2010 - The Future of Advertising

Okay. First thing's first. How in the world are we supposed to say 2010? Two-thousand-ten? Twenty-Ten? Oh-ten? Just plain Ten?

If the car makers have anything to say about it, we'll be using the long version (Two-thousand-ten). And there's a huge possibility this is the version that'll stick, considering the 2010 models have been referred to as such since they hit the overcrowded lots two or three months ago.

Don't worry, though, if the quadrosyllabic Two-thousand-ten is too cumbersome for comfort. The modernistas of the techie world seem to be gravitating toward the hipper, more succinct Twenty-Ten variation.

Ultimately, though, you shouldn't even be worrying about it. Just listen to your audience and talk to them in their native tongue. Which begs the question - You do listen to your audience, don't you?

So now that that's out of the way, here are some of the big things we believe are going to shake the ad world in 2010 (that's Twenty-Ten, by the way).



First up, Twitter. Could this be the year that the little blue birdie loses the wind beneath its wings? Or, better yet, maybe it'll be the year that an incessant flock of users and abusers actually shuts up long enough to realize how to properly leverage the platform to affect their bottom line. And maybe, just maybe, Twitter's horde of social media experts will be asked to display their credentials. Unfortunately, we don't expect any of these events to transpire. It's not too early to dream, though.

Along those same lines, we do foresee a hefty amount of integration taking place between social media and tradtional media. Now that the economy is coming around a bit, and people have learned that they can't subsist on social media alone, it looks like a synergistic relationship between the two is going to emerge. And that makes us happy for so many reasons, not the least of which is that it affords us creatively strategic folk the latitude to do some really smart stuff.

Of course you can't talk about the future of anything communications-related without mentioning the profound affect the iPhone has had on all our lives. And now that the iPhone's competition is starting to bring its A-game, it's going to be flippin' exciting to see where mobile technology takes us in the next 365 days.

Which brings us to our prediction of predictions. Our prophecius maximus, if you will. In the year 2010, your mind will be blown by Augmented Reality. Just check out the following videos and let the wonderment commence.

If that doesn't get your wheels turning, we don't know what does. Ultimately, with this technology, we will have the ability to create an invisible world right on top of our own.

Just imagine the possibilities. With AR literally at your fingertips... You could view your favorite restaurant's menu choices in all their three-dimensional glory before you order... You could find your dream home with curbside virtual tours... Video ads could spring to life from the pages of a magazine... Books would have interatictive pop-ups... Sales and specials would dance in front of store windows... Print ads will be more about the technology than the creative and ink... The possibilities are endless!

Augmented Reality could very well be the biggest thing to happen to advertising since the birth of David Ogilvy. And it's happening in the year Twenty-Ten... or however you say it.