Looking for a Couch to Crash On?

Talk about the ultimate community. It gives me much hope to watch the success of a site like Couchsurfing.com, a online community that helps travelers find a place to crash in cities across the globe. The ultimate benefit of such a service is the friendships that develop and the experiences that these people can have if they are willing to take a chance.

The community has grown to over 500,000 surfers since the site launched in 2004. Such an idea makes me realize just how willing people are to bridge online relationships into real world experiences...and the possibilities of that realization seem endless.

Check out the site...and if you are truly daring, find a couch somewhere new!

http://www.couchsurfing.com/

Story of Stuff

I'm sure a behind the curve on this one, but just discovered this very smart video that explains the dangers of our current consumption patterns in a very simple, yet powerful way.

If you haven't seen this yet, enjoy! If you have, I would love to hear your thoughts.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Sites of the Day: Blurb and Littlepaperplanes

Couple cool new sites that were passed my way...

Blurb.com:
Make your own Book - could this be the next big thing in customization? Very cool concept and something I can see appealing to a wide range of people. In fact, I'll be starting my first book very soon.
http://www.blurb.com/

Another interesting venture that allows artists to connect, share and sell there works across different mediums.
http://littlepaperplanes.com/main.php

Story Telling: The most powerful tool your brand can have

Below is a really cool article from my friends at Trendwatching.com. Interesting discussion about the shift from mass to niche and what impact this may have on the brands we know and trust. We all know that story telling is one of the most powerful way to grow you brand...the challenge how do brand allow (and encourage) consumers to do the story telling for them.

Great examples of brands that are hitting the spot:
http://trendwatching.com/trends/statusstories.htm

A Different Way to Promote Music

First there was Radiohead giving consumers what they want...Now Dr. Pepper is pushing Axl to get his butt in gear (http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/NYW021A26032008-1.htm).

Wonder what comes next...

Site of the Day: Socialthing

Socialthing is a new application that lets users stay on top of all their social networks in one place. While not the first, people at the SXSW Interactive Festival were hyping it as first class.

I'll be interesting to see where this one goes...

http://socialthing.com/

Michael Pollan -- In Defense of Food

I saw Michael Pollan speak on Saturday at the Natural Products ExpoWest. I have never heard Pollan speak before and have yet to read his latest book, "In Defense of Food" (http://www.michaelpollan.com/indefense.php), but I will say that his words gave me plenty of food for thought. As a food marketer for a large CPG company, I often ask myself what I am contributing to America...and more importantly, am I doing good.

We all know about the obesity epidemic, the continued acceleration of diet related medical problems and the impact of processed foods. I listened to Pollan speak about these issues and their impact and was inspired by his passion and conviction to bring change to the way we live our lives and how we eat. I respected the fact that he was not trying to sell us another fad diet, nor did he make any claim that he was an expert about all aspects of nutrition. His words were intended to make the audience (mostly food marketers, manufacturers and retailers) hear...and more importantly think about how we can help.

As I walked around the enormous convention center after listening to Pollan talk, I felt encouraged by all that I saw around me. Companies, both big and small, brought so much passion with them to the event that it was inspiring. By now means does this mean that all intentions were completely pure. After all, these were all business people looking to make a living....but more power to them, if they can truly improve the lives of others in the process!

I'll post the link to the video of the event and the Q&A session as soon as they are available.

Case: Starbucks Misses the Boat

Interesting how such a strong brand can develop a very powerful idea yet fail on most important part of execution....letting consumers know what they were trying to do.

As you may have heard, Starbucks shut down all stores for 3 hours last month to "retrain" barista's to get back their roots (quality and service)....this study shows that while consumers knew about the closing, only half of them knew why.

Right or wrong, this is good food for thought...

http://adage.com/article?article_id=125641

SXSW Interactive Conference Blog

Here is a blog that captures the highlights from the SXSW interactive conference.

http://mattwilson.tumblr.com/

Site of the Day: Woot.com

Woot.com (http://www.woot.com/) is an online store and community that focuses on selling cool stuff cheap. It started as an employee-store slash market-testing type of place for an electronics distributor, but it's taken on a life of its own living by its manta "One deal a Day".

Check back every day at midnight to see what the daily product is and see what the community has to say.

Other Woot sites include Wine Woot(http://www.wine.woot.com/), Shirt Woot (http://www.shirt.woot.com/) and recently introduced Sellout Woot (http://sellout.woot.com/), a partnership with Yahoo!

Site of the Day: Jott.com

Hey guys,

In case you haven't heard of this site already, check out Jott.com (www.jott.com). The site uses voice recognition technology to help you "jott down" notes to yourself over the phone. Call a 800 number, follow the prompts and you can have an email/text sent to yourself, friends, family, co-workers immediately. The system can also set up reminders, help with appointments...its pretty awesome.

Right now the service is free but not sure how long that will last

Welcome to ATrendWatcher

Hey All,

Welcome to the ATrendWatcher. The ATW is committed to staying on top of the latest trends and providing fellow trend watchers an open forum to communicate and share ideas.As a marketer myself, I am constantly searching for what's next on the horizon but am wary of trends without substance that are destined to be fads. I hope to find others who are interesting in exploring consumer trends and look forward to shaping the ATrendWatcher together.

Check back soon!
Andy