Brand Resuscitation

The New York Times reports that a company called River West in Chicago has begun quietly buying up brand names of once beloved products. Names like Brim ("fill it to the rim with Brim!"), Underalls, and Quisp cereal are starting to make a come back on a store shelf near you. 

This strategy is based on the insight that just because a $40BB company like Unilever or Anheuser-Busch can't sustain a smaller brand like Nuprin or Eagle Snacks doesn't mean that there isn.t still lingering brand equity in the market place that can be tapped to create a resuscitated brand presence. 

In fact, River West did research that showed, for instance, that Brim coffee still has over 90% aided awareness in the market despite being off shelves for over a decade.

Get more from mobile marketing - DMNews

Interesting article on Mobile applications featured in DM News from the perspective of a few thoguht leaders in the space (ShopLocal, StudioCom, Store Xperience, Slifter)

Get more from mobile marketing - DMNews

Walk the Talk

Interesting Ad Week article on Mobile Word of Mouth featuring Google Android open source platform which will open up to developers to create a variety new applications.

Walk the Talk

NY1: Technology

NY1: Technology

There are some relatively-new high-tech tools available that combine shopping online with shopping offline that could have cut down on the amount of time you spent waiting in line this past holiday season.

Grocery Retailers rethink merchandising

Everyone knows that when you go to the grocery store, the bread in on the left, the produce is on the right, the meat is in the back, and you are going to do a loop in one direction or another, with occasional forays into the center for essential items like cereal. The best a CPG marketer can hope for is an end-aisle display to have their product featured within the perimeter "racetrack" itself.

Piggly wiggly has opened up an experimental format in Myrtle Beach, SC that takes that standard approach and turns it inside out, organizing products in what they claim is a more logical pattern. This includes things like placing the cereal next to the milk and putting frozen corn near fresh corn.

Will it work, or will it confuse the hell out of people who have been shopping grocery the same way for decades? Only time will tell.

Digital Carding

In the UK, 10% of kids age 12-15 admit to buying their own alcoholic beverages at a shop. This rising trend has led one chain to test out facial recognition software that will indicate if a buyer seems to have the facial characteristics of someone old enough to be buying alcohol. Is this a trend we can imagine coming to the US anytime soon? Beyond the privacy issues, there is a legal question as to the validity of this type of random criteria mapping. 

It does however demonstrate how digital tools are coming to the retail environment in ways that help the store owner, and sometimes, the customer.

Coming Soon: A Web-Wide Social Network?

"NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Three announcements, all within a week of each other, were indicative of the same trend: that the future of online social networking doesn't live within a single entity's walls but instead permeates the web. "

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=127012

Cooler than Google Earth?

It looks like Microsoft has finally created a content feature that out googles google in terms of aggregating and displaying massive information in a totally compelling interface. It's the WorldWide Telescope project, found here.

This interface promises to have aggregated the photographic artifacts from both the Hubble and the best of land-based telescope-captured photograhy. As Microsoft puts it on the WWT site, " bringing together imagery from the best ground and space-based telescopes in the world for a seamless exploration of the universe."

Like Google Earth, Microsoft has created a 3 dimensional environment that allows users to explore in three dimensions the universe around us. The only problem is that you need a very advanced computer to view it, my MacBook Pro just isn't up to the task (ideally viewed on a PC with Vista, a .net framework installed, etc, etc, blah blah blah). At least give Google credit for making the old Keyhole technology both browser and OS agnostic. I'm sure MS will get there eventually, but I can't believe they think that this will sell more copies of Vista.

Assuming you don't have a .net framework on your computer, there is a pretty good overview here, showcasing it's introduction at TED earlier this year.

Are Diamonds Better Than an iPhone

Will the new HTC Touch Diamond Phone be the iphone killer.

Launching in europe and then us.

http://www.unwiredview.com/2008/04/15/htc-diamond-touch-and-dream-android-to-be-unveiled-may-6/

And now for a laugh. (Facebook in real life)

If you thought that last posting was a downer, then watch this for a chuckle. It's humor is based entirely in truth, which is... Hey isn't that a saying?

MySpace Humiliated Me

To quote from HHH's entry on Monday, "I've been violated." I never did work up the courage to share my experience with you all. In a rage of boredom (can boredom really be raging?), I joined MySpace a year ago. I had already been a member of Facebook for three years, starting back in the day when it was exclusively for college students. Somehow, it just wasn't enough. I wanted more. Knowing full well I'd feel creepy and full of regret, I joined MySpace.

MySpace was tolerable for the few months I had it, but I got bored quickly. Bulletins were abused by certain friends of mine who solicited useless junk, friend requests from swingers in Idaho kept flying in (it felt dirty), top friends got jealous if they got demoted in rank. My lunch hours would consist of filling out useless survey bulletin posts with no relevance to life. At one point, I threw my hands up and purged my top friends' list. Among my top four friends were politicians, singers and maybe a few bigots just to show how ridiculous the notion was. I couldn't take it.

Over the course of my membership, my account got "phished" three times. The first two times, it was harmless but annoying, nonetheless. The third time, I had to find out through a group of people at work. I quote, "WHAT was that naked video you posted on my comment space?" WHAT!? OH MY GOD. I was mortified. And THAT...was when my scandalous, unwilling affair with MySpace ENDED. There's no looking back; we're done.

While Facebook's security has become a little looser these days in the vast social orb, I can still say that it's 100 times safer than MySpace.

So, without further adieu, I close with some MySpace etiquette.

Bluetooth Marketing

What a great Bluetooth campaign.
-mags

http://www.cscout.com/blog/2008/05/06/trend-bluetooth-marketing.html

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

The mentos Kiss-Cam
Need a kiss? I like this experience a lot, except for the webcam-connection which made me wonder 'what are they doing with my image here'. I wonder if others feel the same way?

Other than that it's a fun use of video online. It has a touch of interactivity built into the video too, Not bad! (Nice talent selection too)

Have we no manners??

I've been violated. Or, at least that is how I see it with my latest run-in on FB. All along, my biggest concern about joining FB was the privacy, or lack thereof. After much persuasion, I ventured into social media-land regardless and to my surprise it's been amazing - just in the number of old friends I have been able to reconnect with. That is until today.

Today, I opened my inbox to a rash of messages from friends demanding to know who the hell "So and So" was, because this person had invited god knows how many of my friends to be his friends. 99.9% of these he has never met, knows not how I know them nor how they came to be my FB friends and his perception was that this is acceptable FB behavior. Now, I am sure we have all gotten the completely random FB friend request, and we accept it or ignore it, and it's no big deal. But suddenly, when one of your own friends does it, and it results in an influx of messages into your inbox, it is a completely different story. It's the online version of a party crasher, and I did not react well.

So, in an effort to determine whether or not my reaction was completely irrational, and whether I should block him and go hide my head in the sand after sending a note of apology to all my friends, I googled "Facebook Etiquette". We should all take note with this quick refresher on proper behaviour on FB, and use these Top 10 as our "Facebook Mantra":

1. One should NOT friend another with whom they have no association with, that is without a proper introduction. You don't want to be the creepy dude on FB, do you?? Oh, and for those of you who are still single, it is recommended that you wait 2 days before friending someone you hooked up with.

2. If you must "Poke", do so with moderation and caution.

3. In conversations with fellow FB members, be careful not to let on that you know everything about them, even if they have plastered their page with gory details about thier latest breakup or conquest. Stalk secretly all you want, but in conversation do respect some level of (dare I say) privacy, otherwise you are right back in the "creepy" category.

4. Keep a clean profile page - avoid abusive posted items, notes, information or wall posts. And post pictures that include clothing - lack thereof is just wrong, no matter how you slice it.

5. Treat FB friends with respect - respect their views, even if they are of lesser quality or you perceive them to be wrong.

6. RSVP'd event attendance must be respected and upheld.

7. Tell the truth. (this is worth multiple mentions)

8. Be gentle and patient with non-savvy FB users (like the elderly and small animals).

9. Help friends who seem to be in distress - reach out to them, share the love.

10. Lastly, FB is not an acceptable replacement for socializing offline. Make time for your friends outside FB.

Domo Arigato, Rocky Roboto!

Meet Rocky, the doppelganger "robo-squirrel" residing on the lush, green campus of Hampshire College. Rocky's mission: to help observe animal (group interaction, individual behavior and patterns) behavior in a more "natural" fashion, as opposed to laboratory testing. The technology inside Rocky, who's a few years old, is constantly being updated.

Rocky's anatomy: a basic computer and speakers that mimic various squirrel calls. And yes, he can even discreetly connect to laptops!

"One recent afternoon...[they] brought Rocky out for field testing and placed him near real squirrels. Mounted on a board, he was shielded by a camouflage hood and a long cord connected him to the researchers' laptop.

After the computer's program flipped the hood open, Rocky went into a sequence of tail-flagging, barking and other motions squirrels recognize as warnings of danger.

The most successful experiments are when the real squirrels respond by 'flagging' their own tail, halting their foraging to check for danger, scamper up a tree or take other actions that show they picked up on the signals..."

Of course, optimal results can only be achieved if the actual species being tested is reasonably capable and intelligent. (Also, the smaller the easier when it comes to mimicking body language and signals.) Among other animals/reptiles/critters tested are lizards, wild parrots, sage grouses and even sea slugs!

Thoughts? Could this potentially be pulled off with some small dog breeds? And please, let's not call the robo-Chihuahua "Tinkerbelle."

Never too Late to Change...

Can you guess what this is a picture of?

Hint: Its really thin and really cool and may get me off a PC once and for all!

Whats a CTO?

A Chief Twitter Office, OMG, RME TISNF someone really landed this job at Comcast. Read on Twitterheads...

http://blogs.mediapost.com/social_media_insider/?p=13

Nifty Laser-Guided Wheelchair

This chair's computerized laser power says it all. Will the FDA hurry up and approve it already!?



http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/30/researchers-show-off-laser-guided-wheelchair-that-docks-with-veh/

Newsflash: people dig social media

Universal McCann has released some interesting survey statistics on social media. Use is up. People are even starting to understand that whole RSS thing.

- 83% watch video clips, up from 62% in the last study in June 2007
- 78% read blogs, up from 66%
- 57% of internet users are now members of a social network
- RSS consumption is growing rapidly up from 15% to 39%
- Podcasts are now mainstream digital content, listened to by 48%

More proof that social media isn't just a passing trend or blip on the radar. That doesn't mean that brands should scramble desperately to make use of these mediums. Relax, think and come up with compelling - not forced - ideas. There's nothing worse than a social media campaign made for the sake of being a social media campaign. Just because it's new and burgeoning doesn't mean it is immune from quality control.

Above we find the 13-million-view sneezing panda from YouTube, because a chart or graph would've be kinda boring.

Mobile Technology Meets Retail

An interesting, quick read featuring a sneak peak into the future highlighting patent development that will allow consumers to use their cell phones to pay for groceries.

This will open up a ton of targeting/programming options.

http://storefrontbacktalk.com/story/040308mobilepatent