Where will this year's scorchers be? The only areas of any positivity in 2009 were digital - with Q4 as the largest online Christmas selling season ever. There are clearly some new opportunities, with so much traffic moving online (and online stores running out of stock faster than physical ones).
2010 will see a bit of a flip back, where there will be a realization of offline marketing importance, as well as online. The hot areas will be monitoring services for effectiveness of online activity, not creative products; and innovative viral marketing; in the offline sector, we may see a comeback.
What I think will be hot is how digital and social media will impact internal communications. Plus, social media and its impact on customer relationship management - those companies driving innovation in this area will do well.
Another trend to watch out for in 2010 is Social media for Employee Assistance programmes.
What was not hot last year? Print advertising and events (both expensive, and with questionable returns). Those should see a slow comeback in 2010 – but that doesn’t make them hot.
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