FORWARD MARCH

	ECO-EVERYTHING

Smart marketers will bake in eco-friendly “green” strategies across the board in 2007. Remarkably, Wal-Mart appears to be leading the way in this arena with its new “Embrace the Earth” mission that pushes “sustainability” on its vendors the way it used to push price slashing. Wal-Mart is now the world's largest buyer of organic cotton, fair-trade coffee, and energy-efficient light bulbs.

And the ripple effect will be enormous:Thousands of other companies will be forced to examine the “greenness” of their manufacturing and distribution processes.

	EVEN MORE USER-GENERATED CONTENT

User-generated content (UGC) seemed to be all the rage in 2006. Everyone from Doritos to MasterCard offered UGC programs. And not without good reason: Consumers really responded. For instance, the Share the Air Video Contest that we at Renegade Marketing Group created for Panasonic, in which the company solicited 24-second action-sports films to air on a microsite, has been great for truly engaging the action-sports community.

Looking ahead, marketers will need to raise the ante if they hope to get consumers involved in campaigns. One way will be to offer cash (or other incentives), not just for the winners of a particular contest but for the producers of all UGC that other consumers end up watching. This “pay for play” approach is certainly gaining traction with the emergence of Current TV (which is paying for ads) and Revver.com (which is paying for content).

	NO MORE LINES

For years marketers have been dividing their communication budgets into “above the line” and “below the line” buckets and by offline vs. online activity. Hopefully 2007 will be the year that marketers say “forget the lines” and look at their communications as one continuous conversation that seamlessly weaves across media, turning prospects into customers and ultimately into brand advocates. To achieve this, marketers will need a new approach to strategy development and product management, creating briefs that embrace multichannel ideation and managers who seek ideas, not tactics.

	DIGITAL DARING

Next year will be the proving ground for a number of emerging digital-media weapons, from mash-ups — combining content from very different sources to create a unique entity — to RSS to virtual worlds. Google led the way with map-based mash-ups like the one it executed for the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Zillow.com created a stir with its mash-up of real estate sales data and mapping software, providing instant house-value estimates. With RSS feeds just about everywhere, consumers can control how they access content. While none of these new-media approaches are likely to conquer the world by themselves, for the right companies each could play a fruitful role in next year's marketing mix.

	THE TRIUMPH OF INNOVATION

Innovation will propel select marketers to new heights in 2007. To innovate, companies will need to extend their core competencies to new arenas. The opportunities for innovation abound; the only impediment is the will to go for it.

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Drew Neisser is president/CEO of Renegade Marketing Group, a New York-based promotion and interactive agency.

	Vive la differentiation

	BY THOMAS ORDAHL, MICHAEL MEGALLI, MICHAEL CUCKA, AND TODD MERRIMAN

It may seem oxymoronic to say that differentiation will be an overriding trend for 2007. But what companies will have in common in the coming year is the need to set themselves apart from the competition. Here are some of the tactics that we think companies will try.

	SERVICES PROLIFERATION

Technology and the improved ability and desire to serve customers on a customized, one-to-one basis, coupled with the increasing lack of ability to differentiate services in the marketplace, means that companies will put a greater emphasis on adding new services. The idea is that if you can't make the service different, differentiate yourself by offering more services.

	BRAND CHINA

The explosion of Chinese manufacturing is not news. Until now, however, Chinese manufacturing has primarily been a behind-the-scenes affair; products created in China were then sold under established non-Chinese brands. This will change as the U.S. market sees the entrance of new Chinese brands that will take on established competitors. The case of computer manufacturer Lenovo provides illumination here. That company has come out from behind its IBM ThinkPad manufacturing deal and in a relatively short time established itself on the PC scene.

	TIME TO GET SPECIFIC

A few years ago, on the advice of marketers, companies focused on simple messages about their point of difference. This went a bit too far; everyone from Fortune 500 tech companies to your local plumber promised vagaries such as “innovative solutions.” Oversimplification of this sort may work if you sell particularly inventive products, but if you're like most companies, 2007 will be the year of getting more specific. Customers will be increasingly focused on the details of offerings and how they deliver value — especially if the economy takes a turn for the worse.