Top 10 list items you’ll see on marketing Top 10 lists in 2010
It’s December. Time of year when snow covers the ground of any state worth living in and “Best [Noun] of [Year]” lists are published with reckless abandon.
I plan to contribute to the onslaught in a couple of weeks, revisiting last year’s best music round-up with an update for 2010. But that’s fun, see, because it’s about something cool. Music. Everybody loves music — except terrorists. You’re not a terrorist, are you?
Closer to the world of marketing and digital communication, we can certainly expect to see an almost criminal amount of predictable, occasionally interesting lists from all corners of the business. Sometimes these articles deliver on the intrigue presented in the headline, but often they disappoint like the Vikings in, well, any month during football season.
Primarily as an exercise in personal amusement, I thought it’d be fun to predict some of the list items we’ll see from marketing, advertising and PR bloggers around the world in the coming weeks. So without further ado (I’m certain countless other bloggers will use that phrase to transition from their introductions to their lists), here’s my list of the 10 most common list items we’re going to see in the coming weeks.
Top 5 things you’ll see on marketing and digital communication lists about the year that was:
- Old Spice: Yeah, we get it. The Old Spice campaign kicked ass and Isiah Mustafa is handsome. Thanks for reminding us, list compilers of the world!
- Content marketing: Fast Horse hired a director of content marketing this year, and we’re not the only ones talking about this stuff. Let’s hope we’re not the only ones walking the walk, too!
- Mobile marketing: Every year, it’s “the story of the year,” which means two things: It’s a big deal, and it’s never as big a deal as proponents expected. This year, “mobile” and “location-based marketing” (using Foursquare and the like) nearly became one and the same, whether they like it or not.
- WikiLeaks: Julian Assange is a terrorist! He’s a hero! This is an example of technology’s democratizing impact! It’s an example of digital power run amok! He’s a perfect example of the importance of the First Amendment! What if he leaks your company’s internal memos? Five PR lessons you can learn from WikiLeaks… And so on. We’ve only just begun.
- Privacy: Facebook is constantly pounded for actually or alleged privacy concerns. Just yesterday, the world woke up to hundreds of thousands of leaked passwords thanks to Gawker’s security problems. As we continued the migrating to increasingly digital lives, talk of privacy was everywhere.
Top 5 things you’ll on marketing trends lists looking ahead to 2011:
- Content marketing: It’s for real, and you’ll probably get sick of hearing the phrase soon.
- Mobile marketing: Expect to read something to this effect often: “We put this on our list last year, but really, it’s going to take off this year! Have you heard about QR codes?!”
- The life and death of e-mail: Depending on who you ask, we’re either going to finally see new forms of communication kill e-mail (not likely) or see an increase in smarter, more strategic e-mail marketing (bet on it). Reports of e-mail’s death are greatly exaggerated.
- Privacy: Are you starting to get the point yet? The big stories of 2010 largely will be the big stories of 2011. That’s because they’re big. What are you doing to protect your privacy online? How about that of your customers?
- Acquisition rumors: People will try to predict who’ll purchase major digital players. I’m sure we’ll hear about why Google should buy Facebook, how Apple could benefit from owning Twitter, and whether it’d be unwise for Gawker to buy Groupon. And even if they’re accurate, these breathless posts of speculation will get old fast.
Of course, I’m just having fun here, but I’m sure a few of these guesses are accurate. What other trends do you expect we’ll hear a ton of at these year-end list posts start to fly?
