2012 was a big year for marketing and business. From the election and pending healthcare reforms to the so-called fiscal cliff, change and uncertainty have been looming over businesses like the Mayan apocalypse.
While the past year has had its ups and downs for businesses, let’s take a Fresh look at some of the top marketing and business stories of 2012 as we look ahead to 2013.
Social Media – The biggest social media story of 2012 was the Facebook IPO in May. Investors were excited to get a piece of the world’s most popular social network, but that excitement quickly soured. Today Facebook is struggling well below its IPO value and facing pressure by investors, scrutiny by users and pending lawsuits. Beyond the IPO, Facebook began offering paid promotion of your posts in 2012 while algorithm changes have meant sharply decreased organic reach for brand page posts. While Facebook says the two are completely unrelated, the coincidence has led many to question Facebook’s monetization strategies.
There were other stories this year in social media. Pinterest opened to everyone without invitations in August and then moved to add brand pages in November, a shift from its personal use only policy. Twitter added profile pages in September including a new cover image and in October YouTube changed their search rank algorithm to reward watch time and engagement not just clicks. Google+ continues to fight its impression as a ghost town touting 100 million active monthly users (compared to Facebook’s 900 million). Google+ is trying to grow through increased integration with its popular Google services which is forcing many businesses to add Google+ pages to improve search engine results. But perhaps most surprising is the relaunch of the new Myspace beginning in December. With a strong focus on music and a look reminiscent of Pinterest, the new Myspace may once again be a player in the social media world.
Sports Entertainment – The business of sports had a big year in 2012. The Olympics were a juggernaut averaging 31.1 million viewers in the US during the 17 day games in London, proving to be a great advertising placement for businesses. The opening of the NFL season was marred by replacement refs, but ratings didn’t suffer showing the strength of the NFL as a programming buy. The dark spot in sports remains NHL lockout which has led to the cancellation of 422 regular-season games, the Winter Classic and the All-Star Game in Columbus, OH, negatively impacting players, owners, fans, advertisers and the economic ripple from this popular sport.
Business Forecast – With potential tax hikes connected to the fiscal cliff and increased healthcare costs for workers as part of the Affordable Care Act ahead in 2013, the Labor Department’s latest jobless report was a pleasant surprise. Businesses continued adding jobs at a higher than expected level in November bringing the jobless rate to a 4-year low. Despite the uncertainty ahead, successful businesses are focused on making wise decisions including adding personnel when necessary.
2012 was a big year for Fresh Creative. We launched our redesigned website and our freshBLOG in January 2012. We also expanded our web development team with the addition of Cody Shepp. Cody started as an intern with Fresh in early 2012 and became a full-time web developer in May after his graduation from Lebanon Valley College. Cody’s experience in responsive design, mobile development and various content management systems will help us continue to expand the creative, interactive marketing solutions we provide for our clients.
We hope your organization has had a successful 2012. No matter what 2013 holds, the Fresh Creative team is ready to help you make the most of the New Year with strategic marketing, advertising, media placement, web design and creative support services.
