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Verklin tells MIC Forum seven things to watch for in the months ahead

The first Media in Canada Forum was held Tuesday at the Toronto Downtown Marriott. The crowd of nearly 400 - a cross-section of media, agency and marketing execs (half involved in media buying) - was abuzz after hearing from media experts including keynote speaker David Verklin, the New York-based CEO of Carat Americas, Paul Woolmington, head chef of NYC-based The Media Kitchen and Brian Elliot, Amsterdam-based CEO of hot shop StrawberryFrog.

There are seven major trends in media to watch for, Verklin advised in his keynote, themed around the Crackle of Change affecting media. The first is the ascendancy of digital as a primary motivator functioning in a DM-style role. Verklin noted Carat had observed that "80% of people going into a Hyundai dealership had been online first," and he predicts that while online creative work is rarely discussed, "it will be the centre play."

Prediction #2: "Advertising to the interested is the future." Verklin says firms will be looking to experiment with 100% composition technology, where marketers are looking not at simple CPM numbers but at targeting their bull's-eye. TV commercials will be a portal, the beginning of a process, where the consumer will push a button to get expanded information or bookmark a microsite. "Effective CPM will be the metric of the future," says Verklin, colourfully describing it as "targeting the toothless more effectively,"

referring to his example of the waste encountered when an advertiser with a very specific target (such as Polident) uses TV, fuelling this purity of audience push.

Thirdly, Verklin foresees a collision of commerce and cause where marketers will combine their efforts with philanthropy, creating a new, and hybrid medium. The fourth thing to pay attention to is the rise of experiential marketing. "Look for ways for your brand to have physical contact with your demo," he further advised the crowd. As such, he sees an increase in sports and event marketing.

In fifth place comes the transformation of media planning into communications planning. Part and parcel of which is shaping creative to work in different media vehicles, and offering more metrics. "In the next 36 months we will see virtually every media plan with metrics," predicts Verklin, urging marketers to look to human behavioural motivations to drive their brand's success.

The sixth thing to watch is gaming, which Verklin says will be far bigger than anyone can imagine, and "holds a number of clues to the future of advertising." Noting that it's currently "massively important to the music business," he predicts that Spike TV's gaming awards will become the Oscars to the 11-year-old set.

And finally, the hottest area of marketing today, as per Verklin, is analytics, specifically ROI calculation. Pointing to Marketing Management Analytics' pioneering work in real-time, on-demand analytics that will enable aberation spotting and response, he says that in the next 36 months systems allowing rapid adjustments will be in action.

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