Reviewing Is The New Advertising

Reviewing is the new advertising according to the latest briefing from TrendWatching.com. The report examines the shift in consumers’ decision making processes to a powerful peer-to-peer model and provides a look at what’s new, happening, upcoming and important in the era of transparency. There’s a lot of interesting examples in the report and plenty of sites to use to garner consumer opinions on your brands.
A small selection lifted from the report:

• Shopsavvy, an Android app, allows the user to scan almost any barcode using the phone’s camera, and it will then search over 20,000 online and local retailers to find the best price. Once the best deal has been found, users can either purchase online, or use the phone’s built-in Google Maps feature to find their way to the store.
• SnapTell is owned by Amazon.com, who last month also released its own, free, Android mobile application, which allows users to take photos of an item on their phone, or scan a barcode, and then have Amazon search for the same product online, enabling immediate comparison with the physical-retail price. If the price is right, users can purchase the item securely from their mobile device.
• Local review site Yelp boasts the first iPhone app with augmented reality. Users can put their iPhone camera in front of a restaurant, with Yelp’s reviews then overlaying their real-world views.
• Fixya is a popular post-sale tech support site, where 15 million members help each other with product support questions on 1 million products. It has now added product recommendations to its website.
  

Read the full report HERE.