The Augmented Reality Train rolls on

By now if you've been following our blog or twitter feed (or seen the latest copy of Esquire magazine here) you know all about this thing called Augmented Reality (A/R) and that we're fans (for the right brand, done the right way of course!). So, with that in mind no one here should be surprised that A/R just keeps rolling on and marketers are trying to find the killer app of this technology.

Enter the latest bid from our friends from Coke Zero and Hollywood with their promotion of the hope-to-be blockbuster "Avatar: The last Air-bender." In a typical Hollywood overstatement of reality (or augmented reality in this case) the Coke spot that promotes this campaign and on product "AVTR" tag certainly makes it look ALOT cooler than it is, but it's still pretty darn cool.

Coupled with a almost unbranded presence on a microsite you can try the A/R at AVTR.com. So, grab a coke and go check it out!

Some interesting credits

For the latest release of Activision Blizzard/Infinity Wards Call Of Duty video game series, Modern Warfare 2 there were some interesting credits in terms of what agencies were recognized to be a part of the largest video game, hence entertainment release of all-time as Infinity Ward stated on it's website. The game, which retails for $59.99, sold 4.7 million units in its first day on sale, taking in $310 million for the game publisher. By comparison, the year’s highest-grossing movie, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” earned more than $200 million domestically by the end of its first weekend as reported by the New York Times.

So, what agencies developed the campaign to promote the game? Well, While TBWA/Chiat is the companies lead agency, it was a compilation of other agencies, and most interestingly retailers that are responsible for the games launch. In reviewing the Article on AdAge take notice that retailers like WalMart (in cooperation with Activision), BestBuy and Gamespot developed and ran creative and components of the campaign for the launch. Further evidence at the importance of the retailers as a central component of manufacturs campaigns rather than just points of distribution.

Read the article here.

Insane, Crazy and flat out cool

So, you know how fast the whole "web" thing is moving but just feel like you haven't had the time to stay on top of the latest, craziest, innovative uses of all the technology and creative thinking out there? Well, Google to the rescue once again!!!

The fine folks in Mountain View have taken the time from the Lab to put together the 87 coolest things that folks have done with access to the latest & greatest API's, clever thinking and flat out smarts to put together. The fact is that at this stage there is almost no limit to what can be done. That's not to say there aren't bad ideas out there... I mean, just because you can do it doesn't make it good, interesting or well, right. However, have no fear with this presentation from Google. After watching several times I'd have to say there is very little here that isn't worth checking out. It just might take you awhile. Oh, and don't forget... there's nothing stopping you (or us!) from being the 88th thing that could get added to the list.

So BE CREATIVE!!!!

Bionic eye

This is amazing stuff . A use for augmented reality that can prove very useful to retailers and brands of all types. (We tweeted about it a while back, but here's the video again.)



http://marketingballista.blogspot.com/

It's Bud Light lime people, everyone settle down.

http://marketingballista.blogspot.com/

Make Phone Calls on Twitter.

Interesting Beta that let's twitter users connect without sharing either parties phone number.   I can't really think of a great use for this, I mean I follow many on twitter, but i don't know if I'd like to talk to most of them.  I don't have time to talk to my actual friends, lol.  This seems to change the Twitter game a bit, but you can decide for yourself though.  Read the full article here.

Shakable Ad, pretty cool.

This is an example of many new ads I've been seeing on the iPhone. I wish i could find the last one i saw, it was an ad that was a game and it was pretty fun. (but unfortunately i can't recall the brand, which is telling.)

here's another example of a ad that entertains as the phone is shaken. Definitely inviting and interactive.

Social media - the newest tool for social change

Non-profits are tackling the social web, but haven't had quite the attention as big businesses and brands. A report issued this summer from Dartmouth indicated the nation’s largest non-profits have outpaced corporations in adopting social media. And the Center for Marketing Research noted (and not a surprise) that the Fortune 500 and the Inc. 500 have increased their social presence but charities are continuing to lead in usage.

Social media is the newest tool in social change. Non-profits have it an efficient way of reaching a large audience of like-minded, cause conscious individuals, vocal individuals.

For companies and brands with strong philanthropic ties, social will prove to be an invaluable vehicle.

The Dartmouth study:
http://sncr.org/2009/06/28/nonprofit-organizations-lead-the-way-in-social-media-adoption-according-to-society-for-new-communications-research-chair-dr-nora-ganim-barnes-and-eric-mattson-of-financial-insite/

From a funnel to a circle???

For a long time marketers have relied on the age-old model of a purchase funnel as the cycle that consumers move through in making purchase decisions. From Awareness, Consideration, Preference to Loyalty. This model made sense when consumers played a more passive role (presumably) where they received messages pushed to them by marketers. For those of us in marketing roles we know that has changed - where consumers are not only actively seeking information but in many cases serving a role to create it and act as influencers. The question now is how to marketers adapt to this change?

In a study published by McKinsley Quarterly in June of this year titled "The consumer decision journey" a new model is proposed suggesting that instead of a funnel where consumers have more brands at the top and slowly narrow their selection - that they now start with a few, then move to active information gathering where they greatly expand the number of brands and then ultimately make their decision at the point of purchase. Essentially moving from a funnel to a circular approach.



What's driven this paradigm shift? The leading cause is technology (dare we say web 2.0 - I swore I wouldn't use that term ever again!). With consumers ability to connect, share and be more vocal to other consumers and brands technology has greatly impacted the way they make purchase decisions. As a result, marketers are trying to figure out how to engage in this new world. Be sure to read more for yourself at www.mckinseyquarterly.com.

Pecha Kucha

Japanese for "Chit-Chat, and pronounced "Pe-CHATCH-ka", Pecha Kucha is a form of PowerPoint or Keynote expressiveness that started in Japan a few years ago. Basically, it involves presentation gatherings where all participants present a slide show on a given or a self-chosen topic. Sounds boring, right? Well, the fun is that Pecha Kucha involves a presenter telling his or her story in exactly 20 slides for exactly 20 seconds each slide. That means 6 minutes and 40 seconds on the nose.

Started by 2 Europeans living in Japan and looking for ways to give young designers a way to meet and share ideas in a structured yet fun manner, Pecha Kucha has taken off, with events being hosted in over 170 cities around the world. You can see examples of this unique form of communication in this smart tutorial, or at the official Pecha Kucha Website to look for an event near you. It's become such an accepted form of focused presentation development that the giant Autodesk corporation required their 2007 sales meeting be made up of only pecha kucha-style presentations. It was a huge hit, since listening to someone droning on about their pet project for only 6:40 doesn't seem so bad.

The last presentation I was witness to had 150 slides with less than 40 images total. Yes, that's right, you can imagine the excitement. Had it instead been made up of 3 or 4 crisp pecha kucha presentation segments with relevant, compelling images as the primary content accompanying the presenter's spoken words, it would have been potentially a bit more compelling.

We're considering trying it for one or two presentations at our next mid-year meeting. You should try it too.

Peer Pressure?

Microsoft will offer it's newest version of it's Office Suite online for free. The columnist's claim that this move was "a stroke of genius" remains to be seen. One thing is for sure, Microsoft's peers are forcing the giant to revamp their business model in ways they'd hope they'd never have to.

Cool 3D work.

This home video takes on a little life of it's own. Enjoy!

Your new iPhone 3GS as a Credit Card?

Well, that time is getting closer and closer. With the continuing evolution of the iPhone, Blackberry and other smart phones coupled with advancements in commerce technology the day where you leave your house with only your car keys and your phone - and no wallet - are just around the corner.

Whether it's your cell number, text messages or custom platform formats, there are a multitude of ways for consumers to start transacting through their mobile phones. At this point it's all about who gets enough VC money and pilot concept out there to validate the concept and start bringing it to scale. If large companies can band together (which is unlikely) to bring some scale a solution could be here before you can say "charge it to my iPhone".

Check out this article in the New York Times to learn more!!!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/technology/22pay.html

Demo of the sixth sense. TED.

This is amazing, how interactive meets, retail, shopper marketing and the physical world. This demo shows how we may be gathering information, make decisions and interacting in the future, not to mention the it's the tip of the iceberg for usability design. fascinating!

Mobile Couponing Tipping Point?

To date, other than Cellfire, success in Mobile couponing has been somewhat limited due to inability of checkout scanner to read bar codes on phones. The lack of this functionality has put a burden on retail compliance because of complexity created for cashiers, sandwich makers, etc. without a scannable bar code.

A new iPhone App, called Cardstar, may be just be a game changer in mobile couponing – The App is the first we've see where a UPC Code can be created on a phone and scanned at checkout (handheld scanner only) at major retailers.

It is being marketed as a loyalty card manager where you no longer need to carry your grocery loyalty cards with you once you have loaded them to your phone.

We tested it and it worked at a CVS store & Petco, but in reading the reviews there seem to be many instances where it does not. The CardStar App is available at the App store.

Definitely something worth watching!

Zinio - an online library

A former colleague is now at Zinio so I decided to check it out, zinio.com. Basically it's all the magazines I have on my coffee table, online. They even have comic books.

Something cool, you can rip out a page from your favorite digital magazine, and post it. Just go to zinio.com and search for your favorite magazine or book or article, click on “inside” and the magazine or book will open up, find the page you want to rip out. Click on + and select where you want to post the page. Post away.

The Future of Marketing... What is Your Prediction?

An article on the future of marketing was published today on Talent Zoo, written by the head of planning at Modernista!, Gareth Kay. Gareth is well published, and reading up on his opinion is easy (just do a google search and related content goes pages deep). In this article, he predicts that marketing will be headed in the the following direction:

1. Brands will be built on cultural and social missions, not commercial propositions

2. Marketing will be about what you do, not what you say

3. Lots of little ideas, not one big idea

4. People first

But his prediction for the future came up against some criticism.... Take a look for yourself, and post a comment! Would love to know what you think - are you a believer? Or do you have a better crystal ball?

Twitter.com/catapult_mktg

Our foray into social media continues. First, we brought you Marketing Ballista, our very happening blog about all things marketing. Thank you for visiting. :)

Our latest experiment is proving to just as successful, and almost overnight. We have  started a Catapult Marketing “Twitter feed” less than 2 weeks ago, and already we have a nice initial following to our thought leadership, published at least several times a day.

See for yourself at http://www.twitter.com/catapult_mktg, our new home on Twitter.com. Our followers, attracted with no marketing or announcement on our part, includes the Instore Marketing Institute, various thought leaders in the social media space, and several clients

What is Twitter you ask? It’s a “Micro-blogging” service where one can publish their thoughts to anyone who cares to “follow” them, but only in 140 character bursts. You can only publish to your “Feed”, but you can read anyone else’s who you choose to follow or visit. It makes for very compact, easy to digest reading, that’s for sure. Ashton Kutcher twitters, with over 1.5 million followers (The current leader). So does the Whitehouse, Jet Blue, The NY Times, Martha Stewart, Shaquille O’Neil, Miley Cyrus, Anderson Cooper, David Gregory, Oprah, and a press agent posting for Britney Spears, as well as millions of others around the world, both famous, hoping to be famous, corporate/marketers, and mostly, ordinary people like me (twitter.com/hewsonb). For a fun list of interesting folks to follow if you’re just getting started, see http://twitter.com/invitations/suggestions

If you’ve never been to twitter.com and are afraid of getting sucked into some giant ponzi scheme-like vortex, just visit http:www/twitter.com/catapult_mktg to get a gentle introduction in a familiar environment. You don’t need to register or log on to view our feed.

If, when I say “twitter”, you hear the trombone voice of charlie brown’s teacher, but want to start an understanding of this growing phenomenon, please see the link below as a pretty good quick executive summary of who and how twitter is being used most successfully. http://mashable.com/2009/04/20/twitter-strategy/

If you already have a Twitter account and twitter regularly (I know there are more than a few of you out there who do, come on, admit it!), please add “catapult_mktg” to your “Follow” list, and we’ll of course return the favor and retweet you as often as we think you won’t offend our delicate sensibilities. :)  

Twitering

As marketers and brands are still looking for ways to effectively utilize Facebook, another social network is taking hold in a big way. It’s Twitter. You’ve seen it in the newspapers, you’ve heard people talking about it and even the evening news is feeding parts of their discussions by utilizing Twitter.

For a brand it can be a bit overwhelming, Twittering, tweeple, tweets, what is a brand to do? It’s intriguing though; there is a lure here for many marketers and brands alike. Think about how amazing is it for a brand to have all these followers that hang on every word said? How could you go wrong?

Well, the answer is not that black and white. The big question you face is, does your brand need an active and daily dialogue with customers? Does it have enough to say on a regular basis? Can your brand even support that sort of dialogue and is it in your brands nature to do so? Twitter is not the equivalent of a dry corporate website it is VERY different. Twitter has the potential to be a lot more personal if used correctly.

Brands that have spent a lot of time successfully developing their brand personality certainly may have an easier time at it. Look at Jet Blue with 240,000+ followers. This brand dialogue didn’t start on Twitter, Jet blue simply uses Twitter as another natural extension of their brand and customers are eating it up. For the right brand under the right circumstances Twitter is a low cost way to communicate effectively. Indeed, there is massive potential to build brand equity and to keep fans and followers informed, but choose wisely and understand the hills and valleys before you start tweeting.

Mini, fun video.

Well at least they are poking fun at themselves here, I mean where else is there to really go?

Don't miss the bus with this.

What a great outdoor interactive display for Cadburry Eggs. This bus stop display is a touch screen game, how cool. Bringing this level of interaction outdoors or in store is a great way to engage, educate and entertain customers and shoppers alike.... or even people who ride the bus.




Marketing Ballista

1989: First Cell Phone Commercial

I find this pretty humorous and ironic overall. Humorous because, well, it's a huge clunky thing. The idea of owning one of those is inconceivable to me (and probably the rest of my generation). Ironic because driving while talking is prohibited these days. It's pretty much automobile-centric. Times have certainly changed.

Great NYTimes article

Very creative! Sometimes it's nice to see something abstract and imaginative.


I LEGO N.Y.

Is Dell Skating on "Thin" Ice?

The skinny on the skinny.

It's sleek, sexy, thin...just like the MacBook Air, "with its guts wedged into a single piece of aluminum." It's called the Adamo and it's a whole pound heavier than the Air. It's also slower and more expensive.

To be frank, I'm not so sure about this. According to the article, the MacBook Air wasn't as well received as anticipated. So, what can Dell do that Apple can't? Here's some "insight":

”While a premium computing experience was assumed for Adamo, the intent was for people to see, touch and explore Adamo and be rewarded by the select materials and craftsmanship you would expect in a fine watch.”

A fine watch? Seems like a weak comparison to me that only focuses on the clean, sleek design. I guess "time will tell" whether or not this is an invention gone wrong.

Cut, Copy and Paste!

Strangely enough, I asked myself the other day, "Why can't I copy and paste a line of text on my iPhone?" The simple act of cutting, copying and pasting is nothing new, so what's the holdup, Apple? Apparently, it's proven difficult to execute in a secure and user-friendly manner.

Well, all you iPhone and iPod Touch users might be happy to know that this capability the cut/copy/paste functionality is among the several software upgrades available this summer.

Like any other technological device, there's always room for improvement. I'm hoping that, sooner rather than later, the iPhone will become equipped with video capabilities. (I honestly haven't looked into the reasoning behind that one, but always thought it would be a nice-to-have.)

As an aside, the software upgrade is free for iPhone users and around ten bucks for those with the iPod Touch.

let's go for a drink!

A couple months old, but...

Goldstar Beer puts a whole new twist on, "let's go for a drink." Check it out. Or, does it?

This simple, flow-chart-style ad campaign is admittedly hilarious (well, to most) but perhaps a bit sexist. (The tagline is, "Thank god you're a man.") It's safe to say you can take a look at it and think, "enough said."

The perfect ad to read while sitting on a bar toilet inebriated (apparently, bathroom stalls were the main display location).

It really appears to have angered some reviewers, but that just makes it all the more interesting! Dare I ask, "Let's go for a drink?" Eek.

NFL Fantasy Files: The Best Players

I'm not sure about the history of this, but the special effects are great. Clearly this is Reebok sponsored, I could not find a supporting site, but this video has over 7 million views. Fun stuff.

If They Don't Hear It, Say It Louder...

... and if don't see it, MAKE IT BIGGER! That's the latest initiative from the Online Publishers Association in an attempt to combat desensitivity to online banner ads. In an effort to maintain an evolution in online advertising, and create new ways for agencies to integrate a brand's experience with more interactivity, three new online ad units have been introduced. These ad units will be available through nearly two dozen OPA participating members including New York Times, MSNBC.com, MTV Networks and Wall Street Journal, whose combined reach is over 108.3 million unique visitors (that's 66% of the total US internet audience).

Read on to get the skinny on the creative objectives of this initiative and all the deets on the new creative units that will be available in early July!

re: iPhone Forrester Study

A recent Forrester study supports the previous post. iPhone apps ranked highest for web browsing for convenience by on the go consumers followed by other Mobile apps, with mobile web surfing ranking at the bottom.

500MM Apps downloaded and rapdily counting.

Looking forward to the Blackberry App World!

iPhone has huge mobile browsing saturation

This doesn't come as much surprise. After all, the iPhone was the first mobile web browser that gave users the Internet in full (albeit Flashless), pinchable form. Arguably, it still is the best game in town. At least until the Palm Pre releases.

66% is a big number. And makes it even more important to think about iPhone-friendly sites as a part of a bigger interactive strategy.

Now where's that Flash anyway, Apple?

Intel: Programmable Matter is in the future.

I know this blog isn't necessarily "popular mechanics", but this technology really just makes me realize what dramatic changes that we and especially our kids will see in the future. Here is a technology that is 20-40 years in the future, but the ground is being broken today by Intel and others.

It's really interesting to imagine how something like programmable matter could affect the products we buy, how we sell, how we demonstrate usage, how a single product might be customizable to fit your needs in a way few of us could imaine. There are several articles out there on this subject. it's nice to dream.

Q&A: Why Best Practices Matter in Shopper Marketing

Nice Q&A on the creation of the shopper insight council.

http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/shopper-marketing/e3i99cfa85eeeab5b040544f46ec5714cad

.................
Sent from my iPhone

Augmented Reality from GE.

Ok, this actually gave me the chills, which really doesn't happen too often. It's a really imaginative evolution of 3D online. It's most likely a combination of Papervision 3D and as you can see the use of a QR code (of sorts).

Regardless of the technology used, this is really a show stopper. Print out the QR-ish code and hold it up to the screen and a 3D world erupts on screen, mapped to the image on the paper - Amazing! The marketing and in-store opportunities for something like this could be HUGE. I'll definitely be looking more into this.


Try it out for yourself

Bully Free Zone.

Facebook is going through more IA and design changes to make its self a bit more 'real time', like Twitter. The last Facebook layout update (which most people still hate) really put the emphasis on your Facebook status, clearly a response to the popularity of Twitter, even at that point. So here we are again, Facebook is trying to overtake what Twitter has carved out for its self in the social networking arena.

See the posting at techcrunch

Interesting stats.

Super Sweet from Tumblr.

As you may know Tumblr is a social site that allows easy personal blogging of video, text, photos... etc. I noticed that you can also call in audio and have it posted to your blog page. I'm sure this feature isn't for everyone, but for those with some flair and personality, it could be a hit. If you come across any audio blogs, please post them in the comments.

Skittles.com : Interesting take on information architecture

Skittles.com has a new online experience to check out.  This is the 2nd time i've personally seen this type of information design in place, the other time i saw this was on Modernista's web site. I guess imitation is the best form of flattery.  In short it's using social sites on the web to host their content. So friends of Skittles are on Facebook, videos are on YouTube. The main page their navigation sits on is Twitter. It's pulling in everyone who's talking about Skittles, which is pretty cool. Products are hosted on Wikipedia.   This is still an interesting approach.  Outside of this you can't help but realize that there are many ways for a brand to utilize social sites (Other than the obvious ways) and utilize their benefits.

Wow. Jaguar, Land Rover Make $1.6 Million Mobile Buy

Huge mobile marketing buy here and big news here from Jaguar / Land Rover. Interestingly they see the medium as not just awareness, but direct response. I'd agree completely. Even on a very basic mobile level it is super easy to interact and get information on basic information like weather/news and just as easy (and convenient) for appropriate branded messaging. I can't wait to see how this mobile marketing campaign comes to life in the marketplace. I'm also really curious about it's success.

Read the ad age article here >

Oldie but a goodie, What if Microsoft designed the iPod?

Tropicana pulls back new packaging after a few weeks.

So Tropicana redesigned their packaging and put it into market just a few weeks back.  Here's the thing, they promptly pulled it off the shelves after just about a month and went back to their original package design.

Did sales plummet?  Was the shift to an entirely new look and feel just too much for consumers?  To the left you can see the 2 designs, on the left he classic orange with straw inserted into it and on the right the new design.

Personally, i'm glad they went back to the original design.  It's a classic brand and classic design that everyone knows.  The new creative feel too much like a generic orange juice brand.  It's contemporary and attractive, but It just doesn't hold onto any of the brand equity or frankly, the heritage that has been established over the years by Tropicana.  So hit your local super market for this limited edition Tropicana packaging, get them fast, because they'll soon be gone.

What's Ping?

I came across this very cool site which allows you to manage all your social networks from one place. Most of us are on Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, LinkedIn, AIM or Delicious, Flickr. But, you can also manage your accounts on Plurk, Tumblr, Identi.ca, Brightkite, friendfeed, Jaiku, Plaxo, Bebo, Hi5, Mashable, Xanga, Wordpress, Blogger (hey that's what this blog uses), yammer, Vox, typepad and about 15 other social networks out there in the world.

Realize Ping doesn't give you "full" access to manage these account, but gives you in many cases the ability to update a status on particular social network, or All statuses on all your social networks that accept statuses. I actually could have posted this blog post from Ping, but wasn't sure how to add the nifty Ping logo above, next time i will.

Million Dog Mosaic in Brandweek.

Nice case study from Brandweek on Pedigree's Million Dog Mosaic below.

Case Study: Pedigree's Million-Dog Mosaic
Feb 21, 2009
-By Kenneth Hein

The Challenge
Every year, more than four million dogs end up in shelters. Pedigree decided to do something about it by creating the Pedigree Adoption Drive Foundation last year. The charitable organization is dedicated to helping shelters and rescue groups find homes for dogs. Now the issue was how could the Mars Petcare division raise awareness and money for its cause.

The Plan
The foundation and the "Million Dog Mosaic" were promoted at Pedigree.com, Dogsrule.com as well as at Milliondogmosaic.com/pedigree. Each time a consumer uploaded a photo of their favorite dog onto the site, the Pedigree brand donated $1 to the foundation. The mosaic was promoted via a custom Facebook application, the Westminster Dog Show Pedigree Pop-up dog store as well as integration with its advertising campaign, which features the hero adoption dog, "Oliver." Oliver is featured on the site comprised of consumers' uploaded photos. It was featured on a nonprofit channel on YouTube and targeted e-mails sent to an in-house database also got the word out. Catapult Action-Biased Marketing helped put the effort together.

The Results
In one month, there were more than 1 million page views of the mosaic. To date, more than 55,000 photos have been uploaded. It set the record for user-generated mosaic participation, beating American Idol. "It signified that Pedigree is a company that walks the walk when it comes to fully aligning with the values of its consumers," said John Anton, director of marketing at Pedigree. "A million dollars was raised for the Pedigree adoption drive. [The campaign] brought together dog lovers in a fun place where they could be entertained, do research on the best way to feed and treat their dogs, join a like-minded community and be rewarded for their engagement."

Mobile hotel bookings on the upturn.

Mobile hotel bookings rise

In an economy where the hotel business is on the downward trend there is one thing they are doing that's working. It's mobile hotel reservations. As users get more comfortable with mobile devices the convenience of making a reservation seems to be too much to ignore. It's clear that instances like this will be popping up all over, instances where the mobile option just makes it easier to communicate with the brand.

What's in store for in store marketing displays?

How about digital signs that actually read customers? This display knows whether customers glance at the signage, stops to read it or ignores it all together. pretty interesting stuff. See the full article on the CScout Japanese site here

very small game

Pouring BudTV down the drain

According to this AdAge article Bud TV is ceasing to exist.  I'm a little surprised that it lasted as long as it did.  I think we all remember when it launched, it was a big deal, but it's had a lot of competition in the video space. The production of original content was just too much.   In comparison, It's funny that Hulu had press about it that it could never succeed in this pace and it's a great site.

Txt your revelation

If I could get a few of my twitter statuses on a coffee cup, I'd be a
happy man. Txt cup to 30241 to share your revelation.

The future implications here are huge. The opportunity to interact
with a brand like green mountain while doing something as simple as
drinking your morning coffee.

My revelation. "I need to get back to my work".

I love Wordle

If you have a moment check out Wordle.net. It's a really fun app that allows you to add text which in turn creates some really cool typographic layouts. The text you place can come from anywhere, like another website or perhaps your favorite song. Heck you could even paste in the lease on your apartment. The sky is the limit. The layout options are very cool too, change colors, type and composition of text. Give it a whirl.

Crayon Physics

Let's rethink gaming for a moment here.  Crayon Physics is a problem solving game that is not just fun, but also quite relaxing to play with.  Do all that you can to get the little red ball to touch the star.  Using physics, things you draw will fall, roll or draw a hinge to have another item you draw swing. This game is probably best played on a tablet or with a mouse, but they also have an iPhone version.  I like this app a lot, (although my fingers seem to get in the way.)

In the mood for something different?  I'd definitely recommend checking it out.

Breaking the desktop paradigm

For so long we've all worked within some pretty traditional constructs of what we call our desktops - whether on a Mac, PC, Linux or Commodore 64. We've all worked with the basic file structures and architectures that compose our virtual working/living world on our computers and how we interface with them.

With advancing web technologies and continually evolving interface design we've certainly seem some breakthroughs but they have mostly been at the site or application level, not on our day-to-day computer desktops. Neither OS X or Windows Vista have evolved things that much. That is until now (or soon hopefully).

Check out Bumptop. Designed by Anand Agarawala. BumpTop represents a paradigm shift in how we can think about our virtual desktops and allow them to become more intuitive and more important productive. Not to mention it's about as cool as you could imagine! While this is in beta now, follow it's development and sign up for a beta as the developer gets closer. I for one am hopeful to get a sneak peek!

Help Us Help Dogs

Our client Pedigree(R) Food for Dogs is on the 5th year of it's campaign to support dog adoption. This year, it is supporting it in a big way with a superbowl spot which you can see here. To amplify this traditional marketing activity, we've created an online extension of this work, featuring "behind the scenes" back stories for the crazy pets and their crazier pet owners featured in the Super Bowl TV spot. And to mark Pedigree's commitment even more explicitly, we have built in the benefit to the user that each video watched will result in additional donations by Pedigree to support dog adoption through their charity, the Pedigree Foundation.

Funny stuff, great cause.

Add Ballista Blog to your RSS reader

Add Catapult Marketing's
Ballista Blog to your google, yahoo or other RSS reader. It's easy and the fastest way to keep up on the postings.

http://marketingballista.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Twitter related apps and websites.

Not sure where to begin, so many twitter apps and sites and just not enough time. Between location based, the ability to set groups, delay tweets, search tweets, the options seem endless. Twitter is turning out to be pretty awesome and the technical problems from early 2008 seem to have gone away. If you're not into twitter now, i'm sure you will be in 2009.

Article here

See what's happening -- right now.
http://search.twitter.com/

Sling Media to bring live TV content to iPhones

We met these guys last week at CES in Vegas. Sling media is the company that brings your cable tv to your computer. And now they bring it to your mobile device too. iPhone support is coming very soon in the next few months. A little birdy at CES told us that although the they officially support the product on AT&T's 3G Network, it will still work for us "original iphone" owners.

Here's an article about what Sling Media is up to these days.

The Shorty Awards

Check out some of these tweeple if you have time
The best producers of short* content in 2008
*140 characters or less, on Twitter
Finals voting is open! The finals will last from January 12-23.

http://www.shortyawards.com/

NEW URL for Ballista!

http://marketingballista.blogspot.com/

Samsung Flat Screen.

This may be my final CES 2009 posting. I got scolded for taking a picture (or two) of this Samsung flat screen. Apparently the only ones able to take photos of it were those from the press. None the less, here we are. Hit the press for detailed specs, but this 50+ inch flat screen was no more than a half inch in depth. You may get more visual detail by clicking on the 2nd photo.

Clearly moving forward we'll be seeing a whole new world of flat screens. larger, thinner, lighter and using less power. The way these will impact our homes and shopping environments will be huge, no doubt.

Take a wire and make it flat. What do you get?

One of the coolest things I saw at this year's CES was something rather basic in a lot of ways. It's called Flatwire and no surprise, it's wire that's flat. lol

What's genius about this is that from speaker wire to 120v wire it all is manufactured like, impossibly thin.

From what i could tell, rewiring could take on a whole new life as you essentially apply this flatwire to the outer surface of your wall, a little adhesive, Spackle and paint and you are in great shape. Perhaps for a real edgy look, you leave it exposed. Either way, no more snaking wires through your walls.

FlatwireReady.com

Major media in the shopping aisle

Great article named "Major Media in the Shopping Aisle"
A pretty comprehensive overview of in store marketing today. Definitely worth checking out.

Digital Signage Secret.

We came across this very attractive digital signage at the show. It featured a simple dissolve between content and specifications. It was clean and quite effective.

Upon closer observation, we realized that this shiny little object was just some simple, almost store bought technology fabricated to be a bit more useful.

I think the picture below speaks for itself, a basic digital picture frame, but modified. Just upload it with images and walla! Instant in-store digital signage.

Hitachi frames flat screens.

At CES this year Hitachi spent a lot of time showing the public exactly how flat screens will integrate with their homes in the future. I touched on this in a previous post, but here you'll see another nicely designed stand and monitor frames. In theory we should be spending time choosing the frame of our flatscreen, just like we do when we hang nice art work in our homes. This also speaks even further to how technology integrates and blends with our home & work lives.

Consumer design leads to line of limited edition Sony Vaios

The Sony booth showcased custom designed Sony Vaio computers. The
designs were created by consumers and entered into a contest. There
were upwards of 20k entries and you can see below the final winning
designs which were priducednin limited quantity.

These custom designed computers were only available through their
website. Cool stuff!