[click on image to enlarge]
By now, you should know that we have some fun here on Fridays. I'm starting to think a lot about digital and portable content. This year I was trying out Gowalla at SxSWi and found it interesting enough in the crowded space that was Austin at the time.
Uno
The application got me thinking about brands as butlers [hat tip to Trendwatching briefing]. When you think about the opportunities you have to be a platform for connectivity, a source of information, a tool and compass that provides utility to your customers. Building on what I wrote here about apps for customer service.
Due
In the emerging technologies bucket, you should think about mobile communication as a totally new kind of opportunity for brands to get personal. It seems like a billion years ago when I wrote this post about 5 ways to add value with mobile content. If your brands intends to get into a personal space, it better plan to get personal with my brand.
Tre
The third hot trend and opportunity is R&D, or the brand new -- building a context that goes beyond capturing customer intelligence and moves into the realm of true collaboration to reinvent products and co-create. Trending from the ten ideas for conversation we discussed a couple of years ago.
QuattroThe ability to become on demand brands is ideal for storystreaming as a way to orchestrate micro interactions with customers, partners and the whole market ecosystem. The on demand characteristic facilitates portability, adaptability, and connection.
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Understanding how content brings utility and facilitates community will help brands ride these trends, and thrive in marketing by context building. Integration and portability will be two key consideration in the next couple of years.
Get trendy with us -- what are you seeing in your business?
[fashion images courtesy of GQ Men Summer 2010 collections]
Valeria,
Paying attention to trends and then adding our own creativity to move the trend along is what makes these connections so powerful!
Hat tip, to all who lead out, and to all that build upon their creativity...
Vision was never so great as when viewed through a thousand binoculars.
Posted by: Bruce Christensen | April 09, 2010 at 11:37 AM
Looking at trends can give you also a serious indication of how the things you're doing may develop in the near future.
Yes, you will need to interpret and extrapolate from many different signals. That's the beauty though -- signals are everywhere now.
Posted by: Valeria Maltoni | April 11, 2010 at 08:42 AM