Twitter. Bing. Android. Facebook. Bebo. Web 2.0/3.0. iPhone. Online.

These are all many of the buzz words that floated around the online sphere in 2009. Marketers rushed on board, threw cash at many of these new, ‘hip’ ventures, hoping to be seen at the forefront of the cool.

Many went in blindfolded. Many believed in the mantra of ‘quality not quantity’ in fans/followers. Many just saw it as a quick way to tick off KPI’s. Many were successful. And many were not…

There’s plenty that we can learn from the winners and losers of 2009, but that would keep you here for most of the day. But what we can say is that 2010 will be a year when the fancy sunglasses come off, and the simple, slick and content driven campaigns become King.

Making assumptions and ‘hopes’ won’t get your budget signed off, but the general consensus is that budgets destined for digital will increase; so let’s look at the upcoming trends & where your resources can be best directed…

The Society of Digital Agencies – 2010 Digital Marketing Outlook report tells it best. “Social media and searchability rule the day. HTML is back. Flash plays a different, more refined role. Clients talk about consumer engagement and social stickiness. There’s never been a better time to tell a story… and there have never been more places to tell them. Blogs are turning into book deals. Best selling authors are becoming bloggers. There’s money to be made creating fake Twitter profiles for characters from movies and TV shows. Digital agencies build robust and complex hubs, help manage communities and outline integrated social media strategies.”

1. Mobile

The figures speak for themselves. Smart phones such as the iPhone or Google Nexus have taken the world by storm. We now have over 1.4+ million people in Australia with handsets capable of downloading applications onto their mobile device. Continued growth in applications is expected, but only major improvements in these will come when handset manufacturers develop improved technology such as Flash integration (Apple/Google seem to be taking the lead here). Additionally it’s now becoming standard practice to launch your new site mobile-friendly, or sometimes coined an ‘m-site’. This allows users to view your site on their phone, with everything in proportion and optimised as per your phone’s specs.

One thing to look out for is the improvements made by Adobe to their Flash Player in 10.1, allowing them to reach mobile devices. This will take web browsing and applications on smart-phones to a new and exciting level - essentially the same as the one found on normal web browsing. Play games, interact and more. This will apply to the likes of Google Android, Blackberry, Symbian and Windows Mobile, with the exception of the iPhone.

2. Social Networking/Influencing

Social influence marketing has now entered the mainstream as a new dimension of marketing - not a channel, nor tactic. Brands will now start either complementing or switching their campaign-based sites over to social networking platforms. What this means, is that you can directly make contact with your followers/influencers on a platform where they are spending time, and in some cases, already engaging with your brand and building an attachment to.  Additionally, these followers and influencers can easily spread their influence onto their network which is also on the same social platform as your social influence marketing campaign.

5 trends we will see in 2010

* Social Influence Marketing enters the mainstream

* Social influencers drive sales

* Putting people before brands

* Every decision becomes social

* Measuring it all

‘More than 20% of car recommendations by influencers are followed…even for such a personal purchase’.

Source: Yahoo! Advocacy Research.

3. Online Video & Viral Video

79.1% of internet users in Australia view online video. (Universal McCann, July 2009). This figure is growing and in turn we’ll be able to see the likes of Youtube and other major video platforms improve the quality of viewing videos online, as well as television networks spruke more online-exclusive content and of course catch-up TV - understanding much better and learning lessons from 2009 in monetisation in this area.

Viral video will move into a more thought out strategic process. The advent of social monitoring, as well as Youtube offering more comprehensive video analytics, will allow for these viral campaigns to become more measurable. With this there are many companies now offering to hype up your campaign and target influencers by seeding - this will be done through bloggers, forum and other ‘hang-outs’.

4. Minisites

As mentioned above, social platforms are in some instances replacing the traditional campaign minisites. However we still cannot ignore them as they still play a key role

5. Banner Ads

A great place to see the latest and most forward-thinking banner ads in action is over at Banner Blog. Australia’s infrastructure, doesn’t allow us to be as forward thinking with our banner ads, due to our good friend ‘cost of bandwidth’. That said, we will still see some really creative banners in 2010, such as ones that can tap into your webcam (seen through Burger King) as well as ones that let you play games and interact with others - all through a banner. These are the new mini-sites in some instances…