Mmm personally I’m not quit convinced but I might be wrong (again). Anyway tikitag might as well be The Next Big Thing. It looks simple: you have stickers on which you can put info with the help of an USB-tikitag-reader-writer. Once programmed you can use the stickers to tag anything. Other users can ‘read’ the info from the tag. For example: I upload all my Facebook, Plaxo, Del.icio.us, Last.fm links on a tikitag and stick it on my business card. When you get my card, you read the tag and you have immediate access to all my online info.
Bottlenecks? The reader. I would have bought the thing yesterday if it used my webcam (as this monster does) or my mobile as a reader but who needs another piece of hardware to carry around?
Tikitag goes beta October 1st, meanwhile learn more here it you can take the accent. Good luck guys!

We [blink] is a system to design patterns on store front windows that react to people passing by and then transmits their graphical representation to other windows around the world. This is an interesting and futuristic idea that could add interactivity to store fronts

1. All media going digital
2. Expanded Marketing choice

The first point means that creative people need to adapt. The 2nd point that also media people will need to adapt.

1. All media going digital

In ten years from now there will be no more difference between print, digital and video ads, there will be just ads, according to Steve Ballmer.

Example : Microsoft is currently talking to a company that will be able to produce a digital carrier that will have the same features as a piece of paper. It will be as light-weighted, flexible and easily to write on as paper. One difference however, it will able to ‘connect’.
2. Expanded marketing choice

Steve Ballmer means that a marketer you will be able to :
1. buy based on context, demographics and/or behaviour
2. choose between fixed or variable placement. The latter meaning that you don’t know exactly when your ads are going to appear.
3. have pricing based on negotiated rate cards and/or auction systems (cfr. Google adwords of today)
4. have different formats to pick from : text, picture or video
5. pay per impression, click or action from the target.
6. choose the screen on which the ads will be appearing, being pc, tv or mobile.

Note that point 1 to 5 are inspired by the online ad industry mechanics of today. If this vision is right, the media players of today better learn fast.

In order to help marketers connect to publishers through this multitude of combinations and choices, software comes in.
Microsoft will try to deliver the platforms and (online) marketplace where this advertising demand and offer will meet.
Only a few companies will be able to deliver such a platform, being Microsoft themselves and Google or Yahoo!.
One of the reasons why Microsoft is trying to buy Yahoo!.

Emma (an integrated email marketing agency, with clients like DHL en Harvard Business School) is handing out 10 quite obvious, but nice-to-have, “trends” for email marketing in 2008 (although the rules are quite 2007):

1. Getting serious about the subject line.
2. Striking the right balance between images and text
3. Branding more than just the *from* name.
4. Focusing above the fold. Think preview pane.
5. Designing for three display possibilities.
6. Personalizing beyond “Dear Bob.”
7. Writing in a warm, personal voice.
8. Sending timely, targeted follow-ups.
9. Making the most of landing pages.
10. Above all, experiment.

For more info: click here

After the impressive trend blend 2007, they have produced a new version for 2008 based on Shanghai’s underground routes. Slimming down from 10 segments last time, this map shows the 5 subway lines explaining what they see as the 5 key trends across Society, Politics, Demographics, Economy and Technology. Again, an amazing visualtion of current issues and how they interrelate, especially the five ‘major interchanges’ of Globalisation, Digitalisation, Virtual worlds, Ageing and Anxiety.

- Jongeren zijn werk zat en willen zich (net als in het liefdesleven) niet binden

- Geen tijd dus multitasken

- Jumpstyle danstrend voorbij

- Uitgaan, comazuipen en obesitas

- Belang om als sponsormerk zichzelf te blijven

- Wilders-effect: terug naar de tribe

- De Incroyables (jongens tonen hun vrouwelijke kant / bestudeerde nonchalance)

- ‘Everybody is a star’

- De terugkomst van de punkrock-chica (ook meisjes opteren voor slordige kledingcombi)

- Spelen met porno

- Het verlangen naar een betere wereld (besef dat wereld ‘naar de kloten’ gaat)

- media fragmentation

- internet as the central hub of most media and marketing campaigns

- consumers are in control

The first of the transformations starts with media fragmentation, which is expanding exponentially. Thanks to significant consolidation and simultaneous expansion ad networks continue to grow and become more sophisticated in their ability to target specific consumer groups. They will allow advertisers to reach large audiences that are stitched together from hundreds or thousands of diverse Web sites.

The second transformation is that the Internet is becoming the central hub of most media and marketing campaigns. Not only is the Internet used extensively by every major demographic group for a variety of purposes, including information, communication and entertainment. It also allows for a two-way interaction between consumers and marketers that is not found in any other medium. Moreover, the Internet can provide a wealth of measurement metrics to help marketers justify and fine-tune their engaged media plans.

But it will probably be the third transformation that will have the greatest effect since it affects all media. Consumers are increasingly in control of their media content and can easily eradicate ads they don’t want to see. They also have less trust in advertisers and their messages. Further, they are creating their own content with the help of blogs, social networks, … .

As a result, advertisers who want to engage with today’s consumers will have to start turning their ads into content. So where ads were perceived as a “necessary evil” in the past, content should now be so compelling, relevant and entertaining that consumers seek it out and want to share it with others. The interruption-disruption model is dying out and replaced by and ad model that consists of creating great content and finding clever ways to embed it in the fabric of communities and content platforms where consumers are hanging out and actively participating.

Lees verder voor trends, uitdagingen, een figuur en meer uitleg

Verschillende bedrijven zijn al op de kar van virtuele werelden gesprongen en met succes. Mattel, Coca-Cola, en Walt Disney hebben allen succesvol virtuele werelden opgericht (respectievelijk barbiegirl.com, iCoke.hk en clubpenguin.com). Voorlopig zijn het vooral kinderen die virtuele werelden met merken erachter opzoeken.

In het onderzoek werden een aantal mogelijke trends opgegeven voor 2008 gekoppeld aan huidige probleempunten:

1. een duidelijkere wetgeving (rechten van leden en wettelijke implicaties)
2. een proliferatie van de markt: meer mensen, meer werelden
3. link met social networking-sites: één profiel doorheen alle werelden gekoppeld aan de facebooks van deze planeet
4. meetmethoden! (hoe kan de betrokkenheid/”engagement” worden gemeten?)
5. meer business-geörienteerd: er zijn reeds veel opleidingsinstituten op Second Life, maar hoe zit het met een business virtuele wereld
6. vergemakkelijking van het gebruik: voorlopig zijn er voor de werelden voor volwassenen te hoge drempels.

Hieronder een figuur met de groei van de grootste verschillende virtuele werelden (bron: Wall Street Journal).  

Waar er volgend jaar wel voor moet opgepast is een potentieel overaanbod, een te korte “attention span” bij de bezoeker, en de slechte pers.

Het probleem van virtuele werelden is natuurlijk dat er een immense initiële investering voor nodig is. Men geeft echter toe dat kleinere, persoonlijke werelden hierop een oplossing kunnen bieden (eventueel vanaf het moment dat de technologie wordt vrijgegeven).

Bron: Virtual Worlds Management Industry Forecast 2008

In his new book, “Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing Out of Sync?”, Seth Godin dissects the 14 trends marketers need to embrace to avoid eating meatball sundaes, which Godin explains as such:

A meatball is a worthwhile commodity. They are things we need and sold to everyone. The sundae is the hot fudge and the peanuts, the tactics of social media and the MySpace profiles. These things work but they work best when they’re not on meatballs, but when they’re on an organization designed to work with them.

We’ll have to read the book for more on this.

The 14 trends are:

To make that decision, marketers have to be aware of three critical trends that focus on mobile data usage…

1. The end-user of mobile data tends to be younger. According to the Pew Internet Project, approximately one-third fo all adult American internet users (34 percent) have logged onto the internet by wireless means using a laptop, PDA, or cell phone. These users are younger than traditional Internet users: 37 percent of 18-34 year-olds, while only 18 percent of the 35-49 group use wireless.

2. A wide variety of factors – low bandwith, hundreds of different devices, small screens, different viewing environments and standards – have prevented widespread adoption. They have forced many mobile applications to reduce visuals and rely on simple text applications.

3. While wireless data is still in its childhood, wireless mobile social media is in its infancy. That means social applications like mobile Facebook and Twitter are still very early, and unproven from a marketing standpoint.

Marketers need to stay on top of the media form to ensure that when the time is right for their customer base the transition to mobile Internet marketing can be easy and simple transtion. In the short term, marketers need to make sure that their target group is mobile friendly (less than 34 years old), and that they can convey value across diverse devices on various mobile networks.

In the long term, mobile data and social-media applications hold great promise for marketers. The numbers, will still low are changing. According to the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA), the wireless industry saw a 63% increase in data usage during the first half of 2007 over 2006. To meet the anything, anytime, anywhere future, the wireless industry will have to focus on delivering dramatic increases in the bandwith available to drive media usage. The availability of this bandwith in diverse mobile geographies, increased functionality, and openness of content devices will enable full access to any media form.