You might be one of the lucky ones finding yourself logged into your brand new Google Wave account? Then you, just like me, might also think something must be wrong with you since you’re not getting what all the hype is about.

Google themselves has launched a couple of videos showcasing the possibilities with the Wave but now when it’s for real the tool just doesn’t live up to the promises. The video from Epipheo Studio might be a better alternative but it’s still just a short video raising expectations without really teaching you how to do stuff for real.

Don’t worry! Here comes The Complete Guide to Google Wave!

Gina Trapani and Adam Pash has launched The Complete Guide to Google Wave for free online. And soon you’ll be able to buy the PDF or a Book. I know I’ll mail one of those to my Kindle for sure.

The website features 10 sections and I especially like that they’ve also outlines what the Wave cannot do. This is according to my experience one of the main problems with many guides – you’re not getting the negatives. And usually when you don’t find the instructions to how something is done it’s due to the fact that it cannot be done, only no one tells you that so you keep searching for ever.

Lot’s of techie posts lately by the way. Soon I’ll switch to love and emotions!

The Institute for the Future in Palo Alto decided to give a go at the future. How? A game of course. Superstruct is the world’s first massive multiplayer forecasting game. The game, launched in october 2008, was constructed and launched by Jane McGonigal.

By playing the game, people help The Institute for Future chronicle the world of 2019 – and imagine how the human kind might solve the problems we’ll all face together. It’s obviously needed as the horizon for survival in the game right now is 2042 according to this special report.

Jane is a pretty cool chick and an expert on applying game design and game theory to real work and real business. Among other credits MIT Technology Review named her one of the top 35 innovators changing the world through technology, for her role in pioneering the field of alternate reality gaming.

Think about it! What good could a gaming scenario do for the future of your business? Maybe that’s where you should put your money?

If you think this post is a little bit over the nerd hurdle, then at least have a look at the wonderful visualization of this future world made by Density Design. Creative Director Donato Ricci, Concept developer Gaia Scagnetti, Visualizer Mario Porpora, Artist Michele Graffieti and Designer Luca Masud set out to solve the complex task of bringing the 2019 vision created in the game to life. Their result can be downloaded from Flickr. And it’s uploaded in a great quality, so any company with an office space big enough should get it and redecorate their walls asap.

ps. One last tip on how to keep up with the future. The Institute for the Future runs a pretty nice blog on the subject.

This morning I’ve spent some time on Kiva.com relending money to entrepreneurs across the globe. The last thing one is told to do is to introduce Kiva to my friends and by doing so help Kiva reach more entrepreneurs. Since I’ve got a blog with some traffic I thought I might as well paste the mail in here instead.

Here we go:

Hi! I just made a loan to someone in Philippines using a revolutionary new website called Kiva.

You can go to Kiva’s website and lend to someone across the globe who needs a loan for their business – like raising goats, selling vegetables at market or making bricks. Each loan has a picture of the entrepreneur, a description of their business and how they plan to use the loan so you know exactly how your money is being spent – and you get updates letting you know how the entrepreneur is going.

The best part is, when the entrepreneur pays back their loan you get your money back – and Kiva’s loans are managed by microfinance institutions on the ground who have a lot of experience doing this, so you can trust that your money is being handled responsibly.

I just made a loan to an entrepreneur named Aida Suyu in Philippines. They still need another $400.00 to complete their loan request of $525.00 (you can loan as little as $25.00!). Help me get this entrepreneur off the ground by clicking on this link to make a loan to Aida Suyu too:

It’s finally easy to actually do something about poverty – using Kiva I know exactly who my money is loaned to and what they’re using it for. And most of all, I know that I’m helping them build a sustainable business that will provide income to feed, clothe, house and educate their family long after my loan is paid back.

Join me in changing the world – one loan at a time.

Thanks!

———————————————————
What others are saying about www.Kiva.org:

‘Revolutionising how donors and lenders in the US are connecting with small entrepreneurs in developing countries.’
– BBC

‘If you’ve got 25 bucks, a PC and a PayPal account, you’ve now got the wherewithal to be an international financier.’
– CNN Money

‘Smaller investors can make loans of as little as $25 to specific individual entrepreneurs through a service launched last fall by Kiva.org.’
– The Wall Street Journal

‘An inexpensive feel-good investment opportunity…All loaned funds go directly to the applicants, and most loans are repaid in full.’
– Entrepreneur Magazine

Last week I got hold of this presentation held by Mary Meeker, Managing Director Morgan Stanley at the Web 2.0 Summit San Francisco. It’s one of the more important time stamps I’ve seen the last couple of years. This one was created two days before Apple reported on their second quarter – beating the rest of the competitors with a 28 % better revenue.

It’s clear things are moving faster than ever. According to this presentation iPhone and iTouch is the “Fastest Hardware Usage Growth in History” (slide 38)

On slide 2 Mary outline important Internet trends. Ouf ot eight bullets three leave me (and they should leave you too) with somewhat of a nervous laughter.

1. Mobile usage is and will be bigger than most think.
3. Next generation platforms (social networking + mobile) driving unprecendeted change in communications and commerce
8. Mobile-related share shifts will create / destroy material shareholder wealth.

Conclusion: If you’re working at Nokia, SonyEricsson or another big as dinosaur – you’ve better start doing something creative to get away from that Meteor!
MS Economy Internet Trends 102009 FINAL

If you’re into marketing you should really have a look at this new iPhone app from Nike. It really puts focus on what’s going on in the world. Old school people keep talking about how the mobile will advertise the store when you pass it. New school don’t give a shit about the store.

This new Nike ID app puts you in total control over your product. If you wanna bring in inspiration from the street you’re walking on – go ahead. Once you’ve created your shoe, buy it in directly in your iPhone. No stores. No browsers. Only you, the world you live in and your new pair of sneakers.

I’ve already downloaded the app, that can be found via NikeID, and created a pair of sneakers from a photo of my kids – my favorite pair from now on!

Ah. It’s a lovely world but it’s fast. No it’s not fast it’s faster than a bullet. No! It’s faster than light!

The gaming industry is conquering one lifestyle segment after another. DJ Hero is the latest and coolest in a long line of musical games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band. DJ Hero let’s you rock the party using old style turntables featuring the gaming controls.

In a smart move the company behind the game, Activision, has signed Grandmaster Flash as the in-game DJ. You all remember Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five huh? Ah, those days! But the master is still going strong.

Then yesterday Activision launched the DJ Hero intro cinematic. Wow, look how the vinyl needle rips that world apart. These guys know how to make things larger then life. Kids and teens will go bananas! Turn up your speakers and your bass and get yourselves blown up. I want this game!

För er som missade det så arrangerade jag tillsammans med eventföretaget Wednesday Relations ett event förra veckan. The NEXT Event – Directed by Johan Ronnestam, skulle inspirera, lära ut och få oss att tänka till kring morgondagens reklam och kommunikation.

Det blev en otroligt härlig dag. Över 270 personer hade samlats på Södra Teatern för att ta del av fantastiska talare. Under nästan 9 timmar förelästes det, underhölls och minglades. Under dagen var reaktionerna blandade, men allt eftersom slutet närmade sig verkade de flesta vara överens om att Eventet var en av årets höjdpunkter. Efter sista talare fortsatte diskussionerna i Södra Teaterns fantastiska bar med en bedårande utsikt.

Jag och mina followers fångade på bild från bakom scen

Ett av målen med The NEXT Event var att väcka tankar kring framtidens kommunikation. En del trodde säkert att det bara handlade om själva talarna och hur eventet genomfördes. Men för mig handlade det också om att visa upp en värld som håller på och förändras, en transparent värld där vi inte kan stänga inne åsikter och diskussioner.

Det Twittrades inför, under och efter eventet och för den som ville gick det att följa via olika Bambuser sändningar. För er som var på plats kanske inte det här var så tydligt. Men för människor utanför lokalen märktes det tydligt att något spännande pågick den 8:e oktober. Under själva dagen och dagen därpå var Next Event en av de mest twittrade händelserna i Skandinavien.

(den här bloggposten kommer uppdateras varteftersom)

Längst fram i publiken satt våra inbjudna bloggare. Tillsammans med andra som valt att skriva om dagen tycker jag de sammanfattar dagen bättre än oss. På så sätt blir det trots allt en objektiv beskrivning.

Reaktioner på Internet om the NEXT Event

Mattias Åkerberg – Pleasecopyme skriver ‘Här är det bästa som hände på The Next Event’

Christopher Norman berättade om sin upplevelse på Planning Brands

Daniel Erkstam, som också Bambusade (klicka er fram till föreläsningarna) hela dagen, sammanfattade dagen så här.

Safar Yacoub sammanfattade sina reflektioner så här på bloggen Tankar om Kommunikation.

Jennifer Bark bloggar på TheJennie och var en av de första att skriva om dagen.

Katja Janford som ni hörde läsa en fantastisk dikt har delat med sig av lite sköna bilder på sin blog också.

Sarah Arildsson postade på Peppen inlägget Hur når du fram i en digitaliserad värld?

Ludwig Jonsson berättade om två dagar om allt på sin blog Sharing is Caring.

Livebloggade från första rad. Det gjorde Anders Sporring. Här är förmiddagen och eftermiddagens rapport.

Magnus Nilsson tyckte inte riktigt vi lyckades att prata om framtidens kommunikation, men han hade inte velat missa dagen ändå.

Per Torberger som talade kände själv att han behövde förtydliga sig. Ni som håller med borde absolut besöka hans blog!

Björn Alberts som talade berättade om omvärldsbevakning a’la Netvibes. Här hittar ni den länken.

Leo Razzaks föreläsning lever vidare som citatgrund på Preferens PR’s blog.

Marius Bratten skriver om en spännande mix på Signalbrus.

Och på Filmarc’s Blogg kan vi läsa om både första och andra delen av dagen i ett långt inlägg.

Som ni säkert visste så hade vi en bakkanal kallad #nextevent på Twitter där vem som helst kunde tycka till om eventet. Det här drog till sig fler intresserade som följde eventet via nätet. Som följd av det har även Rickard Gatarski bloggat om dagen.

Talarnas presentationer.

Björn Alberts har lagt ut både Slidehare presenation och länk till Bambusningen av hans framträdande.

Elia Mörling talade om Tribes.

Filmen med Andreas Lübeck som släppte lös på scen med iPhone, YouTube och diverse andra hjälpmedel finns nu på YouTube

Per Torberger sammanfattar sitt tal på sin blogg.

Stefan Hyttfors har delat ut sin Prezi och så har även Judith Wolst gjort.

Johan Ronnestam’s första och andra framträdande ligger såklart på webben.

De som inte ligger ute i sin helhet hittar du ändå på Daniel Erkstams bambuserkanal.

Det fotograferades en hel del också.

Johan Lange som satt i publiken har delat ut ett gäng bilder från dagen på sitt Flickr konto.

Avslutningsvis laddade jag själv upp alla bilderna som BSmart fotograferade under dagen.

Det blev en härlig dag med underbar publik och inspirerande talare. Jag hoppas kunna komma tillbaka inom kort och berätta om fortsättningen nästa år.

Tack!

En optimal webbnärvaro går generellt ut på att placera sig ett steg före konkurrenterna på en mognadstrappa som står i förhållande till den egna branschens, substituts eller andra framåt- eller bakåtintegrerande aktörers digitalisering.

En mognadstrappa där översta steget är total digitalisering av såväl affär som, marknadsföring, organisation och operations.

Varför: Det finns ingen anledning att själv ta initiativ för att skynda på en digitalisering av affär eller marknadsföring om inte branschen, substitut, framåt eller bakåtintegratörer i övrigt rör sig så. Vi kan anta att konsumenten inte är mogen om inget gap synliggjorts. Däremot går det inte heller att stå utanför en pågående digitalisering, så om en sådan har inletts av någon aktör bör företaget ta initiativ för att förändra sin affär och digitalisera denna – men endast i takt med branschen i övrigt för att undvika kanibalisering på den egna affären. Att din branch delvis eller helt kommer digitaliseras över tid – det står helt klart.

Det är Elias Betinakis ställer frågan, bland annat till mig, på Intellectas blogg: Vad är det allra viktigaste att tänka på för företag i det nya förändrade kommunikationsklimatet? Varför?

Jag bestämde mig på en gång för att försöka komprimera mitt svar så mycket som möjligt. Delvis för att jag såg det som en utmaning och delvis för att jag helt enkelt inte har tid att skriva en bok. Svaret ovan utgår från att företaget inte ska bakåtintegrera, framåtintegrera eller helt byta affärsidé samt att parallellt med den här strategin är det självklart så att jag skulle förespråka affärsutveckling och forskning i syfte att identifiera nya affärer i preventivt syfte mot oförutsedda händelser.

Slutligen fokuserade jag på affärsutveckling och övergripande strategi.
Jag undvek av olika orsaker direkt taktiska förslag såsom traditionella och digital reklam, seo, sem, distribuerad kommunikation, social mediastrategi, open source eller inte osv. Det hade bara komplicerat ämnet mer + att det är ju vad jag normalt bloggar om.

Även Björn Alberts, Björn Elmberg, Judith Wolst (extra kär i Judiths inlägg som blev en kort Slideshare presentation) och Brit Stakston har svarat på frågan.

Today Miss Swiss miss made me notice this wonderful initiative from Volkswagen called ‘The Fun Theory’. It’s one of the more refreshing campaigns I’ve seen coming out of Sweden in the last 10 years. This is good shit and to me it’s spot on brand! Or what do you think?

Thank you Tribal DDB Stockholm for making my day!

Last week I was contacted by Superbrands. The company that releases a book with the same name. I was asked to write a post on their blog about Branding. I know I’ve got some followers interested in that subject so I’ve decided to post the same article here too.

Back in 2000 a flash based message containing the phrase ‘All your base are belong to us’ spread like wildfire through emails and internet forums. Back then most of you had probably not heard about viral marketing, web 2.0 and social networks. Facebook and Twitter were still 6 years away from being established and most brands didn’t bother to much about digital marketing.

About the same time Nike took their first stumbling steps towards a digital brand strategy. Back then Nike would probably not know that their global strategy would be a virally driven online content strategy but the first step taken with Nikefootball.com, that I personally took part in initiating, was a clear step in that direction.

Now, 9 years later when the internet, web 2.0 and social media are well established, Facebook has got +300 million members and Twitter is reckoned to be one of the most important conversation platforms when it comes people driven brand impact. I think we can all agree that the world has changed and so has brand strategies although most companies don’t really get it yet.

So, the title ‘All your brands are belong to us’ has a double meaning cause back then in 2000 when that wildfire started it also marked the day you lost control of your brand. Today that fire is burning faster than ever and there’s really nothing you can do to stop it except but getting used to being burned while fighting for your lives.

It’s time to move. In order for you to continue to build your brand value in the future you’ve gotta revamp your strategies and adapt them to the future of communication.

Here are 10 strategies you’ve got to adapt to the next couple of years if you’re planning for your brand to stay on top!

1. From Brand Promise to Brand Fulfillment

You might have set out to deliver services and products that create some sort of value for a large consumer base. All of your branding activities focus on telling your story. What makes your brand unique, what’s your unique, emotional and even archetype selling points. Shortly. What’s your brand promise?

Now in a world where all information is accessible on the fly. Consumers share experiences on comparison sites like Pricerunner, social networks like Facebook and Twitter, Personal blogs and Getsatisfaction. People even post sites about brands they like and dislike.

In this world there’s no more room for brand promises only brand fulfillment. Honesty comes first. Do what you say and you shall be the one.

2. From Offer to Interactivity

If you’re one of those brands that still spend tons of time drawing up strategies on how to approach the market with new offers, new products and services then you’ll see your brand fall within the next couple of years.

Instead, learn from brands like Starbucks, Dell and not the least Zappos. These brands have moved into the future of product development.

What Dell has done with Ideastorm.com and Starbucks with Mystarbucksidea.com has not only turned their brand around but also enabled them to deliver products and services they know their customers want. After all they’re the one that have suggested them. Zappos strategy in moving from a shoe store online to simply deliver better services, or ‘Power by Services’ as they say, has earned them an unmatched loyalty. Zappos CEO Tony Hseih has got more than 1.4 million followers on Twitter!

These brands understand they’re not owning a one way channel straight into the heart of consumers. Love goes both ways!

3. From Control to Transparency

About the same time that viral flash video was circling the web I also started a website called Kaminsky.com. It was sort of an early version of YouTube but it focused on movie trailers and advertising. However after only 8 month we had to close the site down cause we were being threatened to be sued by Brindfors, at the time one of Sweden’s leading advertising agencies. Why? Well, the reason was cause someone had uploaded a TV commercial Brindfors had created for Scandinavian Airlines. Can you imagine something like this happen today?

In another example Pepsi gets a beating on Twitter by @christinelu for posting an ad in German magazines.

When Pepsi pulls back their advertising immediately as a response to what @christinelu Tweets it’s a clear sight these large brands have understood the power of asynchron networks like Twitter where information spreads faster than ever before.

You simply cannot ignore conversations that regard your brand anymore. Dominos Pizza obviously has taken this into account when they’re speeding up the process of replying to a consumer called @interactiveamy on Twitter. Amy Korin who had some problems with her Pizza Delivery earlier this year got answered within 24 hours. A video apology from @Ramon_DeLeon quickly solved the situation.

So where does your brand stand in all this? You ready for transparency or still believe hiding information is the way to go? Do you know what people are saying about your brand?

4. From Stability to Adaption

Open Source and democratization of technology is turning the world upside down. The music and travel industry has already been hit bad. Traditional mobile companies like Sony Ericsson, Nokia and Motorola are all getting beaten by Apple, Google and soon Microsoft. 3D printers is available today from $14.000. Within 5 years time you’ll be able to print LEGO in your home for the cost of a printed paper. If LEGO owns the 3D model or not remains to be seen.

When it comes to systems development we’re seing tons of new applications and webservices that are based on Open Source platforms. Wordpress for bloggers, Joomla for communities, Magento for e-commerce and Drupal for overall site building are only a few examples. PHP and MySQL is driving change in a speed we’ve never seen before.

The brands of tomorrow will be all about adaption. So companies that turns change into status Q are the brands that will live. Brands that spend their time protecting existing products will be passed by smaller, more agile and more innovative brands. Brands that change will stand the test of times.

5. From Monopoly to Creative Execution

Nothing can be owned. The only competitive edge you’ll have in the future is creative execution. Consumers of tomorrow might try out relations because of monopoly. However, it’s a very risky position to take as we’ll be open to switch the second a new player comes along. And as I stated above – the democratization of technology will drive change, so staying ahead will be harder and harder. Instead focus on building fans through your creative execution. How do you package your products and services. How do you communicate. How do you entertain us. How do you stay fun to be with. How can you make our day better. Focus on the values that makes us talk about your brand – in a positive way.

6. From Brand Positioning to Perceived Brand Positioning

Following transparency is our perceived view of your brand. This means when we search for a brand, and that’s what +80% does before entering a relation with a brand, our point of view is primarily based on what other people say about your brand – not what you say.

Brian Solis social flower. Is your Brand out there yet?

You can spend as many millions you want on positioning your brand through traditional media. But if you don’t engage in conversations, provide us with distributed marketing, content and applications your brand will be positioned through the voices of millions of people online – and they’re not paid to position your brand the way you want. They position you any way they like.

So. Start question if you really ought to spend all that money on traditional media and instead think about moving it over to digital presence. Then we might do you right!

7. From Product Development to Fan Based Innovations

Threadless.com. They’re selling T-shirts online. All T-shirts are made by their visitors. Their selling like hell. Yamaha have already tried out fan based industrial design. As we learned above Dell and Starbucks asks their fans – What shall we do? And all of these brands do it in the open.

Reach out and deliver tools that let the fans you have create your future products and services. Believe me – you’ll be amazed how many people are prepared to help you.

8. From Structural Bindings to Trust

Bankers and Telco’s all talk about how to structurally bind clients to their products and services. What they’re saying is basically “Our product is so shitty so once we’ve sold it we’ve gotta glue people to it, otherwise they’ll leave”.

Future brands are built on relations, trust and loyalty. If you do bad you deserve bad. If you do good you’ll deserve good.

9. From Marketing to Entertainment

Tick tock tick tock tick tock. Can you sense it.

The pure thought of a time makes people stressed. Time is the most precious thing we have and yet brands are wasting it.

In a recent global study I was involved in we identified four factors that matters to guys and girls in the age-span 18-25. The study was performed in so called style cities – New York, Rio De Janeiro, Stockholm, Berlin, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong etc.

Innovation, entertainment, interactivity and creativity. The two that stood out the most was entertainment and innovation. One kid said – “I’m bored so if I’m supposed to choose a brand I choose the one that entertains me and ad something to my life” A guy in Tokyo said – “If I’m supposed to show up with a pair of new sneakers to school I’d like them to be different than anyone else’s”

Your brand has to stay on it’s toes. If your into making cars you’re not only competing with other car manufactures, you’re competing with time to. If I am to interact with any kind of communication coming out from your company it better live up my day. If not I’ll go somewhere else!

10. From Customers to Followers

I’m not your customer. I’m temporarily following you. The second you show me disrespect I’ll follow someone else. Cause change is only a click away. In the pursuit for new customers Banks, Electricity Companies, Telcos, Car Dealers and many more have all made switching brand easy. A phone call and the Bank take care of the entire process.

However today we’re seeing this being moved over to digital. Head into Compricer and compare your bank, insurance company or Telco provider and you can change faster than your bank man says ‘Ho ho’.

In this world you have to start respecting your clients for what they are – temporary followers that will stay on as long as their relation to you is good. The second it turns bad they’ll leave without saying good byes – case we all hate good bye’s don’t we?

Your Future Brand Value then?

To sum this post up. What you’re looking at is a brand new world where information flows free. Whatever you do will become transparent. You’re loosing the competitive edge based on physical innovations and ideas, intelligence and innovation will prosper. Loyalty is no longer based on structural bindings and price. The consumer of tomorrow values sustainability, freedom of choice and humbleness.

What ever you do, you can expect a global competitor that can deliver their products and services from anywhere in the world. Personally I use a computer I bought from the states. My mobile was bought in Hong Kong. My software’s are all bought online from abroad. My backup service is located in the States. Hell, even my notebook was ordered from abroad.

Brands that can translate these changes in how people consume information are the winners. Brands that try to protect what they have, not opening up and milking every last penny out of that old cow of yours will be the losers.

If you don’t adapt – All your brands are belong to us!

Creatives all over the world do their best to visualize their ideas when pitching clients, preparing for photo shoots or simply putting their ideas on paper. Apart from sketching with Sketchbook Pro I’ve personally been using Flickr and Google Image Search combined with Photoshop for ages. Lately I’ve added Bing and iStockphoto to the list. It’s a time consuming process but it’s usually getting my message across.

Today however I’ve seen the light. A new web based application (down at the moment due to high traffic) that I found on Mashable let’s you draw your ideas and then it composes an image out of that doodle of yours. It’s made by five Chinese Computer Science and Technology students at Tsinghua University and the National University of Singapore and it’s sick!

Whatever kind of ides you’ve got in your head – it’s now easier than ever to get a matching photo. Draw and you will conquer! Here’s a video explaining what this mind-boggling thing does:

We live in the best of times. It’s all happening now!

Obviously we’re not really there yet. But this spoof gives us a pretty good idea where technology is heading. On top of that I’m getting a smile for free! You will too.