6 ’cause’ and ’social enterprise’ predictions for 2010

1. ‘Cause marketing’ becomes the single greatest marketing opportunity for brands and corps wanting to re-frame Corporate Social Responsibility, with a new kind of authentic and participatory brand messaging, that penetrates deep in to the minds and hearts of consumers. This will also be the single biggest communication and perception challenge, with the spectre of ’cause-washing’ waiting to derail those initiatives that fail to deliver on the promise and media ’hype’. I would recommend to any brand or corp entering this space, to take an open minded ’launch and learn’ approach. The agility to make rapid course corrections and embrace the voice of the ‘crowd’ will separate the ‘winners’ from the ‘losers’. The 2 words that I would recommend any ‘digital’ cause marketeer have tattooed onto their forearm are, ‘COURAGE’ and ‘TENACITY’, because you’re going to need both of them by the boatload!

2. ‘Donor fatigue’ enters our daily vocabulary, as more and more people become nonplussed,  frustrated and irritated by constant requests via every media channel you can think of for $ donations. The new ‘mantra’ will be; “earn my trust, gain my permission, secure my time and leverage my influence, because they are of more value to you than my $.” For any cause wanting to experience sustainable future growth this is going to be the ‘holy grail’ space.

3. ‘Microfinance’ is put under the spotlight by hard nosed, investigative journalists and regulators. Expect to see a major ’shakeout’ and consolidation in the micro-finance industry, as it transitions from a local ’small’ players model, to a model driven by highly efficient, progressive thinking, developing world financial services providers, with well established ’local operator’ presence and track records of proven success.

4.  ‘Technology’ innovation in the ’cause’ space reaches fever pitch by ‘mid-summer’, as a whole slew of ‘web 2.0′ powerhouse names and investors enter the game. I predict this will lead to a major ’shakeout/meltdown’ of the sector in 2011, similar to the ‘dot com’ bust in the late 90’s!

5. ‘Mobile’ location-based, micro peer2peer ’cause’ transactions together with ’open network’ interoperability will begin to gain significant ‘early adopter’ traction. The trend for making it easier to become an active, daily ’cause’ participant will drive a new kind of ‘donor’ and micro-philanthropy 2.0 model.

6. ‘Innovation’ coming out of developing world ‘college and university campuses’, leveraging ‘low cost’ locally available materials and labor, will increasingly become the engine room that makes significant inroads in to some of the BIGGEST challenges facing society. Developed world investor groups, micro credit orgs and well networked ’social entrepreneurs’ will provide much of the expansion capital required to take these ideas from concept, to scale, to profit, to 21st century industrial and technology giants.

“So, that’s my final post of 2009, time to put the crystal ball back in its box for another 12 months!”