I hadn’t planned this post on trends but ended-up creating a list for a colleague who was helping a client, and I was definitely overdue to post something. These are in no particular order, and there is a lot more to say about each of them. There are other trends of course, but these are especially relevant to our coverage of content technologies and to Outsell/Gilbane clients.

  • Marketing and IT continue to learn how to work together as marketing assumes a bigger role in control of digital technology for all customer engagement.
  • Content strategy gets more respect.
  • Mobile confusion reigns – which platforms, which formats, apps vs. mobile web and which apps make sense, what workflows, etc. 
  • “Extreme multi-channel” publishing reality hits. You thought web plus print was a challenge?
  • Enterprise applications start including mobile and don’t look back.
  • “Apps” approach to software distribution expands beyond mobile.
  • The line between pads and notebooks blurs in both user interface and function.
  • Spending on digital channels continues to grow ahead of curve.
  • Enterprise social platform growth stagnates, consumer social platforms continue to grow, but with little direct application to enterprise beyond feature or UI ideas.
  • Business model experimentation accelerates in content businesses.