Two Trends Merging As One To Save The Planet

If Internet trend A leaves the station traveling (X) miles per hour, and “Green Living” trend B leaves the station at (Y) miles per hour, when will they collide?

Right about now.

Let me explain the good news. In my February presentation to a bunch of advertising agencies in Portland, I showed them that TV, Radio, and Print are all morphing into the Internet, and that it’s all coming down to programming rather than the delivery vehicle.

On the Internet side of things, the game right now is to figure out how to even keep up with hyper-evolution. Every day, a new technology makes its way on the scene – yet again mashing up or evolving social networks, widgets, blogs, e-mail, video – just about everything.

Advertisers don’t know where to place their money – because they don’t know what works anymore. But here’s the “AHA!” moment.

“Green Living” has finally found its place in America’s social psyche. I could bitch and moan about how long it took, but hey, none of us is innocent. The fact is we is where we is, and the forward motion in thinking about our behavior as it relates to the survival of the planet is now mainstream.

The problem is, of course, now that we agree we need to take action to maintain our existence on planet earth, most people don’t know *how* to do it. Do parents know everything they need to know about raising “Green kids”? How can they teach their kids if they don’t have the knowledge themselves? Most parents certainly didn’t learn “Eco living” in school.

That’s where the collision of the Internet with “Green living” will play the most positive role. Sites like Treehugger and Lime will make a lot of moolah in the near future as revenue models change to reward good behavior. Take, for instance, these “Green Living” videos. From a marketing perspective, this approach combines all of the Internet evolution elements into where things are going to be:

- Instant delivery
- Green living programming
- Product / service centric
- On demand
- Viral
- Able to be posted on other people’s websites

Sure, there are some elements missing, like allowing “user generated content”, but the point is that we now have the communications technology, social consciousness, and potential for continued energy to fix this place. I’m starting to believe we have the willpower as well.

So, here’s the prediction. You will see more and more “Green mashups” like this one that takes one video and incorporates it into itself. Eventually, more and more people will seek out “Green content” (text, video, audio) and re-purpose it, taking elements from what is learned and adding their own creative touches.

This is a fantastic moment for the world. Just as I was worried that advertising is becoming ubiquitous and we can never turn its pervasiveness off, I realize that right now we need that pervasiveness while continuing to smash these two most important trends together. The faster they collide, the slower we will perish.