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The Interwebs are littered with articles about marketing trends for 2012, so here at Blackstone, we thought we would explore a few of the articles and report back to you, our loyal reader, what we have found.

We Googled the term “marketing trends for 2012” and found about 104 million results. After reading all 104 million, we found a few trends of our own. The first thing we noticed that everyone seems to title there articles with numbers, as in “12 hot new marketing trends for 2012” (they like the number 12 a lot) or “5 hot new marketing trends you can’t ignore in 2012.” One was actually titled “3 Marketing Mega Trends for 2012.” I had never seen a mega trend, so that’s where I started.  Here’s what I found:

1. Mega-Trend #1 Mobile Ecommerce Will Reach a Tipping Point
2. The Decline of Apps
3. Enter Inbound Marketing

The basic gist of these trends (#1 was actually a prediction, not a trend) is that sales from mobile phone devices are going to go through the roof,  mobile sites > apps, and social media is cheaper than advertising. At Blackstone, we tend to agree with all three predictions.

The top search result that wasn’t “news” was titled “Marketing trends in 2012: Viral promotion, product placement, crowdsourcing.” I was pleased that they didn’t title it something like “3 Marketing Trends You Need to Watch in 2012 or Else They Will Kill You,” so I read it. Here’s what I found:

1. Traditional advertising is expensive, doesn’t cut through the clutter, not effective
2. BlendTec’s “Will it Blend” campaign is a totally rocking example of inexpensive viral marketing
3. We’re going to see more annoying product placement in movies
4. Crowdsourcing is cool (we think so too, and have something in the works for one of our clients)

The final article I want to share with you carries the title “ The Top 12 Marketing Trends for 2012” It had some pretty good bite-sized information. It almost seems a shame that I have to distill it any further, but here goes:

1. Integrated Marketing is cool
2. Ad agencies will hire more PR talent
3. Content is King
4. Static websites dying a slow/painful death
5. Go mobile
6. Companies want to be credible thought leaders (we really do)
7. Something will take Twitter’s place
8. Social media only takes you so far
9. Reputation/crisis management plans are good
10. Service-oriented companies won’t advertise as much
11. Video news releases on the rise
12. PR again

So there you have it. The marketing trends for 2012 are in and Blackstone is on top of it. The most important trend, in our view, is that mobile sites are going to move from a luxury to a necessity. By 2013, mobile access to the Interwebs is going to outpace desktop access. This means your old, static site (the one that’s dying a slow and painful death) needs to be replaced with a site that will work over several platforms and that you must contact us this instant.