Fleishman-Hillard's DC office provided us with a number of news items reflecting trends worth tracking:
The Chicago Sun Times reported: In an attempt to appeal to younger, online Catholics, the 2,000-year-old Vatican and 81-year old Pope Benedict XVI have launched a papal YouTube channel that will feature videos of the pope and other news produced by the Vatican. The Holy See hopes that the content for the channel, which will be translated into Italian, German, English and Spanish will broaden and unite the pope’s audience and help him better control his Internet image. In addition to the new foray into YouTube, the Vatican also sends out daily "pontiff’s prayer" text messages. The pope’s YouTube channel joins a range of digital initiatives aimed at religious followers. Christians of various denominations share and discuss videos on GodTube.com and various Christian networking sites, the Church of Scientology has its own YouTube channel, Jews can visit popular dating sites jdate.com and jewmango.com, and social network Muxlim.com lists its mission as "enhancing the Muslim lifestyle." Though Religion 2.0 seems to have taken hold online, a cautious Pope Benedict nonetheless warns that "virtual socializing" is not a replacement for real interaction.
Adweek reported: Well-known consumer brands are blurring the lines between journalism and advertising by adding influential bloggers to their payrolls and offering them compensation in exchange for writing and disseminating information about their products and services. Panasonic and Kmart are two examples of this practice in action. Panasonic recently hired five bloggers to travel to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on the company’s dime. There, they produced content about Panasonic fit for the web via blog posts, Twitter updates and YouTube videos. Similarly, Kmart recently targeted a half-dozen bloggers and provided them with $500 Kmart gift certificates to give away in exchange for promoting store experiences on their sites. Though these companies maintain they are keeping their editorial distance, critics say these practices are controversial. Regardless, such "influencer programs" now appear to be becoming more accepted as a way for advertisers to gain access to coveted audiences.
eMarketer reported: The advertising and marketing outlook for 2009 remains relatively upbeat for certain types of online marketing -- including search, video and multicultural initiatives - but traditional media and smaller social networks will likely face serious difficulties, according to predictions released by eMarketer. Among the key digital trends the firm identified for this year: search marketing will remain recession resistant; user-generated content will create opportunities for aggregators; online multicultural marketing will gain intensity; professional video Web content will proliferate; and while smaller social networks may close down, larger ones will seek e-commerce revenue streams. On the traditional media side, TV advertising will drop, and some newspapers will become casualties.