Using services to increase consumption.
In 2004 we built a strategy for Sony upon the insight that iPod ownership increases consumption of music. Sitting in an airport bar after having been briefed by Sony on their Walkman challenge, we realised that a hidden result of having bought iPods was that we now listened to more music: more variety as well as a greater quantity. Owning an iPod, we said, increases your connection to music which leads to increased consumption.
While this seems a bit counter-intuitive given the constant declines in music sales, a number of key measures show consumption increasing, in terms of overall growth, and growth of music purchasers.
To me this is an example of how digital technology which has been designed to solve problems, sometimes ends up creating new opportunities instead.
I think we may be about to see this happening again with the mainstreaming of location-based services coming your way via the iPhone 3G and others. That’s because I believe location awareness isn’t simply a technology that prevents you from getting lost, it’s a technology that increases your confidence and desire to explore.
In many cities, knowledge of what’s nearby is just as hidden as knowledge of what’s on the other side of the planet. As a result I think we tend to tread the same paths over and over again, in fact I’d guess that the longer you live in a place, the smaller your actual footprint of usage is because your routes become habitual. This means that location-based services may actually be more compelling to those people close to home rather than those far from home and because we tend to spend more time close to home than not.