'You can see the future, if you know where to look'

Browsing through Youtube, I came across a video for Zapaday.com. This is an introductory video for the website, which aims to scan the internet for any information about events coming up or scheduled in the future and then create "the world's most comprehensive source of information about the future" with calendars for all these events (like a Wikipedia for the future?) See the video for details!

Zapaday's goal: "Whether you're a journalist, blogger, traveler, political analyst, event organizer or art lover, our goal is to help you get insights, plan ahead and save time."


If you watch the video, it mentions Zapaday could be useful for marketers also by helping in planning product launches and monitoring what competitors are planning. The idea sounds promising and if it takes off like they plan, a lot of people internationally might start using it, but I also wonder if it could turn into another kind of "platform" for electronic marketing, even though online tools to substitute what Zapaday could do for marketers, may exist.


Brands could perhaps make their own calendar and distribute it through social networking sites, so consumers could see just what the brand will be up to in the next year, and this could be a way to stay in the minds of consumers between product launches or perhaps help in spreading brand awareness.


What do you think? Could this service really be useful for marketers?

Under the influence

This year, fashion accessories brand Mimco and its advertising agency Taboo were nominated in the 'Most Innovative Marketing Campaign' category for WGSN's 2011 Global Fashion Awards (more info here).


So what did they do to be so innovative? Something pretty simple.


Mimco approached 50 international fashion bloggers to select a product from their new (at the time) collection 'An Unpredictable Revolution', and simply write about it incorporating photo shoot-style pictures and a link to Mimco's collection promo video and website.
Here's a link to one of those blog posts.


This seems like a great idea to me! The more followers a blogger has, the more influential they'll be, and using this concept as a marketing tool I think earns Mimco the nomination (although I'm not sure of the extent of its effectiveness).

The Technorati.com State of the blogosphere 2010 reported statistics from 7,200 bloggers, and revealed 33% of them were approached by brands to post about their brand or product.

Do you think this idea is or will be a big trend in e-marketing? Smart move or waste of time?

Do you follow a blog or have you been influenced by something a blog has said about a brand or product?