More Free

Keeping on the priceless economy theme, the March 08 newsletter from Amsterdam-based Trendwatching.com has a huge selection of ‘free-business’ concepts. They say they’ve been tracking the rise of free goods and services for while now and the cheeky Dutchies have labeled the trend ‘Free Love’. Their definition of the term is: the ongoing rise of free, valuable stuff that’s available to consumers online and offline. From AirAsia tickets to Wikipedia, and from diapers to music. In summary here are their suggestions:

Advertising
The most visible (commercial) manifestations of FREE LOVE are businesses offering goods, services and experiences to consumers for free and making their money from advertising. As long as attention remains the number one scarce item for B2C brands, the number of ‘FREEVERTISING’ initiatives will continue to grow relentlessly.

Tryvertising & Acce$$
[For] brands who (still) depend on selling their own products to consumers. Here too, the key fact is that consumers are saturated, which makes it hard to get their attention. FREE LOVE provides a number of opportunities to overcome these hurdles. Courting-techniques include Tryvertising, Brand Butlers, Acce$$ and Premiumization.

Free Love C2C
If giving is the new taking, then hundreds of thousands consumers/individuals are on the right path. Never before have we witnessed such an explosion of free content, courtesy of individuals who—for free, nada, zilch—are happy to share their thinking, their novels, their photos, their movies, their music, their knowledge and expertise, their advice, their crafts and more.

Swapping Not Lending
Hundreds of millions of consumers own assets that enable them to swap, temporarily or permanently, everything from cars and (holiday) homes to books, furniture and DVDs, without spending a dime. Only hurdle: matching supply and demand. Which is—surprise surprise—where the online world comes in: swapping marketplaces are not only thriving, they’re also increasingly going niche, as the number of wired consumers continues to grow.

We know some folks don’t like TW’s tendency to come up with those ‘trend names’ but they should overlook their gripes with TW this month, it’s a corker of inspiration.

FREE LOVE