In an era of seemingly endless abundance ...

.. what is truly valuable.

I came across this paper by a guy called Kevin Kelly written in February of this year. I think it's fantastic.

From the paper.

"Yet the previous round of wealth in this economy was built on selling precious copies, so the free flow of free copies tends to undermine the established order. If reproductions of our best efforts are free, how can we keep going? To put it simply, how does one make money selling free copies?

I have an answer. The simplest way I can put it is thus:

When copies are super abundant, they become worthless. When copies are super abundant, stuff which can't be copied becomes scarce and valuable.

When copies are free, you need to sell things which can not be copied.

Well, what can't be copied?

There are a number of qualities that can't be copied. Consider "trust." Trust cannot be copied. You can't purchase it. Trust must be earned, over time. It cannot be downloaded. Or faked. Or counterfeited (at least for long). If everything else is equal, you'll always prefer to deal with someone you can trust. So trust is an intangible that has increasing value in a copy saturated world. "

Digital advertising supply is super abundant - there is no shortage of supply and no shortage of vendors. So what is truly valuable to brands in this market when evaluating options?

Full article - http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/01/better_than_fre.php