eCommunications for global organisations

We have reached the point in the year when we all feel compelled to make predictions (or perhaps just me).  So here goes:

1. Financial crisis will get worse, hit rock bottom and start getting better but reports will continue to be gloomy.  Towards the end of the year a slow and painful recovery will be under way.

2. Expect a few more dramatic surprises in the economic sector (more countries going under?) and companies doing things they have never done before.

3. Advertising and marketing budget will remain frozen - leading to the start of  reorganisation of the marketing organisation (firing of people and suppliers)

4. The Web will be the only channel that continues to grow - getting the attention of CEO level as core business tool (often for the first time since the last bubble)

5. Change in advertising will be permanent - as in: no going back to the old ways of excessive spending on TV and traditional advertising (although some milder form will be back in the later part of the year)

6. Social networks will continue to grow, more scandals will emerge on privacy and consumers will continue to ignore them

7. Someone will try coining Web 3.0 but people will resist as they will still be recovering from Web 2.0

8. Technological innovation will continue and the mobile phone will begin to appear as the next main channel for internet consumption

9. Obama will create a new american image and will benefit from an extended honeymoon period (and a virtual absence of organised opposition) which will take him into 2010 (at which point he will remain popular, but opposition will start returning and the republicans will start reforming)

If you want to start looking at the predictions being for made for 2009 in emarketing, check out this compilation made by Zazoo.

It’s time to start working on those plans, make those assumptions and figure how to prepare for a year that will be a year of change, unpredictable events and plenty of surprise (wait a minute, that was 2008!).

One of my favourites is from Integrated campaign metrics - “The holy grail of marketing will get one step closer as technology starts to allow a more integrated metrics reporting of campaign media.” - but then again we having been getting closer to this every year for the past ten years…

And also from ClickZ comes the predictable prediction: “The coming year in advertising is predicted to be, if nothing else, unpredictable.”

Watch this space and you will see my own predictions for 09.

http://www.zazoo.com.au/2008/12/18/and-this-is-the-year-that-will-be/