Money might make the world go round. But people are increasingly looking for different ways to make life richer.

It’s all about life experiences; and brands that can move beyond passive communication into truly immersive adventures will thrive in this environment. We’ve been talking about ‘return on interest’ for a while now. But imagine if that can manifest itself in reactions as diverse as joy, reflection, agitation, anticipation and hairs-up-onthe-back-of-the-neck exhilaration.

Research by Nielsen and Edelman, amongst others, has shown that the combination of Web 2.0 and the recent financial crisis has sent trust in brands southward in a radical way.

It is no longer good enough for companies to tell customers what they do. They need to walk the talk, or they’ll get found out.

The dark art of spin is shriveling fast under the glare of a billion luminescent screens.