Isvou is a Chinese visual search engine. If you are looking for a purse that looks like one you have seen before, you can upload a picture, after which automatically a selection of similar purses is shown, which can all be ordered directly (cw). Although this seems very advanced, it really only is the beginning. Soon we will walk in the street, point to something we like, and directly ask our fashion coaching brand if we can get something like that. We will then get the possibilities presented to us through our ear plug, as well as projected in our glasses, and are directly advised about the combination with other clothes we own. Uploading and clicking then will seem so old-fashioned. Visual searching is a small step in that direction.

Korean mobile phone operator KTF offers a 'Love Detector' service which analyzes if someone talks with love and affection. Users can test themselves. They have to aim their mobile phone at themselves during a video conversation, see a 'love meter' bar on their screen or mobile phone, and later get a text message with the analysis. The service costs $0.32 (yh). Brands thus get better at understanding us. Not only our written language, not only our spoken words, but also the way we say them. In the end brands will be better listeners than humans. It will take at least another thirty years for that to happen though.

Music lovers have unlimited possibilities to discover new music with Musicovery. Although the interface counts five languages, almost all interaction is visual. We click something, and fast as lightning get new, similar music. The service is free. Registered members can listen, save their favorite music, and exclude certain songs. Songs can be ordered or downloaded at Amazon, eBay or iTunes. Besides, paying members can listen to HiFi music, and don't get any advertisements (dc, Dutch).

Thus new business models in music slowly evolve. It is all about being entertained musically, to discover music, and to re-experience music (and the emotions that go with it). The better a brand is capable to offer this experience, the more money they can charge. And advertisements then are only disturbing. It is very simple: the more value you add, the more money you can charge. This is a nice example.

Indipenda helps women get through a divorce. With advice, inspiration, relaxation, talking and even dating, the life of a divorced woman is filled in a little better (mf, Dutch). In tomorrow's new economy a new type of brands evolves. A type of brands functioning as coaches. They stand beside us and help us make choices. This service is to be included in the portfolio of social coaching brands. These types of brands get to know someone very well from a very young age, and they can connect people, help them maintain the connection, and if necessary also terminate the contact. Independia contributes to this development.

Dutch professional marketing magazine MarketingTribune and leading Dutch marketing community MarketingFacts (of which I am one of the contributers) have signed a strategic partnership (mf). Publishers transform to be community managers. The community becomes leading, and paper is just a copy for background and entertainment. In the long run MarketingFacts can grow to be a career coaching brand for marketers. By bringin together all the news, showing all jobs and all events, and making these relevant for the individual marketer, the personal development of the marketer can be carefully coached. A server the marketer will be willing to pay for (and not so much for the paper he gets in his mailbox at home). I wonder what the new title of the magazine will be (MarketingTribune, Facts from the daily marketing practice?).

British broadcaster BBC personalizes the homepage for the national and international editions. You can choose categories, colors, and the number of items per category. No commercials are shown (mf, Dutch). Thus brands more and more start to provide consumers the information the way they want it. Now by actively make changes, soon BBC will look at what we watch, what colors we like, what reaction we give, and then automatically will adapt the content selection, the colors and the dynamics. This is a small step in that direction. And in the long run the information becomes so personal and relevant, that we are more than willing to pay for it.

At Vinoo.nl, if you click on a wine review, you can directly click through to a special page of wine shops, where you can order that wine. Vinoo earns money per click-through (mf, Dutch). In a next step Vinoo won't earn money on click-throughs, but on actual bottles of wine sold. Vinoo then can ask buyers to write a review. And if you drink a good wine in a restaurant, you take a picture of the label, and Vinoo will publish this review too. If you buy a couple of bottles at the market and put them in your wine cellar, they are automatically recognized as new stock, and Vinoo can make use of that knowledge. Food coaching brands then will be able to advise you what wine of your taste goes best with the food you are planning to eat today. Everything will soon click together. And the world (especially the world of wines) with that becomes less complicated.

Thanks to a built-in compass the map in the Nokia 6210 now automatically turns when a pedestrian turns the phone (see the video). (mc, Dutch). Reading maps is a problem for lots of people, so this will solve lots of problems. In the future we won't have to read a map at all. Then we just say where we want to go, get instructions through our ear plugs, and even see a street view projected in our glasses, with arrows pointing at what we should look at. This makes today's complex world a little easier for everyone.

E-Fitzone is a fitness center completely focused on interactive training. Apart from well-know movement games like the Nintendo Wii and Sony's EyeToy Kinetic there are lots of other games to play. This development perfectly fits in this era. We will be more and more challenged on an individual level. We will be able to learn certain sports without having been in the real environment. We will be personally coached without having a personal coach. We will play with other people from all over the world, form virtual teams, and compete against others. Against real or virtual people. Today's obesity, caused by too much media usage, will get a whole new perspective in tomorrow's world. By offering a series of experiences we can transform to be real top athletes in a certain field in the course of years. Or develop certain physical skills we would normally not be able to find a teacher for. With that, the experience economy in the long term will change into the transformation economy. It still has a long way to go but this is a nice start.

Related trends

• Experiences

Via Yahoo Live every webcam now can be seen live at the internet (dc, Dutch). Thus another sort of live-TV evolves. Now through the webcam. Soon we will make live television productions which people can tune in to. And in the long run, they will pay for this. In the short term these initiatives will keep growing rapidly, we will get access to cameras in mobile phones (or is this already possible?) and we will also be able to get live views at the mobile phone. Especially the live reporting of news then gets a totally new dimension.

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.

Related trends

• Coaching brands

MiraWorldTV brings all TV streams together (al). At this point in time the most important thing is to bring everything together. In other words, for home entertainment coaching brands to be: bring all games, all videos, all live-video together. Then it becomes critical to make very personal selections, start them, and bill them. On demand. Then brands really start adding value to the lives of consumers.

Dutch website for holiday homes and hotels WeekendjeWeg.nl ('A weekend away') provides directions for guests through a button 'Add to my TomTom' with every hotel. Soon it will be possible to add all hotels in one go (am, Dutch). Now we still have to actively transfer information, soon even our TomTom will be a (mobile) window to the virtual world. We then won't just have dialogues with the TomTom brand through this screen, but also with other brands. Like a Philips TV or a Dell monitor also provides access to the virtual world. Then the dialogue we started with WeekendjeWeg on a bigger screen will just continue on a smaller, mobile screen. Then we will be able to retrieve reviews and have them read to us on our mobile screen. And if we want to know how to get somewhere, TomTom's brand agent is there for us.

Publisher Sanoma has bought Dutch living websites Leadz.nl and Woonwebsite.nl as an extension to their existing websites Woonklussen.nl and Allewoonwinkels.nl. The two newly acquired websites are both aimed at consumers who want to change their house or garden. At Woonwebsite.nl the user can ask for the services of a 'Realtor' to find the right contractor for a complete renovation. Leadz.nl is an auction site at which supply and demand for jobs on houses. Consumers can post their jobs, and professional companies can put their offers in.

Related trends

• Coaching brands

Martinair as the first airline provides its passengers with a travel guide for mobile phones (mc, Dutch). Thus travel coaching brands come to life. In this example the travel guide function is connected to an airline, soon new brands will watch all holiday moments during your life, including all moments of orientation, of booking, joy of preparation, return, and joy of looking back. They are the ultimate providers of this service and will be able to offer tailored information. The introduction of this travel guide adds to a new dynamic in the travel branch.

At Holidot.com all hotels, bed and breakfasts and holiday homes in Europe are lined up in 7 European languages. With this, it is the biggest, and also the first independent site making all hotel and holiday addresses visible. Travelers can publish their travel reports, which are shown uncensored, and users have the possibility to bookmark favorites, and share them. Accommodation owners (hotels, bed and breakfasts, holiday homes, camp sites, etc) can open their own mini website at Holidot.com for free (mb, Dutch). Thus another travel coaching brand comes to life. In first instance the most important phenomenon will be completeness in the domain, but in a next step it will be most important for us to really have the holidays of our lifetime, every year anew. The relationships with the consumer soon will be the most distinctive factor, but in order to get a relationship, brands will have to know what is out there in the market. We are building that knowledge right now.