Interested in consumer involvement and co-creation?
Don't miss our related trend: GENERATION C!

What happens when you open up media platforms to bloggers, amateur critics, self-educated experts, passionate commenters, and independent reviewers? You get insightful, surprising and highly original content, not to mention entirely new products and services from GARAGE INFLUENTIALS: amateurs-turned-professionals posting their reviews, criticisms, software, solutions and God knows what else on the web, ready for reading or downloading.

Examples? ‘Customer Reviews’ , one of Amazon’s major success factors, attracts tens of thousands of reviewers, with some GARAGE INFLUENTIALS (like Lawrance Bernabo) having submitted more than 4000 reviews. New Yorker and independent food critic ‘Fat Guy’ has built a dedicated following of urban diners. On Epinions.com, aspiring reviewers can launch their bid for becoming a master reviewer in every category imaginable. 75orless.com showc0ases indie album reviews in (surprise!) 75 words or less. And on dvdtracks.com, movie buffs post their own DVD audio commentary tracks for Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Mulholland Drive, which makes for a highly interesting new way of dissecting movies.

Now that a handful of celebrity reviewers no longer holds the monopoly on telling us what to read, experience, eat, watch, play with or listen to, TRENDWATCHING.COM advises marketers, consultants, and business development managers to monitor, befriend, pamper or even employ these new influentials and creators whenever their audience outgrows the number of people you can fit into a garage! >> Email this trend to a friend.

RELATED TREND
GENERATION C

USEFUL LINKS
www.fat-guy.com
www.epinions.com
www.75orless.com
www.dvdtracks.com

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A description of an emerging consumer trend that was featured in a previous issue of TRENDWATCHING.COM's free monthly newsletter.

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