We have reached the point in the year when we all feel compelled to make predictions (or perhaps just me). So here goes:
1. Financial crisis will get worse, hit rock bottom and start getting better but reports will continue to be gloomy. Towards the end of the year a slow and painful recovery will be under way.
2. Expect a few more dramatic surprises in the economic sector (more countries going under?) and companies doing things they have never done before.
3. Advertising and marketing budget will remain frozen – leading to the start of reorganisation of the marketing organisation (firing of people and suppliers)
4. The Web will be the only channel that continues to grow – getting the attention of CEO level as core business tool (often for the first time since the last bubble)
5. Change in advertising will be permanent – as in: no going back to the old ways of excessive spending on TV and traditional advertising (although some milder form will be back in the later part of the year)
6. Social networks will continue to grow, more scandals will emerge on privacy and consumers will continue to ignore them
7. Someone will try coining Web 3.0 but people will resist as they will still be recovering from Web 2.0
8. Technological innovation will continue and the mobile phone will begin to appear as the next main channel for internet consumption
9. Obama will create a new american image and will benefit from an extended honeymoon period (and a virtual absence of organised opposition) which will take him into 2010 (at which point he will remain popular, but opposition will start returning and the republicans will start reforming)
