Dutch zoo Blijdorp has started a test in which visitors can pay wireless through their mobile phone, and can also get information in the park. It works through the so-called NFC protocol, the Near Field Protocol. Freely translated: a service that only works when you come close (am, Dutch). People are freed of complicated things like physical money, or sorting through information. We have not been designed for that, although we have been trained in it. Soon we will enter the terrain, we get a question directly on our ear plug (which by that time we always carry) if we do want to continue, as we have to pay an entrance fee. We only have to say yes and just keep going. We then get real-time information about things to do, where the crowds are and where not, and the latest news on our favorite animals. What I mean to say: even mobile payment is just an intermediate phase.

Online fashion retailer WeLikeFashion opens a physical store in Amsterdam. The users have specifically asked the brand for this (mb, Dutch). A brand only exists in our minds. 'Online brands' or 'offline brands' only exist in marketers' literature. We still have to get used to that idea. In this era physical chains start online shops with a complete range and 24/7 service, while online chains start physical stores where they can offer the full sensorial experience. In the end we will just talk about 'retail' again; full online presence will then be completely normal.

Oil company Shell in an advertising campaign promotes its new movie clearing the air that can be seen online, can be explored interactively, and can be ordered as a DVD (for free). Its availability is promoted through a TV advertising campaign (mb, Dutch). The time in which brands were limited to 30 second commercials is behind us, although not many brands make use of these video possibilities. Shell realizes that it can get more messages across when the contact moment is so much longer. This is not a dialogue yet, but it is definitely a 'brand world'.

Related trends

• Brand worlds

Dutch telecoms operator Hi puts your friends, and their current activities, on a Google Map. By sending text messages Hi can directly determine the location (based on information of the cell masts, the CellID), and what you are doing there is, thanks to a connection with Hyves, automatically inserted into the 'WhoWhatWhere' field in the user's Hyves profile (mf, Dutch). Thus communication slowly becomes realtime. Now we still have to explicitly pass information, soon we will give our friends permission to see where we are, what we are doing, who we are talking to, and what our plans are. Only with our permission of course. Thus the virtual world more and more becomes a reflection of the real world.

Ellen is European energy supplier EON's new chatbot. Ellen is shown as a real woman. For every subject Ellen has a new picture. For example, for the subject 'moving' she is carrying moving boxes, and on the rates page she is holding a calculator. Your own question history is shown so you can look up earlier questions and answers. Ellen doesn't just cover the customer service pages: she appears at different pages on the website (cb).

Thus brand agents slowly come to life. Now as an extra on the website, soon Ellen will be the main person to turn to with your questions. Especially for low interest products people come around with their question, want a quick answer, and then want to leave again. When visiting brands with a symbolic function (like fashion brands), you might stick around and explore a little bit, to get some inspiration maybe, or meet fun people or even your friends. Even then a (virtual) specialist will always be present to answer any questions.

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.

At the website of beer brand Amstel men are the boss. In a 3D bar world you can order a beer, listen to the friends of Amstel, or just look around. You can say something anonymously or, after registering, start a dialogue with other visitors. It can never get too crowded: once the amount of visitors goes over 50, a new bar is opened (see am, Dutch).

Brands with a symbolic function, brands that add to our identity, can build virtual worlds in which they invite consumers, and have them meet each other. Through registration Amstel can recognize his customers and slowly start building profiles. We then will happily come back. Today's 3D world is only child's play compared with tomorrow - when the whole Amstel world will be projected in 3D holographic images - but it is definitely a step in that direction.

uitzendbureau.nl has an animated logo. First the spanners are seen, then slowly character is added to the logo. Thus the connection between work (the hammer and sickle) and people's work is quickly made. The logo animates once, when first arriving at the homepage, and then stays the way it is. Only when you come back to the homepage you get to see the animation again. Very nice, and functional (ub, Dutch).

Brands will more and more often animate their logos. Marketers will realize that the rule 'the logo has to stand still' is a rule from the mass communication era. An animated logo gets more attention and is easier remembered, it can help the brand communicate functional features (like in this example), and it can furthermore help establish the emotional associations. If well executed, an animated logo can even show brand personality. The only good example I have seen so far is the two year old example of Jetix. In the end the logo will be moving, 3D and interactive by default. The color logo is then demoted to use in static media, like we now still know a black-and-white logo. However there are lots of steps to take. This is a good example of another brand that dares to animate its logo. But it doesn't go very fast at all. Maybe because of a lack of scientific research? What brand dares to experiment? Or are we waiting for examples from other countries?

Related trends

• Brand visualization

Eurail, the organization of cooperating European railways with products for international tourists, has recruited a new employee: a virtual employee named Gina. She answers questions about Eurail's products (cb). Brands thus take the dialogue further, and speak with you far beyond their own borders. Soon Gina will speak all languages. If you then say 'Gutentag', Gina will talk back in German. In the long run she will also be able to take care of your transactions, or anything else you would want to get from the brand. It all starts with these simple dialogues.

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.

Google gets better at understanding what you mean if you type in a search word, and has advertisers react to this. Using the so-called Expanded Broad Matching, queries are changed in variations. For example: Chogogo Beach Resort -> Vacation Curacao, Holiday park Netherlands-> Holiday park and Vacation -> Turkey (mf, Dutch).

Brands thus start to better understand what we mean. Now through lose words, but soon they will be placed in a personal context: where are you, what are you doing, and what have you asked earlier? In the end it is all about answering the consumer's question. After all, the consumer is not interested in the search but more in the answer to a question. The purchase of the query 'vacation' by a Turkey specialist might be relevant for the advertiser, but not always for the consumer. The consumer soon will rather go to a vacation specialist, a travel coaching brand, and gets a better answer to his or her question there. Even if it's just because this type of brands know if you are on vacation right now or have just come back, and where you have been before. For that to happen the technology for smart interpreting of questions has to develop further first, and that is what we see happening here.

Navigation devices supplier TomTom has its users upload and share content. Routes, icons, voices, colors (for a specific country for example) or warning signs can be shared without a problem (tt). We thus don't just map the world all together, but also what we think about it. By facilitating this, TomTom turns users into employees. In the long run, TomTom won't even be able to survive without the help of all these people. Brands thus become more and more clubs, bringing people together. No brand without people.

Dutch mail order company Wehkamp doesn't just offer the possibility to write a review on any product at their site: they now actively ask people to write a review two weeks after they have bought a product. (mf, Dutch). Reviews become relevant when you know for sure that someone did buy the product. In a next step, Wehkamp will connect to social networks. You then don't only see reviews, but also what your friends thought of it. Then brands get better at understanding their customers. If Wehkamp then can also advise us if a product goes well with a product we bought earlier (like the style or color for fashion, or compatibility for computer devices), then they will take the dialogue to a next level. As long as Wehkamp keeps striving to have a complete range of products, consumers won't have any reason to go somewhere else.

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.