(almost) always thinking

I had a meeting with a chap from Digital and one of the gals from the support team this morning.  We got round to wondering why this particular lady was quite happy emailing and googling but hadn’t ever bought anything online or downloaded music or set herself up on Facebook or Flickr.

It reminded me that not everyone is merrily swimming into the digital ocean.  Lots of them are still paddling at the edge.  Seventy-something percent of the UK might use the internet, but a heck of a lot of them are looking for someone to hand out armbands and take them for their first swim in e-commerce or social networking.

So which brands are going to be the ones giving swimming lessons?  It seems to me that its going to be the ones that are familiar and safe – in other words high street brands.  So why aren’t they exploiting this massive opportunity?