Thoughts On Providing An Alternative To Iconoculture

After we asked our readers about their feelings about the Iconoculture service we got dozens of emails and a few public comments. Thanks to everyone for their candid remarks. Going through them all made us come to some conclusions which I want to share here:

Since the inception of trends information gathering service Iconoculture, technology and access to content has changed greatly. When Iconoculture launched, trend information was much, much harder to find and often held at arms reach by guardians.

The personal publishing revolution that has taken place over the last few years has changed the trends industry landscape. Through blogs, archives like Flickr and YouTube and instant alerts through applications like Twitter, a wealth of trend information is available if you have the time and ability to find it.

While the value of data held on a private site has been greatly diminished, our research suggests that the concept of the monthly analyst call is still considered important – even if this aspect of Iconoculture’s service does not seem to meet many subscribers’ expectations. The call offers agencies and clients alike, the opportunity to access expert knowledge to overcome today’s challenges, assist in fulfilling projects, and capitalize on opportunities.

Probably the way forward is to offer a service that recognizes both the proliferation of information available and the importance of an expert’s view.

We’ve still got to think about what that service would be, but if you have further comments, suggestions or would like us to notify you when we have the developed the service, please drop a line to our director of business development Jeff Weiner at jeff.weiner@psfk.com – or leave a comment.