5 Digital Media Trends Not To Focus On in 2010 - iMedia Connection Blog

Posted by Jay Friedman on December 11, 2009 at 10:52 AM PDT


Call me the contrarian but with all the lists coming out showcasing the next big trends in 2010 and everything you should be doing, it’s also the time to remind ourselves of what we should not let distract us. Those shiny objects that keep taking our eye off the ball. So, count ‘em down with me.

5. CTR - The first year of the “Natural Born Clickers” study I was intrigued but skeptical. Two years into it with the numbers now showing that out of comScore’s entire panel, 67% never ever clicked on an ad and 85% of clicks came from 15% of users? Forget CTR – don’t even include it in your reporting.

4. Non-Universal Conversion Tags – If you don’t yet have universal tags (Floodlight/UAT) on your clients' sites then all your publishers can do is optimize to CTR (see shiny object #5.) If you’re still focusing on non-universal tags, make 2010 the year to change over. It’s a must.

3. Mobile – It’s not that you shouldn’t be doing mobile at all, it simply doesn’t deserve a big pow-wow because it’ll feel good to “finally embrace this tremendously relevant and applicable medium.” It’s part of your digital strategy and that’s fine, but 2010, like the last five years, will not be the year of mobile.

2. Online Video – See #3. Buy the rights for your TV footage so you can re-craft for online (note: not run the exact same spot) and do a good job with video, but it also does not deserve a 3-day Fijian retreat to understand.

1. Twitter – Twitter is big. But so is Facebook, Yelp, and all of your industry’s specific social media sites. Don’t let the mass media’s adoption of Twitter distract you into creating a special section just for Twitter such that you bypass or reduce focus on other sites that are equally important.

So there you have it. Five easy things to blend into the rest of your strategies or forget altogether. Doesn’t that make planning so much easier?