During the past 6 months, I can’t tell you the number of times someone has commented about “when will things settle down” or “I can’t wait until things get back to normal.”  And although I’m a bit nostalgic about wanting things to settle down and “get back to normal” I’ve come to realize this is the new norm for the media, digital and advertising industry.  So what is the new norm?  Tough question to answer, but here’s my stab at a few of the general themes.

1. Technology will drive new media models -- for instance, HP’s own MagCloud allows anyone to be a publisher, thus, opening up a new way to go to market for both small and large publishers.
2. Buzz will rule/Listening will be critical – just look at the Dominoes situation and the recent Swine Flu discussions occurring on Twitter.  Not only does marketing need to listen to customer’s requirements, complaints, etc. but PR will need to be much more active in the listening and decisions they make related to response.  Getting in front of a story is moving from hours to respond to minutes.
3. Advertising budgets will continue to fracture – given more avenues to reach the customer and the need to purchase additional tools, metrics to react and manage the communication ecosystem. 
4. Media plans will migrate to communication plans – is Twitter a media type?  What about blogs?  Who knows?  Who really cares?  The bottom line, companies will use these different channels and the media plan will reflect these new realities.
5. Campaigns will morph into communication ecosystem management – being able to influence, analyze and put metrics around the entire purchase funnel on a consistent basis will drive companies to manage the ecosystem vs. coming in and out of the market with campaigns.  This will be a necessity given the need to manage and forecast financial performance on a more consistent basis.
6. Media properties will either “thrive or die” – all you have to do is look at the news daily to see companies merging, selling to someone or shutting down.  I don’t think this will be limited to just traditional media…the next phase could start impacting online sites, content distribution platforms and toolsets.
7. “Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is” – companies will begin to require true performance aka sales as a measure of a media channel or properties worth.  Let’s face it, everyone says media works during the sales pitch… if that’s the case, guarantee it.  If you hit targets you get paid, if you don’t hit them, you don’t get paid.
8. Media representatives and properties will become consultants vs. sales focused – see #7 as the reason why.
9. The workday will be 24 by 7 vs. 8 to 5.  See above.
10. Change will be the only constant…we will all be faced with major differing challenges every single day – our worth will be determined not only by our financial performance to the companies bottom line, but in our ability to manage change.

Welcome to the reality!

Scott