Last week's Campaign thing. Click on it and it should expand enough to read. Hopefully.
UPDATE: And here's the original I sent them. Fairly similar I think.
It’s my first piece of 2007 so EC columnist regulations dictate I have to write a list of portentous-sounding but ill-conceived predictions. None of which I will ever re-examine or re-consider. So here goes:
1. Urban Spam. 2007 will be the tipping point year for the re-balancing between society at large and the steady encroachment of interruptive marketing. Ad avoidance will move from the personal sphere and into the public one, whether it’s junk food ad bans in Britain or the outlawing of ‘visual pollution’ in Sao Paulo, we’ll have to get used to public authorities setting new limits on how and where brands get to operate. We must accept that we’ve brought this on ourselves through decades of crass behaviour and learn how to be more responsible corporate citizens.
2. Line? What Line? This’ll be the year when channel neutral communications agencies start to get born. Though that’s probably not the right jargon. I mean that we’ll start to see the creation of coherent, effective businesses that are both above and below the line, traditional and digital, upstream and downstream, integrated and specialist. That’s not any clearer is it? I guess I mean we’ll finally see the core team running an agency being made up of representatives of all the modern communications disciplines, without the old hierarchies or the new bitterness. What will the jargon be for that? Don’t know. Let’s make 2007 the year we at least work that out.
3. Back To The Old School. TV advertising will make a huge comeback as people grow out of the need to be reflexively media neutral (and everyone spots how cheap it is). Similarly we’ll see a return of slogans, jingles and animated icons as a new generation of creatives discovers their power and doesn’t feel the need to do something deliberately obtuse and contrary in order to win awards
4. Good Brand. Bad Brand. Most significantly, it’s clear from everything you read and everyone you talk to that this is the moment when green and ethical issues will move to the fore for brands. CSR will stop being an under-funded department and start being an area your customers really care about and a potential differentiator, for good or bad, for your business. The reality of global-warming is permeating the public consciousness and will impact buying decisions, combined with relative affluence and an oversupply of brands with very few meaningful distinctions between them people are bound to start making choices based on perceived ethical credentials.
5. Maybe Rename It Blogsnight? The Prime Ministerial reshuffle will kick off a long general-election phoney war conducted via blogs and online video. Jeremy Paxman will have to get used to saying ‘blogger’ without sneering.
Number 4 is very encouraging to hear from our point of view. Fully agree. If you don't mind, I'll quote you on that. I predict we'll see Marketing CSR become much the same thing over time.
Really enjoy your blog by the way. Loads of interesting stuff here.
Posted by: andrew Smart | January 19, 2007 at 10:40 AM