My mobile dream for 2010 - from Mobile Marketer

The start of the year was a very different kind of New Year for me. Whereas previous years have always started and ended with fireworks, festivities and a very big bang – and a massive headache to boot – this New Year’s Eve was an altogether different affair.

Subdued, reflective, calm and quiet. Huddled up on a snowy mountain top away from emails, news and the twang of social media, I finally had the brain bandwidth to think about goals and dreams for 2010, personally and collectively.

Yes, a very big change to previous years and indicative of the type of mental preparation needed for a new year, a new decade and a new era.

Gone are the brash excesses, hasty decisions and knee-jerk reactions. Out with insecurity and fear, and in with sensibility, logic and decisiveness. Oh, and accountability, all very welcomed, thank you very much.

Welcome to a very different decade in our lives as marketers. Bring it on, I say!

And so we begin this new era from a very different place to where we were in 2000, or 2001, if you are one of those calendar purists.

Saddled with choking debt and less money – but greater and more demanding expectations from consumers and our clients – marketers across all channels have a lot to sort through and sort out.

Although there seem to be startups blooming everywhere – and thank goodness for that: we need new blood, new ideas, new thinkers and revitalized innovation – there are fewer venture capital funds sitting at the end of the digital/tech rainbow.

Veni vidi VC
Whereas 2009 was a funding desert, funds are opening up their coffers once more. But they will be more demanding and expecting a lot more in return. Notice those two words again?

Gone is the era of throwing money at flashy and splashy campaigns and budgets, or reckless startups and the glory days of playing with other peoples’ money. Those days are so over – or at least until we relapse into a time of fake plenty again.

No, this is most definitely an era of thrift and resourcefulness, an era where clients will be tempted to say “You know, we’re going to try doing this ourselves,” or “We’re going to look for a more cost-effective partner because we need to achieve more but with less.”

Sounds familiar, right?

So what does this mean?
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