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This 108 inch monitor from sharp was pretty impressive until I came across the 150 inch from Panasonic. The impact these displays can make for a marketer and for a brand is pretty impressive. They get noticed.
The biggest drawback foe me was the most important one. Poor sound
quality, no bass to speak of.
What are people saying out there, what are they willing to confess?
Here is a site where people can anonymously vent, tell their secrets their dreams and more. Give advice, get advice on this free site. (But remember the advice is worth what you pay for it.)
http://www.answerjam.com/
Learning about tweeting? See how twitter can change things.
http://mashable.com/2009/01/04/twitter-blog-design/
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Sent from my iPhone
Every time I think I've seen a great iPhone app, another appears. It's
amazing to see the capabilites of these small devices and to imagine
what's to come. Gamer or not, see where brothers in arms takes gaming
to a new level on the iphone.
http://www.appvee.com/t/brothers-in-arms
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Sent from my iPhone
This may be worth checking out. A twittified firefox add on that keeps
you in touch with all your tweeple.
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Sent from my iPhone
Additionally, they are using the distribution power of this environment to generate buzz around events like Black Friday, in this case, showing photos of people camping out prior to the big holiday sales event. It shows that Best Buy, and other leading retainers, are starting to experiment with online well beyond their e-commerce and general brand building activities online.
Nielsen reports that ChaCha, launched less than a year ago, is the fastest growing mobile search service to surpass Yahoo! and Google. ChaCha's 300% quarter over quarter gain is tremendous, but also a result of an increase in mobile search supported by the latest hardware options.
Big brands including McDonald's, Coca-Cola, and even the Obama campaign, have leveraged the tool for marketing purposes and have reportedly seen response rates up to 5% which well exceed mobile industry averages.
The Obama campaign specifically, used the service to urge early voting. Folks using ChaCha received a prompt that offered the option of getting more information on how and where to vote early - and of course there was a plug for Obama.
This will be one to watch - although it might be hard to miss.
www.chacha.com
To help illustrate how digital technology is changing the way shoppers shop, we introduce you to a Young Gen X family and their digital shopping experiences over one weekend with the holidays appraoching.
Meet Bob and Sarah and their 4 year old son Zac. This dual income family lives in the suburbs of New York. Bob works full time in Manhattan at an advertising agency and Sarah works part time at a prestigious marketing services agency in Westport, CT. Their lives get crazier by the day.
Friday afternoon
·Sarah has picked up Zac from daycare and is back home. She needs to plan her grocery shopping list, so to keep Zac busy, she sets him in front of the computer and fires up the toy section at Amazon.com. Watching him, she chuckles, 4 years old and he’s creating his own holiday wish list. Dragging and dropping items…his total is over $10,000! Sarah uses this time to get organized. She checks the mail and remembers how her mom used to get those over-sized Val Pac mailers and store circulars. Now Sarah gets alerts on her cell phone to download new coupons in her pre-selected categories.
·The holidays are approaching and Bob is behind on his gift shopping. He’s walking down 6th avenue in New York City and wondering where he can get the best deal on a digital camera without having to pop into store after store. Bob opens the Slifter application on his cell phone and researches deals and product reviews within a 5 block radius. Bob’s turned 6th avenue into the main aisle of an electronics store.
Friday afternoon is turning to Friday evening
·Bob is rushing to Grand Central Station to catch his train. He gets a call from Sarah with a plea to pick up some dinner. Wanting to avoid the after work lines, and trying to eat healthy before the holidays, Bob goes to his favorite sandwich chain’s WAP site and places his order right from his phone. He’s pretty sure Sarah likes Banana Peppers.
Its Saturday morning and the family is up early.
·Bob and Zac decide its time for a little video gaming. They fire up the console and a welcome reminder tells them they have earned enough loyalty points to download a free, new adventure for their favorite game – Life is good!
·Sarah still needs to do her grocery shopping. She goes to her iKan unit in the kitchen and reviews her personalized, recommended shopping list based on purchase history. She presses the Buy Now button to have her groceries delivered. Check one chore off the list!
·Bob decides to go to the local electronics store. He’s shopping for a Tablet to go with his new digital camera. When he comes to the aisle the screen on his cart instantly changes with a list of Tablet suggestions personalized based on his previous purchases. The loyalty card in his wallet is embedded with an RFID tag, so he’s greeted by a sales associate ready to answer questions. The sales associate uses the screen on his chart to pull up the chain’s custom social networking site so Bob can check out consumer reviews.
·Sarah decides its time to do a little holiday shopping for herself. With Zac in tow, she heads out to her local department store. In the dressing room she uses the virtual shopping assistant to see what her outfit would look like with different color matches. She goes with Fuchsia on Black.
Sunday night, Bob gets a text from his boss
·Bob still can’t believe his boss is making him travel last minute! He’s racing to catch the flight and instead of stopping at a kiosk to print his boarding pass, he simply shows the QR code on his phone at security. This leaves him enough time to go to the self-service kiosk at the gate and download a movie for the flight to his laptop in under a minute.
·Sarah, missing Bob, thumbs through an Esquire Magazine for gift ideas for Bob. She comes across a Ralph Lauren Ad for a Cashmere Sweater and special offer. She scans the QR code on the page with her cell phone to get more details before she decides to make the purchase.
•Zac, missing daddy, grabs a photo from The Target Shutterfly site and posts it to Daddy’s Facebook page
These are just a few of the touch points that marketers can use to drive incremental sales with Bob, Sarah, and Zac. Technology makes their shopping experience more intuitive, personalized, convenient, which drives a stronger value proposition overall for shoppers.
As demonstrated by this family, technology has dramatically accelerated the sophistication and variety of shopper touch points. This will become more pervasive over the next 5-10 years. Availability and adoption will increase and scale will drive implementation costs down. Shoppers will have access to products and services anytime and anywhere.
Because nothing will get the girls knocking down the door to jump your bones like the scent of freshly flame-broiled beef.
Burger King has released its own fragrance: Flame. For when you want that just-got-off-the-night-shift fast food employee smell. Irresistible.
Of course, this works as a formidable PR stunt. But will anyone buy it in its undoubtedly short lived life?
We have all been under the gun to launch a new site... and realized in final testing that things are looking stellar in one browser but nothing like what you designed in another. And those last minute panic questions of "what happened" and "why" start to run through your head. There may be an explaination... beyond that of the "it's the client firewall!" Curious? Read on...
Apparently, some of us have "deformed" ears. In other words, we complain about the iPod ear buds' failure to properly fit into our cartilage. Well, lookey here.
So, it's sound that's actually conducted through the bones of your ears, leaving the eardrum open to hear all the background noise. Clever, but kind of pointless at the same time...
We simply had to make the first post of the week one that honors Paul Newman and the more than $250 million dollars in profits from the Newman's Own line donated to charities. A truly remakable man, remarkable cause, remarkabe products and a remarkable website that I referred to many times as best in class for staying true to the voice of a brand and for pushing a brand to a higher emotional ground.
I encourage everyone to visit newmansown.com
Although the main site is unavailable due to heavy traffic there is a simple page live that has a wonderful retrospective video thats well worth the 4 minutes to seel
For the Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good WE SALUTE YOU!
Whole Foods has followed the trend of retailers relaunching their web-site to add more value to the consumers and enhance the shopper experience.
Secet Ingredient Videos & Podcasts, store locaters, store specials and a huge assortment of recipes with new search tool,high impact photography and flash as wells as social apps (rate and post recipes and freshly picked blogs).
Check it out at
wholefoods.com
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