Matt Rhodes

On 12th June Tesla announced that it was making its electric vehicle patents available to open source users. This is seen by many as a bold move – Tesla has developed a different battery technology to other players in the market, using smaller cells that run more efficiently. 

Every week we bring you the FreshMinds Friday picks – ideas to help you understand the impact of digital technologies on consumers, brands and markets. This week we look at five statistics that show the real potential of the Collaborative Economy and the impact that it can have on many existing brands and markets.

Millennials (those born from 1980 onward) are a key target for many brands and marketers. Whilst older groups are still the largest media audiences these under 35s have unique digital consumption habits. As they get older, these habits will only become more mainstream. So understanding more about this audience, and how they use digital tools and technologies, is critical for any brand.

Guest Post by: Chris Holmes

Last week I read a fascinating article on Fast Company about C&A Marketing. The company sells a diverse range of products – from speakers to egg timers – and they’re growing at a fantastic rate, citing figures of 30% per year. But how can they have achieved such impressive growth? The answer lies in their innovative approach to new product development. They’ve done away with using lengthy product testing with consumers and are instead using Amazon reviews to inform the features of their products.

When I posted my Christmas cards, it turned out I wasn't alone. In an era of text messages, Tweets, emails and short videos, research for the Royal Mail found that 78% of UK adults would be sending Christmas cards via the post, and each person would send an average of 17 cards. 

As consumers, we have long left trails of data behind us. Our credit card firm has known what we spend money on where; and our mobile phone firm has known where we are whenever we have our phone with us. And both sets of data have been used by brands to personalise how they market to us, and the products and services they offer to us.

September saw the launch of our report into how online engagement can drive action offline published by vInspired, the UK’s leading youth volunteering charity. The research worked with young people across the UK to understand the role that digital technologies play in their lives and how best to use engage them online to inspire them to take action offline.

There is a lot of talk about big data and the social media data that we leave behind us online. In this talk of tools and processes, examples and opportunities, it can be easy to forget what we are dealing with. Social media data is the memories of the people who wrote that post, or took that photo. And memories mean something very specific to us as human beings.