Fring is an application which you install on your iPhone fring and which allows you to call, chat and get into contact with your friends on Skype, Live Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger), Google Talk, ICQ, Twitter, Yahoo, and AIM. In addition you can see on your iPhone whether someone is available. This negates the need to keep copying your contacts from one list to another. All you need is a data or WiFi connection on your iPhone. Calling will be free and it won't matter if your friends are behind their computer or are available on their cell phone or another device with an internet connection.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

This is how a social coaching brand, a brand that helps you make new contacts, maintain them or even break them off, is created. With people, or with companies (read: networks of people.) It starts with making a complete list of all the people you have contact with, had contact with, or might want to have contact with. It starts with this.

With CBSeyemobile.com from the American broadcasting company CBS users can upload their photos and videos directly from their mobile phone.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

News is mostly ‘people news’. Often it’s about politics (about people), scandals (about people) or about incidents on the street (again, involving people). We can communicate these events with each other perfectly through various kinds of media. The need for journalists arose from the limitations of the media: not everyone could share; not everyone could report news fast. This time is over. Brands are experiencing a ‘coming out’ and are transforming into a network in which the main office only facilitates. There are still quite a few steps to take, but this is a good step forward.

Dutch housing site Moviq lets you 'flirt' with your house. You can set your house to 'flirt' and people searching for a house can make an offer. You don't have to accept, just like you don't have to accept an offer in a real flirt.

From now on, movies in America can be bought both as a direct download and on DVD. To start with, all the movies of the bigger companies (20th Century Fox, Walt Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal Studios, Sony Pictures and the slightly smaller Lionsgate, Image Entertainment and First Look Studios) will be made available on iTunes.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

The media-evolution in this development is that the physical carriers are slowly disappearing and all the content ever made anywhere in the world is made instantly available. The brand-evolution is that iTunes will develop itself further as a home entertainment coaching brand, a brand that has all the content available for us, but above all it recognizes us, remembers our preferences and always knows how to entertain us.

Housing site Miljoenhuizen.nl (millionhouses) shows houses that have been for sale for a specific period. It has, for example, the ability to show only those houses that have been for sale for over half a year, or have been added just under a week ago. The archive offers all 750.000 houses (in the Netherlands) that have been for sale since May 2005. A so-called heat-map shows in one glance where the market is tense and where it's going downhill.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Home coaching brands reason from the consumer’s point of view. All the information that the consumer needs, even if that advice is ´just stay nicely where you are´, is given individually. The origin of this type of brand can be seen in developments like these.

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. 

Google has invested in several DNA-research centres. These centres offer paid services in which they analyse your DNA and present it to you in online reports. The test results of your show if you have a genetic chance of medical conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, cancer or rheumatoid arthritis.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Such a service is useful to us worried consumers. It also fits in the tendency that we as consumers take matters in our own hands more. In the future we’ll be our own specialists and we’ll be able to make our own diagnoses. In combination with the indexation by Google we’ll have no more secrets. Getting turned down on your first job interview, based on your DNA, supermarkets with specific departments for Altzheimer’s patients or insurance companies that decide if you get a policy based on a simple Google search. It seems far away, but with this the first steps have been taken.

Related trends

• Coaching brands

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.

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.

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.

The Dutch health care provider Meavita Nederland offers Care from a Distance, clients receive care via images and sound, supported by measured data such as blood sugar levels. With Care from a Distance a consultation with a doctor or other medical professional can take place at a distance via television or a broadband connection. Care providers can monitor clients at a distance and support them via home electronics and telemedicine (ITC care services). The client provides the care provider with data such as blood pressure, ecg and weight.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

We are more regularly receiving all sorts of services from a distance. Soon we will pay for these sorts of services by the minute just like we pay for the telephone, and/or on the basis of a subscription. This does not only apply to care. Soon, if there is a leak in our kitchen cupboard, we will be able to use our home coaching brand to get immediate assistance by pointing a camera at the problem, we will then receive advice and will be able to contact the right person with the right tools to come and fix the problem. Or, if we are having trouble with our piano exercises brands will be ready to assist us at home.

The district council in Hengelo, the Netherlands, helps its citizens to claim the correct subsidies by providing a 'money searcher'. Via the computer they enter a wide range of details about pay, benefits, tax credits, rent, savings and insurance policies. Within 10 minutes they receive personalized advice.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

The world is gradually changing. Instead of consumers, members or citizens being expected to trawl through all sorts of loose pieces of information, rules and procedures from various organizations the focus is now on the individual. Even then it is still too complicated. Personal finance brands will soon be able to automatically read all the customers’ details, interpret them and arrange all the appropriate subsidies (the consumer will only need to give permission). This sort of brand can immediately give good personal advice: do you want this, or that? And arrange what is required straight away. Only identification is needed, but by the time all this is possible identification will be able to be given in the blink of an eye.

At TravellersTV.com everything revolves arround video content based on holiday destinations. You see the continents on a click-able Google map. Once you have clicked a video over the continent begins. Then you can zoom in on a destionation and you will find related video chanels (in total there are 1200 destinations and 20 lifestyle tv channels). The videos often include supplementary text. In addition you find a buttons by every destination for more information over accommodation, food and drink, attractions, events, activities, transport and shoppig. You can rate, tag and comment on everything and you can also send the information on to others. But... it's still a beta version, sometimes things work and sometimes they don't, the content is far from complete but it is still well worth a look. A good concept with a lot of possibilities for good business models in the future...

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

The future for this sort of travel coaching brands is in the completeness of the offer, the understanding of the consumer and earnings via affiliated programs. A good understanding of the consumer is central (where did you go other years? How was it? What do your friends do?), providing inspiration and when the customer says : ‘Yes, that’s what I want!’, also immediately arranging the booking with as few follow up steps as possible. Then the customer will only need to say yes before enjoying the anticipation. TravellersTV is the beginning.

House specialist Immospy, known in the Netherlands as miljoenhuizen.nl, is now available in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. By focusing on Europe (instead of individual countries) almost 4 million houses for sale are made available.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Europe is increasingly being treated as one market. Soon we will be able to arrange mortgages over international borders (why should the provider have to come from our own country?), choose Europe wide internet providers, Europe wide insurance companies and internationally operating home coaching brands. These stand by to help us enjoy living, wherever we are in the world. This is a step in that direction.