When Marketing asked people in the industry to send in their predictions for 2010, we didn’t expect to be so overwhelmed with responses. It seems the crystal balls have been working overtime. We ran a handful of them in our Jan. 18 issue (now on newsstands), but here’s a broader sampling of opinions from around the marketing world, with the rest presented in tomorrow morning’s Marketing Daily.
“Brands are now built with meaningful engagement and memorable experiences. And if consumers are now in charge, we’d better reward them. We’re creating a lot of content for clients who understand this where you need to be. One of my mentors in this business was Terry O’Malley of Vickers & Benson who schooled me about the value of ‘ideas.’ Nothing has changed. Social media, augmented reality and new forms of engagement without an innovative, creative idea behind it is a waste of money. Creating a Facebook page is not a strategy or an ‘idea.’ ” –Peter Shier, president, partner, Naked Creative Consultancy
“Okay, just relax. Don’t worry your twittering little heart. Social media isn’t on its deathbed nor is it going anywhere. I just hate the term. I hate Web 2.0 while we’re at it. I just find ‘social media’ has lost all its meaning because it’s become so interwoven within the digital world. Social media isn’t a platform on the web. It is the web. It’s everywhere. Social media will continue its tight integration into our day-to-days lives, quickly becoming the world’s most important communication touch-point since Gutenberg’s printing press. Social media will continue to thrive, I just won’t call it social media.” –Dawna Henderson, CEO, Henderson Bas
“The early 2000s will go down as the MC Hammer of decades. It started out all confidence and flash, and ended in bankruptcy. Then came the grunge era. The global economic meltdown might give us the distance we need to fully absorb the absurdity of dog jewelry, pimped rides and man-made island resorts in the desert. As a generation of young people cope with double-digit unemployment, they might embrace a new set of values that are a break from the past, a break from status that can be bought and mortgaged. People may once again start looking for things that are ‘real.’ Status may once again have to be earned. I’m already seeing a lot of people wearing plaid.” –Barry Quinn, executive creative director, brand design, Juniper Park
“I hate to say it, but downsizing and working with diminished budgets in 2009 may have been the easy work for agencies in this economy; 2010 will bring a much tougher challenge: the need to innovate. I don’t mean embracing online. That ship sailed 10 years ago. The real innovation needs to happen in the agency offering and structure. As we witness trends like the commoditization of creative (thanks crowd-sourcing), or the prevalence of the third screen (thanks iPhone), or the emergence of new offline/online engagement strategies like ARGs, are agencies well-equipped for a new kind of dialogue that both clients and consumers are demanding? Agencies will need to employ a cross-disciplinary skill set, well beyond traditional/online advertising if they hope to stay relevant. They’ll also need to make the model a lot more nimble and adaptable to cultural change. Some of us like Anomaly and Sid Lee are headed there already. I fear others will continue to try and defend the legacy structure of agencies and get left behind.” –Bob Goulart, partner creative, Grip Ltd.
“If you look back at the history of our business, the beginning of each decade has set the stage for what’s to come. The agencies that dominated in 1990 are not the same ones that rose to prominence in 2000. And 2010 will again usher in a new world order. With the changing of the old guard, some major clients will make bold, surprising moves. On both the client and agency side, we’ll see much more movement in the senior ranks as people pursue happiness over job title. It promises to be the start of the most creative era ever.” –Zak Mroueh, president, creative director, Zulu Alpha Kilo
“2010 Predictions: Twitter will start its slow, painful descent toward irrelevance (see MySpace, circa 2005). Canada will do fairly well at Cannes, but the hand wringing over why we didn’t do better will continue unabated. Lines between media will continue to blur with online spending gaining greater and greater share. Clients will start to demand more hard data on social media. It won’t be enough to say ‘We’re Facebooking/twittering/chitchatting with your target.’ Creative boutiques will flourish–those who can wake us up will win.
Alternative 2010 Predictions: AshleyMadison.com signs celebrity spokesman Tiger Woods to a four-year deal. Having already wrung every last drop out of the Mad Men phenomenon, advertising will jump on the Glee bandwagon and proceed to make it seem as fresh as yesterday’s Timbits. Vince [Shlomi] will suffer a Slap Chop injury that will prove fatal when he is unable to call 911. Start-up shop Conrad Gore von Trapp wins Agency of the Year despite having no clients. Production companies start paying clients for the privilege of letting them make commercials.” –Malcolm Roberts, president, Smith Roberts
“Despite talk of consumers adopting a newfound frugality as a result of the economic downturn, I’d argue it’s only a matter of time until people return to their consumptive ways because what we buy is a key part of our identity. Will more people demonstrate frugality in 2010 as part of their identity? Yes. But unless you believe that the Great Recession has fundamentally changed who people are, and I don’t, then they will return to their previous spending behaviour as soon as external circumstances allow.” –Andy Macaulay, CEO and chairman, Zig
“2009 was a great year to be selling burgers in Canada. The economic uncertainty delivered new customers and higher frequency, and this generated more than 30 million new occasions in the category. In 2010, watch for new competition entering the market to chase the trend. Those existing restaurants that missed last year’s opportunity of promoting burgers will try and catch up. Those new occasions in 2009 brought with them elevated expectations of bold tastes and premium offerings, so I also expect to see more of those moves in the coming year.” –Jason Keown, director of marketing, Burger King Canada
“Hire the best people and the future will take care of itself.” –Garry Lee, president, chief strategic officer, Cundari
“People will continue to buy and pay more for reliable brand reputations that enrich the depth and breadth of their own identity. The future belongs to any product that can give users a unique identity and place, be it real or virtual. 2010 will be about combining an engaging story with an immersive experience so that the brand becomes an avatar and the communications investment becomes an extension of the brand experience. Communications technology is now the enabler, source and subject matter of human entertainment as a result the concept of the “Avatar” has crossed the chasm into mainstream culture and branding.” –Andy Krupski, partner, president, The Hive
