Ticketmaster Teams With Facebook So You Can Sit Next To Your Friends. Those who are reserving their seats will see a mock-up of an arena seat map indicating where their Facebook friends will be sitting, so the can reseerve a spot next or closeby.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

I’ve been writing about this phenonemon since 2004, and now it’s becoming reality. Finally, I’ve been waiting for this!!!

Soon, all our purchases will be powered by social media. For example: the next time when I visit a restaurant in Nigeria, I can exactly see where my friends have been, and what their experience were. This will influence my decisions way more, than any (anonymous) review site can ever do.

We’re social creatures you know;)

Related trends

• Tribal

ReadyPing, a new mobile service is allowing customers in restaurants to be notified via text message when their table is ready. Restaurant hosts must enter a customer's name, number of guests and a contact mobile number. When the table is available, the host just clicks a button and a "ping" is sent to that customer.

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• Network economy

The Termina Kinshicho Fujiya Restaurant in Japan is experimenting with e-paper, here used as an electronic version of the menu. This allows, for example, the latest news to be shown while the order is prepared.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Paper will disappear and sometimes make space for e-paper. Currently as a separate device, but later on built into the table or the wall, in combination with many more screens to strengthen the experience and don’t disrupt like ads do. This is a nice example.

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Dutch company Spotted by Locals has won the international Open Web Awards in the category "Travel". Spotted by Locals is a European network of (currently) 20 cityblogs on which local bloggers write about their favourite places in the city they love. The site is aimed at experienced travellers that want to experience cities in a local way and would like to miss a highlight or two to avoid the tourist masses. Currently there are 95 "Spotters" that, after a personal conversation, are contracted to write about their city.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

The artificially created difference between ‘tourist’ and ‘local’ will disappear. It’s about people with a comparable living pattern that are brought together world-wide. Someone who appreciated a couple of restaurants in Barcelona, will also appreciate comparable restaurants in Amsterdam or Sydney. It really is about the individual experience and that’s clearly visible in this example.

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• Tribal

Dutch restaurantsite Iens has, beside its mobile site, an application for the iPhone. You can search on location and kitchen and then get the restaurants with address, grade, and – useful – phone number you can click and call immediately. The iPhone application also shows you photos, the chosen restaurants on the map and the route from where you are at that moment (using GPS).

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Leisure brands are ideally suited for mobile applications. Currently we have to call the restaurant, but later we can reserve immediately. Currently we’re seeing everyone’s reviews, but later what our friends thought of it. Currently only in the Netherlands, but later this’ll work everywhere in the world, in all possible languages. If you’re in Nairobi and get hungry, you’ll go to Iens and look for a nice restaurant in the neighbourhood. All developments that are waiting to happen and ceased being hocus pocus long ago.

Happenr.com is a vertical search engine that gives Europeans insight into which events (concerts, exhibitions, plays, sport matches, etc) take place in their home town or their vacation address today, tomorrow or in the near future. Through a special map they can even look on street level. The company says that they currently have complete coverage for Germany, Ireland and Flanders, and also for 100 tourist spots (usually large cities) in all of Europe. The site is available in German, English and Dutch.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Sometimes you just want to get away. Do something else for a while. Wherever you are, wherever in the world. The leisure coaching brand knows exactly what can be done where, what your friends are doing, and most importantly: what you like to do. Happenr is the primal shape of such a brand.

Restaurantsite Urbanspoon now has an UrbanSpoon iPhone application which recommends a random restaurant in your immediate area by shaking the iPhone. To make this possible the application uses the GPS and movement sensors that are a standard part of the iPhone. This lets you experience a sense of surprise by a random choice.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

A few developments are hidden in this.
Firstly, brands are going into a dialogue with consumers and use their eyes, ears and antennae to do this. It’s not just about what the consumer clicks, types are presses, but also what’s said, how they look and how they move. It’s all feedback in the conversation and brands are slowly learning to deal with this. It might seem like a gadget now, but soon all brands will do it.

Secondly, there’s another trend hidden in this. Coaching brands, new brands that can find anything across the whole world, can surprise the consumer. But then knowing what the consumer doesn’t want. That’s the next step: that you can exclude what you don’t want. Just like with a master chef: just do something as long as it doesn’t contain blue cheese or coriander. This is also true for music, for media, for vacation destinations, for books.

Through VandaagOpStap (Dutch) people can look for activities and events that are happening today. With a database of over 9000 activities VandaagOpStap is the biggest outings-website of the Netherlands. People can select from 11 categories, amongst which are 'active entertainment', 'special buildings', 'day outings', 'art and culture', 'music'. Those contain about 10 subcategories. It's also possible to search using region and city. When selecting an event, the website also displays nearby restaurants.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

This is how VandaagOpStap is a coaching brand in the making, a coaching brand that entertains us outside our doors, possibly named a personal outdoor brand. That starts with completeness in the categories and VandaagOpStap is well on its way.

Furthermore it shows how the network economy is developing. We used to deal with guides, with as most extreme example the theater guides where we had to book half a year in advance. In the network economy everything happens realtime: the moment we feel like doing something, a personal outdoor brand can immediately sort all possibilities that suit our profile, only possibilities that are truly possible. Furthermore coaching brands will also take along the diaries of friends; after all you rarely go alone. Personal outdoor brands make sure that you always have something fun to do outside your doorstep. That makes the whole world more spontaneous. More fun, if you will.

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In the London-based restaurant Inamo you can order food from your table, play games with other people in the restaurant, pay or order a cab. A beamer which projects images onto the black table surfaces makes it possible and through the use of a mouse visitors can browse through the menu and view images of the food. After placing your order you can view how your food is prepared using the 'chef cam'.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Two structural developments are hiding in this example. Firstly this kind of development will lead to the creation of a next generation entertainment place where you can also eat. Like arcades arose from technology, technology in the restaurant kitchen will develop. Furthermore the delivery of additional service will definitely be given a shot. Soon automatic payment will be so smoothly arranged that we won’t even check the receipt. We’ll be recognized when we enter, get the suggestion of the month tailored to our wants, and we’ll just as easily walk outside again and money will be arranged for us. Also in large restaurants, also in other branches of those restaurants. That’s how the dialogue can bind people to the (restaurant)brand and this is an example of a development in that direction.

Related trends

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At Kaap Hoorn, a restaurant in the Dutch city Haren, visitors can now order and pay through their cell phones. A visitor can look up the menu on their cell phone and place an order. It's paid up front by RaboMobiel. The receipts are printed after payment is received.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Step by step we’re saying goodbye to paper. Not just customer passes, not just magazines, but we’ll also see less of all small paper, such as menu cards, flyers or doctor’s receipts. With as most important reason that brands want to communicate and communication happens per definition in a dialogue not a monologue as we were forced to by paper.

Through CitySense inhabitants and visitors of San Francisco can see where the masses are in a city with one press on their BlackBerry. Through GPS and WiFi-locations of other (anonymous) CitySense-users the BlackBerry displays real time where in the city the most people are gathered. You can see whether it concerns a busy restaurant, overcrowded bar, or a steamy club. Also ideal for when you're looking for an empty bar stool or don't want to go out where all of San Francisco is at that moment.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Brands will aid people with real time information in real time increasingly often. In this case you see what’s happening NOW for other people in the city. The same also goes for a TomTom with detailed route information based on other users that are stuck in a traffic jam at that moment. Soon we’ll be able to view the inventory of any store in the neighborhood and reserve immediately. We’ll know that it’s now a twelve minute walk because of road-work, but it’s usually a ten minute walk. As such we’ll get a pair of ‘antennae’ on our head that guide us across the world and that look further and deeper than we can ourselves. Brands will get a very meaningful role in this. This is a nice, innovative example.

Dutch restaurant site Iens no longer simply compares restaurants or diners, but also gives the consumer the ability to book a table immediately. On a restaurant page the visitor can enter the day, the amount of people and the desired time and see whether there's a table available. The first 150 restaurants have since connected their booking system to Iens.

Both Iens and Livebookings, real-time booking partner in this course, make money of these bookings. When a visitor books a table the owner of the establishment pays 2 Euros. If a reservation is cancelled, no costs are charged.

Iens used to earn as much from the site as it did from its guides, but it wants to earn much more from the website. The yearly revenue of about 1 million Euros has to be increased. That's why the organization is professionalized. The stock holders decided with founder Iens Boswijk that she'll step down as director. Since the beginning of this year Sander Klos has been in charge as the CEO.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

In the demand-driven economy new models, based per definition on the wishes of the consumer, will be created. This can be seen perfectly in this example. Iens first mapped the consumer’s wishes and then starts offering added value. Furthermore, by being transparent about the contribution of the restaurant owner and by asking the same price for each restaurant, Iens can guarantee her independence.

For now just in the Netherlands, but soon this type of brand will be present world-wide. Now solely for dining out, but soon also advice about deliveries, eating at home, even cooking for friends. Because in future even their taste will be known to food coaching brands.

In a restaurant in Israel it is now possible to place your order directly from a display on your table. A waiter is no longer necessary. It is also possible to play games. Visitors think it's fun and are pleased that their children are included. The owner of the restaurant is certainly happy with the 12% extra turnover (via dc, Dutch). We gather more displays around ourselves. Now they have set content, but soon we will make content with our food coaching brand for personal advice. Or check our e-mail. Or evaluate the furniture we saw earlier in the day. All that whilst enjoying a delicious meal that passes perfectly in our diet. In a couple of years this will be the most normal thing in the world.

Dutch restaurant site Iens introduces a paid membership, a sort GoldMember, which offers extra possibilities (em, Dutch). It is the typical development of business models for coaching brands. First all service is free (for example gathering information about certain products or services), then more and more value is added. So much, that at some point we are willing to pay for it. After all, it adds value to our lives. Paid membership is one of the possibilities.

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Cinema owner Path now also offers the possibility to reserve films, watch trailers and see what movie is shown where, through your mobile phone. When you send the text message FILM to 4443 (in the Netherlands), Path Mobiel sends a link to an application which can be installed in one click (em, Dutch). Brands will be available on demand. Now we still have to send a text message. In the future we will call 'Path', and we will directly be able to ask Path our question while sitting in a restaurant: 'are there any good movies shown in the neighborhood within the next hour?' 'Good' then will be interpreted based on personal preferences, 'the neighborhood' is determined based on the mobile phone and your GPS location, and the system in itself will add: 'and which still have seats available.' Now still in an application, in the future it will be supported by the most important visualization of the brand: the brand agent. Thus, slowly but surely a real dialogue comes into being. This is a small step in that direction.

Related trends

• Brand visualization

Entertainment and movie brand MrMovie is now available through the mobile phone (mc, Dutch). He or she who wants to see the latest film news, see listings or find upcoming movies, can visit MrMovie's mobile pages. If in the future everybody has Messenger on their phones, we automatically connect to MrMovie's chat bot from the restaurant we're at, find what top movie they show in the neighboring cinema, and reserve directly. Then we finish our espresso and walk to the cinema. This is a small step in that direction.