A look back; Facebook at the forefront
Six months ago, we waxed philosophical, poetical, nostalgic, and quixotic about trends that had emerged during the first half of the year that appeared poised to dominate the advertising and marketing landscape. It's now time to take a look back at the year in whole to see which of those trends we reviewed previously have held, and examine those that have made their way into view since then.
Following are the biggest trends that have influenced digital advertising in 2011. Let's look at what they are, their perceived value, and whether or not they are fads or foundational.
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Facebook as the current darling -- for now
Facebook will gain an even larger portion of advertising spending, even as doubts about its efficacy increases. Facebook is today's darling -- as Google was before it, Amazon before it, Yahoo before it, Microsoft before it, and IBM before it.
But while Facebook is being credited with making all sorts of things possible, it's really no more than the latest version of email -- which was really just the latest version of the fax, which was really just the latest version of the teletype. It simply has more features and is more accessible than each of those things were in each of their iteration. That makes it terribly powerful. And like all things powerful, it is also frightening.
Facebook will eventually become part of what philosopher Martin Heidegger would call the background of everydayness -- something that simply "is." And some people will really like it, and it will provide them with the kind of social interaction they are incapable of getting from the three-dimensional world around them. And some people will turn it off, never to bask in its glow again.
