Issue no.44

Free is the future

Is the business model of the future one where the customer no longer pays? Already products in the digital marketplace are being given away free, yet companies are still making profits.

Some time ago I wrote about this business model but now it seems to be more appropriate. It also is quite interesting to think how will it affect advertisement, or will it now? I think it definitely will have huge impact not only on how we make purchases’ decisions but as well how we communicate it. Susan Gunelius of entrepreneur.com says that the word ‘free’ is number one word to avoid in advertising. How the hell are we going to tell someone that something is genuinely free? How do we make them believe it? Times of ‘make the word free bigger’ are long gone and indeed word free doesn’t have to be used to say something is free and in current economic panic I think it will be a challenge.

Caroline Bayley @ BBC

Wired on free future

Games

Video gaming is now a bigger industry than DVDs, box office revenues, movie rentals, music or even books. Mario killed the Ringo Starr, but you probably didn’t even know it.

54 oh-my-god-this-is-awesome slides packed with dare, motherly affection, and a good dash of future; to better grasp where gaming stands today.

Yeah, advertisement in games and through games is increasing so bloody fast that print would never follow. Why is that? It is mostly because of the fact that when we play games we focus more then when we wait for a bus. We do give a damn if the coke can on a street can make us get to next level rather then another shiny ad on a bus stop while we freeze our toes off. Context is becoming much more important in this situation then anything else.

This week’s special

At the movie. In a meeting. At a funeral. Just some of the places that society has instructed t turn off the sound on our phones… Stealth Ringtones created these sounds that can be downloaded and used as ring tones on various occasions. We cannot virtually live without mobile phones, we are as well annoyed by people that use them inappropriately. Is that a solution or mistake? I personally think it is pretty silly. We do not like people eating crisps at the movies, why would we tolerate ringtone that sounds like it?

Green mobile

“How durable do we want our devices to be when they become near obsolete in 5 years? The source materials that make up their build often take hundreds of years to break down. An alternative ideology are disposable products made from natural sources. The Natural Year Phone is made of hay, sans screen and soft keys. The hard components get recycled while the hay is um. . . well I wouldn’t smoke it.”

via