Predicting the future is usually the preserve of mad men (and, in our game, analysts and bloggers with no sense of self-deprecation)!

But as 2011 draws to a close, and January welcomes a New Year, I find myself sat at my ipad and wireless keyboard; midway through a 23-hour flight from Sydney to London, and therefore willing to enter the realm of the insane and the self-contratulatory by offering up six key predictions for 2012!

So here we go:

one – online video: the time is now (because of the ubiquity of mobile app browsing and social networks as distiribution channels):

We’re evangelical about online video. We’ve blogged about the opportunities presented by VSEO online, and data-centric metrics for businesses before – plus, of course, the creative reach available to advertisers using video online.

A quick glance at ComScore’s data sheets proves this growth – but why do I think that 2012 will be a key year? Two words: mobile browsing.

The rise of mobile and tablets is having a profound impact on media consumption habits.

Mobile apps that have put video at the centre of their browsing platform have grown in popularity and will continue to do so. This will drive the popularity and proliferation of online video in 2012 way beyond 2011 levels. Just look at how your social network is sharing video (and static) content these days: apps like Flipboard and Pulse are becoming important new distribution channels, and this in turn will be a driver for the growth in video content online.

two – print media: the dramatic resurrection of the magazine and newspaper industries will attract more online advertising spend to these traditional ‘old media’ businesses.

i-tunes monetised the music industry – and in so doing, saved it. Apple’s Newsstand will do the same for the print media industry in 2012. Conde Nast, for example, recently reported a 268% increase in digital subscribers after launching on Newsstand.

Facebook and Google+ social news apps are also opening up opportunities for publishers. At the end of November 2011, The Guardian revealed that its app has been installed more than 4 million times and is driving more than 1 million additional daily page views for the publication. Big news, because more views equals more advertising bucks. More advertising bucks means more development in content and partnerships with third party news aggregation apps and e-viewers (let’s be optimistic about what large publishers do with profits shall we?! It is the New Year, after all!).

three – the rise and rise of ‘pre-found’ media: 2012 will be the year of bespoke, delivered content.

OK, so I’ve come up with a new phrase (this is what happens on long-haul flights after 3 rounds of plastic food in economy!): “pre-found” content is media served up to you by applications that have understood your social media preferences and browsing habits to aggregate and deliver something bespoke. 2012 will see the rise of apps that wade through the huge amounts of media online and deliver content in a beautiful and intuitive-to-view package. Taptu, Zite, News.Me and Flipboard. All worth a look to pick your favourite platform. RSS feeds are so 2011!

four – the impact of ‘second screen’ viewing will present huge opportunities for the Broadcast industries in 2012.

The impact of mobile devises is being is being felt in the living room too. According to Yahoo/Nielsen, 86% of web users now use a mobile device while watching TV (of which 63% are either accessing mobile apps or browsing social networks) – a huge increase from only 2 years ago. This creates new opportunities for marketing companies to launch more interactive campaigns and for advertisers to really take advantage of multi-platform. Start-ups like Into Now (in the US) have created platforms for engaging with the second screen audience: brands such as Pepsi, Gap and Starbucks have been jumping on board.

I predict that 2012 will also see the big TV networks starting to leverage the second screen factor. Most networks are now offering up streaming content on mobile devices, and some are building more creative and interactive experiences as part of their editorial thinking on landmark series – multi-platform content that will also result in more ‘stickability’ when it comes to audience retention, and increased ROI for advertisers. Even on smaller-scale projects, multi-platform will mean more than simply building a website to go alongside the TV show: 2012 will see smarter, more creative strategies for reaching target audiences and taking advantage of the increase in the second screen. Local boutique content creators (including animators, game developers and film-makers) will have just as many opportunities in this landscape as bigger, more established players. A good thing for all.

five – IPTV and connected TV’s will finally break through….

The promise of internet connected TV’s has been around for several years, and products such as Apple TV and networked gaming platforms (such as XBOX and PlayStation) have delivered little more than clunky platforms and average online browser experiences. Not an accusation that one can usually be levelled at Apple. This will change in the New Year.

Google and AppleTV are both working on hardware; LG have annouced a partnership with online specailist, YuMe to launch an ad network on thier connected sets. Just over 64% of TVs sold in 2012 will be connected TVs – with in excess of 35 million people connecting online via their big screen…

All this will mean one thing: more quality content will be needed, alongside a shift in the way in which professional media content is commissioned and distributed.

YouTube, for example, is investing $100 million in original web-only programming that will also be available on connected televisions, and this will drive the demand for better TV browser expereinces; tipping technology and commercial partnerships over the edge as viewers demand the same functionality for web-on-TV as they do on thier desktops and tablets.

six – mobile commerce will monitise content more than ever before in 2012:

Sat alongside increased advertising revenue as a result of the growth in online video platforms are the opportunities presented by e-commerce and mobile micro-payments – all of which we predict will explode in 2012.

Why? Because the big boys are taking e-commerce more seriously than ever before; drawing together all the other growth elements I’ve identified as being key, above.

Amazon and eBay tell tales of a large percentage of overall sales revenue now coming from mobile – a trend we think will continue – with Jupiter Research estimating mobile transactions to have grown to a staggering $670 billion globally by 2015.

Google Wallet, PayPal Wallet, and Square (in the US); not to mention rumours at the end of 2011 that Apple might be moving into the mobile payments space will provide location, deal-brokerage (such as ‘The Special’s Board,’ launched in Australia in 2011 by our very own James Harrison as a good example) and mobile payments all in one handy package.

When combined with integrated advertising, seamlessly syndicated across multi-media platforms, it becomes easier to make the case for 2012 being the new-dawn in mobile purchasing – and opportunities a-plenty.

So there we have it: 6 predictions – and a good hour and half killed on this long flight home!

Time will tell if 2012 will be the pivotal year we think it might be. However one thing is clear: concerns over global austerity and commercial melt-down can certainly be mitigated by the opportunities presented in our fast-moving and exciting market. So go forth and prosper. And have a very happy and healthy New Year.