Top 10 Trends for the Next 10 Years
Check out Larry Chase’s Top 10 Trends for the Next 10 Years. Of course, he focusses on marketing.
He does have some interesting points:
_1\. Pay Per Call Rings In: Any salesperson worth his or her salt knows that a call is worth many times more than a click. […]_
That’s a bit very simplistic but all in all. Absolutely agreed. I don’t even think it really has to be a “call” but only a “callable person” because handling the system of channeling a call _now_ to the right person is still a bit tricky.
_2\. Feed Marketing Flourishes: You’ve got RSS (Real Simple Syndication). You’ve got Podcasting (where you can download and time-shift audio content to your iPod or MP3 player). Now you’ve even got Video Podcasting where …_
With Apple now having gone into Podcasting with iTunes 4.9, I really believe that this will start taking off. I still prefer blogs without audio as I don’t have to listen to something, but for a walk in the park it might be interesting. And the attention that consumers give the podcasts are likely higher than a web site, making them prime targets for advertisement.
_3\. Email Marketing Will Survive: Spam issues will recede dramatically, because they have to. Too much is at stake. […]_
Yes it will survive but it needs to get way less expensive! And Blogs will enable companies to build their own lists more easily. For new customer acquistion, even the targeted lists are just not performing on par with other systems out there. With performance I mean the ROI is just not the same, so if the conversion is worse than in SEM, then the price should be less too.
_4\. Personal Agents Propogate: Watch for the growth of “agent software” to help you sift through the morass of online information.[…]_
We already have stuff like Froogle or personalized search but a real agent needs to go far beyond that. Maybe. We’ll see. He’s talking about 10 years so that’s ok.
_5\. Reverb Marketing, In Stereo: […] Smart marketers will synchronize their messaging so the end user hears and sees complementary messages at or near the same time. This will be the new definition of what media planners call “Road Blocking.” […]_
Very cool indeed and it will really need some big players or big partnerships to pull that of. But I did wonder before why instead of spreading your ads out over weeks and months, you don’t just block an entire day on all channels. Ok, maybe not that much but you could do show sponsorships including ads around the show, the shows web site, web sites the target audience visit and radio stations the next morning.
_7\. IPTV Adds Interactivity: Microsoft and others are currently exploring TV over Internet protocol.[…] IPTV will be much more interactive. In addition to an 800 number, with IPTV you’ll be able to click and buy right then and there.[…]_
Yes, yes, yes.
_8\. Commercial Content On Demand: Messages from marketers need to be so appealing that the audience actually requests the message.[…] The advertisers in Web Digest For Marketers generate sales leads by offering high-value PDF downloads on subjects of particular interest to the target audience they’re trying to reach.[…]_
Very good point and an interesting idea how the content producers can leverage their assets a bit more. If you have your content in XML and easily transferable in other media, then you are in a good position to now leverage APIs that are out there.
_9\. Publishing Faces Tectonic Shifts: Research is already showing that many people in their 20s are not picking up the newspaper habit the way their parents did._
Target your audience, like in 8, with special info you have about them. Then you can do targeting of the ads automatically too.
_10\. Direct Marketers Will Take Over the Internet: Oops, this has already happened, but not the way I predicted 10 years ago.[…]_
What he believes is that the real old school direct marketers have a lot of knowledge that is not yet leveraged in the online world. The way you work is different online, but what works largely isn’t. The two fields need to mix.
Very good points. I like it.