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My 2007 Marketing Predictions Were Half Right - Thinking About 2008

Predicting the future is the fun part of being a pundit, and a necessary part of giving advice to corporate clients. Thinking about 2008 and beyond, I took a look at my predictions for 2007. Seven months in, I was half right.

1. 2007 will be the year of collaboration and intellectual partnership, internally and externally.

For the digerati, and intrepid corporate types, that’s true. Social networks like Facebook are home to much collaboration; as are Ning forums, LinkedIn and newer social networks.

But most companies are just as oblivious to what’s going on outside their walls as they ever were. It’s still true that most people in big companies don’t know what most other people who work there do.

There’s huge waste from duplicated efforts as, for example, the marketing department of one division works on the same problem as the marketing dept in another division. Often, they’ve never even met, let alone discussed how they might work together.

2. A new 3D virtual world will surpass Second Life in popularity and lead the race toward a 3D, real-time Internet shopping experience.

Not this year, but it will happen. Lots of smart people are working toward that goal.

3. Blog advertising will become the hot ad medium of the year and ad agencies will screw up big-time as they learn the ropes.

Blog ad spending is up, and prices are rising according to Henry Copeland at Blogads. But most agencies are copying old blog ad formats or trying to squeeze traditional ads into blogs. Bor-ing.

Shameless self promotion: Call me if you want high-yield blog advertising that averages clickthrus of 1.5% and has hit as high as 8.7%.

4. Widgets in new Mac and PC operating systems will introduce millions to truly customizing their online experience.

Widgets have gone wild! Yes there are widgets on Macs and PCs, but the real widget action is in social media. Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and a ton of other sites let us download content onto blogs, websites, desktops and phones.

Just look at the sidebar on my blog and you'll see a widget from Flickr, and another one with my blog post headlines. Or look at your customized Google, Yahoo, NY Times, etc home pages and you'll see that all the content you gather is actually a collection of widgets pulling content from their sites.

It'll be fun to see what pops up before the end of 2007 that'll be pre-dawn for 2208 and 2009.

What's in your crystal ball?

Posted by B.L. Ochman

Categories: Ad targeting, Advertising Campaigns, Alternative Marketing, B.L. Ochman, Best Practices, Blog Advertising, Internet strategy, Marketing Strategy, Multi-Media Advertising, Peer-to-peer, Reality Marketing, Second Life, Shameless Self Promotion, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Trends, Viral Marketing, Virtual Marketing

BL Ochman | Jul 31 07 12:26 | TrackBack (0)

Comments

spot on -- seems very accurate predictions -- would like to add web2 rather than just blog in 2nd prediction as web 2 would involve everything from shareware to freeware

Posted by: b2bmarketresearch at July 31, 2007 2:53 PM

You were right on the money when it comes to widgets in the year 2007!

Yes, social media widgets have been huge, but we've also learned by the experiences that we've had with our very own AutoRoll widget that social recommendations are also of great interest to bloggers.

It's going to be fun to see what else happens in 2007!

Brandon Watts
Criteo Evangelist

Posted by: Brandon Watts at July 31, 2007 7:24 PM

yes, that's right. I should have said Web 2.0
will do that from here on.
thanks!

Posted by: B.L. Ochman at July 31, 2007 7:32 PM

If it is going to add richness to the experience its up. Richness, Reach, Transparency, Porosity and Internet Agency (call it widgets this year) are the keys.

Posted by: David Phillips at August 2, 2007 12:56 PM

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About BL Ochman

Blogger, social media strategy consultant to Fortune 500 companies, and sought-after corporate speaker B.L. Ochman heads the creative team of whatsnextonline.com. She also publishes the Ethics Crisis blog for SRF Global Translations

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