10. My Dad will use Twitter for first time and get hooked

9. My Mom will get on Facebook and get addicted to chatting non-stop with family and friends

8. Skype and other easy video-creation apps will take off in ‘09

7. Open-source, powerful tools like WordPress and Magento will become more like social apps and promote UGC (User-Generated Content)

6. Email campaigns and customer life-cycle email triggers will integrate seamlessly into social networking sites and tools.

5. Email is a whole lot more mobile today, but the formatting is still crap. You’ll see this improve dramatically in ‘09.

4. Social TV on your computer will become more popular than Regular TV among core online users.

3. Advanced site search is becoming so natural and intuitive – marketers will prioritize this as an easy implementation with huge ROI for their site.

2. CRM and Email Automation

1. The Economy will grow in ’09! Optimism will Conquer Fear.

Chris Masagatani, you were on the SNL set last week, what’s your take on all the new buzz around Saturday Night Live. Please comment below.

Everyone else – tell me – are you watching SNL skits on their site or YouTube on Sunday or during the workweek, or is this blog post the first time you’ve seen its online video? Comment.

“There have been a number of studies over the years proving that marketing during a recession is a good investment in the long run. ‘In a recession, dare to invest aggressively in marketing, innovation and customer quality’, is the clear message to be drawn from PIMS (Profit Impact of Market Strategy) research into which business strategies aid success during and after a market downturn lasting several years. Author: Keith Roberts, Journal: Strategy & Leadership, 2003. 
http://tinyurl.com/4sqx8j

The American Association of Advertising Agencies, or AAAA (4A), reports the following findings in a commissioned study, Advertising in a Recession by Bernard Ryan, Jr.

In 1947, Buchen Advertising tracked advertising dollars vs. sales trends before, during and after the recessions of 1949, 1954, 1958, and 1961. Not only did it find that sales and profits dropped off at companies that cut back on advertising. It also found that after the recession had ended, these same companies continued to lag behind those that had maintained their ad budgets.    Cahners Publishing Co, together with the Cambridge-based Strategy Planning Institute, released a report in January 1982 outlining the results of an extensive study. The report disclosed that during recessionary periods, those businesses (who spent more) tended to gain a greater share of market. The underlying reason is that competitors, especially smaller, marginal ones, are less willing or able to defend against aggressive firms.” The study also pointed out those businesses that increased media advertising during the recessionary period gained an average of 1.5 points of market share.

MarketSense compared 101 household name brands during the recessionary period of 1989-1991. The brands Jell-O, Crisco, Hellman’s, Green Giant and Doritos saw sales drop by as much as 26 to 64%. Jiff peanut butter raised ad support and experienced a sales increase of 57%; Kraft salad dressings saw a rise of 70 percent. In the beer category, overall spending was down 1 percent, while Bud Light and Coors Light, each spending ahead of the category, saw sales increases of 15 percent and 16 percent respectively. Pizza Hut sales rose 61 percent and Taco Bell’s 40 percent thanks to strong advertising support, with McDonald’s volume down approximately 28 percent.  http://tinyurl.com/3wtn5p“