Trend observations, analysis and future predictions since 2005
Category: Brand Evolution
The world is changing, and brands adapt. Even the concept of brands themselves is changing. This is extensively described in the book. Until August 2006 this category was the main focus of this web log. Tangible, visual changes of brands are discussed here.
Milo, the brand agent of the future
Just wondering why I have never written about Milo, a virtual agent, conversational avatar, chatbot responding to voice, face and gestures.
He recognises facial expressions and emotions of his interlocutor and re-acts accordingly. The video is a demonstration of a Milo's ground breaking technology created by a computer game designer Peter Molyneux and his team over at Lionhead Studios
Future vision by Erwin van Lun
It’s a gaming thing nowadays, but characters like Milo will soon dominate the brand scape: a brand agents, chatbot representing brands, they will answer questions from consumers about brands, about companies, about government. And eventually (it will take two more decades) we won’t be able to notice the difference between Milo and a real human being. It’s all a matter of time…
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Sucking robotic hands on its way
This video is getting interesting after one minute. It actually 'sucks' objects.
Future vision by Erwin van Lun
This has potential for the future. Imagine an artificial hand, a thin ‘sucking’ skin which is controllable through nanotechnology on every square millimeter. Although the hand can make simple movements and behave natural like a human hand would do, it also has some extraordinary skills such as sucking tiny objects. Quite convenient when cleaning stuff, or holding something for you.
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Spotify: The Coaching Music Brand
I haven't written a lot lately (very busy with the chatbots.org, but those who have followed me since 2005 and have read my book, will recognize many trends reinforce my predictions of five years ago.
Here's an example: Spotify. A coaching music brand in its early days. For 9,99 a month, you have unlimited access to ad-free music. Connected to your friends through your Facebook account. My 2004 prediction was simple: it would not longer be about possession of music, but people would pay in the future for the right to play music.
Future vision by Erwin van Lun
What will happen in the coming five years? Brands like Spotify will respond to our emotional reaction. They will notify how our movements will change, our tone of voice, our facial exppression. We don’t have to rate music any longer, our feedback is fully clear.
And from there, music coaching brands will feed us with music we need: which will change our emotional state. And that’s where the word ‘coaching’ comes in. The decision to select music for a particular person, on a particular moment, or a particular place, is not very simple. It’s not about selecting the persons favorite song. Being happy might not be the best mood to move to about the funeral of a family member or bad news at work. Or maybe, it is. Coaching is about understanding an individual.
So even though people think this is where it’s all heading to, it’s actually just the beginning…
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Future of Shopping
The future of shopping according to Cisco. It's looks as Science Fiction, but this future is already here (aside from a few minor technology problems such as lighting in the stores).
Future vision by Erwin van Lun
The most important roles of stores is to determine your current measurements. You can order anything you like, from brands, it can be tailored to your wishes, deliverable in every possible color, you can see how it combines with clothes you purchased before and which are still in your wardrobe (i.e. clothes you haven’t thrown away), you can ask what your friends think, and what they bought which will transform shopping to a far more social experience.
Having things on stock is no longer an issue. It will delivered to your home, before you even arrive after traveling back. No more need to carry bags. You can shop from home as easy as shop from any other location in the world. But being with your friends (both physical as virtual), provides a new dimension to the shopping experience.
And obvvously, you’ll be assisted by a brand agent (or a chatbot, dependent on the terminology you prefer), instead of a real human, an artificial character with far more knowledge than a human human could ever possibly have.
This is the future, but only a step into the future.
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Rocket Taxi: iPhone app for Taxi’s around the globe
Facebook and Twitter on Xbox
Greenpeace assisting you selecting toilet paper
Greenpeace has introducted an Iphone application that gives users a quick and handy guide to finding the greenest toilet paper, tissues, paper towels, and paper napkins sold at the supermarket. Ideally, the best products contain 100 percent recycled content (at least 50 percent of which is from post-consumer materials) and avoid the use of chlorine or chlorine compounds in the whitening process. Products that meet this criteria include Green Forest, Natural Value and Seventh Generation while products from companies like Kleenex, Charmin, Angel Soft, Cottonelle, Brawny, and Scott fall short. The application is free to download.
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TellMe: voice commands for Windows Mobile 6,5
TellMe for Windows Mobile 6.5 isn't just an app, it's a one-button hub for voice commands of all kinds, including text messaging, making calls, and also jumping to Microsoft Live Search with natural language queries like "weather in San Francisco, California," "pizza in Kansas City" or "mother's day gift ideas."
Apple patents automated video answering (video mail)
This patent for automatically sending an audio or video reply to an iChat call is only useful for computer to computer calling, but also for iPhone to computer calling, or computer to iPhone calling.
The server could additionally be set to store video responses, such that when a person comes back online, they could view one or more clips recorded by their peers. To facilitate this, Apple proposes creating a generic video mailbox which could be accessed from iPhones or a website.
Google Voice skips your operator
Google Voice, is an alternative call apllication to run on smart phones or other devices. Google Voice is now about to hit iPhones by way of an app. This app for the iPhone has immediately access to your contacts.
Here is how it works: you don't press you regular 'Phone' application, but you select your Google Voice button. You just dial a number or select it from your contacts, as you would do in your regular phone application. The App diales out to Google and you' be a called back to connect both sides and you press the Green button. In this way, you do not only skip the standard fees charged to you by your operator, it will also allow you to maintain your calls from any other smartphone or devices. It actually disconnects your telephone number from your device. Additionally, you can also SMS people the same way.
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Google Wave: a new communication platform
Wave is a new communication platform by Google. It's a Frothy Collaborative Mix of Chat, Instant Messaging, Twitter and Google Docs in Real-Time: A "wave" is equal parts conversation and document, where people can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more..
Here's how it works: In Google Wave you create a wave and add people to it. Everyone on your wave can use richly formatted text, photos, gadgets, and even feeds from other sources on the web. They can insert a reply or edit the wave directly. It's concurrent rich-text editing, where you see on your screen nearly instantly what your fellow collaborators are typing in your wave. That means Google Wave is just as well suited for quick messages as for persistent content — it allows for both collaboration and communication. You can also use "playback" to rewind the wave and see how it evolved.
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TED introduces smart commenting system
TED, the knowledge platform famous for its public talks, launched a new commenting system. Here are the main enhancements:
- it will be possible to reply to individual comments, thereby creating threaded conversations.
- commenters who have uploaded pictures will have these displayed
- it will be possible to vote on comments
- people whose comments receive up-votes will earn "TEDCred" points.
Anyone who gets 100+ points will be awarded a special "TEDCred" label by their name.
Future vision by Erwin van Lun
Brands constantly find new ways to engage consumers. In the old days via PR, magazines and newspaper. Since the late nineties through the web. Since a few years it’s possible to react on postings. Now they’ve started to sophisticate
reaction mechanisms. And soon people awarded with a TEDCred label will be invited to give a talk themselves. That’s an algoritm that find talent, to explore opportunities with your audiences, within consumers, within members. It’s a typical examply of the brand coming out.
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Amusement Magazine uses RFID
The French magazine Amusement n°4 is equipped with an RFID tag connecting it to the web and access additional exclusive content online. How does it work? An RFID tag is fixed in the middle of page 2 of the magazine. As soon as the reader touches the magazine's tag to the RFID Mir:ror scanner (see video), which trigger certain actions or have certain digital applications appear.
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Vuze on iPhone, iPod, AppleTV, XBox 360 and PS3
Vuze, the online video service provider, now integrates playback with iPhone, iPod, AppleTV, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 devices in its online video portal application.
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KLM send boarding pass to mobile
Airline KLM has launched a digital boarding pass that allows passengers to check in and board an airplane using their (smart)phone without the need for paper. After checking in via (mobile) internet they'll receive a message with a barcode via SMS, email or MMS. The message will also contain standard information like departure time and seat number. The barcode is scanned at the gate and allows the passengers to find their place.
Future vision by Erwin van Lun
In the next step KLM will use our current position to guide us through the airport. When a plane is delayed, we’ll be informed so we can enjoy another cappuccino. When we have to start walking because the gate is a 30 minutes’ walk from our current position, we’ll be informed in time. And just a few years after this we’ll have a spoken conversation with the brand agent of KLM, which will come into our lives during the sales process and guides us from our front door to the moment we’ve arrived at the next transport hub or destination and which will do the evaluation afterwards.