Click here for a useful tool for finding innovative ideas from around the world.

From “Futurethink”, an NY-based innovation consultancy.

Interesting Wharton article on how Google and others are intending to move into broking old media, using automated systems. This is a logical extension for Google, and illustrates with clarity just how extensive Google’s impact on the advertising industry is likely to be.

“Traditional media advertising in the United States is a $150 billion market compared to $16 billion for online advertising, although the online market is growing at a rate of 30% a year.”

The Tower Group published research recently suggesting that the onset of the “Cashless society” might be nearer than you think.

According to excellent online service The Wise Marketeer (registration required), the Tower Group’s report, called The Cashless, Cardless Society: Coming Soon to a Paypoint Near You, suggests that by 2015, a substantial share of consumer payments globally will have moved from cash to other payment mechanisms. They note that some of the technologies that drive this (contactless payment terminals, fingerprint recognition payments, mobile and micropayment roll-outs) are already under test in a number of countries.

There’s an inevitability about the move to a cashless society in the long run - as an OECD report in 2002 pointed out: “To put it in succinct and current terms, money’s destiny is to be digital”. The big question is how quickly.

Which is why the news that EMAP the magazine publisher is launching branded “re-loadable pre-paid debit cards” is interesting. They will predominantly be targetting the teen audience for many of their key brands like Smash Hits! and Bliss, but are also launching a “Magic FM” card for their older audience. The cards have been developed with Mastercard’s Maestro brand, and Bluecorner.

Looking a little further out, in an Information Week article in 2004 (click here), Nicholas Negroponte at MIT (founding chairman of MIT’s Media Laboratory and the author of the seminal 1999 work on the digital revolution, “Being Digital”) suggests that barter is going to take a greater role in the world of payments. Considering the rise of EBay and Paypal, there’s little doubt this is true, though how it pans out is still open to question.

Developments like the EMAP cards are cropping up with more frequency these days. And chatter about the change in the way money is used is increasing.

Are the UK’s banks ready for the coming change in the way we spend?

Guest Invest is an interesting new business with a fascinating new business model, based around the concept of customer ownership.

You actually buy a hotel room from them. You own that room and earn money from people staying in it. On the site:

“People pay a lot for the privilege of spending the night in a luxury hotel. When you buy a hotel room with GuestInvest you receive half of that revenue for yourself. You can also stay in your room, free of charge, for up to 52 nights a year. So you really can earn money while others sleep.”

It looks like there’s a capital and a yield benefit. They claim that:

“GuestInvest’s first hotel in Notting Hill sold out within weeks and room owners are seeing returns of more than 6.5%.”

This whole concept of customer (or ‘mutual’) ownership is probably best known in the financial services industry. Nationwide Building society, one of the best known mutuals, estimates that the ‘mutual’ benefit that they’ve derived since 1996 amounts to over £3.7 billion.

The same principles can apply in other industries and markets - and now others, like Guest Invest, are taking the concept and applying it.

Another example is the bar/club M1NT, founded by Alistair Paton. M1NT describes itself as “a world first concept that sees 250 people united by owning their own exclusive late licensed club on London’s prestigious Sloane Street.” It’s fair to say that M1NT is aimed at the slightly ‘higher’ end of the market - the BBC reports that “M1NT’s 250 shareholders include 9 of the 44 billionaires in London, F1 drivers, Hollywood superstars and supermodels.”

It’s probably too early to know if Guest Invest will be a success - but the concept is a pretty interesting one.

We always have our eyes open for interesting examples of new approaches to revenue generation - even better if they’re backed up by a robust precedent and clear evidence of customer approval.

One such is the MINI tlc servicing proposition. Now copied across the industry, tlc is available when purchased with a new MINI, covering scheduled servicing on the car for 5 years/50,000 miles, including parts and labour, for just £150 inc vat. It’s a great model, because it provides genuine value to consumers, differentiates the ownership proposition and creates incremental income opportunities for MINI.

Customers value it

Customers perceive MINI tlc as a real value-add, despite the fact that its funded primarily by the higher list price of the vehicle. The benefits of the MINI tlc package are not only limited to running costs, but also contribute to MINI’s rock solid residual values as any remaining tlc years pass on to the second or third owners. Industry bible Glass’s guide has estimated that the penalty for a seller with no tlc can be as high as £800 on a 6-12 month old car and £500 on a three year old car. Based on SMMT used MINI sales figures since launch, total revenue from used MINI sales has been boosted by more than £30 million as a result of MINI tlc.

MINI keeps more customers, longer

The £150 fee doesn’t fund the cost of servicing (that’s built into the high retail price of the car), but what it does is ensure that the car remains serviced within the MINI network for the duration of cover. All non-service labour and parts are therefore incremental sales for the dealership, and ensures that MINI retain the owner relationship down the line.

The MINI tlc proposition was introduced in 2001 - as a result many MINI drivers will be reaching the end of the tlc package next year. MINI is launching a top-up programme - MINI tlc XL - to take over the reins, providing continued peace of mind for up to another three years / 30,000 miles… at a price.

Click here for more information.

The Register (site) has alerted us to the strange influence that Christmas can have on the minds of marketeers. The Marketeers at Tesco have, in their wisdom, launched a “musical sandwich” using the same principles as those really annoying Musical Cards…

We prefer the “Present Selector - Top 10 for Christmas” idea on Tesco.com, which you can see here. And yes - it is one that we worked with them on.

Anyway, if Musical Sandwiches are your thing, click here for the full article - excerpt below.

“[A Tesco spokesman said] ‘One idea already under consideration is working with record companies to launch songs by new artists on the market by way of the musical sandwich.’ Terrific. We look forward to the Black Sabbath bat and lettuce sandwich. In the meantime, feel free to nip down to Tesco and grab a musical Xmas sandwich. Before opening it, though, please get on a plane to Chile and proceed directly to the remotest part of the Atacama desert where you will be free to enjoy your singing lunch without the risk of physical assault. Thankyou.”

Nuff said.

Jakob Nielsen 0f useuit.com fame has published an interesting set of stats on Internet usage, including the fact that we now have more than 1 billion Internet users. Click here for the full article - excerpts below.

Summary: The Internet is growing at an annualized rate of 18% and now has one billion users. A second billion users will follow in the next ten years, bringing a dramatic change in worldwide usability needs.

“Some time in 2005, we quietly passed a dramatic milestone in Internet history: the one-billionth user went online. Because we have no central register of Internet users, we don’t know who that user was, or when he or she first logged on. Statistically, we’re likely talking about a 24-year-old woman in Shanghai.

Overall, the Internet’s growth has been truly remarkable. Ten years ago, the ‘net was mostly used by geeks; now it’s the default way to do business in many countries. In our U.S. and European B2B studies, many business professionals said they visit a company’s website as the first step in researching potential vendors.”

The International Telecommunications Union produces some pretty interesting reports. Their latest is entitiled The Internet of Things and explores the consequences of a world of networked and embedded devices - and the commercial opportunities. As the executive summary of the report says:

“The technologies of the ‘Internet of Things’ offer immense potential to consumers, manufacturers and firms… changing business strategies is the name of the game, in particular in the retail, automotive and telecommunications industries…” ([small text] ITU Internet Report, November 2005)

But as they also point out:

“for ground-breaking innovations [in this area] to grow from idea to specific product or application for the mass market, a difficult process of commercialization is required, involving a wide array of players including standard development organizations, national research centres, service providers, network operators, and lead users”

At Edengene, we worked in this area with BT in 2003, in creating the business BT Auto-ID Services. You can read our case study in the Our Customers section on the site, or click here to see the highly successful BT Auto-ID Services in action.

The Economist ran an article last week pointing out some of the significant shifts in power in Internet retail. As their sub-headline states “The internet was supposed to batter traditional retailers. Instead they are coming to dominate it”. You can read the article here if you are an Economist subscriber.

There are a couple of really interesting insights which big companies looking to use the internet effectively can learn from:

1. Prototyping online - The traditional retailers are finding many other advantages in expanding their stores online. One is that in cyberspace, even the biggest supercentre is unconstrained by planning laws or dogged by protests, as Wal-Mart often is when it tries to expand offline. Both Wal-Mart and Target also use the web to test the market for certain products before they send them to their stores.

2. Using online to compliment offline - and vice versa - Michael Silverstein of the Boston Consulting Group: ‘Retailers are starting to recognise that their most profitable customers…find the convenience of an online offering complementary to an in-store experience,’ he says. As examples of successful exponents of this in America, Mr Silverstein points to Neiman Marcus, which has taken a lead in online top-end fashion, Victoria’s Secret in lingerie and Circuit City in consumer electronics.

3. Adapting your business model is key - Should Amazon have stuck to books? Jeff Bezos, its founder and chief executive, does not think so and likes to plug his site, with its growing army of other traders, as offering ‘earth’s biggest selection’. Nevertheless, he is spreading his bets. These days Amazon also sells its e-commerce experience, helping to run the websites of big, traditional retailers such as Target and Britain’s Marks & Spencer.

All good stuff, that we would support.

In a separate report which I read on The Wise Marketeer, a Nielsen Netratings report has found

“that nearly one-fifth of the online buying population (18%) accounts for 46% of total online spending and that these “Most Valuable Purchasers” (MVPs) spend more money online and make more purchases via the internet than the rest of the online buying population.

In contrast, those spending a small amount online and making the fewest purchases made up the majority (55%) of online buyers. This rather less valuable group, however, still accounted for 21% of online purchases.”

The opportunities are out there.

Rupert Murdoch quite rightly has a reputation as a genuine market disruptor in the Media industry. His innovation around the business model in two industries are legendary - Television where he saw the opportunity to own a channel, and Newspapers, where he famously took on the shiboleths surrounding the industries obsession with Fleet Street, and then slashed the price of the Times to grab market share.

But Emily Bell writes in the Guardian today about his most recent interview with Press Gazette, pointing out that even Murdoch himself seems to understand that his time is over, as the Internet kids grow up, the Internet entrepreneurs get wise (Craig’s List and Google are referenced) and the traditional newspaper companies remain with their heads buried in the sand. (BTW, is there an article about newspapers that doesn’t mention Google these days?)

The full article’s available here. But two particular quotes from Murdoch struck a chord though -

“I don’t know anbody under 30 who has ever looked at a classified ad in a newspaper”

and

“I hate this DVD craze. The sales go up for a day. And are right back to where they were the following day… that’s got to stop.”

Compared to the young Internet guns, Murdoch may be late in seeing what’s changing in media. But he knows it. And unlike some of the other UK Newspaper organisations he’s already seriously challenging the way things are done at Newscorp. Don’t write him off.