2008 PR and Marketing Trends to Watch

My turn — yesterday we posted Advertising Age’s predictions for 2008. Here are some of the PR and marketing trends I’ll be watching in 2008:

1. Marketing in an economic downturn: There seems to be a consensus that the U.S. will have an economic downturn in 2008, lasting who knows how long. For marketers, it will mean a) doing more with less budget and b) creating marketing programs and messages that play toward people’s budgetary caution.


2. 2008 election cycle crowds out other messages: We’ll soon be in full tilt presidential election mode, which will last of course for most of the year. Candidates for the presidency as well as other offices will be clogging the airwaves and soaking up media airtime from other lesser stories.


3. Traditional media evolution: we’re near a tipping point in the evolution of the traditional media from old models to the new ones. The sale of the Wall Street Journal will probably accelerate this process, with Rupert pouring new money, new ideas and a new perspective into the old Journal. Other media will have to follow suit. As I’ve said many a time, and will again in 2008, the New York Times and its cohort aren’t going to shrivel up and die. They will evolve, however, adding more social media features to their sites, essentially opening up their platform to the masses rather than only publishing their own content.


4. PR still slow to adapt to the new environment: It would be easy to say that next year will be the year when the PR industry will turn the corner and itself start to adapt to the social media, always-on environment. But I don’t see the signs that this will happen that quickly. Instead, most PR people will cling to traditional PR models — carefully crafted press releases, one-way PR pitches, spray-and-pray PR programs — for at least another year. You don’t have to be “most” people — start making the transition to interactive, social media pitching and placement now.


5. The invasion of digital cameras and audio recorders: This isn’t new, of course, but the everyday expectation that you may be filmed or recorded is starting to become part of the fabric of society, and especially communications. For now, there’s no stopping people from filming corporate press conferences, trade shows, special events, etc. and making them available for all the world to see. In 2008, I expect more communicators to be talking about this to try to figure out some way to deal with this crush of attention.