Researchers at the University of Massachusetts have discovered how nano molecules (extremely small molecules that can literally be put together by humans) can 'smell' illnesses (ns). We develop more and more technologies that allow brands to react to people. Now for illnesses (ideal for health coaching brands), but in the future social coaching brands for example could smell how we feel with other people, or career coaching brands can smell our stress in a conversation with a colleague. And help us take the next steps. This is a small step in that direction.

TomTom in its newest navigation systems has added a Help Me button in the main menu, which provides direct access to information about safety and road services. Motorists this way get direct access to local road services, they can get First Aid information, and they can get extended information about for example the traffic rules per country. Even the closest garage, pharmacy or police station can be found quickly. The user can call the number shown on the screen, while the TomTom system shows where he or she is at that moment (tt). mobility coaching brands this way further develop: brands that (safely) get you from A to B. Now the user still has to contact the helpers himself, and tell the location he is at, in the future TomTom will automatically contact police, ambulance or road services when you are involved in an accident. Now just in the car, in the future also when you are on a train, a boat, walking, cycling or in a trishaw. When we think of transport, we think of our mobility coaching brand. This is a small step in that direction.

Dutch funeral organization Monuta provides insight into the costs of graves through the grave costs meter (Dutch). Monuta published the rates of 500 cemeteries in cooperation with the national organization for cemetereis (Landelijke Organisatie Begraafplaatsen, LOB) (ms, Dutch). Monuta with this helps us select a cemetery. In the end this will be the task of social coaching brands, which will make sure we will be buried next to our friends, that our pictures will be found there, and that our favorite music will be played still. This way we add a couple of years to our lives in the virtual world. This is a small step in that direction.

Fashion lovers can discover and adjust the new H&M summer collection in shops they build themselves in computer game Sims. Through The Sims Fashion Runway or the Sims at H&M, players can show their own designs on a virtual catwalk. Other people can vote for these designs (ab, Dutch). Transaction brands visit consumer worlds. They integrate in a very natural way. In a next step, popular fashion of this virtual world will be produced in the physical world. This is a small step in that direction.

Cars.com helps consumer to find new and used cars through their cell phones. Furthermore, consumers can find dealers on the map, car reviews and blog content. We're mapping all information in the physical world. Currently we have to look for it, but soon we'll aim our cell at a license plate, it'll be automatically recognized, and we can see if it's for sale. And vice versa: if there are any used cars for sale in the neighborhood we'll see it directly on a map. And if we see a new car we can immediately find the nearest dealer to make a test drive. Mobility coaching brands will help us with that. Cars.com is taking a step in this direction.

Microsoft's new interactive table panels Surface again provide a totally different medium for us. The horizontal panel, which we will find in bars, casinos or at home, reacts to our fingers. We put our mobile phone on the panel and our pictures appear automatically. We select, enlarge and reduce our pictures, we listen to music and we play games with each other, like poker. You can see it in Microsoft's demo. And this is not the end yet. Now we drag pictures to our mobile phone, in the future we will drag videos to our TV, and the TV will react to us. Or we will have a smaller version of this panel, replacing the remote control. We will be able to page all brands on this type of displays, using speech. The brand agents then will appear in their own world, seen from above if we like. We will experience brands in a totally different way. This is a small step in that direction.

Eileen (Dutch) is a service that can be called 24/7 for help, tips and practical information on or around the Frisian waters in the Netherlands. For example, practitioners of water sports in Friesland can ask Eileen for the current weather reports, the closest harbor, information regarding bridges and waterworks or reserving a restaurant. This is how personal travel brands, brands that help you get from A to B, are slowly shaped. Currently for on the water, but soon for any form of transport anywhere in the world. Soon Eileen will also know at what time you'll need to be back somewhere and when the last train you can catch to make your appointment in Amsterdam leaves there. Or she can reserve a cab for you. Step by step, we're being helped along.

Coca Cola rents out its buildings for events. Special website World of Coca Cola was introduced specifically for this purpose. Among the facilities are a special theater, a room with the worlds biggest collection of Coke memories, and a special taste-experience room. The rooms can be rented separately, or the total venue can be rented from $15,000 a day. Only in the evening, as the building is in use during the day (dc, Dutch). Brands come to life in all brand touch points: from plant, to office, to shop: every single contact with the brand, for employees as well as consumers, adds to the experience of the brand. Thus we will be invited to lots of special headquarters in the future. This is an example.

The Dutch government is working on a Personal Internet page (PIP) at which citizens can manage their contacts with the government 24 hours a day (tc, Dutch). Even the Dutch government is a brand in the minds of people. The brand Netherlands, with a very rich association network like the queen, the national anthem or the dive in the sea on New Year's day. A brand you feel connected to. A brand that helps to live in freedom, peace and safety in the Netherlands. A brand that adds a lot of value to our lives, which we tend to forget due to (among others) outdated communication. In the end we will also start dialogues with this brand. And it won't stop there. Earlier or later we will also start to feel something for Europe, the brand Europe. And finally (probably at the end of this century) we will feel like we're world citizens, with a much bigger brand of which we know the archetype now, but which is completely different from the brand we will then feel connected to. It will take at least another couple of generations, but the Netherlands as well as other countries are slowly moving into this direction.

Eileen is a service you can call 24/7 for help, tips and practical information on and around the water in Friesland, one of the northern provinces of the Netherlands. Water sport practitioners in Friesland can turn to Eileen for the actual weather forecast, the closest port, information about bridges and locks, or to reserve a restaurant (tc, Dutch). This way mobility coaching brands, slowly evolve: brands that help you get from A to B. Now on the water but in the future for every possible way of transport wherever in the world. In the future Eileen also knows what time you need to be at what place to take the train to Amsterdam, so you won't miss your appointment. Or she can reserve a taxi for you. Step by step the service gets better and better.

In the game Where's Cindy players try to locate Cindy. They have to follow clues around Google Earth (al). Although the clues link back to conventional web sites this still is a small step in the evolution of 3D worlds. In the future we can navigate over a virtual globe in 3D, to find buildings that don't exist, which we can enter and where our adventures continue. This is a small step in that direction.

Media company UPC lets consumers play with its new logo. Whoever moves a slider right or left, can open and close the flower. According to UPC, the flower is luminous blue and clear: energetic, moving, magic and intriguing. (source: upc). Brands enliven their logos and have customers have their say. In the future every logo will be interactive, and it will reflect the brand personality. In the end we interact with the logo, which in turn morphs to the brand agent, who is the most important visual character of the brand. This is a careful first step in that direction.

Google has added so-called Street view to Google maps for several big cities in the US, among which New York and San Francisco. Users can pick a spot on the map, and Google figures out what the view will be in a direction the user then can change (al). Google this way maps the world even preciser. Now through pictures; in the future recent pictures or (video) images of people taken a minute ago will be added. And so for every spot in the world. But this is only the basis for the mixed experiences to be projected directly in our glasses. Cars, people, containers, billboards etc will be erased if we want. Or we get the image of the street 50 years ago. And we get people projected we would like to see. Or brand agents if we like. Interesting stores will be highlighted in our view, the best restaurant get special attention, and if we should meet somebody who is walking here anyway, we won't miss that opportunity. The world will never be like before. Unless we go 'unplugged', the newest trend in 2020: feel the world on your bare feet. Scary...

Having lived life digitally (ultra-sounds, birth, youth, life as a grown-up, family reunions, and funeral: everything is recorded), our digital lives from now on continue even after death. At Dutch cemetery Larikshof in Rhenen there is a tombstone with a small TV-screen on which images of the deceased can be seen: the digizerk (digital tombstone). Relatives and friends can show pictures and videos on this screen. According to supplier steenhouwerij Rijtink, this is the first digital tombstone in the world. The screen now operates on a battery, but the company is working on tombstones operated through solar cells (sr, Dutch). Pictures and videos are virtual representatives of people's real lives. In a next step, these screens are connected to the internet. Relatives then can consult our social-network pages through the tombstones, watch the video of the funeral and the condolence register, listen to their favorite music, and see where friends will be buried later. And we can still interact with the avatar, the virtual representative of the deceased. Like our voice mail today, these virtual representatives keep reacting. The contact after all stays. And it will show behavior that will be an awful lot like the behavior of the deceived. A different world, that's for sure.

Through Google Earth and Google Maps you can now hear the world's sounds. Elephants in Africa, the rain forest in Brazil, and even the bells of the Notre Dame in Paris. American Bernie Krause has been gathering sound materials for 40 years, varying from singing birds and the cracking of melting glaciers, to rustling woods and the singing of whales. His company Wild Sanctuary has now published these sounds in the virtual world (dc, Dutch). And thus the virtual world becomes more and more real. Now with recorded sounds, recorded at a certain moment. In the future we will choose what sound of what moment we want to hear. From 40 years ago, from last week, or real time. Which will be like a telephone conversation. And that shows that the virtual world easily integrates phone, radio, and TV. It becomes one world. This is just a small step in that direction.

Video site YouTube shares its advertising income with its users. It calls these people user-partners. User-partners are treated as other content partners (yt). Brands, especially new brands, unite people. People who structurally or incidentally add value to the brand, are rewarded. Other people pay for that (now we pay indirectly, through advertisements, but in the end we will pay for the services, the experiences offered). Many brands will start using this form of co-creation. This is only the beginning.