MARKETING PREDICTION #1 FOR 2012: A MEDIA CHANGE

It is November of 2011. I believe that the recession will ease, the economy will improve, and even the job market will get better, albeit slightly, in 2012. That’s because it is an election year, and pragmatism will win out over ideologies.

Technology has officially changed media. Print has begotten radio, radio has begotten broadcast TV, broadcast TV has begotten cable TV, cable TV has begotten the Internet. Today, because of DVRs and the cost of professional production and editing (not to mention commercial time), the Internet has become the supreme, overwhelming champion of media – not just the most efficient, but the most effective way of reaching and influencing nearly every consumer and business category. But recently, another change has occurred: e-marketing has become so overused, and everyone’s e-mail in-boxes have become so ridiculously swarmed over, that each e-mail blast is suddenly less effective. People are just deleting them en masse. So guess what large marketers are using to supplement their e-campaigns? Direct mail. Print. It’s back to the future.