Some Online Marketing Predictions for 2006

Earlier this week, ClickZ's Zach Rogers asked some "big brains" to provide their thoughts on what the next year might hold for online marketing, including creative, RSS, video, search, and mobile. John Rich, Interactive Creative Director at TM, points to greater consumer influence and also foresees "a huge impact" by Flash 8. Dick Costolo, CEO of FeedBurner, sees greater sophistication in the tools for managing and measuring RSS subscriptions and reach; also, he says, look for a breakout campaign using podcasts.

Chris Young, Klipmart CEO, sees a greater shift from TV: "We're going to see a lot of video assets move online." And the in-stream video ad inventory shortage will remain a problem, he tells ClickZ.

John Lustina, Chairman of IntraPromote, says of search: "PPC just keeps getting bigger." But he sees local advertisers taking a little longer to jump in. Trevor Hughes, Executive Director of the ESPC, says third-party relationships, particularly affiliate marketing structures, will grow more risky and come under greater scrutiny.

Regarding email, Epsilon Interactive CEO Al DiGuido says "2006 is going to be the year the top-tier players leverage what they have in their customer databases...kind of a segment-of-one communication, as opposed to geographic or psychographic segmentation."

Nihal Mehta, CEO of ipsh!, says mobile will see campaigns that mix print, online, radio, street marketing, events... Mobile coupons will expand and SMBs will begin using mobile marketing.

Mozilla Planning Firefox Promotions

Mozilla, due to release Firefox 1.5 next week and Firefox 2 next summer, is preparing to use an "open source marketing" drive online to promote the next generation of its web browser, writes Times Online (U.K.). Through a series of 30-second viral videos made by volunteers who enter a film contest, Mozilla is hoping to repeat the success of last year's campaign promoting the launch of Firefox 1.0. Mozilla will also unveil commercial partnerships with about.com and eBay and Skype, according to the report. Firefox 1.5 will probably be released on November 29.

Firefox Launches Ad Contest

Firefox has kicked off the second part of its Firefox Flicks campaign, launching a contest for 30-second spots for the browser by professional, student and aspiring filmmakers that will be considered for a TV campaign, reports ClickZ. Top ads will also win prizes, including a $5,000 gift certificate at B&H Photo, a multi-screen LCD display from 9x Media, and a media center PC from Alienware. The ads will be reviewed by a panel of judges from the film, television and advertising industries. The goal of the campaign is to increase awareness of Firefox among mainstream consumers and persuading them to visit getfirefox.com.


Submissions can be live action, animated, Flash-based, or any other style that "brings Firefox to life for the millions of Web users who have yet to discover Firefox and the better Web experience it delivers," according to the creative brief.

Earlier this month, Mozilla launched the firefoxflicks.com site to showcase the first stage of its open source marketing initiative.