2010: the year of…

6Jan10

We have the technology

Welcome to the future.

Its 2010, a time oft referred to in sci-fi movies and old TV shows as “The Future”. Sure, we haven’t got hover cars yet, but technology and media is now well and truly exceeding expectations. It wasn’t long ago that we were marveling at the push and touch technology in the Tom Cruise movie Minority Report, now becoming a reality on smart phones and the forthcoming iTablets.

In fact, technology and media are evolving so rapidly that its hard to keep up with what will be the break-out hit of the year and what marketers should be focussing on. Here are just some of the prognostications from those in the know:

American blogger and technology thinker Peter Kim feels that 2010 will be the year of mobile.

Here’s why:

• Devices. Mobile phones have been getting more sophisticated, as operating systems evolve, batteries live longer, and processors run faster. And it’s not just phones – netbooks have been hot and tablets will soon seize the spotlight.
• Applications. Thousands of applications available specifically for mobile experiences that aren’t the clunky WAP-based sites of old. These run on more sophisticated operating systems, given users familiar interface cues.
• Networks. 3G networks might be strained now, but that won’t be the case forever. AOL initially strained under the demands of dial-up, but end up thriving (and then missing the switch to broadband). Wi-fi hotspots have proliferated and you can find a network almost anywhere you go today.

These three areas will continue to progress and if competition keeps prices in check, innovation will continue and we’ll be more connected than ever by the end of the year. We’ve seen interesting concepts in all three of these areas before, but today’s overall system has reached a point of maturity making the mobile experience useful, usable, and desirable.

At Mashable, Josh Jones Dilworth wrote that in 2010 the very best marketers, PR professionals, and social media consultants will put data at the center of everything they do. He argues that data is a major asset that marketers will finally utilise professionally for better results.

The team at Hubspot claim that 2010 will be the year that Inbound Marketing Crosses the Chasm:

outbound tactics that worked well-enough in 2009 for your business will not work 5 years later in 2014. Companies must continue to evolve with the marketplace or face extinction.

Here in Australia, none other than Harold Mitchell, country’s largest media buyer, is acknowledging that “the broadcast model that has enjoyed so much success in the 20th Century, the distribution of content from one to many, is losing its grip on the population, and especially younger generations.”

Mitchell doesn’t see 2010 as the tipping point, admitting that our traditional media have been “cushioned by protectionist media legislation and expensive and slow broadband availability”. But he does see it looming very large as the National Broadband Network takes shape and he warns that,

for media owners and for marketers this means a sea change in thinking – the emerging media delivery systems will be largely controlled by consumers who will be able to block content they do not want to receive.

It means that we need to learn completely new ways of connecting and communicating – it means innovating and relearning our communications style.

Mitchell’s company has been doing plenty of forecasting and they feel that by 2013/14 free-to-air TV and newspaper shares of ad spend will have shrunk from their current position of around 61% to about 50% and online will have risen to over 25%. Online will almost certainly become the major medium.

He concludes that :

For consumers in the future there will be no distinction between online or offline – it will simply be access to content that is personally of interest to them.

I couldn’t agree more. Last July I wrote at Marketing that from now on It’s the package not the platform that matters. We are all now able to be content providers. I recently implored marketers to Stop Interrupting because the audience is in control and interruption isn’t working as well anymore. The future of successful marketing is relevance, or as Harold Mitchell says – accessing content that is personally of interest.

That’s why on MediaHunter in 2010 will be the year of new media & new marketing thinking. I’ll occasionally cover traditional media topics, but the focus will mostly be on how new media is evolving and how savvy marketers break new ground and escape the old broadcast interruption model.

Over to you: tell me, what do YOU think 2010 will be the year of?

Related stories

• Stop interrupting
• Marketing Magazine post
• Are you still marketing like its 1999?
• How to get a job in the advertising, design or media industry in 2009
• Has marketing entered the specialist era?

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