Marketing in Rambles: Welcome 2008, we’ve been expecting you

I’m always amused at how surprised people are that yet another year has arrived. “I can’t believe its 2008 already” or “This year just snuck up on me”. My response to such frivolous commentary usually refers them to the task bar on their computer screen, where they will find the time and if they double click on this, they will find a calendar. Amazing this technology isn’t it? There is nothing surprising about how a calendar works: every year after December 31st, the 1st of January of the next year appears the very next day without fail so why is that people are surprised then by this anomaly?

So indeed, welcome 2008, I at least have been expecting you. In fact I have been planning for your arrival since sometime in the middle of 2007. This is also the year of the Rat which doesn’t sound nearly as auspicious as the year of the tiger or the dragon but still somewhat appropriate as I will be moving back to London in 2008 where apparently you are never more than a few metres away from a rat. Either way, I will have my own dragons to slay in 2008 which include a wedding, a honeymoon, moving abroad, finding a job, learning to Paraglide and talking at a marketing conference for the first time. Hard to tell which dragon there is the bigger!

Now I’ve never professed to be some sort of marketing guru that can predict what 2008 holds for the industry and would never be foolish enough to attempt this as the rate at which technology is influencing the industry means that all we can expect, as the old folks say, is the unexpected.

So instead of a list of things that will happen in marketing this year, here is my list of things that will probably happen or to be more accurate, this is my list of things that I would like to happen in the year of the rat:

- Social media marketing and advertising goes mainstream and shows it’s worth or lack of worth for that matter. I don’t mind which way it goes but as long as it goes somewhere and the hype dies down a bit so we can just get on with it.

- Podcasts go mainstream. Just as there is no doubt that server/hard drive based television and movie services (where the viewer chooses what they watch and when) will dominate the TV market, so will podcasts revolutionize the radio industry offering the same joys of variety, choice and targeting. Every time I turn on the radio in the middle of a 15 minute advert marathon followed by five minutes of over-opinionated, under-humorous Deejays and S Club 7 triple plays, I kiss my MP3 player and thank it for all the Podcasts and music wonder it contains within.

- 2008 will undoubtedly be a big year for the Internal Communications job market. The value of the function is now undoubted across pretty much all national and multi-national companies and this year will see them scrambling for the cream of the comms. I already see the heightened activity in my job alerts.

- Facebook will survive the Google Open Social onslaught / hype. I say this purely because people who generally don’t spend much time on the net (and of course those who do) are on Facebook and nowhere else. This is simply because it is low maintenance and easy to use and all their friends are on it. These people are also not very tech savvy so they couldn’t give a damn about open social and all its platforms, even if we tell them it is a good thing.

- Go green or go home. Consumers seem to be now actively seeking out companies that are green and not pretending to be so. The fact that interest is starting to grow in South Africa and there are even a few early adopters around, is a solid indicator that the rest of the world is in rapid uptake phase already. Yes SA always lags behind by about three or four years and quite often misses the window of opportunity because of this. But hey in Africa, the time is African!

If you are such a consumer and if you aren’t, jump on the bandwagon mate, it’s the best one going around at the moment, check out www.evo.com where you can find all sorts of eco friendly suppliers and products such as solar powered bicycles!