In some ways, it is. You didn’t see people walking around talking to handheld assistants in 2010 (well, not expecting them to respond coherently, anyway.) You didn’t see people taking iPads to bed in 2009 to watch the latest TV shows they streamed on Netflix (of course, iPads didn’t exist then.) You didn’t expect to be able to access the world’s largest advertising network with nothing more than a login and a credit card a few years before that. And you didn’t have people asking seriously about how easy it is to ditch their cable/satellite TV connection and stream online.

So yeah, we’re living in the future. No jetpacks and flying cars, maybe, but Elon Musk is saying he’ll put millions of people on Mars in 10-20 years. Hey, think of the franchising opportunities for Burger King! Of course, you may have to get used to $1000 Whoppers.

Anyway, back to reality. In the real world, here’s what you should be looking at in 2012:

Mobile-izing your website. Yeah. It’s time. You really need to consider how your website works on phones and mobile devices, now that they’re approaching double-digit traffic. What’s more, that traffic is more likely to be your target demographic, whether or not you’re selling B2B or B2C–business managers, owners, power users, people with disposable income. Your Flash site ain’t gonna show up on an iPad, so the power user’s son won’t be looking for your toys. Your site itself won’t display well on an iPhone, period–which could be the kiss of death when people are browsing in airports on the way to meetings, or in their few precious minutes at the Starbucks before work. Your site absolutely must have a phone-sized, mobile-friendly template for display on phones, and any Flash elements have to be reworked to HTML5. Welcome to the future

Taking a long hard look at Adwords. Yep, we covered this a couple of months ago, but it bears repeating. Google is the largest ad network in the world, with incredibly flexible tools for precisely targeting your audience and geography. If you’re not taking advantage of this, you’re probably losing out on potential business.

Putting down the broad social crack pipe. There are tons of companies on Facebook and Twitter that simply shouldn’t be there. B2B? Get out. Niche B2C? Take a long, hard look and compare the amount of money you’re spending managing your presences, doing contests, etc. to your more traditional marketing. If the numbers don’t add up, get out. Now, to be sure, there are plenty of companies who can benefit from social (especially entertainment) but the reality is that spending often doesn’t line up with results. This is a huge opportunity, because you can use the funds and personnel freed up from social for more effective marketing. Skeptical? Consider that Apple doesn’t engage with Facebook or Twitter at all.

At the same time, looking really hard at the niche social sites. For every Facebook, there’s a hundred thousand giant user communities, each focused on a specific niche. Jeeps. Headphones. Auto restoration. Offroading. Iron Man competitions. Cyclocross. Android rooting. You name it, it’s out there. If you’re determined to be in social, find out where the people talking about your stuff actually hang out—then wade in and introduce yourself. Sponsor a show or a contest. You’ll be surprised how niche social can be amazingly effective. Or maybe not, because they’re already predisposed to buying your stuff.

Putting print money into e-pubs or apps. Let’s face it. Print is smelling really bad. The days of feeling the expensive paper of a brochure to judge the worth of a product is over. People see something, they buy it online. The days of keeping racks of catalogs on your bookcases is also over. People look it up, and buy it online. If you’re in a niche that’s still using print, it’s time to move into the future–either through the development of an exceptional online catalog with great searching capabilities, e-pubs that people can keep on their desktop for quick reference, or even apps that help your customers choose and use your products. Add up your print costs–and you’ll be surprised what that’ll buy you on the electronic side.

Happy 2012! Hope you enjoy living in the future!

“You know, we went to a trade show recently, with all our cool new catalogs printed up. But the funny thing was, nobody wanted them!”

“Huh,” we said. “They didn’t want them at the show, or they didn’t want them to send it to you later?”

“Both! They didn’t want to take them back with them, because they were heavy. And a lot of them said they didn’t want us to send it at all, they might lose it, or they don’t use catalogs anymore.”

Welcome to the end of the catalog age. The days of pulling out the phone-book-sized reference and riffling through its pages are over. Even if it’s only a smaller, trade paperback-sized book, many people simply don’t want to deal with paper anymore. They’re getting more used to information being available at their fingertips via Google search and online parametric search. They’re finding what they need on their iPhone and Android handsets. And, as that takes hold, print starts to look, well, pretty antiquated. Anything that’s based on shipping around slabs of processed cellulose seems very quaint and nineteenth-century in the screen age.

(And yeah, before you comment about how easy it is to use catalogs, we agree–the user interface still has some real benefits. Unfortunately, the information may be out of date. And you have to put it somewhere. And that somewhere may be under a pile of other papers, or stuck on a shelf between other look-alike books.)

The death of catalogs isn’t confined to the consumer space. The customer we were talking to was a tech firm selling very, very specialized products to an extremely select customer base.

So what do you do? Well, the logical answer is to put everything you have–or as much as possible–online. But what if you don’t have control of your corporate website? This client has a parent company that controls the site, and they are not (yet) interested in moving reams of data, tables, drawings, and descriptions to their web interface. Neat challenge, huh?

But let’s address that a little later, in point 5 below. For now, let’s take what you can do, in order.

1. Put the data online and invest in the best site search and data sorting you can get. This is the obvious solution–put everything online, drive people to the site, and let them find the information they’re looking for there. This is where the best site search and data sorting comes in. Let’s say you have products that can be referred to in six different ways, and your customers can be looking for them based on any of a dozen different specs. You need to have great search–cross-referenced, natural language, category sorted. You also need a way for them to find the exact product they want once they get to the “big list.” Parametric search, where you can set ranges for one or more specs, and sort by any particular specification (in both ascending and descending order) is a lifesaver in this case.

2. Move the catalog to print on demand for the people who want it or need it. There will still be customers who want paper. But maybe the days of running 20,000 perfect-bound copies is gone. Move it to print on demand, for digital printing and ring-binding or perfect-binding, on any number of in-house or outsourced presses that can do 1-100 copies at a time.

3. Make sure they can get your data on their phone with a mobile-friendly site. Like it or not, the phone interface is increasingly important. Can you see your product diagrams and photos clearly on a phone? Are the data tables usable? Do all the buttons work? Can they see the linked video? Is all the functionality usable? At the least, your site should be tested on the two most popular mobile devices–iPhone and Android–and the site made to be “mobile friendly.”

4. Better yet, create a mobile-specific site. Let’s face it: data tables that display well at 1280 x 800 and 13″ wide aren’t ideal for a 4″ screen. Nor are the big photos your using best for a slow mobile connection. Consider developing a separate , mobile-specific site template that presents your products in a much more mobile-friendly manner, with big text, big buttons, and a stepwise interface. This can usually be done with your existing data and a different set of stylesheets. It’s more work, but if your audience is moving mobile (and most of them are), this is the most universal way to deliver your information on a handset. It can easily accommodate both Android and iPhone devices, as well as RIM and Windows Mobile.

5. If you really don’t control your site, and can’t get your product information on it, consider developing an app. Yes. There. We said it. Develop an iPhone/Android app to deliver your rich content directly to your audience. There are a number of interesting, XML-based interfaces that allow the easy update and management of complex information via your desktop–just like a website content management system. So if you’re like our client above, you can still deliver your catalog directly to your audience’s phone, and bypass the website entirely. No, it won’t be the most popular app in the universe, but if you’re selling high-dollar components and equipment, it could easily pay for itself with only a handful of customers.

So, don’t fear the end of the catalog age–adapt to it, and deliver your information exactly how your customers want it. You may even be able to earn a permanent bookmark, or a place in their app drawer, on their phone.

And just think what else you might be able to do with the app.

“I need a new print ad.”

“I want a Facebook presence and a really compelling social media campaign.”

“Our website blows, can you redesign it?”

Now, there’s nothing wrong with any of those requests. Not inherently. And yeah, there are tons of agencies that’ll simply toddle away and come back to you with ideas for an ad, a social media campaign, or a website. And that’s perfectly fine, too, as long as those requests are grounded in solid strategy.

But most of the time, they aren’t.

Here’s the difference. If you come to us and say, “I need a new print ad, based on the fact that print has always been our best response medium, and the magazines we’re in are holding up well in terms of size and quality of subscriber base, but our current ad is stale and it’s not pulling,” that’s wonderful. That’s strategic. And it’s very likely that a new print ad is really all you need. The only other question we might ask would be about your media buy, and if you’ve looked at sponsorship or partnership opportunities with the magazines’ online presence, since there are usually some interesting opportunities on that side.

But here’s how it usually goes:

Client: “We need a new print ad.”
Centric: “Cool. What’s up? Isn’t it pulling?”
Client: “Well, it’s kinda old.”
Centric: “But how is it doing, response-wise?”
Client: “It’s been falling a bit. I think.”
Centric: “How are the magazines doing? Have you looked at the subscription numbers and demographics lately?”
Client: “Well, no, but aren’t all print magazines kinda dying?”
Centric: “In many cases, yes. But if your media is dying, isn’t it time to look at another approach to get the results you want?”
Client: “Are you actually trying to talk me out of giving you money?”
Centric: “Nope. We just want to get the best results. Now, what exactly are you trying to do here…”

And so we find out what’s really happening with their marketing, and we can make suggestions about how to better spend their budget.

This is what strategic marketing is all about: making the most of your outreach, so you can meet and exceed your goals. And this is how we approach every project–not simply reacting to a request, but actually looking to understand the needs of the campaign.

Strategic marketing isn’t hard, either. It’s usually just a repetitive application of one question: Why?

Here’s how it works. Let’s suppose your CEO has just read an article about the wonderful new world of social media marketing, and storms into your office, saying, “We have to have a Facebook presence! Get me an order of that social media marketing right now, pronto!”

Now, you may not want to get up in the face of your CEO and start asking him, “Why?” But you may want to bring in an agency that can ask questions like:

“That’s great. Will you be the first company in your industry up on Facebook? If not, how are your competitors doing? Oh, hey, look, one of them has 87 likes. You know, that’s not so great. And have you thought about the staffing needs for social media? Ah, you didn’t know this was a full-time job. That’s cool, there are some companies that are doing pretty well with Facebook. But there are a lot of failures, too, so let’s talk about what you really want to accomplish here.”

And then, in the end, if it’s right for you to have a Facebook campaign, you will.

But if it’s not, you won’t. And your marketing budget will be free to be invested in vehicles with a better return.

On hundreds of millions of iOS and Android devices, that’s the rallying cry. Want to identify the tune you just heard on the radio? Get free directions on a 3D rendered cityscape? Scan barcodes for comparison shopping? Play Angry Birds? Measure EMF? Perform audio analysis? Make music? Amuse your cat?

We’re coming up fast on a million apps in the wild, with a dizzying array of capabilities, categories, and prices. And, if you’re like most marketers, you’ve probably asked yourself, “Is an app for me? Can this help me spread the word about my products? Get new customers? Earn new leads?

The answer, as typical in marketing, is an enthusiastic, “Maybe!”

First, though, consider this: we’re currently just starting the first wave of automated app-builders like AppBreeder. This online service promises “An iPhone and Android app without programming, in just a few easy steps!” And free, too!

Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? Yep. Until you take a look at the history of “easy, free tools.”

1980s: Desktop Publishing means easy, free typesetting and graphics for everyone! Yes, except for one tiny catch: without graphic design talent, desktop publishing was only a shortcut to a bizarre mess of 35 fonts in 50 styles, all on a single page. End result: graphic design is still very much alive and well, and the best designers are in high demand.

1990s: EZ Web Builders mean you can do easy, free websites with no programming at all, ridding everyone of all that pesky HTML and surly programmers! Yep, except for the terrible, error-ridden code, the steep learning curve, and the fact that any tool can’t stay ahead of an evolving web development environment. End result: web programming is thriving.

2000s: Mak-Ur-Own-Widget online widget building tools means everyone can make web and desktop widgets, easy and free! Well, that is if you’re interested in a simple RSS or video player widget. And if you’re OK with the limited platform and sharing options. End result: if you’re still serious about widgets or Facebook apps, you’re going to a developer.

And now, here we are:

2010s: AppBreeder breeds apps like rabbits, making iPhone and Android apps easy and free. Now every band, realtor, bar, and gas station can have their own app! Well, as long as you’re OK with their extremely limited customization options and single-note functionality.

What will be the end result of online services like AppBreeder? Lots and lots more apps. And that’s fine. But when people discover the limited functionality of those apps, will they use them? Will Suzy Realestate ever get more than three users (all from her own family) for her real estate app? Maybe. And maybe not.

“Well, that’s fine, you surly old cur, but how do I know if I need an app?” You may be saying. “Maybe an app is exactly the kick in the pants my marketing needs!”

Maybe. Here are some questions you can ask yourself to determine if an app is for you:

1. Do I have a unique service, product, or technology that isn’t already on the Apple App Store and Android Marketplace? If you do, you’re a prime candidate for app development. If not, maybe not so much, unless you can answer “yes” to #2 below.

2. Do I have a product or service with a unique, engaging personality that is constantly developing new content that can be pushed to mobile users? If you aren’t providing a service, you’re providing content. If you’re set up to constantly feed content, great! If not, not so much.

3. Do I have the budget to engage a professional app developer to develop the app? You’re not going to get a ton of users from a free app. Sorry. It just ain’t gonna happen. AppBreeder, prove me wrong. Using celebrities doesn’t count.

4. Do I have ongoing budget for app updates? An app is software. Repeat that a bunch of times. Software isn’t released once, it’s updated on an ongoing basis. Are you budgeted for this? If not, steer clear.

5. Do I have personnel or budget for app support? Get into apps, and you’re a software company, and software requires support. Do you have people that users can call when the app doesn’t work, or doesn’t install, or they don’t know how to use it? If not, apps may not be for you.

Sometimes I think they’re hoping we’ll say something like, “Well, it’s this new platform, OMGWFTBBQ.com, that combines auto-generated creative with positive-only social commentary to spread the word about your new product completely free! Even better, it has conversion rates 10X higher than any other media platform we’ve ever used. Plus, it requires no oversight or management at all, so you don’t even need to hire staff!”

Yeah. Putting aside the fact that a platform like that would make both ad agencies and marketing departments completely obsolete, I wish the answer was that easy. I wish we could point our finger at one single thing and say, “Yep, this is it. This is what we have to pay attention to.” But marketing is so personalized, so specific to your products and your audience, that there’s no one single thing we can point at.

So, let’s take a look at some of the things that we should be paying attention to.

1. The Evolving Mobile Landscape. The big thing for 2011 (and the coming years) is simply the evolving mobile landscape. Like it or not, there’s a gigantic shift in how people use information. More people will access the internet by phone than PC by the end of 2011, according to some pundits. Mobile, location-based services are growing exponentially. The Android/iPhone battle has only just begun. Paying attention to opportunities in mobile could potentially pay off big for your company—even if you don’t think you cater to the “typical” mobile browser. Consider:

a. Is there a mobile version of your website, easily accessible via iPhone/Android browsers? If not, you may be missing more and more opportunities from mobile users?

b. Do your customers use location-based services, and should you be engaging with them?

c. Should you be advertising specifically to iPhone, iPad, and Android phone users? If you aren’t, are you missing a potentially lucrative audience?

d. Do you have specific functionality or services that lend themselves to an iPhone/Android application, and is there interest in such an app among your customers and prospects? Even in the B2B world, sharing your capabilities on a mobile platform could bring significant competitive advantage.

2. The Social Shakeout. Facebook and Twitter continue to grow, Foursquare is trying to take your social mobile, and new commerce-related offerings like Groupon are changing the way people interact with each other–and your business. At the same time, Facebook is evolving and changing its capabilities, Twitter is emerging as a great platform for celebrities–but maybe not much else, and giant companies have chosen not to engage in social at all without any ill effects. Think Apple, which simply doesn’t play in social. Also think AT&T and their disastrous Facebook presence. Don’t these guys know they’re one of the most-hated companies around? What can we take away from this:

a. In some cases, it may make sense for your company to engage in one or more of these platforms. Do you have a truly groundbreaking product or service? Do you have a refreshing attitude and amazing creative that people like to share? Do you have the resources in-house to maintain the conversations, or an agency to be your voice? In this case, maybe you should be on all the social platforms.

b. In other cases, it makes no sense at all to get involved in social. Are you a B2B industry? Selling commoditized products? Possibly have some negative customer experiences in the past? Already overstressed and overworked in the marketing department, and no budget to hire an agency? Then stay out of social. It’s that simple.

3. Truly Useful Augmented Reality. Yes, it sounds like something out of a science fiction novel, but truly useful augmented reality is starting to appear. Let’s start with WordLens, which translates words on pages, signs, billboards, etc in real time–and places them in situ, replacing the original words. That’s a far cry from apps that let you try on different sunglass styles or play with a 3D model of a camera.

Don’t see the relevance? Ask yourself how long it’ll be before advertisers are bidding on the real-time replacement of keywords in our retinal projection displays. Or, to be more down-to-earth useful, how long will it be before a aircraft technician can point his smartphone at a engine assembly and watch a 3D overlay disassemble in real time? There’s a gigantic opportunity here.

The catch? Price. Augmented reality still isn’t cheap or easy. Bring 6 figures to start. But, as new platforms proliferate, and as production becomes easier, expect the price to drop.

4. The Death of Flash. A couple of years ago, a super-slick Flash website with embedded games, music, video editing, and a bunch of other neat features was the ne plus ultra of consumer and entertainment marketing online. Today, it’s a land-locked dinosaur, irrelevant when compared to slimmed-down, contextual mobile applications. Flash is dying because it doesn’t serve as a gateway to mobile. If you’re going to put big money in Flash, you better have a very good reason for it.

So, is that all? Of course not. There’s a ton of interesting things going on right now, from game-based traffic-shaping mobile applications to browser-based access to 3D virtual worlds, to crossovers between augmented reality and branded entertainment.

But the big questions remain: Are they relevant to you? Will they move the needle in your marketing goals?

Maybe. And maybe not.

The Importance of Partners

Why are partners important? It’s simple. When you’re working with a boutique agency like Centric or McHale, you need to know the agency has a roster of trusted, proven partner relationships in place. No boutique agency can do it all. Some are much better at design than development. Some specialize in a specific industry. Some are focused on broadcast or motion graphics. Centric is a great choice if you’re looking for strategically-driven, interactive-led marketing in a variety of industry niches. We do great sites and online marketing in-house, and we have the breadth to span from leading-edge social marketing to conventional print and direct.

But, let’s say you’re looking for something quite a bit different. Let’s say you want a stunning, design-led approach for your new toy or game. Would you come to Centric? Nope. You’d go to McHale. They have the experience, the track record, and the in-house creative skills to do what you need.

Oh, but you need an engaging site as well? That’s where Centric comes in.

The Centric-McHale Connection

Centric and McHale have worked together seamlessly on a variety of projects over the past few years, ranging from interactive websites to kids’ virtual worlds. Because of this, McHale came to us when it was time to re-do their website. They brought the design and functionality vision to us.

From there, Centric took over. We created the Flash site based on McHale’s design and overall vision, working closely with them to ensure it met their specific needs. We also suggested some significant enhancements to the site architecture. The Flash-rendered site is powered by an XML back end–which, in English, means that it’s easy for McHale to manage their rapidly-changing site sections with a standard content management system (CMS.) The result is a site combining the strengths of Flash (a fluid, seamless, graphic-rich visual experience) with the benefits of HTML (easy content management and updates.)

How You Benefit

Trusted partnerships like the ones between Centric and McHale extend the capabilities of both agencies. They also mean those agencies work well with others. There are no “turf wars” or “not invented here syndrome.” We know how to work together to deliver even more stunning projects for our clients.

And that’s the bottom line: we play well with others. So, if you’re out there, happy with your conventional agency but needing a significant boost in the interactive space, talk to Centric. We’ll work together with them to improve your results, rather than trying to win the entire account from them. Or, if you’re thrilled with your interactive partner but need an agency with real design chops in the toy, game, and kids’ market, talk to McHale. They’ll take your design to the next level.

Or, even better . . . check out McHale’s new site right now.

Blogposts stolen include:

5 Reasons to Revamp Your Website
What’s your Why?
Go Mobile, Young Man
The Whys of Social Media: Facebook
Website Packaged Solutions: What You Should Ask
The Whys of Social Media: Twitter
The Augmented Future

So, if you find content that doesn’t link to our site under these titles in a quick Google search, well, there you go. Ours are the originals.

To be clear: the Centric blog is always original content, created by Jason Stoddard, Sue Arellano, or Kevin Cuxil, or the three of us in collaboration. Our competition? Maybe not so much.

Update: 5 minutes after sending an email, the company removed the content. However, this post will remain until the cached Google results disappear, or until they contact us to explain why they thought they could simply steal content.

And there’s a much bigger opportunity floating out there. These guys get it:

“So, what the heck can I do with this in the B2B world, or, hell, even in the B2C world?” you ask. “This is just another way to reach a niche market of iPhone users.”

And iPod Touch users.

And iPad users (in a bigger case, yeah.)

It’s a way to reach 50MM+ self-selected, technology-forward, affluent consumers. And a growing number of people who use iPhones in their business.

What will you do with it?

But in an age where the FTC has to step in to advise bloggers to disclose their relationships to products that they shill, an age where there are dozens of “social activation” companies ready to sell networks of millions of people eager to go tell their friends about your product in an anonymous, friendly way, when getting top spot on Digg or YouTube is its own industry, where that friend on Facebook may be a robot spammer for some brand you’ve never heard of, you gotta wonder: where does it end?

With advertising, at least you know what the game is. Ads want you to buy something.

With advertising, at least you know the company that placed it has some money behind them. Ads aren’t cheap.

And with advertising, at least you know the message of the ad has to be reasonably accurate, or else it’ll be dissected by millions of people on YouTube, in forums, on Facebook, on Twitter, and in a thousand watchdog blogs.

So was Mark Twain right when he said, “Adverisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper?”

Maybe he was engaging in a little hyperbole there.

Probably.

But truth is, word on the street ain’t always accurate. Or honest. Keep that in mind, next time ten of your followers chirp enthusiastically (and with oddly similar voices) about the latest gotta-have gadget.

Here’s a glimpse at our augmented future.

Watch it all the way through. Yes, I know, it’s long. Yes, I know, the hardware ain’t Apple-sexy. But this was also something put together on a college-shoestring budget with a very small team.

Buckle up. The future is coming.