Amazon.com has launched an MP3 widget, a small piece of software that people can place on their website, through which the people can promote music and on top of that, if a site-visitor decides to buy the song or album, they can make a little money. After placing the code, an image, for example the accompanying image here, will automatically appear on the site.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Brands are understanding increasingly better how they can use their customers as salespoints. Eventually this will be the digital support for the most powerful kind of advertisement: mouth-to-mouth advertisement. It fits completely in the long term trend of learning how to apply tribal thinking.

Related trends

• Tribal

Facebook-users will soon be able to use their profile data on other sites. With a click of the button users will be able to add their profile data to all the websites that participate in different projects of the two community sites.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

While we used to have a separate device for each part of our life, we find that today devices are becoming ‘Masters of all trades’. Think of the mobile phone that just about lacks the same function as a refrigerator, but can do pretty much everything else. Might be over the top, but it’s a trend that’s also developing in services. An all-in-one profile! It’s a concrete and big step towards the idea that, as a user, you only need one virtual identity. While we now have to register separately on different sites, environments and virtual worlds, in future we’ll only need one profile to cover the entire internet. You’ll register yourself for Hyves and, during your registration, you indicate that your profile can also be registered on Ebay. So one username with one password set up only once. Also think about ready-made computers from a computer store (like the German MediaMarkt). During your very first installation (of Windows) you’ll be asked whether your personal information may also be registered at sites of your choice. The consumer will need only one password. Just like there is only one you in the real world, there will be only one unique virtual you. The Everything-doer. 

With Messenger TV users of Live Messenger (former MSN Messenger) can now simultaneously chat, watch TV/videos and, above all, comment on episodes and programs together.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

A cosy night of watching TV will become virtual and borderless. An enjoyable evening is no longer bound to physical places and areas to meet your friends. From now on you can watch TV and comment on it together with your international friends like they’re sitting beside you. In future the social aspect will be further discussed and executed. Doing things together in an individual way will become more important and experiencing things together will become more intense.

Department store Hema has its own recognisable tune, its own recognisable sound. HEMA has now called people to recreate the tune on the site een nieuw geluid voor de Hema fluit (Dutch, 'A new sound for the HEMA-whistle'). The site itself contains hundreds of objects that all make a sound on a mouse-over. In the middle of the page is the contest in which HEMA fans battle for the favour of other fans. Here you'll find the most-viewed movies, the best movies up to now, etc.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

This is how consumers show that they have a clear input in the identity of a brand. Whether it’s a visual logo, a sound logo or a recognisable jingle, if people have been able to contribute they’ll be more involved with the brand. Good publicity stunt, HEMA!

Related trends

• More involved

Consumer's site Kieskeurig.nl has expanded its services with a mobile version. This allows consumers to compare products and prices while they're shopping. Consumers will be able to check whether they're really shopping in the most economical fashion whilst they're standing in the store.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Whether you’re comparing apples to pears doesn’t matter anymore. And shop owners will have to be careful with phrases like ‘always cheaper’ or ‘low price guarantee’. In future we’ll receive information on whether a product is cheaper elsewhere directly on our mobile. We’ll also know whether it’s in stock or nearby. All we need to do is point our cell phones at a product and the information will pour in. For physical shop owners, it’ll become harder and harder to compete with smaller and cheaper online stores. In the market of the future small physical show owners will cease to exist and big chains will be almost as cheap as online stores. Huzzah for the consumer.

The Dutch public broadcaster has launched two chatbots: the Missed Broadcast chatbot and the Broadcast Guide chatbot. By adding uitzendinggemistbot@omroep.nl and zoomerbot@omroep.nl respectively the media consumer can see what is on TV is or watch programs that have previously been broadcast.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

In this way home entertainment coaching brands, brands that can help us enjoy ourselves in our armchairs, are finding a place in our friend list, in the buddy list of Windows Live Messenger (previously MSN Messenger). Soon we will have one chatbot, one brand agent, one synthetic worker who will organise it all for us. This will not only be active on the PC but also on the TV and your mobile. They will make clear what is on offer (also information from other broadcasters, including those from other countries and in foreign languages), they will learn our personal preferences and what we have already seen, as well as what our friends have seen or done. Eventually they will be able to present us with our perfect evenings entertainment, exactly tailored to our likes and dislikes.

The Dutch family ties site Familieband.nl allows people to record their family relationships and also functions as a social network. In doing this Familieband.nl facilitates typical family activities like organizing a family day out or an annual reunion.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Social networks are no longer simply recording who you know but also the relationship you have with them. Friends, family or colleagues? This is just the first step. Good friends, old friends or new friends? Brother, grandfather or distant niece? Direct colleague? Ex-collegue? Network contact? As social networks, as social coaching brands, soon they will be able to arrange real time contact for us too (read: chat and telephoning), then we can also define who is important for us, who the runners up are and who are old contacts. Once they understand who is important to us they will be able to advise us about the maintenance of personal contacts. It begins with this sort of initative.

Nescafé has let people order samples of new coffee flavors via text message. They encouraged people to do this through print and advertisements in bus shelters. In total 74,000 people requested a sample. 80% of these had never bought the coffee before. 82% of the respondents indicated actually using the requested sample and 26% of the respondents decided to buy the product. And because consumers are taking action themselves their attitude towards the brand improved and their spontaneous recognition rose. Their intention to buy the product rose as well.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

This is how brands are slowly starting to communicate on personal levels, but each individual is still an individual. For now every random passerby can order – even the people who already knew it – but soon Nescafé will know how to refine this mechanism and apply it to people who don’t know the product yet or, even better, allows people who are more inclined to spread the word to try the product. This shows how brands will improve at tribal thinking. This is a kind of start.

Related trends

• Tribal

Ten supermarkets within the Dutch supermarket chain C1000 now check the age of people buying alcohol with webcams. At each checkout there is a terminal with two cameras. As soon as alcohol or tobacco is scanned a live stream is activated and trained personnel assess the age of the customer from a distance. If there is any doubt about the customers' age they will be asked to hold ID up to the webcam.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Brands are slowly automating the dialogue. Now with real personnel via a webcam but soon this check will be done automatically. The next step will be that the customer wont need to present their face to a specific camera because the assessment will already have taken place via one of the many cameras in the store.

On the site of the NS (Dutch Rail) a chatbot, Eva, reads the answers to questions posed by consumers. It is possible to just read the answers too.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Brands are more often being built in dialogue with consumers, members or citizens. They represent themselves through brand agents, synthetic characters who we can talk to. Now they are only to be found on the service pages but soon they they will be prominent on the home page. Now Eva has started talking, soon she will listen too. Now only on the PC but soon we will only need to call ‘Eva’ and she will appear on the nearest screen, wherever we are in the world, to answer our questions. This is clearly a step in that direction.

In the new video game Grand Theft Auto IV players can buy MP3s of music that can be heard on the radio stations in the game.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

The overflow between different media is gradually creating the virtual world. All electronic media, media with batteries or mains power, are becoming a part of the big virtual world. Now via the Playstation or Xbox, but soon we will see the world from every screen and be able to listen wherever we want. If we hear something we like in the real world we will be able to request it in the virtual world. In this way various media are merging. This is another step in that direction.

Registered Nine Inch Nails fans are being offered the opportunity to buy tickets for the best seats for the summer tour, 3 days before the official sales start. The tickets are issued in the name of the fan and they will need to show ID to prove that they are the owner of the ticket.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

The music industry is experiencing a transformation. Money is now more often earned from concerts. Real (registered) fans sit close by and others further away. Those who can’t be present for whatever reason can enjoy the concerts in the virtual world, at home but still very much involved.

On I Search For You consumers can give an internet search assignment, for example to find a remote timber house by a lake, a romantic apartment with a balcony or an exclusive hotel will all the trimmings. The assignment can be given via the website or by telephone. The I Search For You team will send a quote for the search within 12 hours and a three suitable links within 48 hours. Searching for your dream holiday house, hotel or campsite costs 65 euros.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

We pay to have the world around us made clearer and easier to handle. With all the opportunities we have for choice we already have, and the multitude of choices that will become available in the future, we will come to realize that we only have one life and that there is a limit to what we can do. This does not give a pleasant feeling. Coaching brands take advantage of this. They stand by our side and help us to make choices. This is a service that we’re happy to pay for. This is just the beginning.

Related trends

• Coaching brands

Via Nulaz you can see where your friends are at any given moment, an event in the area or background information about a building. The information is given on the basis of the restaurant site lense, Wikipedia, the Uitburo and NL10 and NL20. Users can also add information to the system. The application that needs to be installed estimates the location on the basis of GSM masts.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

In this way the functions of social coaching brands are taking shape. Now you need to enter your friends one by one, soon your friend list on Hyves will be enough. Now you still need to install software but soon switching your mobile on will be enough. Now you need to operate the the technology but soon you will just be able to ask ‘Where is Billy?’. This development contributes to this future vision.

Carspotter is a new Text Message service. You send the number plate details and receive details over the brand, the date of the number plate, the new value and an estimate of the current value. A second text message tells you more about the technical details of the car (number of cylinders, cylinder volume etc.). Carspotter also works for motorcycles, vans and trucks.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

We are getting more on demand information about all sorts of things we come across in our environment. Now via Text Message, soon we will be able to get the information via our glasses just by looking at a random car that is recognised by its model. We will be able to say to our mobility coaching brand: ‘I like that car’. On the basis of this sort of mini conversations we will later be able to get tailor made advice. This initiative fits precisely into this trend.

Photo enthusiasts can now use Photoshop Express to manage and edit their photos on line. They can export the results to, for example, Facebook or Photobucket.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

In the future photographers will no longer need a heavy lap top to edit their photos. On holiday he can easily use an internet cafe to upload and edit his photos. An internet connection is all that is required. The virtual word is a step closer. Soon we will be able to make photos together, edit them and share them. In this virtual world brands enter into a dialogue with us by offering services and environments with which we can identify and accommodate ourselves in.