The noughties are coming to an end, and we are entering a new decade. I remember 10 years ago when I was still a student at the Linköping Institute of Technology, when we sat around predicting the new millenium, when the bubble that was the dot com industry was still inflating and when people were still making fortunes off the imaginary “millenium bug”. My predictions back then were still fairly blurred and in the field of database technology and mobility.
My Millenium Predictions From 1999:
1) A nomadic node network would be created in big cities with few central connection points and peer to peer to peer routing. Ending up in a traffic jam with your car would give you super broadband capacity. Something similar appeared later in the form of FON, though not in my mobile form.
2) Mobile networks setting their own prices based on traffic load where the price was initially set to 0 and then changed dynamically using a custom control system. I’ve still never seen this, though it should work beautifully in theory.
3) A handset with a large touchscreen only taking up the entire face. I was right in that prediction of course, though the handset didn’t appear as fast as I thought and not from Ericsson as I had predicted.
4) Stand alone standardized OS for mobile devices and digital cameras. I actually entered Venture Cup with this idea back then. This, of course, has appeared now first with Symbian OS and later with Google’s Android. Standardized OS for digital cameras have yet to appear, but Android is a good candidate here.
And Now, My Predictions For The Advertising Industry in 2010:
I’ll try some predictions for the advertising industry. Let’s see if I can be proud of some of these a year from now. Here we go:
1. Feminist Agency Startups
We’ll see several start ups initiated by agency planners who are frustrated with agency management “not getting it” and unemployed highly skilled young creatives who have been fired before older ones because of labor laws. At least one of these startups in Sweden and several abroad will be started by females and will have a feminist positioning. We will see more than one press release with the headline “yada yada yada…tjejernas reklambyrå“.
2. SEO and Search Marketing Will Be Destroyed
SEO and search marketing will become mainstream and destroyed as a credible term in much the same way “social media” was in 2009. Everybody will be talking about it, few will have a clue when push comes to shove. Recruitment will be hopelessly difficult, which will give education in this field a jolt (mental note: make expensive SEO-education product to sell from my Stockholm advertising agency). There are very few good people to hire and these will be VERY expensive and hard to integrate in the culture in a good way.
3. Clownvertising Will Be a Taboo Term
All eras of great change has had periods of rogue economics. The change to a social web is no exception. Advertising is a consulting business where the goal is to improve the clients bottom line in terms of reputation and Dollars. Bragging about a big YouTube view count with no relevant message, and other forms of clownvertising will be taboo.
4. Modern Measurement Companies Will Strike Gold (Buy Stock Now!) And KPI’s Will Be The New Buzz-Acronym
Things can now be measured in completely new ways and analytics on this data will be incredibly fruitful. Doing it well will be a huge competitive advantage and the profits of companies providing this fairly complex service will be huge. KPI’s will be a buzzword on the lips of everyone in our industry and you might want to find our what that acronym means right now instead of reading linkbait blog posts like this one.
5. Cash Will Be Paid in Plastic Bags From The Underground Startup Maffia
Many new ideas today are about business development instead of television spots. Great young creatives will be frustrated when they come up with great million dollar business ideas that they have to give away with little more than a slim salary and a Gold Lion Trophy to show for it. Instead, somebody will pick this trend up (yes, I will check the IP-log of this blog post when this happens) and start an undercover entrepreneur company where these creatives can drop off their ideas, do online secret work and pick up their rewards in a plastic bag later. Mark my words. These young minds are tired of paying for their tired offline boss’ SUV and suburb mansion with their creativity and superior know how.
Let’s meet in a year and check these off. If I hit them all, who’ll buy me a bottle of Fleur de Passion?
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