Inspiration Information #1.

January Blues. What January Blues? We're raring to go here at the Old Treacle Factory and to usher in a year we expect to bring exciting innovations to our work and the industry in general we'll be blogging some of the trends, technology, cultural and business developments pushing things forward throughout January.

Crystal ball gazing is a mug’s game, so we’re not going to set ourselves up as marketing soothsayers but we do want to share what's exciting us as we enter into the most exciting year yet at RPM. These are the things putting a spring in our step every morning. Please share yours with us here or on Twitter, and check the Pinterest boards for daily inspiration.

'Social content', not social media

Content Marketing was the buzz phrase of 2012 for digital marketers and looks set to dominate the agenda this year for the Econsultancy crowd. For us, the important revelation the marketing world woke up to here was that a social strategy is not about what platform your brand should be on (Facebook? Pinterest?) but what content your brand’s audience wants from you. The platforms, of course, follow.

Writing in Marketing Magazine in December, Gordon MacMillan claimed that 2013 would be about throwing your social media strategy out the window and starting again. His point was just this; that brands should start with what they are going to say whether that’s called branded content, brand journalism or content marketing.

Too many brands know this all too well from Burberry to Bodyform (who both executed great work in this space last year) for it to be a revelation. We look forward to more coming around to the idea of entertaining, adding value, supporting customer passions and opening up their relationship with their audience through the power of content.

One note of caution on ‘content marketing’ though, watch out for the digital marketers who will turn this into another branch of the more dubious aspects of SEO, creating list article after list article as catnip for social sharers.

Real World Digital

From devices like the Twine box, which can be wired to Tweet when your washing is done or when the kids have their fingers in the chocolate cupboard, to the Nest thermostat which is controlled from your phone and learns your schedule to control the heat in your home accordingly, the ‘Internet of Things’ is going mainstream this year.

We love the applications that we’re already seeing in the marketing world – Bubblegum dispensers controlled by Twitter hashtags, city-centre snowstorms triggered by Foursquare checkins.

Take a look at our ‘Real World Digital’ board on Pinterest for more inspiration.

Start-ups go B2B

It’s getting harder and harder for the slew of consumer apps to cut-through amidst all the noise and that troublesome requirement for meaningful revenue models. Cynical tech scene commentator ReadWriteWeb reckons this will be the year when we take the axe to all those unused apps ‘with filters’ that have flooded our smartphones.

Some smart maneuverers have already sidestepped their original consumer proposition and gone B2B in search of meaningful revenue – take a look at Percolate who started out as a content digest for the time-poor culled from your social feeds but is now using its technology to power dashboard software that combines insight with content publishing for brand clients.

As it becomes more and more important for the tech innovators to make money we foresee more and more opportunities for brands to collaborate and bring value to their audiences in partnerships with tech’s best minds.

More next week and if you'd like to bring something to our attention, hit us @rpmltd on Twitter.