When I was young, radio shows such as American Top 40, or Billboard were the established authorities on determining the most popular artist or album.
The internet has revolutionised the distribution of music and it’s no surprise that there is no shortage of innovation in the delivery of informational services.

Recognising that popularity includes discussions, consumption as well as purchase, the BBC has created an index of bands and tracks.

The index is updated every 6 hours, using IBM’s Semantic Super Computing which scans sites such MySpace, Bebo, Last.fm, iTunes, Google, YouTube, monitoring conversations, music listened to, artists watched, and songs downloaded, to establish the most popular 1000 artists and tracks on the web.

The more conversations an artist or song receives and the more it is is downloaded or played, the higher up the Sound Index they are listed.

The Sound Index can also be filtered based on genre, location of people and age group.

Whilst you are unable to "click through" to the actual conversations for a given artist, this index represents a good indicator of their marketing performance.

I can see these type of measures being applied to almost any industry or category. The Food Index, The Restaurant Index, even the Agency Index.
Are you monitoring what is being said about your brand or service?

Dr Martens are running a campaign allowing consumers to create a boot design at http://dmbootdesign.com/

After selecting the boot canvas (8-hole or 14-hole), and then using the sites pen and paint tools, or using their own tools, 2 consumers will be selected to have their boot designs manufactured and sold in shops worldwide.  One will be chosen by the people, and the other by a panel of industry insiders.

This isn’t the first campaign of it’s type, but it is still a good fit for the brand.  It’s a pity that they don’t provide an option for consumers to purchase their design, even if there was a premium price point.

Personalisation is a trend we see continuing and whether your brand is a car, or a toothbrush, providing consumers some way to be involved in the creation is a clever strategy.

There is certainly a growing trend for small companies to support the growing demand for personalised products.  E.g. Brewtopia in Australia allows consumers to personalise their own beverage label.

Vuru.com takes personalization to the degree where it provides customised daily supplement pill packs sent out as several months supply. They have created several starter pack formats linked to lifestyles, but you can also completely personalize your own.  Great for people who are taking several different supplements.  The site also contains a Vitamin Concierge, which is free for consumers that take 15 or more pills per day. 

And now we can add Customised Tea to the list of personalised products, (although it’s currently only available to US and Canadian consumers).  Known as Design a Tea, the company provides the ability for consumers to select a base tea to start with (Black,Oolong, Green, or Rooibos), and then add 1 or 2 flavours from the more than 40 available. The final step involves selecting the tea format (loose or bagged).  A personalised message can be included on the packaging if the product is being purchased as a gift. Pricing starts at USD $4.75 for 10 bags or 22g of loose tea.   And if the choices are too overwhelming, there is an assortment of pre-designed blends.

Sleeveface is defined as "one or more persons obscuring or augmenting any part of their body or bodies with record sleeve(s) causing an illusion"

This unique art-form has inspired over 1400 Flickr photos, a series of Youtube videos, and even a Facebook group with over 10,000 members.

This is a great example of a self powered community linked by the single common objective of creating art from record sleeves.

Absolut loves visions. They love them so much that they turn visions into realities.

In an ABSOLUT World everybody can submit their visions and explore what others have envisioned and realized. And the website reflects this idea with an interactive navigation using 3D graphics to create an engaging experience.

Realised visions are represented in by boxes that you can drag, spin and open. Each one is different, and because they are generated by consumers, you’ll find all kinds of content inside.

There is even a blog which captures the submissions to “In an Absolut world ….”

I’d like the ability to save a vision as a widget and then post the result to a social network, as this would ensure greater syndication of the content.

But the site is well designed and the visions are very powerful.

Internet access speeds, lower cost of video equipment, and ease of video sharing has lead to an expansion of video content on the web.

3 former Google employees have launched a site that is positioned as a video based "how-to guide" to pretty much anything. In their words, "Imagine an ever-expanding universe of how-to knowledge, created for you and by you. That’s Howcast".

The site also effectively uses Wiki technology to encourage collaboration / updates from users.  Examples include "How to clean your ipod", "How to store an unopened bottle of wine".  The site is well laid out and designed to capture feedback as well as commentary in line with today’s "conversational web".  The videos follow a similar format where an instructor explains what is needed to complete the task, followed by step-by-step instructions explained in a voiceover. If users want to write their own "how to", they can use the Howcast template; scripts are then sent to film school students for production.

The "How To" web market has a number of existing players such as Instructables and Expert Village which have been focused on text / image based content.   

Contributors to Howcast also benefit from distribution deals that syndicate content through other channels such as Joost, Verizon’s VCast.  This is a clever business model as it will enable Howcast to grow quickly. 

I couldn’t help thinking of the possibilities this structure has for mainstream education.  Howcast generates the "learning objects" and then effectively uses latest technology tools for teaching.  All you would need to add is a module that tracks what learning objects you have viewed, and testing to measure both the effectiveness of the learning object and to ensure students have grasp the concept being explained.

Stories are the best forms of communication, and ones that you can wear can be great forms of conversation starters.

For charities, getting potential donors to feel involved with a cause can be difficult.  Rosa Loves facilitates this by selling t-shirts which have both a graphic and a story describing the cause they are supporting. The story is placed on the inside of the t-shirt next to the wearer’s heart to invoke a personal attachment to the cause.

Causes can be as simple as a person in need, or a disadvantaged community, but each one has a specific goal and a defined funding requirement.
60% of the sales from each t-shirt goes directly to the cause.  T-shirts are hand-numbered and created in small batches until the required amount has been raised.

This is a great example of a product serving a growing need for authenticity and personalisation.

His New York City apartment had to be fumigated. All of his friends have tiny studio apartments. Hotels in New York are insanely expensive. Left with few living options, Mark thought it would be fun and make an interesting video to move into an IKEA store where he’d live and sleep for a week. Never in a million years did he think IKEA would go for it, but miraculously they have a agreed.

Mark moved in early morning Monday January 7th to the IKEA in Paramus, New Jersey and will stay for the week through Saturday January 12th. Every day people can watch a video recap of his day. He will be living in IKEA 24/7 and eating all his meals in the restaurant (he may order Domino’s take out once or twice). Thankfully they have a shower for him in the back offices.

Mark has a website to record his week in Ikea

Perspective: This is a great initiative by Mark, but also by Ikea who will gain lots of free publicity from Mark’s live recording of his experience.