Much has been written about the future of online data exchange and the implications for the future of the information economy.  Our take on this fundamental topic has been a trend we have coined Consumer Capital: a story of consumer empowerment, where consumers start to realise the intrinsic value of their data and seek new ways to store, safeguard and exchange their own personal intel for personal advantage.

This narrative is based on the growing evidence that: 1) consumers would like more control over the information they share with companies; and 2) consumers are starting to view their personal data as an asset that can be used to barter for better deals and offers.  Indeed, we have recently come across an excellent example of this trend being brought to life, where a dedicated consumer has been painstakingly collecting his own personal data and selling it for $2 a day.

What’s more, tales of gross data intrusions, such as that leaked this month, will only heighten consumer fears over the use of their online information and encourage them to seek new ways to guard against online snooping.

But I think it is important at this stage of the big data debate to pause and be frank about what scenarios we are likely to see emerging in the short to medium future.  Will we see new waves of people collecting and exchanging their data?  Or will this just be an interesting experiment carried out by the few who have the know-how and dedication?  I am leaning towards the latter.

Indeed, I expect that most of the key developments in data exchange over the next decade or so will be more brand-led than consumer-led.  This will still be a story of consumer empowerment. But the advantages that consumers will most likely receive will be primarily down to brands looking to find new ways of incentivising the sharing of consumer data, in response to mounting public and regulatory pressure.

In the longer term, episodes such as the NSA story this month will raise the more fundamental question about whether the current model of data exchange is sustainable – if we truly wish to build a future information economy which is in the best interests of all.  Will people, if they ever have, continue to accept the mining of their data in return for notions of free content or national security?  Or, as Jaron Lenier argues, will we need to cast off the default notion that data should be free and only through the monetization of data will we all benefit from an information economy that will become ever more encompassing?

What is certain is that, as more stories akin to the NSA controversy hit the headlines, we will be forced to decide what kind of system of data exchange we wish to build.  And whatever the outcome, this will be the fundamental question for the future of our information economy.

Future Foundation will be partnering with Interel to present The Big Data Dilemma thought leadership event on Thursday 20 June.  The event will explore how businesses and government can come together to create viable, long-term policies that allow organisations and consumers to reap the benefits and avoid a stiflingly over-regulated environment. See more at: http://www.interelgroup.com/sector-expertise/technology/big-data/#sthash.EdJEbzT6.dpuf

For several decades, the strategy of moving work and jobs to countries where labor costs were lower proved fruitful; but this is now changing. In recent times, while wages in China have been rising inexorably, labor costs associated with manufacturing in America have stagnated. The result? Reshoring.

According to a recent publication by McKinsey, the number of firms looking to reshore their manufacturing operation has increased sharply since 2009, whereas offshoring intentions have fallen. Examples of this trend are easy to come by: Peerless Industries, Intertech Plastics and Karen Kane have all taken the decision to relocate their manufacturing bases to America from China.

The effect of rising wages hasn’t been solely to encourage reshoring to the USA, but also to catalyze offshoring to other low-cost countries. As China has become less competitive, so second-tier emerging economies have benefitted. For example, bilateral trade agreements with Mexico, combined with its low labor and transport costs, have made the country an attractive proposition for US manufacturers. And to a lesser extent, this dynamic is also playing out in Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia et al.

But what of the consumer perspective? Motivated by a willingness to protect and support domestic producers in lean economic times, the consumer’s antenna has become acutely conscious of product origin. According to nVision, a majority of US consumers agree that it is important for the good of the economy to purchase items that are “Made in America”, and nearly 1 in 2 say they are more likely to buy products if they are produced stateside.

So where does this leave globalization as a key global driver? Well, it remains exactly that: according to the DHL Global Connectedness Index, numerous second-tier and emerging economies are (unsurprisingly) becoming progressively more globalized. However, the premium that consumers are placing on product origin in tandem with changing attitudes towards reshoring suggests that de-globalization is a genuine force in the USA. And as sluggish growth at home combines with an increasingly uncompetitive China abroad, so this trend gains momentum.

In January 2011, much was made of the ComScore data which placed MailOnline at the top of the internet news tree: it had just beaten The New York Times to become the world’s most popular news website. Since then, the Audit Bureau of Circulations stated the website’s unique visitors were up from 66 million in March 2011 to a striking 106 million in August 2012. For perspective, BBC News received 60 million.

So why is the site so popular?

The answer, perhaps, can be found in a study by Jonah Berger and Katherine Milkman which analysed the popularity of New York Times articles published online over a period of 3 months. Controlling for how surprising, interesting and visually salient the articles were, the researchers found that virality correlated significantly and positively with the emotional valence of the story. In other words, stories with strong emotional arousal (e.g. awe, anger, anxiety) were much more likely to be read and shared.

Consider also a study by Chip Heath of Made to Stick fame. They found the extent to which an urban legend was shared could be directly related to how disgusting it was. Have you heard the one about the woman who ate a taco containing spider eggs, and the eggs burrowed into her gums before hatching? Of course you have.

At Future Foundation we have first-hand experience of this (not the spiders in gums, the study of engagement via arousal). At our UK conference in May, head of research Katie Toll unveiled a brand new nVitro, Brainstorms at Bedtime, which studies the growing use of connected devices at times previously reserved for relaxation. The story was picked up by the press and went somewhat viral, but only after the Mail had taken the story and worked its magic, saying that “half of 16 to 34-year-olds would rather check their emails in bed than make time for love”. There is not much that is more emotional than sex, and sex sells.

This is where any insight professional outside of publishing says, “That’s great, but so what?”

Insights such as these speak to a new, burgeoning world of marketing; a way of engaging and nudging consumers with a level of efficacy marketers could only ever dream of before now. It tells us how to get brands noticed – and bought. BrainJuicer’s John Kearon, talking at Digital Shoreditch 2013, recently summed up the most successful adverts in two words: “pure emotion”. Think the Cadbury gorilla, the Three moonwalking pony or the Guinness horses. These adverts make no rational sense, yet they have been inordinately successful thanks to their profound use of emotion (and surprise and curiosity, but that’s another blog entry).

The most powerful marketing strategies are formed by those who understand Kahneman’s System 1 and System 2 distinction – and by those who realise that System 1 (conscious, deliberative processes) makes up a tiny fraction of attention and judgment. The popular figure states that our brain consciously processes 40 bits of data out of every 11,000,000; the rest happens under the surface of awareness and control. The effective strategies of MailOnline, Cadbury, et al. demonstrate the awesome power of understanding the unconscious mind.

Today is also the day Channel 4 goes live with a hugely ambitious, humbling and utterly compelling campaign – D-Day: As It Happens will follow the stories of seven individuals involved in the Normandy landings. Regular updates via TV, social media and the internet over 24 hours will recreate the events of the pivotal battle in real time.

Factually, this is the tear-jerker to end all tear-jerkers – the photos of soldiers wading through the surf, the contents of letters and official records, the painstaking research by amateur historian Colin Henderson all combine to create a heart-rending account of one of the most significant battles in history.  The grainy black and white images are a far cry from our modern rolling, as-it-happens, experience-every-second-live news experience – and yet somehow feel far more real.

Technologically, this is an outstanding feat of ingenuity by Channel 4 – billed as a ‘twenty-four hour history event’, viewers can switch between multiple mediums to track the progress of real soldiers in real time, experiencing the terror as the same time as the D Day seven did.  This is second screening at its best – complex, layered, engaging, brilliant.  At a time when nearly half of all consumers have a smartphone; when 70% of 16-24s use the mobile internet daily; when 84% go online whilst watching TV and 6 in 10 online consumers use social media while they are watching TV – a campaign that reaches consumers at every touchpoint is an incredibly powerful way of creating engagement

This isn’t the first example of real time history – @HistoryNeedsYou @TitanicRealTime @RealTimeWWII, have been thriving for years; but for a generation of people moving farther and farther away from the events of our past, this is history brought vividly to life, lest we forget. 

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/d-day-as-it-happens/4od

But it’s a topic which continues to split opinion. Some believe we’re standing on the precipice of a new industrial revolution, one where 3D printing transforms manufacturing processes, overhauls a significant swathe of the existing labour market and empowers individuals to start producing everything from customised jewellery to bespoke plant pots.

Others, meanwhile, argue strongly that this is a much over-hyped subject which strays too far into the realms of fiction – drawing support from the sheer expense of the tools and materials involved as well as the fact that, thus far (and probably for the foreseeable future too), consumer enthusiasm towards the subject has lagged far behind technological capability.

And then there’s the middle ground – the group who remain alert to the possible cross-sector ramifications of 3D printing but wonder just how strong and imminent the impact will actually be. I suspect this is where most people find themselves: intrigued but cautious. And about as willing to champion the idea of a “3D printing revolution” as they would be to endorse the “Death of Facebook”.

Regardless of which camp you’re in, though, it’s hard not to notice the stream of eye-catching and headline-grabbing 3D innovations which are currently emerging across a range of sectors. Since August last year, for example, visitors to Disney World in Florida have been able to purchase a 3D Disney Princess Figurine moulded in their likeness. Elsewhere, Sirona has been using 3D printing techniques to allow dentists to create a bespoke crown in one hour – a significantly shorter period of time than via traditional techniques. And in Japan, Omote3D invited visitors to the late 2012 Eye of Gyre exhibition to have scans and then print miniature, full-figure 3D versions of themselves.

For me, though, there are three events which make it plausible to start getting excited about the effects of 3D printing. The first was the announcement in November last year that Mcor Technologies and Staples were partnering to launch their Staples Easy 3D service – described as offering “consumers, product designers, architects, healthcare professionals, educators, students and others low-cost, brilliantly coloured, photo-realistic 3D printed products from Staples stores”. People simply upload files online and then collect the finished items from the store – with the early 2013 launch in the Netherlands and Belgium being followed by a wider roll-out.

For anyone concerned about the cost implications of having to own a 3D printer (and the materials needed to create anything), a retail service like this is surely an ideal solution. Consumers will be able to print things to their exact specifications, they won’t have to worry about technical processes involved and they won’t have to shell out for anything other than the product they want. It’s also, of course, ideal for the Retail Reloaded trend – a story which tracks the efforts of bricks-and-mortar retailers to combat the rise of online alternatives (the scope for in-store “theatrification” here is strong, much more than if one simply orders a 3D item through a website and then has it delivered). Can we imagine a retail future in which shops across a range of sectors have in-store, 3D customisation centres? It’s got to be highly plausible, certainly.

Equally important is the Filabot printer – a machine designed for domestic use which can recycle existing plastic by grinding it down and then using it to print new items. The inventor sought funding for the project via Kickstarter in 2012, raising more than $30,000 from 150+ backers and claiming that : “Filabot will bring the real power of sustainability to 3D-printing, allowing for a one-stop-shop to make anything”. At present, the machine’s retail cost has not been revealed but the chance to make considerable savings on raw materials moves us one step closer to 3D printing having an affordable and widespread domestic presence.

From the perspective of brands, though, there’s one recent development that stands out more than any other: Nokia’s announcement in January of this year that it was releasing a 3D printing development kit in support of its Lumia 820 smartphones. The move allows customers to print their own, highly personalised case for the handset – with the company providing all the specifications they need to print the product as well as advice about the best materials and practices to use.

Here we see one of the most explosive impacts that the 3D revolution is likely to have for companies. As we’ve argued in our Beyond 2020 report on the Future of Work, brands of the future won’t always be selling physical products in the traditional sense; instead, many will be trading “ideas” behind products, offering rights and blueprints but giving the consumer the discretion to print the item as they like. Clearly, this carries major implications for the types of manufacturing, wholesale and retail jobs which will exist in the future. But more importantly for our purposes here, it opens a treasure-chest of creative and empowering possibilities for the consumer.

Naturally, I’ll end with a word of caution. In the short and medium-term futures, 3D printing will not be for all. Consumer resistance – as well as simple lack of understanding / awareness – will remain pronounced and in some sectors it will always seem less palatable than in others. 3D burger anyone? Didn’t think so. And despite all the innovations discussed here, we’re a long way away – a long way indeed – from each home having a 3D printer in the study. That said, developments will keep coming thick and fast and, led by the retail sector, we’ll be seeing far more commercial and consumer-facing uses of 3D printing very quickly.

The future of football on television was the subject of a panel discussion I took part in last weekend at the Adidas Lab, alongside experts from from BT Sport, YouTube, YouTube football channel Copa 90 and Adidas Global.

We kicked off by exploring the future of football broadcasting. The key consumer trends impacting how football will be shown by mainstream broadcasters are Demanding Consumers, Everyday Exceptional and Authenti-Seeking. It is very likely that the football fan of the future will expect the broadcasting experience to be closer to the in-stadium experience, to be more tailored to them as an individual and more immersive. Broadcasters might, for example, be better able to segment their offering, recognising that not all fans have the same relationship with the teams playing in a particular match, and therefore require different things from the broadcast, depending their interest in the teams playing and the importance of the game. For example, on some occasions viewers might prefer partisan rather than impartial commentary. They might like to suppress the commentary entirely and replace it with crowd noise (including banter, chanting and swearing) from a specific section of the ground.

Then we moved on to the future of online football, which clearly offers up new horizons to fans, in terms of content and access. Consumer trends such as Mobile Living, Native Marketing and Free! are highly relevant here, highlighting fans’ desire to access the sport they love via smartphones and tablets, wherever and whenever they want, to find the content they want without paying for it, and to immerse themselves ever deeper in the stories and characters that inhabit the beautiful game. Many clubs are already active in this sphere – Manchester City were cited as a good example, offering a “Tunnel Cam” that gives subscribers a new access point to see the players before the come onto the pitch.

From there we moved on to second screens. Second screening refers to viewers simultaneously doing something else like texting, web-surfing or status updating at the same time as viewing, driven by consumer trends like Smart Boredom and Smart Networking. In the context of football the second screen can be used for all kinds of things:

• Exchanging the banter that is so much a part of the football community using either dedicated apps such as Vubooo and Squawka Zeebox or traditional social media sources (Facebook, Twitter, and so on)
• Betting on the changing match situation via in-game gambling options
• Keeping tabs on the progress of one’s Fantasy Football team
• Ordering pizzas and other in-match provisions

We finished by considering the future of data in football (on TV), where consumer trends like Total Recall, Quantified Self and Consumer Capital become highly relevant. Data, in particular statistics from Opta, now characterise in- and post-game analysis like never before. Some of the high-tech gadgetry on show at the Adidas Lab will make data even richer and more accessible. But there is clearly a question about how much of this is desired by the viewing fan, as opposed to the football community itself.

From the 2013 season onwards, shirts worn by players from all participating teams in the US’s Major League Soccer will carry small chips powered by the Adidas miCoach Elite System that track a number of performance measures – including heartbeat, acceleration and speed. Spectators can access the data via a dedicated iPad app.

As the amount of data that in-ball, on-pitch, in-goal and on-player devices offer skyrockets, so do the dangers of data overload. I think the emphasis will continue to be on the usage of statistics to tell compelling stories through the usage of increasingly cool visualisation tools, rather than the stats being an end in themselves.

Overall, what seems clear is that the future of the beautiful game on TV is exciting. Football arouses passions that are often difficult for those not swept along by them to understand and which are diverse – from anger to frustration, sometimes joy, often humour. And all of these need to be retained in whatever form the high-tech future brings to us. Provided they can be kept the future of football can be both real and high-tech.

The Future Foundation recently expanded to the USA – and meeting many US brands has given us an insight into a marketing trend that is shaking the foundations of the industry stateside and globally. One of the strongest sentiments is an emphasis on the need for immediate results, despite the recognised need for innovation. These two seem to be mutually incompatible. Surely innovation can only come from a proper and extensive investment in generating insights, with a properly constructed programme of ideation, with product or service prototyping to establish which ideas will actually work?

At a conference I chaired recently in Boston, I heard how Eli Lilly work on multibillion dollar new drug investment programmes over at least seven years; and that Campbells’ spent years researching how the brand could transform itself to appeal to a new younger audience. How does this sit with the intense pressures of greater short-termism borne of five years of continuing economic uncertainty?

This is something that most western markets have been facing, however many predicted upturns and positive indicators are unearthed by the soothsayers of economic forecasting – we have lost our faith and are now even more wedded to the treadmill of quarterly results, if not weekly trading figures, as so many retailers are. We need to maximise the value of our investment in innovation just as consumers need to maximise the return on the cash in their purses. So, how can firms innovate whilst keeping their eye on the short term? Surely that is a recipe for disaster?

As in so many things right now, it is the digital space that is proving to be the answer, particularly the smart mobile devices that are spreading like wildfire through the populations of the East and West and almost everywhere in between. And anyone can get into the App game – big players, small players, established brands or new. Arguably it has been easiest for the young businesses and fleet-of-foot to capitalise immediately on the new technology, but now big brands are beginning to realise that this is a playground for them too and a plethora of new services, extensions and engagement devices are multiplying.

Some recent examples include:

• Fujitsu launching Hada Memori, a smartphone app designed to help women monitor the condition of their skin. To use the app, individuals simply hold a card featuring a 15 millimetre hole to their face and then take a photo. Subsequently, the app records and analyses data about the user’s skin – allowing them to track areas such as skin tone, blemishes and pore size

• In the US, Triad Energy introduced its Triad Wall – a wall display which shows the real-time energy usage not only of the owner’s household but also that of others in the local vicinity to promote social norms constraining excessive use.

• Branches of US department store Nordstrom have been equipped with iPod Touches in an effort to reduce check-out waiting times.

• Marriott International is using Twitter as an online concierge-style service, responding in real-time to complaints or queries posted by guests. By offering responses in real-time, it hopes to offer instant assistance to those who have been frustrated by their experience of the company as well as demonstrate the premium it places on customer service.

And this expanding territory doesn’t have to be insight free, inhabited purely by the geeks and hipsters who were leading the wave. We are finding that the ‘fast’ trends which Future Foundation works to identify at the rate of two per month, combined with the latest global examples of where these have been recognised and put to work as a the basis for a new commercial offer, can be a powerful basis for sparking ideas and generating immediately testable prototypes in workshops with clients. Also we noticed that many software vendors are selling community management systems designed to create and manage innovation panels and agencies have theirs lined up for instant use – the smartly-named Collaboratory by Sterlying Brands, for example, providing qualified and usable feedback on ideas from anywhere in the world.

Fast innovation is going global and requires a more immediate and rapid response set of tools. We don’t think it is going to replace the longer established approaches and programmes that exist or the need for deep insights on which to build category-busting ideas and market creating products, but it is a necessary approach in choppy waters.

Adidas CEO Herbert Hainer and football legends Zinedine Zidane and Michael Ballack kicked off with a day of interactive and inspiring football innovations. Hainer stated the need to keep things ‘smart’ and ‘fast’, describing the cutting edge of football as ‘smart’ and ‘digital’, where revolutionary advances in monitoring and tracking the biorhythms of individual players will have implications for broadcasting and coaching.

Then the fun really began! We were treated to sneak previews of 4 cutting edge innovations, all designed to super-charge the beautiful game. First under the spotlight were speed enhancement technologies – the adizero 99g boot weighs less than an iPhone 5; while the 630g kit includes shirt, shorts, shin pads, socks and boots all designed to provide a lighter look with more game time speed.  A limited number of both will be available in 2015.

The base layer of the kit is also fully integrated into another innovation – the miCoach Elite team system. This is the first system of its kind to take real time physiological data and send it back to a coach’s tablet on the sidelines. Measuring everything from power, speed and distance to heart rate and field position, it provides instant insights into player performance and work rate to keep players at their peak and in the game.

The final innovation, the Smart Ball, adds another element of smart-technologies to the sport with the ability to measure power, strike point, trajectory and bend through its built-in sensors. Its automated coaching system feeds back this information to the player through an app to improve technique.

All four were on display and available to interact with. I even got a chance to experience adidas’s future by running ‘The Track’, a 15m Astroturf track providing a real time data visualisation experience to test your game. This involved partaking in 3 running challenges to measure speed, work rate and skill. The data came to life as I ran the track and provided insight on which adidas boot would best suit my style of play – the Predator (the technical wizard), f50 (the speed demon) or Nitrocharge (the engine).

So what does all of this mean for the future of sport? The training, coaching and viewing of sports are all in for some dramatic changes. Mobile Living leaves no rock unturned, and it is now making its way onto the football pitch. Players and coaches will have new, personalised, quantified ways of tracking their performance and progress. The adidas innovations will be game-changing. Literally.

Internet week in New York (the East Coast’s response to Silicon Valley – some have even dubbed it Silicon Alley – a gathering of all the digi-heads and tech fanatics on this half of the country) has just finished (now in its 5^th year).

One of the seminars I attended looked at digital disruption, and not just in how digital has disrupted consumers, or given headaches to marketers as they attempt to find new and innovative avenues in which to speak to these new hyper-consumers (ahem, please see our nVitro The Hyper Individual).  It also addressed the change among the C-Suite – no longer can the suits at the top carry on with life in the business world as usual.  Their window office will not protect them from the digital age and those who ignore the call of digital integration will feel it  -  most acutely on their bottom lines…

Thus, the CM-I-O is born (chief marketing and information officer).

While in the analog world, information technology specialists and marketers remained decidedly and determinedly separate within the company walls, this brave new world, with its rising and unending importance of digital technology, requires these Chiefs Of to become increasingly integrated. Meaning that IT must now jump in bed with their ad and marketing teams – merging marketing practice with the technology that supports it in order to create a consumer-friendly, fast paced and effective brand interface for engagement.

Both sides of the corporate brain -  the creatives and the techies  – now form the internal power couple put  on the quest to engage the consumer in ways meaningful to their life today and tomorrow.  And the reason for this internal merger is simple: excellence in marketing ideas (driven by the CMO) requires excellence in the delivery of ideas (driven by the CTO/CIO).  And as data increasingly becomes more of an business asset, silos of information within a company can cause chronic illness that will only lead to early brand death.

And it makes sense, an obvious and natural transition. Transparency is increasing faster and cost is decreasing faster now than at any other time. So why keep the IT team in the basement when good IT can facilitate new systems of customer engagement? IT enables things such as Concierge Living to be brought to life, allowing for brand transparency and excellence in our demanding 24 hour consumer society. This shift in corporate leadership and co-operation is strategic and we expect increasing numbers of brands to join in – and rapidly so.  As Matthew Jauchius, CMO of Nationwide Insurance, put it – “What can you do without technology?”.  The number of activities is shrinking almost daily.  More, responding in real time across social media is marketing GOLD – technologists can empower marketers to respond, effectively and timely, through these social mediums.

The lesson? Technology should not be viewed any longer as simply an expense, but used strategically as a business asset and enabled to drive competitive advantage from within. Marketers do the dreaming and then work with IT to find a way to make those dreams come true.

Some big brands have already seen the light, blending these roles or forming unique partnerships – internal Bro-mances and Sisterhoods, if you like – in an attempt to bring the 21^st century customer into focus and streamline their processes. Motorola, Nationwide, International Hotel Group… are just a few of the big names speaking at Internet Week who are pioneering the world of the CM(I)O  -  and according to them, with great success.

Innovation needs the consumer and the consumer today is integrating digital into all aspects of their life.  Marketers must now do the same.

Are IT and marketing meshing in your organisation?  If so, what differences has your brand seen?  If not, do you think this should become a critical part of the agenda moving forward?  We’d love to hear your thoughts.

The national dish here is not curry, but take-away – in any form.

New York City has long been famous for its 24-hour mentality. But technology today has added another dimension to this 24 hour society; more, social media has made instant access – all hours access – available to everyone, not just in the city that never sleeps. The End of Adventure is playing out quite nicely on the streets of America today.

One of the biggest differences I’ve noticed jumping the pond from the UK to the US is just how much more social Americans are – but not in the traditional sense. While mobile platforms and their functionality were adopted far more quickly in the UK and Europe initially, Americans are more actively involved in the everyday, on-the-ground use of social media via their phones as they go throughout their day.  Using every form of social media not just to show the world what they are doing and who they are doing it with, but to find the information they need.

Yelp, in particular, is not a new concept. It has been around for ages, but pray for the business that receives a bad review -  their end may be night.  Be it because no one wants to waste their hard earned cash on a venue or experience that is only, well OK; or because our time is too precious to be spent at any place other than the best of venues, with an excellent happy hour, the best flat white in the city or food which worthy of an instagram mug shot  -  in New York, cafes, salons, Laundromats live and die by their Yelp review.

If there were ever any doubt that transparency is now integral to every business-consumer relationship, this is it.  There is simply too much choice and too many new venues to wade through – very little is now left to chance. If walking down the street and in need of a quick coffee, bite to eat or a spur of the moment mani-pedi where do I turn? Even in a hurry, mediocre will just not do. So I don’t leave it to chance, I leave it to Yelp.

In fact today, not only did I look up the nearest  mani-pedi salon to my home; I ensured it had received no bad reviews in the last 6 months, on any site  -  because you are only ever as good as your latest review. In the last week I have used online review services (why ask a friend when I can ask my phone?) to book my hair appointment, find a venue for happy hour, book dinner, “discover” a quiet, cool cafe to spend my Sunday morning reading the paper, and found a gym to join (who have very kindly provided me with a free one-week trial while I determine whether or not to jump on board). The list, as you can tell, could go on.

But these habits speak to a bigger social trend -  the need to share. It is my fellow citizens – the collective of New Yorkers and tourists alike – who are banding together to make sure that not one of us need have a bad experience. Or that we are at least warned of the possibility ahead of time.

What consequences does this have for businesses? How must they now interact?  Now that consumers are talking to each other, brands need to join the conversation -  and they must offer complete transparency.  You’ve heard this, we know.  But getting the response right is critical.  Brands must acknowledge where they have gone wrong, answer questions and reply to bad reviews. Talk to your consumers like friends, not as a potential sale.

People are social. Brands need to get involved.

For more on nVision US or our NY office, please contact Heather Corker – heatherc@futurefoundation.net