2008: Year of the virtual world for kids?

Move over Second Life. Kid-focused virtual worlds such as Club Penguin, Webkinz, and a string of site start-ups loom as the new and hot Web playgrounds for 2008.

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ANA’s Marketing Predictions for 2008

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) has put together a list of 2008 Trends To Watch. Incidentally, the way they released this information is on one of several blogs they maintain, which in itself sends a signal about the growing use of new media tools. The membership of the ANA is comprised of executives from over 400 companies that represent 9000 brands and are responsible for over $100 billion in marketing and advertising expenditure each year. Here are some key take-aways from the ANA list:

• Creativity and innovation still rule, but 2008’s creativity will be focused on devising better way to leverage technology and reach audiences online. There is “no turning back” to the traditional advertising model. In fact, the ANA said a digital marketing platform “offers richness in information management, communication delivery, metrics—and portability.”

• Marketing and advertising accountability remain top-of-mind with many marketers.There are still 42 percent of companies dissatisfied with their marketing ROI measurement methodology. The ANA predicts this will lead to companies developing a Chief Accountability Officer.

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Advertising Spending Up 6.7% In 2008; Internet Leads The Way

Zenith Optimedia projects worldwide advertising growth at 6.7 percent next year, but the only category on a long-term growth trajectory is the Internet. In fact, they predict that Internet advertising will overtake radio advertising in 2008 and magazine advertising in 2010. On a national level, most other media categories will remain relatively flat over this time period. The exception is newspapers, which are expected to continue losing appreciable advertising market share during the next three years. Television advertising in the U.S. should be helped next year by the Olympics and the presidential election.

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Tough Questions for CMOs

MarketingProfs asks, Are you ready for 2013? BusinessWeek asks, Will you have your job in 2013?

The two links above are strongly related. According to the MarketingProfs post by Paul Barsch, two factors loom large over the next five years for chief marketers: 1) the accelerating growth of information technology, and 2) the proliferation of data (it doubles every three years). Unless CMOs learn to partner with the IT department, and harness all that data into usable insight and cost-effective, revenue-producing marketing campaigns, their tenure will be short lived. That is the subject of the Business Week article. It reports the average longevity of the CMO position is now only 26 months. Lofty management expectations for quick results from the CMO position are partially to blame. Another major factor is the learning curve challenges faced by CMOs when it comes to understanding and utilizing the new media choices. As the Business Week article states:

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Accenture & Others: Traditional Agencies Are Having Trouble Adapting To A Digital World

A study by consulting firm Accenture says traditional agencies are going to have the most to lose as the shift to digital advertising continues. Accenture surveyed 70 business leaders in advertising, media, and technology for the study. The conclusion of many of those leaders according to this story at ClickZ was that “traditional agencies are incapable of adapting to the digital era.” Furthermore, the article cites other significant conclusions by the Accenture study team:

“Advertising will become more performance based...Advertising agencies, to survive, must master technology to target advertising, perform customer analytics, measure performance, and interact with customers. Fewer than one in four respondents said their companies are equipped to do so now.”

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