Mobile phones to inform customers of what to eat at point of purchase

This could be interesting for Weight Watchers clients or potentially even on board a P&O Cruise, recommending appropriate cocktails for each part of the ship??? Thanks AFN for this food for thought.

Mobile phones to inform customers of what to eat at point of purchase

American-based WebDiet, Inc. has created a program which provides consumers with customised meal suggestions at the point of purchase based on the needs, wants and location of the customer. It is a new smartphone-based service to help people make smarter eating choices and improve their health, according to the creators. WebDiet is the first and only service to proactively send customers specific and dynamic meal suggestions, directly to their email and mobile devices immediately before time of purchase. Meal recommendations sent throughout the day are customised to users’ diet goals, based on what they’ve already eaten and their remaining calories for the day.

WebDiet utilises wireless, GPS and smartphone technologies, including iPhones, to bring WebDiet’s unique real-time Meal-by-Meal Guidance system to the palm of the consumer’s hand. To help attain weight and health goals, meal suggestions are sent directly before meal times based on personal settings and preferences, and can be custom-configured to support restricted calorie diets, low carb, low sodium, vegetarian, kosher and more diet choices.

“WebDiet gives consumers a smart and easy way to eat better, keep track of what they eat, and get healthy — even on the go — anytime, anywhere,” said Chris Shipley, executive producer of the DEMO Conferences. “Its innovative technology integrates wireless services, GPS, location-based services (LBS) and smartphones — and the company has a profitable business model that I had not seen in this category.”

The company believes the technology is vital to provide consumers with more information about what they should be eating at a time when obesity is on the rise.”Now with fast food popularity growing and our overweight and obesity epidemic on the rise in America, helping people to eat smarter is an urgent task,” said Craig Gold, CEO and co-founder of WebDiet, Inc. “Everyone knows our health depends largely on the choices we make in what we eat, and how much we eat. Research proves that keeping track of what we eat is the best method of losing weight. WebDiet not only makes keeping track easy to do, we go a step further, giving users dynamic real-time meal recommendations based on their daily intake requirements and diet goals.”
Users can select from restaurant and chain-specific meals, standardised meals available by food type and grocery stores, meals made at home, or from The WebDiet Collection(SM) of custom meal suggestions.

The collection of options offers thousands of meal ideas that can be made at home or custom ordered from many chain restaurant and fast food outlets, allowing users to eat at their local favourites while also helping them achieve their health and diet goals, the company suggests.

WebDiet has arranged deals with some food retailers to provide discounts and a linking of the technology with electronic ordering facilities of the retailer appears to be the next step.

Mobile technology is suddenly being linked with food retail around the world, with, for example, i-phones providing a program in the US which directs consumers to suitable nearby restaurants and mobile phones being tested to house credit card information to enable in-store purchases simply with a mobile phone.

See here http://www.ausfoodnews.com.au/2008/09/10/mobile-phones-to-inform-customers-of-what-to-eat-at-point-of-purchase.html for the original post.

Is iPhone the next Ad frontier?

Thanks for Gigaom for this thought provoking article:

The iPhone Apps Store is turning out to be a hit not just for Apple, but for the dozens of others who have been selling their apps on the store. Those that have been giving away their applications for free are doing even better. And now they have a way to monetize their apps. Today, a whole gaggle of free ad-supported applications are making their debut, thanks in part to AdMob, a mobile advertising startup based in San Mateo, Calif.

The company has signed up brand-name advertisers such as Herbal Essences, Fox Searchlights’ Choke, MGMs’ College, Toshiba, CBS News, Luxor Hotel and DirecTV. These advertisements are going to be embedded into popular iPhone apps such as Tap Tap Revenge by Tapulous, Sports Tap, BubbleWrap and Loopt, in addition to other apps such as Whrrl and Moblyng that already run AdMob ads. AdMob clearly believes that there’s money to be made by embedding ads into these applications — both for them, and for the app developers.

The company claims that its new rich media ad units, which were designed for the iPhone, have hit 100 million impressions in less than a month. “The company’s new rich media ad units designed for the iPhone have been live for just over a month and now has a reach of more than 100 million impressions worldwide each month.

“Ads on the iPhone deliver strong engagement for advertisers with triple, on average, the already high click-through-rates seen on mobile,” the company claimed in a press release. If that does indeed turn out to be a sustainable metric, advertisers are likely to view as the iPhone as platform worth supporting.

I’m sure that with the availability of geo-location data, on-screen advertising can be made more relevant and thus lead to better clickthroughs. More advertising dollars on iPhone apps could encourage developers to write more apps for the platform, and that could make the platform itself more enticing to phone shoppers.

To add a dash of rationality to my own arguments, I would like to point out that my thoughts are based on data from a single month and a single company working with a handful of brand advertisers. Let’s check in a few months and see how the story unfolds.

Original post at: http://gigaom.com/2008/09/08/is-iphone-the-next-ad-frontier/

Video Content Booming

Thanks to Digital Media for this article on how online video is growing in popularity so rapidly its now legitimately competing with regular TV viewing.

Video Content Booming

Online and mobile video consumption is moving to mainstream usage patterns with around a quarter of the Australian population watching online video two or more hours a week.

According to the Consumer Video Insights research report from Pure Profile and Venture One, digital video viewing is no longer the domain of just early-adopters, with 15% of Australians watching online content on their main “television” screen.

The 18 to 24 demographic continues to lead the trend as the heaviest consumers of online video, with 30% averaging 2-4 hours per week. 62% of that segment lists music videos and clips as the content most watched followed by news, comedy, sport and TV shows.

Other content such as webcams, user-generated content and short films are also being watched, but there is no willingness to pay a premium.

The research also indicates a number of significant growth areas, particularly in mobile content as more consumers take up premium content and data packs.

Claudia Sagripanti, VentureOne director, said the Consumer Video Insights report highlights the importance of online and mobile video as a vehicle for connecting and interacting with younger demographics and increasingly the broader Australian population. But warned: “Most consumers accept the advertising supported quid pro quo but will not stomach a forced approach.” Meanwhile, consumers are increasingly turning to their mobile phones for information such as maps, TV listings and restaurant and café guides in addition to traditional services such as news, sport and weather, a survey by the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association has revealed.

Demand for location-based services such as maps on mobile phones has increased by 347% over the past year, while interest in lifestyle information has rocketed by 174%, with television listings up 93%, according to the fourth Australian Mobile Phone Lifestyle Index.

The online survey of 2000 Australians also found that 33% of respondents had purchased mobile content in the last 12 months, down on last year.

However, the number of units bought has risen with purchases of SMS alerts and games up 50%.

The top three types of content bought by mobile phone users over the past 12 months were games 43%, true tones 42% and wallpapers 33%.

The most popular content demanded by consumers in the future is digital music downloads 30%, games 27% and wallpapers 25%. Strong demanded is also expected for maps 31%, news 29% and weather 28%.

Commenting on the survey, Dr Marisa Maio Mackay, director of Research m.Net Corporation, which sponsored the survey along with Ideal Interfaces said:

“This survey indicates clear popular growth areas, such as the way that the content is purchased and shared amongst mobile users especially games, ringtones and wallpapers indicating a growing market and uptake of 3G services.” Over half of those questioned said they did not have a 3G phone, with a further 20% saying they didn¹t know if their phone was 3G.

“The mobile sector is on the cusp of an extremely exciting 12 to 18 months and our results show the growing uptake and interest in mobile technology.

We have reached a point where you are going to go beyond a group of high level users and early-adopters to the masses,” Maio Mackay added.

Visits to social networking and community service sites is still in its early stages according to the report, with 16% of respondents using their phones for this purpose with Facebook, MySpace and MSN Messenger the most popular sites.

Almost all Australian mobile phone users are creating content on their devices, with 96% having taken a photo on their phone.

Some 33% of phone users have created other content. Of those, over 70% had also created videos or music and 50% are sharing that content with MMS (63%) being the most used channel, closely followed by Bluetooth (61%).

The use of Bluetooth demonstrates a preference by consumers to avoid incurring data costs from their carrier when they share content. 55% of respondents had used content on their phones created by others, with 90% viewing photos. Those under 25 years were more likely to have created content to share with others.

http://www.digital-media.net.au/Article/Video-content-booming/203511.aspx

Six degrees of separation is now three

We all agree that the world is shrinking and with the increase in social networking sites which serve to link people with shared interests together, 6 degrees of separation may actually be a little too lenient.... This is a neat article that challenging the original theory of 6 degrees, thanks to FutureLab.

Six Degrees of Separation Is Now Three
by: Matt Rhodes

I have just read a report by O2 which looks at ‘degrees of separation‘ and shows that where once there were six degrees of separation connecting any two people on the planet, that number was now three. We are more connected than ever before, the theory goes, it is easier than ever before to build and keep a network of connections.

The original theory of six degrees of separation was developed in 197 by US psychologist Stanley Milgram. His Small World experiment choice people in three US cities (Omaha, Nebraska and Wichita) and asked them to make a connection with people in Boston, Massachusetts. They had to send a package to the target person only by sending to people they knew and asking them to send it on to people they knew. The work showed that the number of connections needed to pass the parcel to its destination was six. Thus was born the theory of six degrees of separation, which has been tested many times, including by countless people proving that they are only six degrees from actor Kevin Bacon.

Image via Wikipedia

The O2 study tried to replicate this making use of modern technology rather than the postal system. The researchers asked people selected randomly in unknown destinations across the globe. The people had some connection to their target (a shared hobby, interest, sport, music or sexuality) and it was found that on average only three degrees separated the two people. O2 give an example of the connections they studied:

One of the respondents Katrina, 27 from Brighton, is a classical musician and leads a jazz band. She was asked to make contact with a Japanese jazz singer, Natsuo Murakami, halfway across the world. She contacted her record producer in Berlin via an email. He called his opposite number in Tokyo who had a register of all jazz singers in the country. Therefore making the link from Katrina to Natsuo in three personal steps.

O2 suggest that this reduction is due to people being more connected now than ever before. I think that this may be partly the case, or at least that there are now more ways in which I can stay connected with people. Whereas in Milgram’s day I could have stayed in touch only with those people I saw regularly, wrote to or had telephone numbers for and spoke to, now it is easier for me to have many ‘friends’ and to stay in touch with them. I could meet somebody once, make contact with them on Facebook or LinkedIn and keep them in my friendship group.

So to some extent it is true that we are connected to more people now than ever before, or at least that it is easier to stay in touch with people. But I think the real reason may be the fact that the O2 study looked for connection between people who shared similar interests. We have seen before that online communties and social networks help people with similar interests to connect with each other (see post here). So not only is it easier to keep in touch with people through these online communities, but they are more likely to be people that you share a common interest or experience with. I am not surprised that two musicians can find each other with only three degrees of separation, and would expect the proliferation of issue, experience and interest online communities to mean the same closeness is felt for people with other shared experiences or interests.

So social networking and increased connectivity is making us closer, but more importantly, it is making us focus more around issues and experiences rather than locations. This is really the power of online communities and something that the report from O2 shows. Our friends and connections no longer have to be based on mere geography, but can be based on experiences and interests, shared goals and passions. I may not know the people who live on my street, but I do know people who share the same interests with me. And in the end I can probably have a more meaningful friendship based on shared interests than on mere geography. It’s good to know from this O2 study that such people are now closer to me than ever before.

Some more reading

It’s a small world, after all
More on hyperconnectivity and six - or three - degrees of separation
How hyperconnectivity really could eliminate degrees of separation
‘Six degrees of separation’ not far off: study
Six degrees of separation theory true
Microsoft prove there are just six degrees of separation between us
Reducing the six degrees of separation
Social Media Cuts Six Degrees of Separation to Three
Six Degrees Of Separation Already Cut To Three? Not Really…
Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon = Scientific Fact

Original Post: http://blog.freshnetworks.com/2008/09/six-degrees-of-separation-is-now-three/

First ever E-ink ad

In this video Adverlab has documented Esquire's E-ink newspapers and possibly the first ever E-ink ad for Ford Flex. Production costs for the e-ink insert are reportedly $8-$10 per cover.

Visit http://adverlab.blogspot.com/2008/09/esquires-e-ink-cover-and-ad-for-ford.html to read the original post thanks to Adverlab.

RFID tagging - for politicians?

In light of the RFID tag research I have been doing, I couldn't pass putting this up.

Featured in article from Zdnet former Telstra boss Phil Burgess suggested a new use for RFID.

".... I said, you know what we ought to do, is do that with pollies. As soon as you get elected you get one of these little RFID tags in your ear. You have all the promises you know, and maybe every Christmas you say: did you keep your promise or didn't you keep your promise, decide if they get coal in their sock or not," he said.

Full article: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/Politicians-need-to-be-RFID-tagged-Burgess/0,130061791,339291911,00.htm?omnRef=http://www.google.com.au/ig?hl=en

magicmirror @ Retail Solutions

From machines that read the palm of your hand instead of asking for your pin number to shoes that let an assistant know when you've picked them up. These are just some of the gadgets available to retail marketers now.

Magic mirrors are used in conjunction with RFID tags to tell you more about the garment, where it came from, who's worn it on the runway and cross selling promotions into other accessories.

The aim of these stores is to get customers off the net and back on the highstreet engaging them with a satisfying retail experience.

RSSMixer Makes Mashups Easier

Thanks Mashable for this mashup link. Great tool!

September 8, 2008 - 3:00 am PDT - by Doriano "Paisano" Carta 3 Comments

Recently launched RSS Mixer wants to make mixing and mashing up all of your RSS feeds as easy as possible. They’ve spent the last year developing a service that they hope will allow even the least technically savvy user to be able to create their own mashups without the complexity of Drupal, Microsoft Popfly or even Yahoo Pipes.

After experimenting with RSSMixer and creating several new mashups in a matter of minutes the verdict is that they have accomplished their goal. It is extremely easy to mix and mashup many RSS Feeds in no time at all. The interface is well-designed and helps make the process very simple.

If you build it they will come
Not only is it easy to create as many mixes as you want, you can also share the RSS feed that’s created for every mix that you create. People can subscribe to your mixes just as they do for other sites in their RSS reader of choice.

Getting jiggy widget
There’s also a widget feature that will allow anyone to add your mix as a gadget or widget. The four most popular types are supported: Apple Dashboard widgets, Yahoo Widgets, Vista Widgets and Google Gadgets.

Rinse, lather and repeat!

One of the nice things about RSSMixer is that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. If you see a mix that someone else has created that you like then you can actually add that mix to one of your mixes and change it up to make it your own. Within every mix you can see which RSS feeds were used by its creator.

Add-on tools
There’s a Firefox add-on tool for your toolbar that will make it easy to add any RSS feed you want to your RSSMixer account. You can also import all of your RSS feeds from your RSS reader of choice by using the OPML format.

Conclusion
If you don’t have the time or interest to learn how to use some of the more complex mashup services like Yahoo Pipes or Microsoft Popfly then RSSMixer is a no-brainer. Just copy and paste RSS Feeds and you’ll create new mixes on a single webpage with all of the information that you want to track or share with others.

Tags

mashups, News, rss, RSS Mixer