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"The Modern Media Agency Series is presented by IDG. CDW added humor to its video marketing campaign and it led to one million video views. In an interview last month, Neal Campbell, CDW's Chief Marketing Officer, explained the program and how it led to the Charles Barkley integrated marketing campaign.\nWhen a week's vacation can leave us behind on social media trends, early adoption becomes more about pattern recognition than bandwagon jumping.\nMediaphiles dismissed Foursquare as a toy, until it suddenly owned the geo layer. Internet junkies took afternoon naps and missed Pinterest's leap to #3 in social networking. Mom couldn't log into Hotmail; now she owns Farmville. All of these trends were forecast well before their big breaks, largely due to the astute eyes of early adopters who are ready to add new and fresh tools to their media-consuming arsenal.\nHere are eight media trends we're tracking right now. Some are right on the cusp of becoming mainstream and others still have a bit to cook before breaking the surface. What patterns are you observing in the media world and what do you think will be the next big thing? Let us know in the comments below.\n1. Targeted, Geo-Mobile Coupons\nWhen Foursquare started garnering press coverage in 2009, co-founder Dennis Crowley confessed his dream was to one day know users well enough to target smart coupons on the fly. He wanted to send push notifications that essentially said, \u201CWe know you like pizza, and it\u2019s dinner time right now. Pizza Place X, two blocks away, has a special.\u201D\nThat day has finally come. With 1.5 billion check-ins, 750 thousand merchants, 20 million users and millions of geo-tagged tips, Foursquare now has the ability to deliver hyper-relevant coupons to its users. I just started getting them and they\u2019ve been surprisingly accurate.\nLevelUp and other mobile services are digifying the in-person coupon space as well. We expect this field to mature rapidly now that geodata infrastructure is in place and half of all U.S. mobile phones are smartphones.\n2. Audio Watermarking\nTechnology for embedding subliminal signals in audio \u2014 digital sound waves humans cannot consciously detect \u2014 is being used to track data and connect digital devices in increasingly clever ways. New York-based startup Sonic Notify, for example, built technology that allows television shows such as Bravo\u2019s Top Chef to invisibly activate a viewer\u2019s smartphone or tablet with related content while watching.\nAs audio watermarking becomes more mainstream (and consumers acclimate to the idea), opportunities for mobile content integration at events and retail stores will arise faster than you can play a Beatles record backwards.\n3. Passive Location-Based Networking\n\nAccording to social media data collected by Tracx, the top 3 buzziest startups at SXSW 2012 were all in-person networking apps: Highlight, Glancee, and Sonar.\nHighlight was the most popular by far, gaining 300% more buzz than any of its peers. Its hook is that it's completely passive: Users allow the app to track their locations throughout the day, then when other Highlight users (friends, potential connections) are nearby, it shows both parties the nearby user\u2019s info.\nThough buzz was high, the big question around this trend is whether the utility of such apps will outweigh the privacy concerns (and battery drain). There\u2019s certainly competition in the space, so we\u2019re likely to see a lot of movement around this concept this year.\n4. Motion Tracking and Facial Recognition for Intention Data\nCBS's hit series Person of Interest called this one last September. As facial recognition and motion tracking tech becomes more accurate and less expensive, the ability to digitally divine real-world intent is coming into our grasp.\nInterpublic Group, for example, has a laboratory in Manhattan where Xbox Kinects, flatscreens and fake grocery aisles come together for some serious spying. When you pick up a box of Pop Tarts, the motion sensors track your face to see if you\u2019re smiling or frowning about what you see. Screens then output data on how long you\u2019ve lingered in front of a particular product, and ads trigger based on your gender (which cameras infer) and what objects you\u2019re touching.\nAll this will help product marketers deliver better experiences. Once we get past the \u201Ccreep-out phase,\u201D consumers will likely start expecting \u2014 and appreciating \u2014 such personalization in their everyday shopping ventures.\n5. Automatic Social Media-Activated Discounts\n\nHanding a coupon to the waiter after a meal can be embarrassing for customers and time-consuming for employees. American Express has figured out how to bypass both challenges using social media.\nThe credit card company recently launched Twitter and Foursquare integrations that allow cardholders to sync their plastic with a social account, then take advantage of in-store coupons with no more effort than a tweet or check-in.\nFor example, many Foursquare locations have \u201C$5 Off\u201D AmEx specials. If a user checks into a location with the special and uses an AmEx card, the store\u2019s credit card machine pings AmEx, which verifies check-in with Foursquare and then credits $5 to the user\u2019s card.\n6. Brands Building Publications and Entertainment Channels\n\u201CWe\u2019re all publishers\u201D is a trite phrase by now, but big brands are starting to take the mantra seriously. With budgets behind them and no advertising to worry about, companies are building media properties meant to compete with TV stations and magazines.\nRed Bull\u2019s homepage, for example, looks like an action-sports news site. The company pumps out professional-grade news articles, feature stories and videos each day, pushing them to social marketing channels such as Facebook and Twitter. This fuels the company's social media accounts with content and points followers back to Red Bull\u2019s site, rather than elsewhere on the Internet.\nFashion companies are especially keen on building publications to compete with traditional media. Several have even reported that building entire publications is no more expensive than advertising. A look at the sites of Tory Burch and Kate Spade show where these brands are investing their efforts.\n7. TV on the Internet\nThe Thursday Night TV lineup\u2019s days are numbered.\nBarry Diller, the media mogul who greenlit The Simpsons while running Fox in the '80s, thinks broadcast television is the next big disruption in media. As we\u2019ve seen with music, Internet users want to consume individual pieces of content \u2014 tracks, not albums; episodes, not box sets. They want to pick and choose, and they want their content online, not attached to a cable TV plan.\nDiller\u2019s latest project, Aereo, puts live broadcast TV on the Internet. It\u2019s the next step to cutting the coaxial cable entirely.\n8. Mobile, Immersive Reality\nDigital technology allows us to be in one place while experiencing another. Skype and FaceTime connect people across the world, in person. The next evolution of this is immersive video and augmented reality.\nGoogle is developing augmented reality glasses, which would enable wearers to view data layered over real life. A startup called Condition One makes iPad video apps that let the tablet holder move around a faraway scene, like a battlefield. There\u2019s even R&amp;D happening to create video-enabled contact lenses.\nTron, The Terminator and The Matrix, here we come.\nSeries presented by IDG\n\n\u00A0\nThe Modern Media Agency Series is presented by IDG. Humor resulted in CDW's video marketing campaign going viral and reaching one million video views! The campaign earned runner-up recognition in BtoB\u2019s 2012 Social Media Marketing awards. IDG Strategic Marketing Services Director Howard Sholkin interviewed CDW Chief Marketing Officer Neal Campbell last month at the awards ceremony. In an interview last month, Neal Campbell, CDW's Chief Marketing Officer, explained the program and how it led to the Charles Barkley integrated marketing campaign.\n\nImage courtesy of iStockphoto, scanrail"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/04/19/hot-media-trends/>