Under Strict Embargo

I’ve already predicted that all things video will be big this year, so very interesting to see a new application called Zannel which is billing itself as the first ‘Instant Media Messaging’ service. The programme allows you to send photos and videos taken with your mobile via sms to appear on your Facebook page as near real-time updates on what you’re up to. There are companies offering elements of this already and a number of start-ups trying to create a platform agnostic Video Twitter. All Facebook has some more detail and highlights the applications ease of use, always the holy grail with any mobile software. Definitely one to watch…

2007 has been an amazing year personally. Leaving the warm bosom of agency life was a difficult decision but I’ve since been lucky enough to work with some amazing clients, agencies and practitioners on some really ground breaking digital PR campaigns. It’s been a journey into the future of PR and the future looks very bright indeed. So what do I think 2008 will bring?

1. The Year of the Widget
I have been spending a lot of time over the past couple of months working with some great developers on the design of widgets. I’m not talking about Zombies here, but creative, engaging, viral and above all value-added applications which support wider PR campaigns. The integration of widgets into the armoury of digital PR tactics will really take off in 2008 as developments like OpenSocial improve the economics and allow single applications to access larger audiences across multiple social networking sites. Beyond their role in PR, the widget will continue to change the shape of online advertising, as they move onto the desktop and mobiles – this recent article in Adweek is well worth a read to get up to speed.

2. Do you Vlog?
Video blogging will be one of the biggest tech trends of 2008. This will be driven by high profile bloggers such as Iain Dale experimenting with the medium as well as new platforms like Seesmic and Magnify. Another driver will be next generation mobile handsets with better quality in-built video cameras combined with falling data costs enabling vlogging on the move. It could even capture the media zeitgeist from Facebook, speaking of which…

3. Facebook media backlash
A bit like Jade Goody, having devoted acres of coverage building it up, 2008 will see the media try to bring Facebook down. The Beacon disaster has seen the US press sharpening its knives and the shift in sentiment will no doubt cross the Atlantic. Despite the less favourable coverage, Facebook will continue to grow and members will spend more and more time on the site. Reports of Facebook’s imminent demise by a few over excited commentators are I feel greatly exaggerated. The positives that make the site so great still far out weigh the disadvantages. The Beacon saga has shown Mark Zuckerberg that he stops listening to users concerns at his peril – I don’t think he will be stupid enough to make the same mistakes twice. Removing the negatives in terms of poor data protection and privacy, overly intrusive commercialisation and the small but growing volume of application related spam will need to be his top priorities for 2008.

4. Jumping on the social media bandwagon
Johnny come lately PR agencies will continue to jump on the social media bandwagon. Expect PR Week to be full of more stories of traditional PR agencies appointing heads of social media and creating specialist divisions.

5. A high-profile PR account shifts to a digital agency
The fundamental shifts in the PR industry will come into sharp focus when a high-profile client shifts its PR account to a Spannerworks-esque agency with digital and search at its core. There will be much debate and navel gazing. A few weeks later agencies respond by – yes you’ve guessed it – doing more of number 4.

So who or what has been dominating the media agenda in 2007? Well Canadian news broker Influence Communications has just released an analysis of 632 million print and broadcast news items across 120 countries and Paris Hilton, not for the first time, is on top. Well almost, Ms Hilton is this year’s most talked about global personality (excluding politicians) and her brief spell behind bars is the 13^th most popular story of the year so far. Thankfully celebrity culture doesn’t completely dominate with ‘proper news’ like the the Iraq War and the 2008 US Presidential race the most covered stories to date. See the Top 15 below and Press Gazette’s piece:

1. War in Iraq
2. US 2008 presidential elections
3. Iran nuclear threat
4. War on Taliban
5. Blair’s exit from office
6. Virginia Tech shootings
7. Harry Potter, the final book
8. French general elections
9. G8 summit
10. Execution of Saddam Hussein
11. iPhone launch
12. Madeleine McCann’s disappearance
13. Paris Hilton in jail
14. Mattel recalls toys
15. Madonna’s adoption problems

It’s perhaps not surprising that one of the most hyped consumer product launches of the year, Apple’s iPhone is only just outside the top ten. As the guys at 10 Zen Monkeys point out, this summer saw a “pop culture battle between two empires – one high-tech, one high-rise”, especially in the US media. The following from their site is I think the best selection of the many comparisons between the Sidekick/BlackBerry/Motorola weilding star and the must have gadget of 2007…

iPhone: Simple to use.
Paris Hilton: Simple.

iPhone: Well-protected against viruses.
Paris Hilton: Has herpes.

iPhone: Responds to touch from multiple fingers at once.
Paris Hilton: Responds to touch from multiple fingers at once.

iPhone: Face consists of hard, transparent plastic shell
Paris: Face consists of hard, transparent plastic shell

iPhone: Has at least 4 gigs of memory
Paris Hilton: Doesn’t

iPhone: Appeared in multi-million dollar ad campaign.
Paris Hilton: Appeared in “House of Wax.”

iPhone: Sometimes sucks.
Paris Hilton: Always…

Interbrand’s latest Best Global Brands report will prove happy reading for Nokia with a 12% year-on-year rise in brand value to $33.7bn. Interbrand puts the increase down to a refocus on design and features innovation as showcased in the Nokia N95. The failure of Motorola to build on the momentum of the RAZR phone with similarly ground breaking handsets goes someway to explain its 9% fall in brand value to a mere $4.14bn. Given the optimism surrounding all things web it’s probably not much of a surprise that Google is this year’s biggest riser with a 44% increase in the value of its brand to $17.8bn. You can read the full report here.

M:Metrics has just released some intriguing research into global (well US and European) patterns of mobile content consumption. It appears that mobile users in the States are obsessed with weather information whereas sports stats are the strongest driver in Europe. Yes, news and sport are always going to be popular but the fact that lifestyle or B2B mobile media for instance isn’t up there, is more of reflection of the lack of such content which has been repurposed for the mobile platform.  I know companies I’ve worked with in the past like Momac are attempting to change this and give us all a bit more variety.

The other thing which struck me was that M:Metrics seems to have deliberately excluded from its survey the two fastest growing areas of mobile content consumption - gambling and adult content??