Three Mega Trends in 2012

The following is a guideline for what I believe the 2012 year will be about written originally by Beverly Macy. The age of mass adoption of social media is upon us. The sheer numbers of profiles on social platforms is legendary at this point — hundreds of millions of profiles on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn around the globe — with no slowdown in sight. With that said, the KRU EXPO will bring you value with regards to programming, curriculum, diversity and how we intend to capture an audience in a marketplace that never exists previously!

And within a few years there could be more than seven billion mobile devices worldwide — exceeding the world’s population. Owning two or more cell phones is growing more commonplace all the time. And of course, we can add in tablets, still in its infancy in terms of global adoption, but skyrocketing rapidly.

And here’s the typical engagement loop: I watch a video or read a post. I think it’s useful or entertaining to others, I grab the link, and I push it out to my network with some comments. Times seven billion. In real-time. All day, every day. That’s more consumption than anyone can even imagine.

Who controls the content distribution? Who pays?

Consider these three mega trends for 2012

1. Social TV. Contrary to some early reports about the effect of social media on eroding the television viewing audience, people are now watching more TV than ever. And because of social media, they’re more engaged in what they watch, taking to Twitter and Facebook with reactions in real-time. To the tune of millions of tweets and posts per second, in some cases.

The TV ad business is a $90+ billion pot of gold and tech companies, social media firms, TV hardware companies, mobile carriers, and everyone else under the sun would like to get their hands on. All this social TV engagement will not only help grow that revenue, it will drive participation in social shopping as well. And it will be the invisible hand that makes or breaks new shows, stars, and even commercials.

KRU TV is already on its way. More details at the EXPO!

2. Gamification. Consumer engagement with gamified activities has exploded — especially in sports marketing. What’s gamification? It is the seemingly arbitrary assignment of points to otherwise non-game activities. Think loyalty programs re-defined with integration of social sharing and the opportunity to make real dollars from fake points. Consider that in the fantasy sports arena alone there are now more than 30 million Americans spending an estimated $800 million a year on their make-believe franchises.

Gamification encourages people to perform chores that they ordinarily consider boring, such as completing surveys, shopping, filling out tax forms, or reading your web site. Imagine getting them to interact with something they love, like sports and entertainment. That’s money.

KRU already has its own social game(s) coming out, attached with known celebrities in the entertainment industry. Cross your fingers, we are poised to have a console (XBOX/PS3) game also in the works!

 

3. Location-based entertainment. Worldwide, stadiums are the second most checked-in places, right behind airports. These sports venues are a perfect engagement blend of virtual and real worlds as a way to engage fans by giving them hashtags to rally around and the ability to earn points towards incentives.

The real benefit to the league, team, and brands is the unprecedented amounts of data about these fans that is generated via social and location based engagement. That geo-targeted data is used to research and identify segments of the fan base to launch geo-targeted ad campaigns and custom messaging according to each micro-demographic.

All very exciting as we enter 2012 and the age of shareable, personalized entertainment. Whatever happens, the love of sports and entertainment, combined with the business of sports and entertainment will be changed forever with social media’s influence.

Grow the KRU Brand by having your clients/students check in and spread throught the semantic web of the KRU community is alive and growing. The more posts, the more comments, shares and links to help. Get active and post meaning content. If you need help contact me!

To register for the Ground breaking KRU EXPO this January 21 & 22, 2012 for school owners and instructors, please visit the events page here or directly go to www.aceramirez.com/expotix

Master Ace Ramirez