One startup that’s caught my attention is the freshly released social start up, WhereBerry. The brainchild of Nick Baum and Bill Ferrell, former Google techies, seems like it could have a fighting chance.

Most social networks capitalize on what we’ve done in the past or what we’re doing now. The logical next step is for people to share what they want to do in the future. WhereBerry, which opened to the public last week, allows people to post activities they want to do… someday – from restaurants they want to eat at, to movies they want to see, to places they want to visit – people can organize and store their desires in one convenient place, turning the familiar “bucket list” virtual, and most importantly, social.

As a society of “dreamers” it is in our nature to make plans and set goals. As a rising society of “sharers” it is in our nature to broadcast these plans to friends. WhereBerry seems to have what it takes to capitalize on these popular behaviors. But it is at a fragile and vulnerable state in its growth, where important decisions can either make or break its success. I believe that if they can successfully accomplish the following, they could in fact be the next big thing:

1. Community & Groups: With the rising popularity of social networks, we not only want to share, we want to be part of a community or group. What users of WhereBerry are going to want next is the ability to join together with others around entertaining, thrilling, educational and delicious activities. Providing users the ability to share plans with smaller, private groups will not only be a feature users are interested in using, but will allow the application to spread virally as friends plan together.
2. Sharing on Steroids: The sharing is currently very straightforward: add to your list, post to your wall, see your friends’ to-dos in your feed, etc. WhereBerry should evolve the “share factor” by using a more complex formula – connecting people who have similar interests, presenting users with to-dos that seem to match with their trends (and location), suggesting plans their friends have, and more. The key is, users want the service to do the work for them and provide them with value they wouldn’t have on their own.
3. Competition and Achievements: Based on your bucket list and the items you accomplish, users should be able to achieve recognition or status for their completed tasks (e.g. Advanced Foodie, Dare Devil, Movie Buff, etc.). This brings a level of competition to the utility and drives participation, stretching users to try more and more – and therefore use the social network more.
4. Businesses & Brands: Selling this idea to brands by presenting the benefits to their business and getting them involved will provide substance to network by providing users with recommendations, deals and rewards, and will be the push to eventually turning this start-up into a money maker.
5. Continuous Evolution: WhereBerry needs to pay close attention to analytics, use, feedback, and the industry as a whole to learn what users want. They need to quickly evolve, adapt, grow, simplify, and integrate in order to meet users’ rising expectations.

The tech world today is a rough one to survive in, and the get-rich-quick theory very rarely applies. In 3-5 years we may see WhereBerry checking “10 Million Users” off their bucket list. Or we may be asking, “What’s WhereBerry? A new BlackBerry device?”

Bluebrain is a Washington D.C. band whose new album is an iPhone app that “changes its rhythms and beats as the user walks around the National Mall in Washington D.C.

Most people I’ve told about this think it is somewhere between “cool” and “cute.” But it’s the kind of thing that could spark an idea that could turn a Tourism council into a lifestyle brand. Or could reinvent newspapers into relevant resources on a hyper-local level. In short, it could be a game changer. But only if you go past what it is to what it could be. Right now? No value. Moving forward? Totally different story.

Focusing on the short-term is a necessary part of any account or brand manager’s job. But the day-to-day is designed to fill up your every day. So keep an eye on the horizon. Seth Godin has a great line:

There really isn’t much a of ‘short run’. It quickly becomes yesterday. The long run, on the other hand, sticks around for quite a while.

I’ve written before that marketers should be constantly asking what technology we’re not yet using. Let’s add another question to that list. What technology exists today that is going to be more “right” for tomorrow. Don’t ask “What is it?” Ask “What could it be?”

If you don’t, someone else will.

Interested in more stuff I find interesting? Follow me @casey_flanagan on Twitter.

Healthcare Marketing Strategies for 2011:

1. Healthcare reform has been set in motion–political roadblocks or not. 25 of its 92 provisions were implemented last year. Consumer opinion is pretty evenly divided (as our Healthcare Quality Pulse showed last September) and ultimately will depend on their healthcare experience.
2. Chances are, the physicians you’re marketing, marketing to or going to are not happy campers right now. But, according to Health Futures pundit Jeff Goldsmith, we better pay a lot of attention to the primary care physician: keeper of the patient relationship now and through whatever happens.
3. Focusing on the customer experience is a proven marketing strategy. Keynote speaker, Bridget Duffy is an expert. But very soon hospitals are going to get reimbursed (or not) based on how patients rate their experience. And some of our research suggests pre-admission brand perceptions may play a big role in how patients score their experience.
4. As if they don’t have enough new mandates, hospital marketers see mobile health applications as a way to differentiate, be more relevant and provide better patient care. Guess which viewpoint might lead to a successful mobile strategy?
5. Most of us see CRM and think direct mail–OK maybe email. But with more sophisticated systems to segment market health needs up front and then track patients on a lifetime basis, CRM may soon be the basis of any fully integrated strategy.

Lots of changes for hospitals, physicians and patients–a well as insurers and employers. But, of course, with change comes opportunity. Check in over the next few weeks for some thoughts on those opportunities for healthcare marketers and let me know what you think, too.

We have a saying around the office: In the battle between the TV and the computer, the winner is the phone. And the implications for businesses are flying at us freight-train fast. Smartphone stats are all about “more…”

More users. Based on Nielsen numbers, an estimated 51% of the U.S. population will have a smartphone by the end of 2011.

Spending more time. eMarketer reports that consumers spend an average of 50 minutes a day on their mobile devices. And time spent with mobile is rising faster than all other media.

Enjoying more control. According to Microsoft Advertising and Compete, 46% of smartphone owners compare prices on their phone while in the store.

Recognizing more utility. 56% of respondents to a Deloitte Consulting survey who owned both a smartphone and a laptop agreed the smartphones were replacing “many of the roles” of these computers. This number is up from 41% just three months earlier.

Evaluating more touchpoints. A study from ClickZ reported that 33% of online shoppers also visit online retailer from mobile device.

From more devices. Android has been growing. BlackBerry has been faltering. And Apple has been holding steady (for the moment). According to a recent MediaPost piece, each had about 28% share as of December.

The numbers are in. Your brand can win by going mobile. So what more are you doing?

[More smart stats for smartphones can be found here.]

Interested in more stuff I find interesting? Follow me @casey_flanagan on Twitter.

But, I think, mobile offers a bigger opportunity than advertising. Great brands provide value. And mobile is a phenomenal channel for doing so. So as budgets get ratcheted up, rather than thinking about mobile advertising, let’s start with what I’ll call mobile branding. Less emphasis on pushing a message, more on delivering a value.

I know that we all know “there’s an app for that.” But those apps are getting more powerful and more valuable. Just look at what is happening in the world of healthcare.

MIT has developed a snap-on lens that allows smartphones to provide mobile eye tests (via @MarkFairbanks). iStethoscope lets you record your heartbeat and email it to your doctor. And Google has bolstered its Google Health, allowing for more visualization of your health – from cholesterol to coffee consumption (via @PSFK). Just connect to integrated mobile apps to plug in more information automatically.

Brands of all shapes and sizes are faced with an unprecedented opportunity when thinking about how to have a presence in a mobile channel. The starting point shouldn’t be mobile advertising. It should be mobile branding.

By the end of this year, eMarketer estimates that there will be roughly 69 million mobile internet users. And about one-fifth of the total mobile population are already considered “heavy mobile internet users” – defined as going online via mobile more than ten times per week. So while numbers will likely continue to explode, in some ways, the future Mr. Clark speaks of is now.

A predictable headline follows. Consumers report that they don’t like mobile marketing. Of course they say that. But put away the flaw in the research for a moment. (Who are the 40% of consumers that say they *like* mobile marketing? The moms of mobile marketers?) This should act as a great reminder for marketers looking to build their brands in the mobile space.

It’s true of all media, but this one in particular. You have the opportunity to add value.

Mobile phones can be plain old mobile phones. But they can also be personal assistants. Movie finders. Restaurant reviewers. GPS systems. And, in the case of my iPhone, good friends.

So what if we thought about that mobile device – which may soon be a tablet, not a phone – as another link in the social ecosystem? What if we thought about it passing along content like a friend and not a mini-TV? What if we thought about mobile first and foremost as a point-of-purchase decision influencer? Doing so opens an entirely new way of connecting. Of providing content. And of, ideally, adding value.