DIGITAL TRENDS FOR 2010
We recently passed the hat around the media team at ZEDO to see what people thought would be the hot topics for digital in the upcoming year 2010.
Whilst there are some old favourites in the mix, mobile and personalisation, the scope of these rather broadly talked about themes is now beginning to take on a more defined shape and it’s a little easier perhaps to now identify where this growth will actually come from.
Our list for trends to watch goes something like this:
Catch up TV will be big; Greater access to content and better in-home technology will see greater use of traditional media’s newly digitised services like Catch up TV & FOXTEL’s On-Demand services.
The FMCG category will finally grow ; This rather dormant category over the past few years has slowly gained confidence and has experimented with the opportunities digital represents. Into 2010 we expect to see some stakes firmly placed in the ground. Great news for consumers, great news for targeted media channels. For digital media teams it signals a return to planning again for audience over performance.
Engagement Engagement Engagement; Yes we know its an over used term. But increased understanding and use of social media and better measurement of audience perceptions via tools like our social listening services will help shape better, more memorable and fulfilling customer experiences online.
Personalisation and Targeting; (better, tighter and more of it). Performance marketing has to an extent become commoditised. The next layer and emerging trend will see the augmentation of this inventory via additional data layers allowing greater and more efficient targeting for specific consumer segments along the path to conversion.
Real Time search; (relevance and right now) Not much to say here, except that the land grab is already under way. Whether Twitter will claim line honours remains to be seen.
More mobile ; (applications & Smart phone driving mobile data use) The future is certainly heading down the smartphone route – Mobile applications, augmented reality, and development of useful tools, utilities and branded apps. Don’t forget good old SMS though – its not sexy but its still by far and simplest and most accessible and easy to use response mechanism available. We expect to see more mobiel response from traditional media channels.
Finally
Justifying digitial ROI ; This year will see agencies focus even harder on their clients campaign data. Cross channel advertising effectiveness, digital attribution modeling, path to conversion reporting will become more common ways of talking about reporting. This will lead to more efficient planning and better integrated campaigns.
What are your thoughts on 2010, please share your comments.
Team Zedo.
4 Comments
Sam Granleese said: (on December 8th, 2009 at 1:00 pm)
1. More product sampling facilitated by digital media (this will be huge for FMCG).
2. Mobile – the landscape – 8 million Australians use mobile internet now. Consumption of data (and time-spent on mobile web) each month will increase as more smart-phones join iPhone in popularity, data plans become more generous and network speeds increase. This coupled with massive spike in mobile sites, applications, games will increase the opportunity (and lower ad costs with oversupply of inventory).
3. Mobile – confidence – more common standards, more confident agencies and advertisers. Mobile CRM will become more commonplace, firstly by small-medium business and then picked up by early adopting advertisers seeking a competitive advantage.
4. Mobile – everything – more static media activations into mobile, more mobile commerce (mobile banking, eBay iPhone app, PayPal mobile P2P payments, Squared and Near Field Payments & Ticketing are only the beginning). More map and location based services and more branded applications and utilities that add value to the existing brand-customer relationship.
5. Mobile – gaming – this year will see the first blockbuster mobile game.
6. Console/PC Gaming – more integration of real world brands into virtual gaming worlds. More advertising in games, and more brand facilitated experiences for gamers and their communities.
7. Gaming – virtual goods – see Reevesy’s previous post on virtual goods. This will be a huge growth area in 2010 for both gaming developers and brands.
Nev said: (on December 8th, 2009 at 9:41 pm)
view from overseas…. I know of at least one very large FMCG client now chanelling 25% of all media into digital – mainly driven by online video.
Ben said: (on December 10th, 2009 at 7:16 pm)
Really enjoyed reading this and think it’s spot on – especially around FMCG (if they can really nail pricing and increase online video inventory – and price it properly) … but not sure about some of the sentiment around mobile as it still feels like amateur hour as an industry (I know there’s good operators but there’s loads of rubbish spoiling it for the good ones). Personally I don’t see it, but that could be more about me than the medium.
Especially liked this line “For digital media teams it signals a return to planning again for audience over performance.”
Marie Sornin said: (on March 8th, 2010 at 10:57 am)
Catch up TV will be big: That’s for sure; according to the latest IAB expenditure forecast, advertising around online video clips/ long-form content could be worth as much as $1 billion by 2015, a huge leap from the estimated $35 million it is worth today.
However, catch up TV is only one of the multiple faces of online video. The high potential revenue growth is driving significant changes in the online video landscape. From a media owner point of view, it seems that the best weapon to win battle for audience is content. Since January, we have seen main digital publishers looking for solutions to source long form/premium video content. For instance: Youtube launching live events streaming, and getting ready to roll out its American strategy in Australia (broadcasting third party long form content) or Fairfax announcing partnerships to get access to additional premium content. In the USA, Hulu has gone as far as creating its own social media infused digital program “If I can dream”…
From an advertiser’s point of view, of course this means more opportunities but also more complex offerings, potential audience fragmentation, and a pressing need for “screens” measurement tools that count and harmonise TV and web viewing data