'Tis the season for top ten lists of trends in communications we can supposedly look forward to in 2008.

I do enjoy these lists though they dumb-down the complex a bit too much. I am also curious about whether the authors of these lists ever evaluate their accuracy year to year? I have been scanning a few of these already and they include: customers as your brand, increases in consumer generated content, a focus on authenticity in communications, the further decline of loyalty, and more and more branded entertainment. As you can see there is no big leap of faith when drawing up these lists (kind of like making a planning forecast of a 2% climb in revenue based on historic numbers). What happened to all the Futurists of the 1997 to 2001 era? That was a time when you could not attend a corporate function, seminar, or conference without a Futurist headlining it. One Futurist I saw in 1999 at a University function told us we would be watching first-run movies shown on the inside lens of our sunglasses by 2001 (where are you now Mr. Futurist?).

Trends like brands have to be relevant and credible. They have to make tangible impact to the performance of a business. And they have to motivate us to pursue the purported benefits. How about you folks - what will be important for you in business communications in 2008?

Posted on December 17, 2007 3:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)