BEFORE WE BEGIN It trends to watch docx

Now mobile digital technology is taking this concept to the next level with a variety of applications popping up that allow friends, family and neighbors to easily exchange money via the

BEFORE WE BEGIN

It is hard to believe another year has come and gone So many interesting trends have emerged this year, and many more are likely poised to do so next year.

At Luckie & Company, we spend a lot of time observing and studying trends that impact consumers’ lives The following is a list of 10 trends we feel have potential to continue growing, maybe even enter the mainstream and start to play an emerging role in daily life in 2010 If nothing else, they’re pretty cool and worth keeping an eye on.

For hipsters, trendsetters and early adopters, some of these are going to be old news, but for the majority of us in the masses, some pretty interesting things will start to pop up into our everyday routines.

#1 AUGMENTED REALITY

Augmented reality (AR) is a term and application that has been around since the 1990s To date, it has mainly been used by engineers and researchers to supplement their work and in very simple manners in the visual world for consumers However, that has started to change with the mainstreaming of webcams and smartphone cameras that allow individuals to unlock AR content and provide a three-dimensional experience for the user, bringing the real and digital worlds together

Earlier this year, Doritos introduced a

line of Late Night chips To promote

the chipsa limited-edition AR symbol

was printed on the back of the Late

Night chip bag Users visited a

special Doritos Late Night Web site,

lined up the symbol with their

webcam and unlocked a

never-before-released song and video from

popular pop-punk band Blink-182

Another cool AR application is from Zugara, where online shoppers can try clothes onbefore they buy them

For the 2009 holiday season, The Home Depot has released a

special AR gift card When lined

up with a webcam, the card shows a continuous stream of possible gifts and saves the gifts

in a special section of the Web site for further viewing and information

There really seems to be no limit to the potential

of AR In addition to those from Doritos, The Home Depot and Zugara, lots of interesting and unique AR ideas are starting to pop up Papa John’s and Starbucks are using AR to help iPhone users find store locations The December

issue of Esquirefeatured an AR coverthat unlocked an interactive video with Robert Downey Jr and a commercial from Lexus GE has featured AR when promoting their smart grid technology Walmarthas used AR to sell tween furniture

#2 P2P MOBILE PAYMENT

Person-to-person payment (P2P) has been happening since the first cavemen exchanged beads for services rendered In more modern times, friends or acquaintances have exchanged checks or cash when

a payment between two individuals was needed PayPal helped mainstream P2P payment in the online world Now mobile digital technology is taking this concept to the next level with a variety of applications popping up that allow friends, family and neighbors to easily exchange money via their always present mobile devices For example: three friends go to dinner and one picks up the tab with his credit card The other two can simply text or SMS their share of the bill to the party who paid the bill Will this technology render cash and checks obsolete? Probably not, but it will make them a lot less necessary

Coming at this trend from another angle is mobile device maker Nokia, which recently launched

Nokia Money, a mobile financial product that will allow users to transfer money to their friends and pay bills Nokia has stated their that their goal is to become the world's largest mobile bank

MasterCard has launched MoneySend, allowing cardholders to exchange P2P funds via SMS, mobile browser or mobile app

POPMoney(pay other

people money) is a new

bank-centric P2P

service that will allow

banks to stay in the

loop with the growing

P2P trend (versus

allowing credit card

companies and

third-party payment

companies to process

these transactions)

POPMoney allows bank

customers to link a

checking account to

their mobile device and

pay friends seamlessly

In September, Wells Fargo Bank launched a mobile

customer-to-customer P2P payment systemthat allows Wells Fargo customers to transfer up to

$1,000 per day between fellow customers

Picture: www.labs.wellsfargo.com

Citibank is the longest-tenured provider in this space, having

launched the U.S.’s first real-time P2P servicein October 2008, allowing account holders to send money to “virtually any U.S

mobile phone number.”

#3 2D BAR CODES (AKA QR CODES)

2D bar codes (also known as QR codes) have been widely used in consumer marketing applications in Europe and Asia for the last four to five years, but they are just now starting to make serious inroads in North America To read one of these codes, consumers use their smartphone camera in conjunction with

a bar code reader program to unlock data stored in the code It might lead to a special Web site or provide extra information about the product, a coupon, ringtone, wallpaper, song or any other bonus feature that can be thought of These codes can appear in any number of places, including magazines, signs, movie posters, outdoor boards, taxis/buses or anywhere a user is liable to see and scan one

The July 29 issue of Sports Illustratedhad the special 2D bar code at right, which unlocked 14 extra swimsuit pictures

In September, JCPenney flipped the idea around and sent mobile 2D bar code couponsto

shoppers, who then flashed the code on their mobile device at checkout for a discount This was a pilot program at 16

Houston-area stores

During the fall of 2009,

Coors Light Canada

introduced a 2D bar

code featureto its

Mystery Mansion

promotion The bar

codes, containing

exclusive Mystery

Mansion content, were

placed on the outside

of Coors Light cases

Book publishers have been quick to pick up on this trend The first

book to carry a 2D bar code, BrandDigital: Simple Ways Top Brands

Succeed in the Digital World, allowed mobile users to buy the book

directly from Amazon.com after scanning the bar code with their mobile devices More recently, publisher HarperCollins has been

experimenting with these codes The L.A Candy book jacket features

a 2D bar codethat takes readers to a special video and Q&A session

with the author The Amanda Project has a special codeon the last page of the book that gives readers clues to the mystery from the perspective of one of the main characters

#4 SOCIAL MEDIA STOREFRONTS

Most retail brands have a social media presence on one or more of the major social media sites They typically use these social destinations to push news, offer customer service or otherwise engage their customers/fans in conversation To date, social media e-commerce from these brands has been extremely limited, but may grow very quickly as marketers realize the potential of not only reaching, but also selling to, consumers where they are spending more and more of their time Facebook and Twitter are likely to be the initial proving grounds for these types of efforts Recent usage data shows that Facebook’s 300 million users spend a combined 8 billion minutes per day on the site, which has potential

to make it one of the biggest shopping destinations ever

In June, Dell was the first major brand to announce

direct sales from its Twitter account, reporting $3 million in sales from click-thrus to its Dell Outlet that started on Twitter While that’s sofa change for Dell,

it shows how Twitter has potential to be a viable sales portal

While Twitter is still wrestling with how to make money themselves, that hasn’t stopped numerous businesses from exploring ways to make money via Twitter Having recognized this trend and need, Twitter posted a business tutorialto help brands discover ways

to move past conversational engagement with their customers on the platform

Mega-retailer Sears

and Web T-shirt maker

Threadlesshave tested limited e-commerce functionality on their respective Facebook pages, allowing fans to shop on Facebook, but check out on their branded Web sites

In August, Facebook

announced the planned

launching of 20 virtual

storefrontswhere users

will be able to shop

without ever leaving the

respective Facebook

page 1-800-FLOWERS

was the first of these

virtual social media

storefronts to open, with

others expected to roll

out in the coming months

Southwest, JetBlueand Unitedhave all experimented

with using their Twitter accounts to announce

short-term “Twitter-only” fare sales that are completed on

their respective Web sites

Picture: www.business.twitter.com/twitter101

#5 21 ST CENTURY VENDING MACHINES

Wonder Pizza Vending Machineoffers three 9-inch pizza options that are kept cold until ordered, then cooked in

a high-intensity oven and delivered in under two minutes Each machine can hold 102

$5 pizzas

U.K company Afterheelsis installing shoe vending machines in nightclubs

Targeted at young female patrons, the machines vend

“comfortable flats” for when heeled shoes start to hurt

And there’s already a competitor, Rollasole, which offers a similar product/

buying experience

Vending machines are nothing new, having been around since the 1880s selling basic staples such as soda, sandwiches and snacks But lately, some brands have grasped onto the time-pressed, 24/7 nature

of the 21st century consumer and begun to create machines with an increasingly amazing array of options While DVD rentals and iPod/iPhonemachines have become fairly common, they’re really just the tip of the iceberg for this trend Below are just a few examples of how the ordinary vending machine might bring even more options to life in 2010

Hotels are getting in

on the trend too The Standard Hotel in Los Angeles recently installed a swimwear vending machine

selling Quicksilver board shorts and bikinis For the more recession-proof consumer, the Mondrian South Beach provides a

vending machine

offering 60 items priced between $10 and $1.2M From toothpaste and T-shirts to gold necklaces, condos and a Bentley

The Magnificent

Closed Jeans

Machineis selling

“instant denim” for

$40 a pair The

machine sells two

styles in multiple

sizes and they’re

guaranteed to fit

Some industrious German farmers have found a way

to sell fresh eggs, butter, sausage, milk and produce directly

to consumers through Regiomat

vending machines

#6 CROWDSOURCING

Crowdsourcing is not a new phenomenon It has been used by artists and writers for years It was famously used by Russian artists Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid to create “the most and least desired” paintings for a number of countries in the early 1990s Today, the mainstreaming of social media and comfortability of sharing information and ideas within networks and with the world have quickly allowed crowdsourcing to become a popular source of inspiration and collaboration in many areas as the first decade of the 21st century comes to a close Many marketers are testing the crowdsourcing waters with contests to create commercials, new flavors, new products or product extensions, but some brands have already moved beyond this crowdsourcing entry point and truly tapped the power of collective thinking

Recently, hip London restaurant L’Anima used crowdsourcing to

select part of their wine list, utilizing online video and Twitter

to let patrons and fans help their wine experts finalize the list

Food52.comis using

crowdsourced recipes

to create a cookbook

Each week the site

names a theme and

holds a contest in

which readers vote on

submitted recipes After

52 weeks of

reader-selected winners, they

will publish The Food52

Cookbook Not only is

this a fun contest, but it

also creates a huge

database of great

recipes for readers to

come back to

The Royal Opera House in London recently used Twitter

to crowdsource the librettofor a new

“people’s opera.” On August 3, the opera house provided a brief opening line and let the Twitterverse take over, successfully performing the completed opera in early September A brief video outtake can be seen here Over 900 people contributed

Several bands have created crowdsourced music videos The latest is Sour, a Japanese band who asked their fan base to create a videofor their single “Hibi no Neiro.” Fans from around the world were given specific instructions on what to do using only their respective web-cams to record their actions London-based Bloc Party released a

fan crowdsourced live videoshot entirely on mobile device cameras Picture: www.orbitalrpm.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/crowdsourcing.jpg

#7 MOBILE CONTACTLESS PAYMENT

Contactless payment (via a linked credit card) has been around in one form or another for around 15 years – think of those keychain fobs that Shell and Mobile introduced, allowing customers to keep their wallets in their pockets when paying at the pump The technology is made possible by a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) device implanted in a credit card or payment device Now, the next evolution of contactless payment is rapidly approaching in the form of mobile contactless payment, which will use Near Field Communication (NFC) technology to complete payment transactions That’s right, your mobile device can now pay for your many purchases and may be one step away from completely replacing your wallet (at least your wallet’s role as a cash and credit card storage device) The only real holdup is getting cell-phone equipment makers to build units enabled with NFC technology

Earlier this year, Nokia,

Visa and Malaysia’s

largest bank partnered

to introduce the

world’s first full-scale

NFC mobile payment

system Once set up,

Nokia handset users

can use their device to

pay at over 1,800

merchants in Malaysia

MasterCard has also been aggressively running trials of their mobile PayPass contactless

payment system, with trials running with partner banks in 28 countries In the U.S., MasterCard has been working in New York City with Best Buy, Duane Reade, Walgreens, CVS, United Artists Theatres, Regal Cinemas, 7-Eleven, Arby’s and McDonald’s to perfect the technology

Currently, Nokia is the leading mobile equipment manufacturer for building NFC-ready phones, while other manufacturers lag behind As consumers wait for these mobile devices to become more readily available, several alternatives have popped up that allow mobile users to convert their existing phones into contactless payment devices MasterCard has partnered with Blaze Mobileand MetaBank to introduce a stickerthat can be applied to any mobile device, activating MasterCard’s existing “Tap & Go”

PayPass system, usable at 141,000 merchants And Mobile Payment Skinshas developed a customized mobile skin (the Phoolah), which comes equipped with an NFC chip and is simply used to “wrap” the user’s mobile device

#8 APP WORLD

Apple pioneered the idea of mobile applications (apps) with the launch of their iPhone App Store in June

2008 In just 16 months, the App Store has grown to offer over 100,000 apps in 20 categories and has experienced more than 2 billion downloads But the iPhone only represents a little over 10% of the entire mobile phone market and sits right at 30% of the smartphone market Currently, smartphone users represent 39% of all mobile users, while recent research shows that nearly 12% of mobile users plan to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days With the explosive growth of smartphone usage and other wireless carriers finally catching up with their own application offerings, the app life will soon be the way of life for the masses Currently there are five emerging competitors to the iPhone App Store domination, which are detailed below

Launched in June 2009,

the Palm App Catalog

currently offers 97 apps in

16 categories

In October 2009, Microsoft

launched Marketplace for

Mobile, featuring an initial

offering of 249 apps for the

Windows Mobile platform

The Google Android app market, known as The Market,

is likely poised for the most rapid growth with the massive launch of Android-based operating system smart-phones (20 smart-phones this year and 30 in 2010) Some predict this platform could overtake the iPhone platform in the next couple of years The Market, launched in March 2009, currently offers over 10,000 apps in 15 categories

BlackBerry App Worldwas launched

in April 2009 and currently offers 3,183 apps in 17 categories

Nokia Ovi Storewas

launched in May 2009 and

currently offers 2,161 apps

focused on five core areas:

games, maps, media,

messaging and music

Unless otherwise noted, all app store counts are as of the second week of November 2009.

Picture www.apple.com/uk/itunes/billion-app-countdown/