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.

Since recently, Google has a new favicon, a small icon that appears in the address bar of the browser, that's shown if you've added Google to your favorites. It seems a little clumsily designed and there's been quite some debating on the web. Now Google has invited people to contribute themselves: design the Google Favicon!

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

The favicon is becoming an increasingly important element of the visual brand identity. Once a window is opened to the brand, but you’re active in a different window, often you’ll only see that site’s favicon. Furthermore the favicon is shown on many more places, like in RSS readers. And the use will only increase, for example for mobile applications for which the screens are already small and they can give you an overview of your favorite pages (brands) with their favicons.

Today the favicon is receiving relatively little attention. Too often the favicon is a shrunken version of the brand’s logo with horrific results. Because the logo isn’t designed for 16x16pixels. The earliest Google favicon was pretty strong (just the G in the typical Google colors), but maybe they deliberately chose such an ugly favicon to create some buzz.

By letting users design with them, Google increases their involvement with the brand. People feel flattered that they’re allowed to send something in at all, especially if it’s treated seriously thereafter. That person will be given eternal fame. Online-only brands like Google are at the forefront of this development.

This is how brands can involve consumers with the development of their visual brand identity. Now for something as small as the favicon, but in the long term also with other elements. Logo not excepting. The head office will facilitate rather than dictate. It’s part of the brand coming out: the decay of barriers between producer and consumer that every brand has to deal with and has to find a good mode for.

Related trends

• Brand coming out

Boezoe (Dutch) searches through all Dutch webshops for used and new children's clothes. All you have to do is tell it what you're looking for and you'll see the results. Boezoe invites webshops to participate to be as complete as possible.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Completeness is what the formation of coaching brands is about in 2008: put everything in one place for me. Currently Boezoe is living off advertisements, but soon it’ll get a percentage of a sale or work with a subscription model. Boezoe won’t just be able to find anything, but it’ll also know what you’ve bought previously. If you then want to know what’s in in your child’s class and where you can get it for a nice price on top of that, Boezoe will be able to help you. It’s getting more and more personal, getting more and more added value. That’s what this evolution is about.

Related trends

• Coaching brands

In Mentos KissCam, a crystal clear movie of candy brand Mentos, a beautiful lady emerges from the water whilst exciting music plays and she's looking for your lips. Who then activates the camera and actually shows a few lips can expect a kiss in return.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Brands will react to anything. They’re already reacting to what we’re clicking (call it a website), what we type (call it a chatbot), what we say (call it speech recognition), but also how we act. They’ll be able to stimulate our emotions. This is just a small example.

The famous 'Encyclopaedia Britannica' opens its online encyclopedia for contributions of internet users. People have to register to place texts on the internet. The texts will then only be adaptable by the author.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Brands are experiencing a brand coming out. Knowledge is no longer solely for the specialists who get ever smarter in the daily service, but also for the general population. The people in the head offices are facilitating them more and more. It asks for a completely different set-up that’s hard to create for traditionally working companies. But also Encyclopaedia Britannica joins this important long term trend.

Related trends

• Brand coming out

Through Deezer you can listen to 2.5 million streamed songs. Downloading is no longer necessary. You can mark what you like and Deezer just starts.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Music coaching brands exist to stimulate you musically. They do this with all renditions ever made. If you want images along with it or to sing along, they’re also at your side. In the long term, they’ll project the whole band beside a dining table. It starts, however, with completeness. It’s just 2008.

KFC collects hundreds of funny, notable or bizarre ringtones that use every imaginable chicken dialect and musical beat to make the brand Kentucky Fried Chicken heard in an original way. Through a special mobile website visitors can download the KFC ringtones for free directly onto their cell phone. The person who places the most original ringtone (the ringtone that's downloaded the most in a week) will also receive a reward: an LG KF600.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

This is how consumers will become more and more involved with a brand. In this case the brand is letting consumers play a part in the promotion of the brand. This is an example.

Related trends

• More involved

Supermarket chain Albert Heijn is handing out stuffed toy mascots for the European soccer championships. They're called Welpies (Dutch). For Windows Live Messenger (former MSN Messenger) a free Welpie Emoticonpack is available. With the animated Welpies of the Welpie Emoticonpack users can, with sounds and images, show that they support the Dutch national team during the coming soccer championships.
This package of wink and emoticons turns out to be a big success: in a week's time 300.000 Windows Live Messenger users downloaded and installed it.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

In a time in which brands can reach the consumer less and less through traditional media they’ll use existing customers to shape the brand increasingly more often. Both the physical as the virtual world will receive a complete role. Messenger is extremely suited for this. This campaign shows this beautifully.

The new housing site Brixter (Dutch) helps consumers appraise their own house or that of others. Based on an address (or looking it up through Google Maps) Brixter makes an initial estimate. By adding in further details (state of the kitchen, isolation, state of the paintwork, etc) Brixter comes up with a better estimate. The consumer can then publish this indication and the details of the house on Brixter. Brixter can also show actual housing offers.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

This is how home coaching brands are slowly taking shape. Soon a house will be worth more automatically when you’ve renovated it; the home coaching brand will take care of it for you. If you want to move, all you have to shout is: ‘What’s my house worth now and are there potential buyers?’ You’ll have an immediate answer to that question. That’s something completely different from first orienting yourself on an estate agent’s selection.

Through a context for East-African students, Google has developed new gadgets, small pieces of software with which users can share things (such as movies, games or information) on their weblog. It's expected that this will lead to locally applicable gadgets that help the community. The first prize is $600 and the 2nd to 6th prize winners get $350 each.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

And so the focus of the world is slowly shifting to Africa. Now that China and India are developing like mad we enter the last decades in which small children will produce products for the Western world seven days a week for a paltry sum.
As developed country children will be able to go to school, grow and design products that help people in the world. Cheap manufacturing will only be available through robots or underdeveloped countries. Which will develop in turn. This long term strategy of Google anticipates this. For a few hundred dollars it’s not a bad investment.

Housing site Jaap (Dutch) now also offers a renovation service. People who stop using Jaap (e.g. cease looking because they want to renovate their own house first or people who want to renovate their new home) are redirected to a separate page on Werkspot.nl. There the consumer can look for a renovator through an auction principle and the renovations can begin.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Currently you switch brands and get redirected to another, but soon Jaap will be able to organize that for you perfectly well too. Jaap will organize the renovation (help you make a choice between renovators), insurance companies, stylists until you’re living wonderfully, but after two years your needs change. Again Jaap will be at your side. Because Jaap knows your situation precisely and knows whom you’ve worked with in the past. Until you want something else again seven years later. This is how home coaching brands are slowly taking shape.

Electronics chain Dixons places both good and bad expert evaluations with the products it offers. These evaluations come from HetBesteProduct.nl which collects test results of consumer's electronics from at least a hundred Dutch and foreign magazines.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Brands will advertise more and more from the context of the consumer. Currently by handling multiple source (instead of just one’s own), soon also by taking on reviews of trusted relations (friends, family, acquaintances). In the end the real advisors are the coaching brands that don’t just look at a store’s assortment, but at everything for sale everywhere in the world, and places it in a personal context. This is a step in that direction.

Related trends

• Coaching brands

Klik je Fit (Dutch) provides fitnessmusic with sport instructions for your iPod. There are mp3s for Stepper, Fitness Ball, Ab King Pro, Fitness Mat and Leg Magic. The files cost €4,99 each.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Brands will start to function more and more as a personal coach. More and more initiatives in this area will be founded. What we’re seeing today is child’s play compared to what will happen. Eventually it’s about getting the best out of ourselves, and then this service will become very personal.

Rebecca Rijnders of Emerce sends invites for the Emerce eDay to her contacts. This is an event centering around e-innovation. This year it'll take place on the 18th of September. By accepting her invitation you'll be added to the group along with other interested parties. You can see who they are and continue straight on to the website of eDay.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

This shows how brands can use existing contacts quickly and easily to check interest and to create a buzz. Because people join a group they explicitly state their interest in this area and show this to others. This has a social-psychological effect. It’ll increase a person’s tendency to participate. This is how brands will start using their existing contacts to spread the word more and more effectively.

Stassen Hifi (Dutch) in Venlo was looking for a creative way to inform customers of their relocation. That's why the company decided to turn their shopping window at their location (Vleesstraat) into one big touch-screen. If passers-by touch the interactive window they'll be given information about the new location, products and special offers. They claim it's the biggest interactive shopping window in the Netherlands.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

We’ll surround ourselves more and more with touch-screens. We decide the start of the conversation and it resolves around our questions. They’ll be answered more and more intuitively, so intuitively that even my grandmother would be able to use then. Maybe not this touch-screen, but the next generation of them certainly. Then we’ll just ask what we want. An artificial employer, a brand agent, a chatbot if you wish, will appear and they’ll engage in a real dialogue. This is a step in that direction. In the Netherlands too.

EasyToBook.com, specialist in online reservations of quality hotels for the lowest possible prices, has started a massive and ambitious expansion. The company is expanding from three European destinations to 2400 destinations worldwide. These new cities will be added to the website. EasyToBook.com's completely revamped website will offer overnight stays in about 20,000 hotels. Dublin, London, New York, Paris and Prague have already been added to the site as the first new destinations.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

All big brands of the coming centuries are operating on a global scale. They have all the knowledge of a specific domain, but know the individual on top of that. Said individual won’t have to look further. EasyToBook may grow to become such a brand in the holiday domain.