trendwatching

The power of Trendwatching.com

(I orginally posted a version of this on t7F blog)

 Trendwatching.com have tracked how their December 2009 predication briefing for 2010 has been picked up and spread around the world. Following the ripples bended or morphed by global cultural and social conventions. This is a great illustration of the power of  good content. I am amazed at how many brand owners still don’t see the opportunity this presents. The letting go of your stuff. Allowing it to be past on, customised and reapplied. More importantly is the creation of content specifically designed to be passed on. Content that has an open end, that demands comment or addition. It is the Lego theory of marketing. 

kidbrick@flickr.comClosed worlds are becoming fewer and fewer. Thinking that your new campaign is just a Lego starter set with the customer in charge of a huge box of extra bricks should be the 2010 attitude

Everything aimed via mobile devices needs to have this element built in. The Apple iPhone App store would be nothing without this type of thinking. Toady’s launch of the Nexus One from Google should herald a widening of the idea of endless stories.

In Management Today, Tom Savigar of The Future Laboratory covers a similar area but applied to social media technologies. he labels this ‘Free range’

Everything a brand puts out is just a stage in that products narrative, if it has value users will take it on. The obvious flaw being thin or dull content that sits motionless. Be interesting and your customers will be interested.