How will the economic slowdown affect online marketers in 2009?
Coffin: It may be online's time to shine. In 2009, marketers may face a choice between cutting print and television budgets, and yet they must remain engaged.
Hespos: It's Bob Garfield's chaos scenario playing out. Digital will be the only sizeable channel that will grow significantly in 2009. The need for accountable communication, combined with the economic slowdown, will lead to acceleration in the shift to digital. Not only will it be an opportunity for digital agencies to grow their respective businesses, but it will also allow them to skim the cream of the talent crop from the traditional side of the business. Look for big players in TV on the content side to make their impact on digital companies in 2009.
Horan: Relative to other media, I remain guardedly optimistic for 2009. We are hearing from the agency community that their clients that have been actively leveraging the digital platform will continue to do so into 2009. They have suggested that spending will be flat or slightly up. This is a great time for marketers to consider how they can gain share for their brands. Online is a great way to reach quality audiences while accomplishing these goals.
Which technology has become the most overrated?
Hespos: Virtual worlds.
Huxley: Widgets. While they potentially allow for great interaction with consumers, the space is incredibly crowded with a dizzying number to choose from on any platform -- more than 20,000 on Facebook alone. An original concept has to be paired with robust distribution and promotion to even have a chance of adoption, which requires significant investment and planning. In most cases, a brand would be better off sponsoring an existing, established widget versus the more popular approach of creating one from scratch.
Which technology will advance the industry the most in '09?
Coffin: Mobile technology is set to take a huge leap by the end of '09. With the debut of Google's Android mobile platform, the existing iPhone ads will become a standard on mobile phones, especially because they're highly targeted, personal and can be location-specific. This means deeper and more relevant engagement with audiences.
Hespos: Measurement of offline sales, based on the marrying of offline sales data to online profiles.
Philalithes: It could be a big year for analytics -- brands looking to their agencies or in-house teams to get more out of their campaigns without dramatic spending increases. Targeting, although not a technology per se, will also be big next year for the same reason.
Which technology will be the most overlooked?
Coffin: Mobile text-messaging. It has been around for ages and is standard on most mobile phones (even the basic ones), but there is yet to be an advertising-driven model.
Edwards: Dynamic creative. There's a huge opportunity here, but I think it will be overlooked with all the other things going on that the industry has to deal with.
Huxley: One look at the difference between an article on a news site and a typical product page exposes many of the easy-to-implement but neglected technologies that marketers could be using to extend reach and increase engagement. Embedded social bookmarking features such as "Digg this" are still rare on brand websites, and RSS feeds are hardly seen beyond corporate blogs. Neither is high-impact, but they address how consumers aggregate and endorse content with minimal investment.
Which technology do you want to incorporate in '09?
Edwards: More planning tools and infrastructure technologies that will help us identify opportunities more quickly and grease the wheels as we're asked to implement.