Here are the Brand and communication predictions for 2010 by Johan Ronnestam from Ronnestam.com. Ronnestam.com was voted Sweden’s first blog on Innovation, future trends and digital communication. Johan is widely regarded as one of Sweden’s leading speakers and authorities in the field of modern creative and conceptual thinking and skill of innovating brands and their communication.

2. REAL
This is more of a change in how we live, consume, work,
advertise and communicate. We will of course use all
technology available to become more real but we will strive
to make things more realistic, true and touchable. As
technology, much thanks to notepads, the iPhone and other
portable technologies, becomes a part of our everyday life
we will in 2010 look for inspiration in the nature and in
life.
Brands will think twice about making up false stories about
their brands. Product developers cannot trust advertising
to sell their products cause transparency will bring you
down. When you launch products or services in 2010 you
better provide a true and real value – only then will you
prosper.
The more we learn to search and compare products online the
less room for multiple copies. We will search for the true
branch leader and we will find it. Globalization and ease of
localization means we’ll choose the best service or product
not the locally produced one.

3. Open Source Win More Ground
Swapping content management systems from proprietary to
open source is becoming socially acceptable among IT
professionals. And why wouldn’t it. It’s usually better, more
cost effective and more up to date.
Creative Commons have extended their program with Science
Commons and CC Learn. We’ve already seen sites like Facebook
and New York Times being built upon open source code and
databases. Still companies seem reluctant to switch to code
being written by a community rather than a company. But when
the White House switched to Drupal I think we saw the start
of a tsunami.
In 2010 Open Source will prosper and hopefully ever after!
Sharing is the way forward!

4. Cloud Computing Will Spread Like Thunder
Most of you probably already got a large part of your digital life
in the cloud. Think about it. All those images you’ve put on
Facebook or better yet Flickr. That’s the cloud.
Earlier this year we saw the city of Los Angeles switch to Google
Apps. There’s probably tons of more examples that I don’t know of
but this is definitely one of the first and largest government
adoptions of Googles cloud based Microsoft Office competitor.
Evernote, my personal favorite cloud based notebook, reached 2
million users the other day. Another cloud based service that
reached 2 million users earlier this year is Dropbox. I’ve been
syncing my files with this little sweetie since 2008. Wired,
Mashable, MacWorld and PC Mag have all shouted out loud for this
wonderful tool. When they launched their iPhone app this summer
they completed my home office.
Practically everyone I know working with digital communication
uses cloud based tools like Google Apps, Evernote and Dropbox.
Once the mainstream users understand that these tools solve every
problem a home user and small company has with backup, sync and
office we’ll see people moving into the cloud like skydivers free
falling from 15000 feet.

5. Management Consultants Moving Forward Into The Digital
Space
If you’re working within digital advertising or communication you
might have heard the rumors. Management Consultants like
McKinsey and Accenture have put together digital swat teams who’s
primary task is to conquer the business from digital agencies like
RGA, AKQA, LBI etc.
Clients all over the world have grown tired listening to
traditional digital agencies (yep, they’ve become traditional now)
who’s employees aren’t senior enough to consider what good the
digital world can do for their business. On top of that I’d say that
not even 1% of the worlds traditional advertising agencies knows
what they’re talking about when the talk future communication but
they still got the Marketing Directors by the balls.
This is where the grey suits sees an opportunity. These guys got
the CEO’s and Board Members by the ball and that’s worth more than
marketing directors and advertising men & women. Will they do a
good job? Some might but lots of them still look at the digital
world as a single business area. Internet transforms business not
distribute them!
Left somewhere in the middle you’ll have the digital agencies of
today. They’re not good enough on communication, they don’t
understand business processes and the web is about to shift from
front-end to back-end.

6. Web TV Strikes With Full Force
We’ve only seen the beginning of Internet TV. In 2009 most
established networks truly made themselves available online and
HULU impressed us all by growing faster than you can say
disruption. Personally I was privileged to given the assignment to
draw up the strategy and design one of Swedens major TV channels,
Kanal 5, web TV presence.
As the year passed we slowly saw iPhone apps being approved that
let us consume TV however we want whenever we want. In 2010
however we’ll see the next stage. That’s when the TV
manufacturers, just like Samsung already has done, start placing
network connections into their screens. Suddenly Internet TV will
move into our living room again. In the wake of that we’ll see
fantastic mashups and recommendation sites that allows us to
actually consume internet TV together. Today it’s to much of an ego
product. After all, if we have access to everything from
everywhere, who get’s to decide what we should look at tonight?
The downside is obvious. People will spend more time again in the
sofa. That leads to stupidity. Stupidity leads to lack of innovation.
Lack of innovation leads nowhere.
The happy ones are of course the traditional advertisers since
the will start filling those internet TV episodes with advertising.
The only problem is they cannot get paid what they want yet so
we’ll have to live with tons of more ad breaks.

7. Twitter Spreads Beyond Early Adopters
This wonderful social networking ‘tool’ is loved by more than
18 million people today. And yet we’re all early adopters. One
of the main problem is if course who the hell do you explain
such a stupid tool as Twitter to someone? They have to try
for themselves. It strikes me that none of my childhood
friends that I regularly meet still today have used Twitter.
Heck, most of them haven’t even started using Facebook. (did I
mention their in the finance business).
But just like Facebook this microblog network will spread
beyond early adopters and it’s all about invitations. So far
Twitter hasn’t bothered to much about making you invite
people. Once the make it simple for us users to invite more
people as our followers/friends we’ll see Twitter spread
like wildfire. Dare I say 100 million people on Twitter once
2010 is over?

8. Back End Computing Is The New Front End
Business moving their business online calls for enterprise
resource planning software integration. And since those
guys from the management side of the internet will start
telling brands what to do we can definitely expect more
complex websites in terms of how they’re built and
integrated into the heart of businesses.
In 2010 we’ll see more companies like SnapLogic solving this
by providing middleware. We’ll see less digital agencies
earning the trust to build these kind of sites. Building a
brand presence in 2010 will be about connecting data not
creating cool interfaces.

9. An Augmented World
Layar, Wikitude, Sekai Camera, Twittaround, Avatars
augmented promotion toys, Google Goggles, Mini Print Ads and
much more.
Many were the augmented initiatives that started to spread
via mobile apps and online campaign sites. So far however
we’ve only seen the start of it all. As more people start using
these technologies we’ll see widespread uses of augmented
technology in 2010. It’s actually so obvious so I thought of
not including it. Some of you might say it happened in 2009
but to me we’ve only seen the start of it all.

10. Apple Launch Their Tablet (iSlate?)
I’ve written about this before. But the amount of rumors
circulating the web right now is quite enough to say that
something must come soon. Not much more to say than if the
rumors turn out to be true then I’ll change my media
consumption pattern forever in 2010.

11. 3D Printing Get Noticed By The Masses
During this last year I’ve done more than 50 speaking
appearances. I often speak about democratization of
technology, content and distribution. One part of that
section usually is about 3D printing. You heard it right – 3D
printing.
Stuff printed at Shapeways by gifted students The Royal High
School of Edinburgh
3D printing is a technology that still is a little bit to
expensive to be used at home but the awareness of it will
surely spread in 2010. As more people become aware about
this we’ll see more innovation. Say 2012. That’s when you’ll
download Lego from Pirate Bay.

12. Mobile Handset Explosion Based On Interests
Android is being spread into more handsets every week. Inside
that Open Source platform sits the app store that allows you
to basically build whatever apps you like. Cost of technology
is falling fast. Platforms like Bugbase and Arduino shows
technology is no longer exclusive to large multinational
corporations.
In 2010 I think, and hope, that we’ll see the first mobile phone
brands that focus on segments. Surf brands, sailing brands,
wildlife and so on. The opportunities are fantastic for any
strong brand with a tribal-like fan base that would die to
get their hands on a mobile hand set that positions
themselves alongside their ’star’.
In 2010 a brand, maybe Nike, will build a phone filled with
sweet free apps based on the Android platform.

13. We’ll Form Social Clusters
Some say Facebook might reach 1 billion users in 2010. What
that means for digital branding and communication is hard to
say. But one effect of us all moving online is overflow of
social information. I love my friends online but when you get
swarmed with too much content you start to think about
clustering. I’ll keep my snowboarding friends in my
snowboarding community. I’ll keep my close friends on
Facebook. I’ll keep my social media/communication friends on
Twitter. Like that we’ll suddenly see people creating social
clusters and brands will have a VERY hard time penetrating
those clusters.
Personal recommendations will be higher valued than ever
and sadly we’ll also see protectionism much like the one
already happening when the early social networkers seem
pissed about the fact that other people find these tools.
In 2010 we’ll build walls around our social networks. The
days of sharing outside our true followers/friends might be
over. I sure hope not! But I’m not optimistic.

14. A New Global Car Brand Focused On Alternative Fuel
I know. This one might sound pretty stupid. But think again.
It’s perfect timing for someone with money, ideas and a great
industrial network to launch a brand focused solely on cars
driven by alternative fuels. The traditional car brands have
spent the last 70 years on perfecting fossil fuel driven
cars. Their engines are state of the art and it would be
practically impossible for you to compete with that
industry…unless…all that competence suddenly isn’t worth
jack shit.
Today if you’ve got the right connections you can shop all
the technology you want on the market. That engine can be
replaced with a huge battery. Wind tunnels are digital. You
find 10 industrial designers worth the money on every car
mechanic. And the world is craving for innovation. This could
of course be done by Tata or any of the Chinese car
manufacturers. But I think there’s tons of advantages to
start ‘clean’. Please let us drive something new in 2010!

15. Swedens First Digital Election
And to put this post to an end. In Sweden we have our election
coming up in 2010. Damn – the net will be swarmed with Barack
Obama wannabees. And I’m not sure they will benefit from it.
One tip to all you political parties – read my first
prediction – STAY REAL!

16. Also visit:
http://www.ronnestam.com/a-book-mashup-pdf-
or-whatever-you-wanna-call-it-by-johan-
ronnestam/
For the Top 10 Blog Posts of Future Branding
and Communication