One week back at work and I thought it was time to make some predictions for the year ahead. There are big changes taking place in the financial world and the implications these have for business reach beyond how they raise capital and finance. The behaviour of consumers has changed and will continue to do so as one of the most important developments 2009 was the rise in opinion sharing through the use of digital technology and social networking by all consumers of products and services from individuals to corporates. These developments will gather pace during 2010 and the businesses will need to position themselves to take advantage of them and other changes that are going to occur.
My 10 predictions are:
1. Digital marketing will be come even more central to marketing strategies as smart phones give ever increasing mobile access to information and consumers and businesses come to rely on them more.
2. Smart phone applications will become more relevant as marketers start to realise their potential to deliver information and offers to an already interested audience and not just games and entertainment.
3. Behavioural marketing techniques which personalise the experience to the user will take a more central role as brands start collecting and using data in even more sophisticated ways and this will apply to direct marketing through the printed word as well as online.
4. Video marketing will increase as promotional and downloadable tuition videos will be used to help market products in a world were the time for face to face meetings is becoming increasingly expensive.
5. On line collaboration tools will become more commonplace and used in more and more sectors and this development will create additional marketing opportunities especially in sector based tools where the buyers and sellers of services will be talking to each other on a daily basis.
6. Traditional advertising where brands talk about how good they and their products are will become increasingly irrelevant and out dated, as social marketing and the speed of communications means that views of peers will be more important than the advertising as a campaign can be shot down in flames in no time at all if consumers band together as they increasingly are on sites such as Twitter.
7. Product placement will increase generally and once the review of the relaxation of TV rules has taken place then it will increase within popular shows at an exponential rate.
8. Measurability and the ability to track and report on campaigns will become increasingly central to any advertising and marketing spend. It amazes me how many companies don’t d this and just spend money marketing the same way each year without knowing if they are creating awareness and sales or just throwing money away.
9. More brands will look to create their own channels on the TV and internet in order to maximise the potential advertising opportunities for an already engaged audience and more new brands will emerge in this manner to take on established names.
10. Social networking will develop to be a more personal based activity with the desire to shout out to all about everything diminishing and this will further help marketers target the right audience. Facebook and Twitter will change in the way they are used as both develop and enhance their offers with more communities within communities being established and one of these will offer a payment/bartering technology to compete with PayPal.
No doubt there will many many more changes than the 10 listed and 2010 will be an exciting year as well as a challenging year but the saying “Out with the old and in with the new” can never have been more relevant.
Those who embrace change and start to develop proper joined up marketing campaigns that engage with today’s consumer will prosper those that don’t will die.
| 
