Prognosticator?

Everything is changing ... almost faster than we can take it in. More than six years ago, at an address at the annual conference of the Belgian PR Centre in Brussels, I predicted the "atomization" of the media ... the fragmentation of traditional and emerging online media into increasingly focused, special interest channels to ever smaller special interest groups.

But my prophetic gifts have fallen far short of reality. In 1999, I never envisioned blogs ... or that the mainstream media would begin making content available for downloads to iPods. I didn't even imagine iPods! I never imagined that Royal Philips Electronics would introduce cellphone TV chips to the U.S., thus creating a new mobile broadcast network in 2006. And I never would have believed Proctor & Gamble – admittedly a brilliant marketer – would become a marketing consultant. P&G’s Tremor is a marketing service that develops teen word-of-mouth marketing programs. The company's "Tremor Crew," made up of over a quarter of a million influential teens from across the U.S., is the advance guard of breakthrough viral campaigns for many P&G brands ... and several external clients as well.

What doe all this mean? Where is it all going? It's too soon to tell. But I can tell you this: I'm keeping my eyes and ears open!