Tuesday, December 18, 2007

My own Top 10 trends list of B.S.

Seeing trends is the flavour of the week, I thought I would add my 2 cents

1. Advertising dinosaurs continue to throw their weight around
Execs with vast amounts of experience who enjoy the phrases 'laying down the law' and 'in my experience'. They also continually reject new ways of doing things and frown upon giving any control to the consumer. Watch these guys, because in 2008 they will continue to try and stifle or maim, any exciting idea that anybody has.


2. Boring clients will still be boring
These guys go nicely with the dinosaurs. These are the guys who say "What's blogging?" or "I read an article on X, why aren't we doing that?"
They also don't know an idea if it hit them in the face and they are stuck using marketing methodologies that were all the rage back in the 80s. Except long binging lunches don't exist any more, so I don't know why the boring part is still on the agenda.

3. Those Reps who will not be able to differentiate between their face and their asshole
These guys actually entertain me. Reps who continue to miss your target, are unsure of your client and think an integrated offering is your brand in every single banner on every page.
This picture is a doozie. We should print them some business cards.


4. Conferences, seminars and showcases will continue to show the same old shit
I don't know how many talks I went to this last year and at most of them, I walked away with maybe only one nugget of goodness.
When are the speakers going to get juicy? Better yet, when are we all going to start putting our money where our mouth is??

5. Trend lists which tell you what you already know
Trends lists which try and tell you what is going to happen in the following year, but, hey you already know everything they have put in the list.
And if you don't know it, it's implausible and you're unsure whether it's a joke or not.
Examples 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Although 6 is actually pretty good.

6. Facebook appears in media news EVERY SINGLE DAY
The little Media whore gets referenced for its nothingness, creates some scandal or makes people happy.


7. There is no new media news
I don't know if it's just a slow season because of all the holidays, but there is seriously no media news, AT ALL. I'm getting tired of hearing the words 'new hot thing', and I certainly know that other people are as well. People are getting used to hype engines and they are desensitised to the affect. The wear out time factor is getting shorter and shorter.

8. Some new HOT media tool, NOT
For every new social/technology tool that launches, 17 launch behind it and every so often only one of them is successful or gets a bit of attention. Something is going to burst soon.

9. Advertisers under estimate consumers
Advertisers forget that consumers are people and have an auto detect for ad campaigns. Consumers continue to reject shitty and boring attempts at trying to entice them into obvious 'no value add' advertising activities.

10. Ratings taken with a grain of salt
I thought I heard someone mention, could have been a few people, that technology is advancing in great leaps and bounds. Ad tracking and television ratings are still guesstimates on a small proportion of the population. There continues to be talk of better tracking, better rating systems but we're yet to see the culmination of those efforts. I predict the trend of still more talk and no action.

That was fun. I shall be doing this again.

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