What if notifications, billboards and alerts would actually get you excited? Thrilled even? This is what THRILLBOARDS are all about: companies putting a message out there, offline or online, that actually means something to you, the customer, and makes you want to buy right away. It implies you as a customer understand why the THRILLBOARD is there to begin with, and what its specialized message is trying to get across.

An excellent example of an offline, urban THRILLBOARD is Krispy Kreme’s neon Hot Light sign. The successful doughnut chain’s Hot Light turns on during certain hours of the day and night, signaling to passers-by in-the-know that Krispy’s ‘Original Glazed Yeast-Raised Doughnuts’ are fresh off the line right that moment. Which means Krispy Kreme fans triggered by the promise of instant gratification will get their much-beloved doughnuts super-fresh and hot.

In the online world, Amazon.com knows a thing or two about using THRILLBOARDS: in the top right-hand corner of any Amazon page, a twinkling ‘Gold Box’ awaits you, offering a number of tantalizing deals that are good for a limited time only. Once you open the box, you have 60 minutes to decide whether or not you want to buy each item on offer, after which time it expires.

This mix of real-time thrills, instant gratification and appealing to customers-in-the-know should inspire creative marketers. To start off with, TRENDWATCHING.COM recommends the following THRILLBOARDS: loud bells ringing inside and outside Toys “R” Us stores whenever a new shipment of hot ‘toys du jour’ arrives, or Ticketmaster.com featuring wildly flashing banners on their homepage whenever ticks to sold-out shows or concerts are returned.

www.krispykreme.com -- www.amazon.com

Instant gratification, already fuelled by the web, is undergoing an upgrade with the arrival of SEE-HEAR-BUY: the capability to buy everything you see or hear, wherever you are. What started with the unmatched variety on offer in some web stores (allowing you to find and buy the niche-book you just saw discussed on TV within seconds on Amazon), slowly moved to truly integrated experience-and-buy services like Yahoo’s ‘launch.com’, which lets you instantly buy the music you’re listening to while at home or in the office. You can see the lyrics on your screen as well, should you feel the need to sing along.

Now, anticipating this growing expectation of being able to buy anything you see or hear, companies are gearing up to make everything for sale, online AND offline.

For example, Westin Hotels & Resorts sells the Heavenly Bed that guests like so much (see Springwise's January 2003 newsletter for more details).

Or consider London-based Shazam (Springwise December 2002 newsletter): whose customers, when hearing a song they like but don’t know the name of, can dial ‘2580’ on their mobile phone, point their handset to the music source, and receive a text message (SMS) from Shazam with the name of the artist and the track, including an instant online purchasing option.

AsSeenIn.com, a now defunct dot-com, ran a website that featured merchandise from favourite US TV shows, including the dresses worn by Beverly Hills 90210 actresses. Launched in 1999, they may have been 'too-early-adopters’, but the SEE-HEAR-BUY phenomenon suggests that similar business concepts will soon do well, with a new breed of customers expecting EVERYTHING they encounter to be for sale.

www.heavenlybed.com -- www.springwise.com -- www.shazam.com

Can’t wait for these trends to blossom? Want to see which business ideas clever entrepreneurs have come up with, based on last year’s trends?

Our sister site SPRINGWISE highlights some of the most promising new businesses and concepts from around the world. From sturdy ‘brick and mortar’ to very online, from major multinationals to garage-based start-ups. Ideas, concepts and ventures ready for adaptation, copying, or partnering.

In this month’s SPRINGWISE newsletter, you’ll find a mix of travel, food, publishing, retailing and technology ventures. All successful in one or two countries, all potentially successful in many of the other 189 or so countries that make up our global market.

Want to get going? Go to www.springwise.com

Modern life, especially modern urban life, is obsessed with the ‘in’ thing: the it-girls, the restaurant-buzz, the happening neighbourhoods. This It-ISM increasingly follows certain rules and regulations, giving creative entrepreneurs and marketers the opportunity to reap the It-RICHES before anyone else does.

First, there’s It-ROULATION, which dictates that every well known colour, cuisine, decade, city, country or anything else commercially exploitable, will get its turn in the lime light, over and over again. If Belgian food was hot in the late nineties, and lost its spot to Swedish restaurateurs soon after, then chances are that Belgian dishes will be happening again in 2010.

Following the It-ROULATION comes the It-GAP opportunity: introducing those subjects and items that aren’t on the It-ROULATION’s radar. To stick with cuisines: Guatemalan food, when introduced by the right It-restaurateurs, could well become the new craze in Paris for the first time ever, thereby earning access to It-ROULATION and thus eternal, periodical It-STATUS.

TRENDWATCHING.COM believes that while it is beneficial to know what the current It-THING is, it’s more lucrative to forsee or create the NEXT THING, and the one after that.

Despite some doom and gloom predictions for brands in general (too expensive, too much media saturation), branded goods remain as hot as ever. Certain focused and well respected brands, often beacons of coolness and quality, are now cashing in by enriching other, more all-encompassing brands. The result: BRANDED BRANDS.

In plain English: BRANDED BRANDS means you will get a pizza from Pizzeria Uno on an American Airlines flight. And onboard perks offered by United Airlines include Starbucks Coffee, Mrs. Fields Cookies and even a McDonald’s ‘Friendly Skies Meal’, including the ubiquitous promo-toy.

When you check into your Westin Hotel, expect the beauty products to come from premium brand Aveda. Le Meridien adds to its appeal with luxurious Hermes toiletries. These days, lifestyle magazines even include this kind of information in their hotel reviews.

Cars aren’t immune either: Lexus proudly promotes their Mark Levinson audio systems. And when dining out, don’t be surprised to find Haagen-Dazs ice-cream on the menu of even upscale restaurants. It all points to consumers on the road increasingly wanting to find the brands they trust and enjoy at home (United Airlines’ in-board coffee approval shot up to 87% when it introduced Starbucks).

Up to marketers to decide whether they represent a brand that should be branded, or own a brand that puts the ‘branded’ into others!