The top ten marketing trends for 2008

1. Time to go green
   A “green” plan is no longer a luxury, or an option. Every day, another
   venerable brand commits to a sustainable future. While there is much
   “green washing”, rating services such as B Corporation
   will set standards that will have major companies fighting to prove
   their greenness. Expect to find a new seat being formed in the
   boardroom: Chief Green Officer (CGO).
2. Ads in the great outdoors
   This year’s surprise was the rebound of out-of-home advertising,
   growing faster than any channel except the internet. Outdoor reinvented
   itself as a technology-rich means of engaging, entertaining and
   educating commuters. Mini Cooper tested RFID-activated billboards with
   personalised messages aimed at Mini drivers, a customised approach that
   linked old (outdoor) with new (online) transforming an integrated media
   platform into a cult-building club. So called “narrowcasting” video
   networks continue to sprout, enabling marketers to put their messages
   in front of selective targets – from health clubbers, to deli shoppers,
   movie-goers and pet owners to elevator riders. Innovations like these
   will drive out-of-home advertising to new heights.
3. Getting in on the game
   Gaming now permeates just about all of society, creating fresh ways for
   marketers to connect. Millions of non-golfers are swinging virtual
   clubs as Nintendo’s Wii transformed video games. Senior citizen centres
   bought Wiis to entertain guests and connect with grandkids. MTV
   invested US$500 million in online games, on top of the millions it
   spent for AddictingGames. Even B2B marketers will be smart to give
   gaming a fresh look while blending in messaging, training or recruiting.
4. Mobile: I can hear you now!
   This may be the year in which mobile deserves a closer look as
   technology improvements create new opportunities. Bluetooth-enabled
   phones have made it easier for marketers to provide contextually
   relevant information; the Air Force set up Bluetooth transmitters at
   racetracks to reach potential recruits. Apple’s iPhone partnered with
   Google and Yahoo to enable ad-supported programming. Cellfire enlisted
   a million people to receive coupons for anything from burgers to
   videos. Mobile marketing can deliver highly personalised, and useful,
   information when and where needed and as long as marketers don’t spam,
   mobile marketing may be the missing link in personalised communications.
5. Join the club
   Wise marketers will capitalise on the growing appeal of social
   networks. Besides the obvious market leaders (MySpace and Facebook),
   social networks exist in niches from teens (e.g. Pizco and Tagged) to
   seniors (e.g. Eons) to photographers (e.g. Flickr), do-gooders (e.g.
   AllDayBuffet) and even B2B (e.g. LinkedIn and Plaxo). This list is
   almost endless. Chase’s partnership with Facebook has helped make its
   “+1″ credit card the card of choice among college students. Marketers
   will be smart to create a social network, or take an existing one and
   make it physical (for example, Second Life held its first offline
   convention in 2007).
6. Rise of the widget
   Mini software applications (known as “widgets”) can provide
   unprecedented access to hard-to-reach targets, as Facebook and MySpace
   can attest. Even Microsoft’s Windows Vista supports user-written
   widgets natively. According to ComScore, some 220+ million consumers
   were using widgets as of May 2007. For example, iLike, which allows
   Facebook users to share iTunes playlists, grew to over 10 million users
   in only 10 months. Slide, which creates slideshows and embeds them in
   social network homepages, claims to be the largest personal media
   network in the world, reaching 120 million viewers monthly. That’s just
   the beginning of the widget avalanche.
7. Roll the video
   With 70% or more in broadband penetration in the US, streaming video is
   a “must” marketing tool. eMarketer reported that 123 million Americans
   watch a video at least monthly, and three-quarters tell a friend about
   them. Whether a B2B or B2C marketer, video is an enormous opportunity
   to engage, educate and entertain (those being the new “Three Es” of
   successful marketing). Lots of brands are producing instructional
   videos to help customers install or use their product or service.
   Others create pure entertainment, hoping to build brand affinity or
   drive traffic. But the ubiquity of video is not without its challenges:
   With 7 million hours of video online, getting through to the right
   consumers requires high quality storytelling and judicious editing.
8. From behavioural to contextual
   Marketers will add behavioural targeting to their contextual search
   efforts. AOL believes in the future of behavioural targeting, having
   spent some US$275 million on Tacoda Systems, which claims to reach 120
   million people in 31 discrete audience segments each month. eMarketer
   predicted that behavioural targeting will increase ten-fold over the
   next five years, growing from US$350 million to US$3.8 billion in
   advertising spend. A test that Renegade ran for Panasonic yielded 50%
   more imminent buyers of a particular consumer electronics product,
   making it far better than a simple search-driven strategy.
9. Focus on the experience
   The need to focus on integrated marketing approaches is not new, but
   what will be new next year is how brand experiences will move to the
   top of the integration priorities list, becoming the driving force of
   marketing communications. Events and online initiatives were once
   treated as below-the-line after thoughts, but marketers increasingly
   realise that interactive brand experiences can be far more effective
   than advertising and should be the starting point of a customer
   conversation.
10. Marketing as a service
    For years, marketers have been more concerned with what they say than
    what their target hears, resulting in seemingly endless monologues.
    Those marketers who continually support their customers, providing
    actual value through each communication, will be the most successful in
    2008. The value exchange can take many forms, but only if the marketer
    understands the needs and aspirations of the customer – and then
    commits to a genuine dialogue at every point of contact. The HSBC
    BankCab, which provides free rides to HSBC customers in New York City,
    is one example of marketing as service, transforming customers into
    brand evangelists with every free ride. Marketers who treat marketing
    as a service and deliver real value to customers and prospects alike
    will undoubtedly triumph.