Top 10 digital trends for 2010

Shamelessly 'borrowed' from Ruth Mortimer's blog, these top 10 digital trends for 2010 below (created by Drew Neisser from Renegade Marketing) make for an interesting read.

Some are more obvious, others are less-so.

1. Social Media: A Marathon, Not a Sprint

Neisser says that a lot of brands – hoping to become fast friends with their targets – rushed into Facebook and Twitter in the last 24 months without investing sufficient time or resources. In 2010, savvy marketers will increase their commitment to social media by first listening and then offering up a steady stream of engaging content that their fans actually want.
This will be particularly true for B2B brands, only 38% of whom included social media in their 2008 marketing plans (vs. 71% for B2C brands). With one comScore study indicating that brandedsocial media activities can have a multiplier effect on search results, there is a quantifiable rationale for brands to up the social media ante in 2010.

2. Mash-Ups: Taking Inspiration from Biathlons

Neisser predicts that more innovative mash-ups will become standard in 2010. He recalls 2009’s campaign by E.P. Carrillo, a new cigar manufacturer, which created a Twitter and Google Maps mash-up for its “coming soon” site that tracked cigar tweets (http://www.epcarrillo.com/) from around the world. Neisser expects to see more campaigns that glide seamlessly between personal and business, online and offline, mobile and desktop, just like consumers do all the time. Farsighted marketers will bring together formerly disparate elements into a cohesive and self-perpetuating social media experience.

3. App Happy: On Your Mark, Get Set, Go Crazy

Given the success a handful of marketers enjoyed with their “apps” in 2009, Neisser expects a blaze of new entries in 2010. iPhone apps that provide demonstrable utility like Kraft’s iFood Assistant recipe finder, Benjamin Moore’s color matcher and Zipcar’s GPS-based car finder will continue to gain traction. Expect more apps that integrate with other social media like the Gap StyleMixer that allows you to mix and match clothes and share them with friends on Facebook. And don’t forget the non-iPhone universe. The steakhouse Maloney and Porcelli cooked up a humorous and somewhat deviant web-based app at Expense A Steak that extrudes faux expense reports.

4. Measure Up: Track Every Second

With more dollars earmarked for social media, marketers will undoubtedly use new tools to monitor the conversations that are happening with or without them. Neisser claims that Radian6 and Scout Labs emerged in 2009 as two of the leading social media monitoring tools. And while Neisser says these tools are great, each requires a sizeable commitment by the marketer in time of staff. Just ask JetBlue who manages to enhance customer loyalty daily by responding to any and every customer Tweet within minutes, following 117,000 on Twitter, and in the process generating over 1.3 million followers.

5. POV Power: Don’t Just Talk the Talk

Neisser says that while lots of brands raced into social media in 2009, few established true connections with their targets. The reality is that consumers engage with brands that they like on a visceral level and that provide a distinct perspective on the world. Aflac’s Duck quacks up a gaggle of quirky content, including charitable requests that appeal to over 161,000 fans on Facebook and 3,000+ followers onTwitter. Meanwhile, Geico’s Gecko has been left in the social media dust due to its surprisingly dry and unresponsive online voice. Ironically, a brand by definition is a point-of-view that once clearly definedshould guide all communications, social or otherwise.

6. Expose Yourself: Win the Crowd With Honesty

Neisser argues that the emergence of several “tell all” consumer-created sites signals the arrival of a new era of honesty and transparency – especially for brands targeting those under 35. Sites like fmylife.com,textsfromlastnight.com and MyParentsJoinedFacebook.com reflect a generation willing to bare and share all without the least trepidation. Even the emergence of “Untag Mondays” speaks to the socially acceptable norm of posting embarrassing content that one might not want a parent or employer to see. Marketers that share this sense of honesty, that admit mistakes and address shortcomings in real-time willfind a youthful army of comrades willing to do their bidding. As Comcast discovered, this kind of honesty can even transform a PR nightmare into an industry-leading customer service.

7. Hold the Presses: Major Comebacks are Possible

Though a 50% decline in ad pages certifies 2009 as the worst year in its history, don’t write off print as a viable media channel just yet. Neisser claims that more than 80% of US consumers still subscribe to at least one magazine and 83% believe newspapers are still relevant. Experimenting with video in print publications = like Entertainment Weekly is but one of the ways certain magazine segmentswill hold onto their targets and satisfy their advertisers. And while P&G shut down its 72-year-old TV soap opera Guiding Light in 2009, they are cranking up the presses with the custom published glossy, Rouge, which expects to reach a whopping 11 million North American households in 2010.

8. Go to the Video: Separate from the Pack

The emergence of viral video rankings in 2009 reflected the mainstreaming of this approach to audience engagement, claims Neisser. While everyone and their branded brother aspired to cut through with aviral hit, surprisingly few found an audience. In 2010, marketers will undoubtedly crank out more of the same while a savvy few will worry less about mass reach and focus more on grass roots appeal, providing content that their core target really wants. B2B marketers in particular will find that using informative videos that transform the complicated into the comprehensible, like Commoncraft’s Plain English videos, will generate quality leads from grateful prospects.

9. Mobile Media: Catching Up at Last

Despite all the hype by this author and others, less than a third of marketers had a budget for mobile in 2009. In 2010, smart phone penetration should rise to at least 25% (from 17% in Q2 ‘09) making it alot easier to deliver a rich mobile experience worthy of consumer attention. Neisser says that the blending of mobile and social apps like Facebook, Loop’d and Twitter has also created a new openness towards this medium. Given the desirable demographics (18-34, good income) of smartphone owners, at minimum, marketers should give strong consideration to creating a mobile friendly website, thus allowing prospects to engage whenever and wherever they happen to be.

10. Be Positive: Attitude is Everything

Neisser says that while honesty is a worthy friend to marketers, don’t forget that almost no one wants to date a Debbie Downer. A recent poll by Adweek/Harris found “relative little enthusiasm and lots of indifference for ads that refer to the downturn.” Even if the economy is slow to recover in 2010, find the silver lining for your customers and prospects with both words and actions. Like the athletes whose positive outlooks and superior skills propel them to victory, so, too, can marketers find success with an upbeat message and an unimpeachable value proposition.

The Guardian's Digital Content Blog Newsbucket

Some nice links - shamelessly stolen from guardian.co.uk

• Fake Steve Jobs unloads on real Steve Jobs >> Valleywag
• Social networking still top growth area in online marketing >> Mashable
• Five things Google could do for newspapers >> Wired
• iTunes Plus: Everything you need to know >> CNET
• The (almost) ABC of CES 2009 >> CNET
• The drawbacks of new technology >> BBC
• The BBC should make more effort to engage with Wikipedia >> BBC Common Platform
• Why the internet weakens the authority of the press >> PressThink
• Kara Swisher gets video scoop with Yahoo >> Beet.TV
• CES: Gambling on the gadgets of the future >> Guardian
• How long can Apple stay fresh once it loses its core? >> Guardian
• Video: CES 2009 - Mind Flex >> Guardian
• Video: CES 2009 - Game on! >> Guardian
• Video: CES 2009 - Leaving Las Vegas >> Guardian
• Celebrities on Twitter - plus a few MPs and porn stars >> Guardian
• Peter Mandelson ushers in a virtual New Labour revolution >> Guardian
• Microsoft betting big on 'Touch' >> WSJ
• Look out, Microsoft Surface - the iTable might just trump you >> CrunchGear
• Britney Spears is hiring an online media manager >> TechCrunch
• Warner Music adding social networking to websites >> Reuters

Help Santa keep his job!

I love this, I love this!

Green Santa was originally created by Chief Productions who teamed up with MAKE (part of LOVE Creative) to create a site which educates kids on the climate change issue + encourages them to pledge to do things to help, all in a fun + engaging way. It's based on the premise that Christmas is at risk because global warming is melting Santa's runway preventing him from delivering presents to children.

Children can browse the site to see how global warming is affecting not just Santa, but other characters living in Lapland including Jack Frost, the Snowmen + the wooly mammoths! Children can also make a pledge to help such as turning off the TV when they're not watching it or walking to school + they can even write to Santa himself.

More like this I say!

Faris at Interesting on MASH-UPS

I'm fast becoming a HUGE Faris fan. At the risk of simplifying the content of this great presentation, Faris talks about mash-ups (the subject du jour in the MWorks office) + how everything is actually a mash-up, including our very selves. There's certainly loads in here for us to steal + combine with the other stuff we steal to create presentations to show our clients to explain why they should let us combine stolen things on their behalf.

This link takes you to a page which is effectively a mash-up of a video of Faris presenting at Interesting NY, with the presentation itself. Haha.

Thanks Faris.

The dramatic rise of branded content

To quote a recent article at Contagious, ‘After years of BMW films being just about the only example of branded content that was ever cited, there’s now a flood of sponsored short-form online TV series coming to a site near you’.

..how exciting! Online drama is something we at MWorks have been looking at particularly closely over the past 9 months...and it’s come a long way. The early stuff had low production values + pretty poor acting, but as online drama proves to be extremely successful at engaging with audiences, brands are becoming more confident and are spending more money. As a result we’re seeing big improvements in these areas. The production values seen in Sony Ericsson + Virgin Mobile-sponsored The Secret Life of Sam King have certainly moved on from those of Kate Modern, for example.

We’re also seeing more and more use of digital innovation within the online drama to increase the digital footprint + reach broader audiences. Sam King offers widgets to amplify and reach audiences outside of Bebo, Sofia’s Diary offers mobile updates to maintain interest offline, and the 2nd series of KateModern built Google maps into the storyline to get users interacting in other online environments.

Now the guys behind LonelyGirl15 + Kate Modern have moved things on by breaking away from Bebo to create their own social network http://www.lg15.com/. The LonelyGirl sequel, LG15: The Resistance will launch here in September, driving traffic in by distributing content to the various networks + channels. Definitely one to look out for.

It feels to us like the next step must be to deliver deeper interaction through viewer involvement. Particularly among the ‘yoof’ audience, interaction + engagement will increase when viewers are given some control over the narrative. Some have had a go already – the BBC online drama ‘To be continued’ currently playing out at Switch! offers viewers the chance to write + direct the next episode..nice. It’ll be interesting to see how popular it is.

Yahoo! is doing it slightly differently by asking viewers to text to vote for what happens next in their (cringeworthy) drama, Will Harry Date Sally? It looks like this one is designed to demonstrate to a slightly older audience how easy it is to use the internet on your mobile. It’d certainly be easier to bear on a smaller screen!

But finally, we’re reaaaally excited about Sony’s new crime drama, Coma which takes things to a whole new level. The fact that it stars Michael Madsen + George Hamilton gives it instant credibility and guarantees great acting (for once!). And the dark, comic book production values blow away everything that came before it. The drama which will feature careful Sony product integration, will play out through Sony’s Crackle channel + will be amplified across YouTube + Hula.