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British produce is amongst the best in the world. We all know that. We've got some fantastic food and drink to be proud of; Cornish pasties, Scottish Salmon, a variety of cheeses and Melton Mowbray pork pies, to name just a few.

The public is increasingly aware of this, and wants a piece of the action. A good example is that more and more people are growing their own vegetables. Living in a flat myself with no garden to speak of, I have not quite become that green-fingered. I am however trying to cultivate a mini windowsill herb garden with varying degrees of success. Under my wing at the moment is a sprig of coriander and a few wobbly basil leaves, held upright with a cocktail-stick construction.

At the other end of the scale however, British foodies are surpassing themselves with their food and drink successes. Today's Daily Mail told of a lesser known vineyard in West Sussex. Its new sparkling wine to the scene, Nyetimber's Classic Cuvee 2003, beat Bollinger and came out top of the pops at the World Sparkling Wine Championships in Verona.

And on a different farm in the same county, a creative couple have recently revealed their first commercial crop of British olives. Their 180 olive trees have yielded a crop that even the Italians are impressed with.

I can't wait to see what the next entrepreneurial Brit will produce in their back garden. A juicy tropical pineapple? A traditional French brie? Let's throw down the gauntlet and see what we can come up with!

2010 will be the year that the consumer is truly central to all communications campaigns across the public sector.  The NHS is committed to putting the patient first, a theme that's been central to health service comms in recent years.  This isn't anything new, but we'll see this take off more than ever as local authorities increasingly deliver campaigns - tailored to the individual, which take advantage of the latest developments in technology.

According to Marshall Manson, of Edelman UK, patients are increasingly searching online for healthcare information and NHS Choices' blogs and forum section caters perfectly for patients as a way to share information and seek advice on a wide range of medical conditions.

The site was launched a couple of years back but is continuingly evolving and now features a clever portal allowing patients and healthcare professionals to share their own experiences.  It's great for those looking for easily-accessible information about a sensitive issue or just have somewhere to engage with fellow patients and demonstrates how the NHS has adopted social media to put the patient first. 

But while 2009 may have been the year that social media became the latest buzz word, it's not the only tactic that lends itself perfectly to the patient-central approach. 

It may be a simple concept, but ensuring you understand your audience and what influences their behaviour is vital for an effective communications strategy. Simon Wakeman recently argued that this is an area that PRs and Marketeers have been lacking and shared the COI guide to communications and behaviour change.  This is a great guide which highlights the need to understand social-psychological theories before planning and creating campaigns which have a tangible effect within the public sector.

Rather than a communications-focussed approach, the most successful campaigns will use this audience insight to deliver social marketing, social media and traditional PR elements to have a real impact on influencing local communities and delivering public awareness campaigns.

So, as budgets become increasingly tight and communicators are challenged to demonstrate their value and effectiveness, a one-size fits all approach certainly can't be adopted.  The NHS's overarching strategy is about putting the patient first, and this will be a trend seen across the whole of the public sector to help deliver campaigns to those hard-to-reach audiences.

Joe Public is becoming increasingly food savvy and consumers want to talk about how much they know about food, whether that's being seen in the right restaurants or growing their own vegetables. As a result, people are becoming braver with their cooking, more knowledgeable about the ingredients in their kitchens and are looking for taste and substance over gourmet glitz.

To keep up with the Joneses (or the Ramseys!) look out for these trends over the next year and beyond:

(1) In-house Butchers

With people cooking more at home, the traditional butcher is making a comeback. In the mainstream, the return of the butchery counter to Asda stores is a case in point, whilst in another walk of life; butchery classes are enjoying record waiting lists. Will all self-respecting kitchens boast a meat hook in the next ten years?

(2) iPhone Apps take on Ainsley and friends

Move over celebrity cooking shows, you can now get famous foodies on your iPhone. Jamie Oliver has launched a 20 minute meal app with step-by-step recipe instructions, whilst BBC Good Food magazine recently boasted a Christmas iPhone app offering festive recipes. People may be tiring of the same old cooking shows, but the iPhone is set to revive the trend and help us fall back in love with the celebrity chef.

(3) A handful of goodness

Healthy eating is not a new thing, but the trend for natural ingredients is set to go one step further in 2010 as brands boast varieties with "just a handful of ingredients." Even McDonalds is promoting the fact that its burgers are 100% beef with just salt and pepper and in America, Haagen Dazs has introduced the "Five" range. With just five ingredients it is positioned as an "all natural" ice cream, made with less fat.

(4) Go, Go Kitchen Gadgets

And finally, check out this transparent toaster - the must-have appliance for the next ten years. Never again will a slice of toast be burnt!

The noughties have seen many a regional newspaper sent to the gallows and have been the culling force behind national newspaper circulations. But whilst the hard copies are flailing, their websites are rocketing in popularity with the Daily Mail heading up the charge boasting over 29 million unique users every month.

The introduction of the BlackBerry, iPhone and e-readers have all made reading on-the-move the norm and ink-ridden fingertips a thing of the past and have, in turn, fuelled a generation of electronic, news-hungry readers.

It wasn't long before the media kings of the world caught wind of their dwindling print sales and looked to make money from their flourishing online sites through micro payment systems. In May last year, Rupert Murdoch announced that News Corporation would, within 12 months, be charging its readers for online access and would strengthen the blow by removing stories from Google's search index.

Meanwhile, Apple is due to launch a multi-purpose tablet device (iSlate) later this month, with digital reading one of its main uses. This is sure to be too great a temptation for the likes of Murdoch as he makes his newspaper empire available through the click of a paid-for e-reader app.

But, flying the flag for traditional media is The Pew Research Centre in Baltimore (Maryland, US). It recently ran a study which looked at on and offline news outlets and found that 95% of stories with new information originated from traditional media, particularly newspapers. Overall only 17% of on and offline media stories were 'new'.

So will our newspapers stand the test of time and make it through the next decade? Probably. But not without a fight. And not before we see a few more P45s issued along Fleet Street.

Pop up shops aren't new but their use and relevance to PR is becoming more apparent and they look set to become mainstream in 2010 - an interesting paradox. The temporary shops that are currently 'popping up' all over London have demonstrated a perfect way to create buzz and word of mouth, extend a brand, increase SEO, and engage in perfect PR - two-way communication.

They are often a low cost, quick and effective method of communicating with a target audience in an exciting way. A great example of a pop up shop used well in a PR campaign was the Marmite shop on Regent Street, which appeared in the run up to Christmas and was a huge success - it stocked some 100 Marmite inspired products. Other recent examples of pop up shops include Heinz Baked Beans and Southern Comfort.

One trend that had tech and marketing heads salivating in 2009 and one which consumers can expect to see more of in 2010, is augmented reality (AR).

For the uninitiated, AR blurs the line between the real and the virtual by adding a layer of digital information to the world as we see it, usually text, graphics or sound.

The concept itself is nothing new - futurists and sci-fi authors have been touting it for years - the difference being that where once it required complex, high powered computers and awkward, head mounted displays, now all you need is a smart phone and an internet connection.

Although the technology is still in its infancy, and many developers are still playing about with variations on the "superimposing googly eyes on peoples' faces" theme, there are a number of useful apps and eye opening demo's available to get you excited.

Here are some of my top picks:

The Layer App

One of the more useful examples is the Layer browser for mobiles, which uses GPS and Google maps to identify nearby places of interest. You just point your viewfinder down a street and the browser gives you information on all kinds of things, from historical and tourist information to the latest offers in shops, bars and restaurants.

IBM's Wimbledon App

Similarly, this application was developed to help baffled tennis fans navigate the vast array of courts, bars and toilets that make up the Wimbledon labyrinth. It even provided people with real time data to help them avoid pesky queues.

Twittaround

If you ever wonder where all those tweets are coming from, then this one's for you. The app uses the iPhone's camera and overlays it with nearby tweets. You can move around and see who is tweeting, what they're saying and how far away they are.

There are also a growing number of demo's that demonstrate the potential of AR, many of which you can try yourself.

GE's AR Demo

All you need is a printer and webcam for this. Watch the video to find out how to put a 3D solar farm onto the palm of your hand.

Papervision 3D Wormhole

This demo turns a cut-out shape into a 3D wormhole. Pretty pointless, but brilliant none the less!

I've been reading Herd by Mark Earls, which explains how most of us have been misunderstood the mechanics of mass behaviour because our thinking is shaped by misplaced notions of what it means to be human.  We are at heart a 'we-species', but we are suffering from the 'illusion of I.' So basically, we do what we do because other people do it... like Sheep!

Over the next ten years, I believe we'll see more campaigns attempt to create and facilitate mass human behaviour (similar to flash mobs, the free hug phenomenon, Mexican waves etc) in the tenners but for this to work, brands and agencies must launch campaigns at the beginning of a new upward trend. If you were to ask me what the most successful campaigns over the next 10 years will be, I would say that they will combine mobile devices, social media and GPS technology. 

1. Accidental spokespeople

Brands big or small all have advocates, people who genuinely love their products or services. Some of these fans even actively share this love with others. And with the powerful conversational nature of social media this opens up a huge opportunity for companies to harness the third party credibility of these 'accidental spokespeople'.  This year try and search for your biggest and most credible broadcasters, engage with them, and generate some real valuable endorsement.

2. Think dual carriageways not one way streets

If you talked to people the way advertisers talk to people, you'd get punched. Start having a conversation with your customers. Start small, perhaps a simple Twitter feed, your customers will appreciate the dialogue, input and feedback. And so will you. You never know, they might just have the next big idea.

3. Personality moments (read more about personality moments here)

These are unexpected moments between you (your brand) and your customer. They are the dozens of small occurrences that happen during that interaction when you have a chance to build a deeper relationship with your customers. What can you do for your brand which reveals a little of your company's personality that raises a smile and encourages them to tell someone else?

4. Size doesn't matter

Stop thinking in BIG numbers e.g. OTS, AVE or Reach, start looking at measuring your communication by levels of influence. Why is reaching 100,000 people you can't be sure

has read or understood your message better than having a rich, two way conversation with 50? Big numbers make us feel comfortable but they're not necessarily meaningful.

5. Think conversation planning not campaign planning

Making sure your next idea gets talked about is much easier if you consider adding talkability right from the start, rather than looking for PR to sprinkle conversation magic dust afterwards. Don't limit yourself to PR though. Everything from your packaging to customer service should consider driving talkability about your business.

Media like it when decades turn.  They can look back and report what they reported. And they can find experts to advise what they will be reporting. It's a kind of two-for-one on content, twenty years worth of stories for the price of ten.

To save you time, I've trawled the best of the commentators and thrown in some of mine to give you a top 10 trends. (Sorry it's not 20, we leave the BOGOF to our friends at Initials)

2010 and the teenies will be the decade that:

1. PR will become genuinely measurable - because all content will be digital

2. The skill of the soft-sell wins through -push or interruption marketing will die

3. PR helps define the big idea, rather than the big idea defining the PR

4. Light lots of small fires - not just one big one

5. Integration does not mean 'perfect matching luggage'

6. Activity will go: drip drip drip, not BANG! Silence BANG! Silence

7. The crowd will dominate: surfed, sourced or served

8. Social media becomes a mainstream channel, not a niche idea

9. Google Android will see mobile content explode

10. Blogger brands become mainstream

11. Bonus! Surprise and delight your customers

Click here to see some deeper future-casting comment. Marketing Week features a really interesting article for FMCG brands.

Arguably, the media landscape changed more than ever in 2009 and this change is sure to continue well into 2010 and beyond. The emergence of Twitter and the many applications that stem from this social medium, such as Tweet Deck and Twitpic can go someway to explain this, however the recession, the subsequent decline in ad spend and the closure of a large number of media houses has played its part.

Social media is changing the way that people 'get their news' and also changing the way that it's reported too, for example, Twitter and the Tweetdeck application (with the correct search terms set up) now means that I can go through a full working day without logging on to the BBC News website or watching Sky News - through following the right people/organisations, this medium allows me to find out what's happening in the world before a journalist has time to start his car or sharpen his pencil.

Technology and social media is also changing the way that news is reported too, the advance in technology e.g. the iPhone and its many Apps and the continued emergence of social media now means that traditional media, in particular broadcast outlets, rely on the public to provide them with photographs, images and commentary as the news breaks. The Sky News iPhone App, for example, has a 'Send Your Report' function where an iPhone owner can send in a photograph, a mini report and contact details - further fuelling citizenship journalism.

The closure of regional media outlets over the last 12 months, has seen citizenship and community journalism flourish as 'everyday' (for want of a better word) people set up local websites and blogs to fill the void in local news left by these closures.

Traditional print media is struggling, people's media habits are changing, 2010 is going to be a very interesting year as the landscape continues to change. Professional Journalism will never be wiped out, but I'm looking forward to seeing how the two forms continue to complement each other.

Marketing Week ran a great feature last week on the blurring of boundaries between PR and marketing. All but a handful of our clients are brand marketers, so in our experience separating the two disciplines is rare. Certainly from Finn's perspective, PR and word of mouth are important parts of the strategic marketing communications mix, best served integrated.

What was interesting was to see how the panellists in the article, senior V-Ps from InterContinental hotels, Mc Donalds and Coca Cola, were all unanimous that PR was taking a more important role in the mix. This is because they see it as the discipline best suited to handle social media, to adapt to an environment where we don't have control and to create engagement with consumers through dialogue.

Nick Hindle, VP of Communications at McDonalds explains neatly that "Marketing has realised that PR is a more contemporary communication technique; and PR has realised it needs to use data and insight as smartly as marketing to take greater accountability for creating outcomes." 

That's an important area for us here at Finn. In the New Year we'll be launching a new evaluation technique which will evaluate cost per impact to enable a comparable metric to media. Similarly, we will use online measuring tools to assess the impact of digital buzz on website traffic and search engine optimisation.

I'll leave you, dear reader, to enjoy the article. But below are a few quotes which have resonated with us:

Nick Hindle (McDonalds): "PR people operate in an environment where we don't have control. This gives us a headstart in a world where customers take your marketing content, play with it, critique it and turn it into something you hadn't thought of. This can be for better and sometimes worst."

Lauren Branston (Coca-Cola): "Marketers are more used to dealing with self-contained controlled messages through campaigns that they 'push' out to consumers. PR professionals have more experience in entering into dialogue with a variety of different audiences. So I think marketers can learn from PRs on how to engage with consumers in today's much more complex media environment, where you have to listen and respond to a wide range of views. But we can both learn from each other."

Leslie McGibbon (InterContinental Hotels): "Good PR professionals have a very clear understanding of their audience group and how to get the biggest bang for your buck."

Karen Myres (IPC Media): "Each discipline is equally capable of leadership but in terms of the broader skills in planning, strategic thinking, building relationships and influence, PR people are well placed to lead multidiscipline teams." 

I've just tried to watch some coverage for our client Findus Crispy Pancakes on River Cottage on 4 on Demand, and there are loads of ads all the way through.  Three in a row at one point! Unbelievable! It was so frustrating.

OK, so the clever guys who work in online advertising have worked out how to get ads into online TV programmes. Ones that you have to watch too. You can't skip through them.  But has anyone stopped to ask if this is a good idea or not? Yes a lot more people are watching TV online, but one of the beauties of the internet for me is the freedom to 'surf'.  I don't want to be interrupted with ads and in-fact, it has now put me off Waitrose, Bosch and Hitachi- this type of interruption marketing drives me mad! Worst thing is, when I want to watch the programme again, I have to watch all the bloody ads again too! It stinks of ad / media buying agencies trying to claw back income due to a decrease in TV advertising spend.  But, in my opinion, tough luck.  It's time for brands to get creative and really think about how to build brand equity in the fragmented digital media age in which we now live.

This Christmas, the team at Finn is getting festive with Matthew Walker, the oldest Christmas pudding manufacturer in the world. Matthew Walker is crazy about Christmas, and we needed to find someone equally as crackers to help us with our campaign (get it??!)

Enter Mr Christmas...a chap who celebrates every single day with a full Christmas dinner, the Queen's speech, and even posts himself a few cards. Over the years he's munched his way through 5,110 turkeys, 94,080 mince pies, 28,224 roast potatoes, and he's opened 204,400 Christmas presents. And at £150 per week calculates he has spent more than £300,000 feeding his obsession.

Mr Christmas, real name Andy Parks is a top bloke, and was delighted after our launch photoshoot when we thanked him with a year's supply of puds!

We're looking for other people, like Andy, who are crazy about Christmas. If this sounds like you, please email love@xmaspuds.com - you could win a family trip to Lapland!

HALF WAY THROUGH READING SOCIALNOMICS SO I THOUGHT I'D DISCUSS. OOH, THIS IS LIKE BOOK CLUB, PASS THE BISCUITS.

Unless you glued your eyes together and put mash potatoes in your ears when you were a child, you'll know that word of mouth is the most powerful form of recommendation. New figures show 92 per cent now cite it as the best source for brand and product info. In 1977 this was at 67 per cent.

There's no denying that social media has been a key driving force in this seismic shift. That, and less and less belief in the interruption approach by the oil tankers of the marketing mix, advertising. 76% of people agree that they rely on what their mates say while only 15% rely on advertising. (Presumably these people questioned either have no mates (try online dating) or were advertising executives, advertising advertising.)

We live in an age where we can go into a shop, get out our phone, compare prices and reviews there and then, perhaps tweet a note requesting feedback from followers, ask advice from our friends on Facebook and even read an independent expert blog, all before arriving at the cashier's desk. And this trend will not diminish, only get bigger. Technology will advance making it even easier while people's desire to offer advice as opinion leaders to mates will always be around.

This is brilliant not only for consumers, but for businesses too. Because while there are positive recommendations, there are also negative reviews too, all out in the open to see. Businesses choosing to listen and monitor their brands on social networks can take this feedback and improve it. Eventually only FANTASTIC products or services will survive. Great, everyone gains.

Soon we'll no longer need to search for products or services, they'll find us through word of mouth within our networks. A simple FB update such as 'I'm thinking of buying a new bike' will proffer everything you need to know to make an educated choice.

And yet with all this clear evidence and a myriad of successful case studies, I still sit in meetings or are involved in briefs where PR's remit/requirements/budgets are smaller than a gnats moustache in comparison to the bushy beards of ATL. 'Make this ad famous will you', or 'we've now finished making this shiny new product, go and make people talk about it.'    

These rules of survival may seem obvious (to some) however PR is where it is in the pecking order still - albeit slowly advancing. If more businesses can 'get it' everyone stands to benefit (well, except the advertising execs). 

• - Make FANTASTIC products and services, not great ones
• - Mainline talkability from the very, very start. Don't try to bolt it on later
• - Provide easy ways for your customers to recommend and share your 'FANTASTICNESS'
• - Grown bigger ears. It's now easier to listen to your customers, so start doing it more often

I decided to buy the book after watching this now well-known video and comments.  

Roll on chapter 6

According to the Rules of Engagement survey by Webtrends that I spotted in Revolution today, 85 per cent of people under the age of 35 welcome brands on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, but half said they would leave if the site became too commercial.

Personally, I think Webtrends has asked the wrong question here.  A few people would leave if one of these sites became too commercial, yes, but I think the main issue is around the level of engagement and dialogue that brands have with its fans on these platforms.  If a brand is being commercial but is engaging its fans in a fun and entertaining way, then people will stay with it and get involved. If brands are being commercial but being boring at the same time, then of course people will get fed up. Oh and it's always great if you can offer a great prize in there somewhere, too.  If gives people a bit more of a reason for joining in the first place.

Twitter, Facebook and YouTube need to be wise to this.  Maybe they need more stringent rules in place to ensure that campaigns and fan pages are vetted in order to ensure the rubbish ones don't get through?

The very new (think it went live yesterday) McDonald's flavourhood Facebook fan page is an example of a brand being very commercial but fun and engaging at the same time. According to McDonald's, "The flavourhood is the perfect place for all McDonald's lovers. Become a fan of your favourite (product) and enjoy some facebook fun."  There are fun games to play, amazing facts, different missions to complete and a fantastic prize at the end of it. Yes I know that McDonald's have got huge budgets, but the principles remain the same for any brand.  Be creative, engaging and honest while offering a great prize, and you can't go far wrong.