Nielsen Offers A Cross Industry Preview Of What We’ll Watch And Buy In 2010

Nielsenwire offers its cross-industry predictions for what consumers might watch and buy in 2010.  Categorized into four key areas of influence – cross-media, consumer, advertising and entertainment – the forecast heavily factors in consumer and commercial reactions to the economic shake-out of 2009, as well as some of the key shifts in media consumption we’ve already been reading about – or addressing, for those in the media and communications industry.  While there’s few surprises, Nielsen’s advertising forecast predicts a continued focus on engaging brands and consumers in a two-way conversation – particularly in the more measurable digital space.

Nielsen’s top 5 advertising trends for 2010 include:

Optimizing media convergence as a top priority. A better understanding of media convergence will manifest in order to deliver a better return on investment. The ability to accurately measure activity and link online ads to offline purchasing behavior will be critical.

New models emerge to take advantage of smartphones. Accurate mobile measurement will be required to stay ahead of the snowballing growth of that media platform.

More cross-media ad campaigns surface. The massive growth of online video games played and shared online leads the way for more successful interactive and cross-media advertising campaigns to appear. Growth in the adoption of this innovative advertising across screens and activities will increase.

Commercialization of social networking hubs increase. Social media will provide a new sales channel for establishing product awareness and commercializing brands to better support traditional advertising or text-based ads.

(If Dell can earn $6.5MM from its two years using Twitter, so can other brands.)

More interesting and interactive online ads appear. Increased use of more creative advertising and content models online such as video, attention-seeking page takeover ads and mechanisms for greater interactivity will drive the next era of Web development.

With many digital media plans still relying rather heavily on banner ads, ensuring that these work heavily to engage a consumer quickly and within the space itself is critical.  Rich media ads will continue to evolve.