One interesting point he made was that a huge number of countries will go to the polls in 2009, including the world's largest democracy - India, as well as Israel, Germany and many others including potentially the UK. How many of these elections will be digitally driven? Clinton and Obama showed the way in building new ways to communicate with younger voters and new ways to get supporters to collaborate, share and spread the word. I am sure the world's leaders were watching and learning. If not - why not?
8) Commercialisation of social networks - that leads me into my next point. Facebook, YouTube, MySpace....they all need to prove they can attract brand advertising revenues. As they become more commercial and branded will consumers swith off or find another place to meet and share? I read a report yesterday which showed that a tiny percentage of facebook users are looking at the branded pages - usage is huge, but it is all about sharing photos, news and status. Will these huge portals prove they can monetise the usage and goodwill that they have? I suspect that the more commercial they become, the less popular they will be....
9) Digital sentiment tracking - brands are increasingly focusing on social media - blogs, communities, social networks, wikis etc. The only thing stopping an even greater emphasis on this is measurement. There are plenty of digital sentiment tracker tools, but they all seem to have flaws or restrictions. Surely this year someone (maybe Google or Microsoft if they are smart) will bring out a killer tool, that tracks and measures how brands are influencing the influencers at a reasonable (or free) cost that tracks the whole net, not just the sites you point it at. The whole point of social media is how viral it is. These tools need to be able to reflect this..
10) Roll of Marketing - David Thorp of CIM has written a thought provoking paper "The changing role of the Marketer" where he suggests splitting marketing roles into 3 areas - Science (analytics & research), Arts (creative) and Humanities (social networking and collaborative behaviours). I agree that the role has to change, but wonder if this goes far enough. In 2009 marketers all need to be accountants, futurists, authors, thought leaders, collaborators and creatives. David is right that it is no longer about comms and promotions and that the world at large still has us in that box, but rather than splitting roles as David suggests, I think we need to be more rounded, more free thinking and more innovative in everything we do. Marketing teams will get smaller this year. So those that are in roles, need to step up to the plate and make it happen. That means taking risks and stepping out of our comfort zones.
Whatever happens, 2009 will be challenging, frustrating, exciting and will provide great opportunities for innovators and thought leaders.
Best of luck
(and let's hope Reading do get promoted too)
