Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog

by: Alain Thys

Media and entertainment is already one of the biggest industries on the planet, and by the looks of it, it's getting even bigger. 7.3 percent per year to be exact, and that until 2009. This is at least the take of Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) who just released their Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2005-2009, in which the billion dollar growth figures fly around like the dot-com days were back again.

Continue reading "PWC Announces Bright Future for Entertainment and Media Industry" »

Posted by Futurelab at 3:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: Alain Thys

While I've been hearing about sensory marketing since the 80s, the number of research reports actually confirming that it works have remained very limited. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to read in the New Scientist that researchers from the universities of Ulster and Vienna have been able to connect the impact of using pheromones on products on "purchase intent".

Continue reading "Pheromones Proven to Influence Purchase Intent" »

Posted by Futurelab at 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: Alain Thys

Tony Henning's, managing editor of the Future Image Mobile Imaging Report, estimates that more than 300 million camera-phones will be sold during 2005, compared to about 85 million digital cameras.

Continue reading "Mobile Phones Take Over Snapshot Market" »

Posted by Futurelab at 2:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: Alain Thys

Bestbuy in the US has taken a quite novel approach to multi-channel marketing. In this they follow the adage that if you want your customers - and staff - to display a certain behaviour, you need to incentivize them.

Continue reading "Bestbuy is Telling People Not to Buy in Their Stores" »

Posted by Futurelab at 1:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: Josh Hawkins

USA Today has a good article that provides an ominous backdrop to this week's Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

Continue reading "Advertisers Throw Big Money at Disappearing Eyeballs" »

Posted by Futurelab at 5:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: Joel Makower

How many Earths does it take to feed a continent?

A new report shows that Europe uses 20% of the biosphere's services to serve 7% of the world's population -- a resource demand that has risen nearly 70% since 1961.

Bad as that may sound, it's nothing compared to Americans' footprint on the planet.

Continue reading "Europe's Ecological Footprint" »

Posted by Futurelab at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: Joseph Mann

I think you can never have too many tools for keeping an eye on the competition. One benchmarking tool I developed to do this I like to call the “Competitive Threat Index” and with it you can plug in values based on certain criteria and then charting them to provide a quick visual overview of whom you need to be watching at any given time.

Continue reading "Watch Your Back: Five Criteria for a Competitive Threat Benchmark" »

Posted by Futurelab at 8:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: David Polinchock

And we wonder why people hate us advertising folks!

On a recent Alaska Airlines flight, passengers were told to remain buckled and seated for the last 30 minutes before landing at Reagan National Airport. It was a standard security measure for flights heading into restricted airspace over Washington.

Continue reading "Cash-Strapped Airlines Try In-Flight Advertising" »

Posted by Futurelab at 9:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: Alain Thys

Luxury Mall Developer Gordon Group is definitely credited by pushing the edges of mall retailing, with the development of its new Epicenters which it plans to open in Columbus Ohio, near the end of 2006.

Continue reading "Epicenter Reconfigures the "Mall" Concept" »

Posted by Futurelab at 1:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: Alain Thys

If you thought new media and technology trends was for the kids, think again.  A recent study by Pleon has revealed that more than 90% of European internet users of all ages also sport at least one other multi-media device.  54% have two and 35% own three or more.

Continue reading "30-49 Year Olds Drive New Media Consumption" »

Posted by Futurelab at 1:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: Alain Thys

Remember the days when your kids was asking for the latest pair of Nike's or the latest CD from that rock band you never heard of before?  While, life has moved on and the shift hasn't really be gradual.

Continue reading "Bye Bye Nike, Hello iPod" »

Posted by Futurelab at 2:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: Sebastian Campion

On May 31 The Allianz Arena in Bayern, Germany was opened to the public after three years of construction.

The Arena replaces the legendary Olympic Stadium and will be the shared home ground of the two local football teams FC Bayern München and TSV 1860 München.

Continue reading "Allianz Arena" »

Posted by Futurelab at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: Josh Hawkins

"The mass do not now take their opinions from dignitaries in Church or State, from ostensible leaders, or from books. Their thinking is done for them by men much like themselves, addressing or speaking in their name, on the spur of the moment..." -John Stuart Mill (1859), On Liberty

Continue reading "Consumer Generated Media & Word of Mouth Marketing" »

Posted by Futurelab at 5:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: Alain Thys

Even if you're someone like me who only watches TV when renting the series DVD, it's hard to escape the product placement which is re-appearing in TV shows these days.  Just think of the innovative way 24 seperated the good guys (using Apple) from the bad guys (using, well ... you know).

Continue reading "I Want Kiefer's Phone" »

Posted by Futurelab at 6:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: Alain Thys

32 percent of US kindergarten kids know how to surf the internet (typically under adult supervision).   In a way this is nothing new to me, as my 4 year old has by now also mastered the basic functionalities of Windows Media Player, and is planning to up the bar to writing emails to mom.

Continue reading "Kids Can Surf Before They Can Write" »

Posted by Futurelab at 6:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend

by: Alain Thys

Apparently 17% of British men regularly do the ironing at home, and if what I heard on the radio coming back from Düsseldorf is correct, brands are waking up to this new niche market.

Continue reading "British Men at the Ironing Boards" »

Posted by Futurelab at 2:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)  • Email this article to a friend