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What will advertising look like in 2008?  Much different!   Let us project trend results of the forces that are now now in motion:

• Nobody; not the Associated Press, Hollywood; nobody controls who gets published or heard but the majority of the audience!
• Anybody can get opinion and or product to market if it is popular: regardless of quality or accuracy!
• With the advent of blogging, WEB 2.0, user-generated content, user-filtered content, and niche marketing, the media centralization tide is ebbing.
• Nobody can reach everybody, but they do not need to: the targeted market can find them, easily, efficiently.
• The media and big business have lost control.
• The consumers and innovators are gaining power.
• Communication is almost free: and it is global.

Where is it all going in 2008?  Well, nobody knows, but, having had the dubious honor of being labeled as a visionary repeatedly, here is my prognostication:

• The lines between advertising and public relations are blurring: nobody wants the low-tech PR firm no matter how well connected, and nobody ever wanted do deal with Geeks, but advertsing and PR battles are now won or lost on a high-tech playing field: look for more ads that tout the latest, most innovative technology for a niche market.
• Authority still matters: we desire quality: and human edited data is at a premium, even if it is user-generated, user-filtered data: but we will still buy from trusted, branded sources, and get that data from some of the same trusted sources that controlled, for instance, niche print publications: but look for a major changing of the guard here: many large, main-stream authority sources that cannot adapt quickly enough may not make the cut (for instance, the New York Times)
• Branding is not just done on the Superbowl and during prime time anymore: there are many new sports (stratification); and prime time TV market share is dropping, as people all over the world have more choices for news, sports, and entertainment in general.
• The age old system of free content paid for by advertisers to reach the audience (radio, television, free Internet) will win out over the more recent attempt at the constantly, repeatedly  failing pay-per-view and commercial-free sterility (AOL, private networks, protectionism) (we are gregarious, we like commercials!)
• Human intelligence and innovation will be at an all-time premium: as the ability to keep up and get ahead will transcend the power of existing clout: technology will play and even bigger role in PR and advertising.
• Intellect will win out over money in this fast-growing, lightning fast marketplace.

Thank you for listening to my guesses: would you like to go on record here to be held accountable in 2008?  Please do so at the right!

2 Responses to “What will advertsing look like in 2008 | the lines blur between advertising and PR online”

1. Geoff Simon Says:
   April 7th, 2007 at 10:09 am

   Good prognostication! Not everyone will leap head first, but those who will are going to see they are in a better position in 2008 if they start doing this stuff now!

   Here are some more points that reinforce your ideas:

   In December 2005, Viacom spun off CBS, the so-called Tiffany Network, lest the broadcast business impede growth and depress shareholder value.

   Just before Christmas 2005, Time Inc. laid off 100 employees. Just after Christmas, in January 2006, Time Inc. laid off 100 more employees. In April 2006, Time Inc. laid off 250 more employees — the last round of job cuts, the company said. In January, Time Inc. laid off 300 more employees. No wonder. Since 2001, Time Warner’s market capitalization has shrunk to $82 billion from $193 billion.

   Last fall, ostensibly to promote their new seasons, five broadcast networks bypassed their local affiliates and gave away new programs online, probably housed on YouTube.

   In November 2006, Clear Channel — the boogeyman of media consolidation — sold to private-equity owners and declared that it wants to unload its TV and small-market radio stations. The sale fetched $38 a share. In 2000, the stock sold at $100 a share.

   The Minneapolis Star Tribune, acquired by McClatchy in 1998 for $1.2 billion, was sold to private investors in December 2006 for $530 million.

   In 2000, Chicago-based Tribune Co. was valued at $12 billion. It then bought Times-Mirror Co. for more than $8 billion. As of the end of March, with Tribune Co. for sale as a whole or in part, the value of the merged company is $7.34 billion.

   YouTube. Two years ago, it — much less Joost and Revver and Brightcove and the online-video industry in general — did not exist.

   Also, since Spring ‘05 DVR penetration has doubled and according to Forrester Research this will expand to 50%$ or over. This is the threshold that major advertisers say they will dramatically reduce TV buys. This money is going to go online, but is the Internet, still in it’s infancy somewhat be able to absorb all these ad dollars?

   It will be interesting to see how things shake out.

   Note: The above stats come from Forrester Research, Public Company information as well as AdAge magazine of all places.

2. Israeli Rothman Says:
   April 7th, 2007 at 1:02 pm

   Wow! Great research; you are a man of many talents!

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