Stuart Elliott: Trends to Watch That Will Shape the New Year

1 Print Media Woes This year was another challenging one for legacy media especially print specialists Advertising losses continued accelerating at a frightening clip as the year wore on This month alone three magazines said they are ending their print editions Bloomberg Pursuit Complex and SelfAnd the magazine powerhouse Time Inc following yet another digital reorganization just hired bankers to help evaluate takeover or partnership bids rumors are swirling of a combination with Meredith or a piecemeal selloff of publications to rivals such as Hearst It39s possible that 2017 could bring an end to an independent Time Inc which has its roots in the newsweekly founded in 1923Yet at the same time there has been offsetting good news for some print media in the form of growing support from readers whose dollars make up more of total revenues as the flow from advertisers shrinks The New York Times and newspapers owned by Tronc are reporting sizable even extraordinary spikes in paid subscriptions in the wake of the presidential election Will those gains help offset the declines in advertiser spending If not how much can editorial offerings be cut back to save money when those very offerings are so important to attract more readers2 The Real Deal One glimmer of hope for print media outlets is the powerful good they can do in fighting the menace of fake news I believe that efforts to counter its negative effects which I recently wrote about will be among the biggest stories of next yearBy the way many are questioning the new buzzword quotaltrightquot complaining that it softens the image of white nationalism So there could be a search during 2017 for other ways to describe fake news I like the suggestions shared with me by readers of my recent column quotfictionquot and quotpropagandaquot3 Soda39s Burst Bubble It39s been a long time since softdrink marketers basked in the glory days of the cola wars when Coke and Pepsi battled for supremacy with largerthanlife ad campaigns promotionsamp160and endorsements Increasing consumer concerns about sugar and obesity not to mention a growing appetite for soda taxes among municipalities have squelched sales of their flagship carbonated beverages and sent them scrambling to seek growth in alternative products such as waters juicesamp160and teasThe first big global brand introduction from PepsiCo in 2017 will be not a soda but rather a premiumpriced water Lifewtr aimed at the CocaCola Company39s category leader Smartwater CocaCola39s major move next year will be to bring in a new CEO James Quincey replacing Muktar Kent who will remain chairman Analysts expect Quincey now the company39s President and Chief Operating Officer to quicken CocaCola39s quest for more revenues from alternatives to traditional carbonated soft drinks In other words in 2017 Coke39s pop isn39t expected to come from pop4 AdvertiserAgency Relations This year saw some strains in the relationships between advertisers and their agencies particularly when it came to issues involving transparency The debate over whether or not agencies are benefiting from rebates when they buy media kickbacks to use an uglier word threatens to erode trust between the two sides in the advertising process which means there are likely to be more requests demands to use an uglier word for audits of agency activitiesSpeaking of trust additional fuel will be heaped on the fire next year in the form of a probe by the US Department of Justice39s antitrust division into whether Madison Avenue rigged commercial production bids to steer business to their own inhouse units and away from independent producers The Association of National Advertisers which has been vigorously urging members to scrutinize how their agencies operate called word of the investigation quotvery disturbingquotTo add a twist to the saga the trade organization on the other side of the table the American Association of Advertising Agencies will confront those challenges under new leadership as Nancy Hill President and CEO for nine years steps down in 2017 It will be fascinating to see who inherits her post and what he or she does in the face of those daunting tests5 Madison Avenue and the Mainstream The shocking outcome of the presidential election has prompted the poohbahs of the marketing world to reexamine their perspectives starting with a theory that ads may need to speak more directly to the mass audience ie the workingclass and rural voters whose support for Donald Trump was underestimated If we see more of that in 2017 it could manifest itself in two waysOne way would be a return to the days when prosaic massmarket Middle American brands predominated in other words more ads for mainstay pantry staples and fewer ads for fancyschmancy products aimed at upscale consumers There already are a couple of examples to point toAnheuserBusch InBev has decided that one of its coveted commercial slots in Super Bowl LI will go to Busch a popularpriced beer cheaper than Budweiser that has never had a Super Bowl ad berth before And another everyman brew Miller High Life is bringing back a jingle from the 1970s quotIf you39ve got the time we39ve got the beerquot which was a key ingredient in a classic campaign that celebrated hardworking AmericansAnother way agencies and advertisers may redirect their pitches next year is in styling and casting There could be fewer commercials or ads with a look and feel appealing to urban consumers on the coasts and more with an allAmerican backtobasics attitude intended to be embraced in the socalled heartland And if so what would that mean for a hugely popular recent trend making ads more multicultural and reflective of the changing demographics of the country Shifts in who appears in ads might well bring a backlash in the form of coordinated protest efforts in social media bearing hashtags such as AdsSoWhite or AdWhitelash The country is divided enough without those kind of battles being fought over marketing messages6 Industry Diversity This is related to the discussion above in that attempts to reshape ads to emphasize more traditional values could run headfirst into the increasing efforts to make agencies and marketing departments more diverse and inclusiveThere was major progress this year for the forces advocating for more representation for women and minorities on Madison Avenue as epitomized by changes at the top at Saatchi ampamp Saatchi and J Walter Thompson in the wake of controversies over sexism And bluechip marketers such as General Mills HP and Verizon are now insisting that agencies working for them diversify employee ranksBut what happens when rainbow mosaics meet the Duck Dynasty crowd Can there be peaceful coexistence or will there be conflict It would truly be weird if the industry goes from a phalanx of predominantly white men creating ads with a multicultural vibe to a diverse workforce creating ads with a middleAmerican tiltHowever 2017 turns out for advertising marketing and media here39s wishing you and yours a happy and healthy New YearClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this article are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated bloggers

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Stuart Elliott: Trends to Watch That Will Shape the New Year

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