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Been meaning to post this for a while... clever

UNIQLO LUCKY SWITCH from HN on Vimeo.

Facebook Poised to Take Geo-Networking Mainstream

Wow... been so lazy/busy that i've not posted anything for ages .Anyway going to to try get back into things with this from Adage:

Geo-location and making the real world interactive have long been personal favourite topics of mine, and with this little move from facebook it seems like it's all about to kick off big time. Which while i'm happy about that, i'm kinda pissed (but not surprised) that facebook is making a play here... do they really have to be EVERYTHING on the web?! I'm kinda fond of my geo-location stuff being on nice, not-evil, foursquare

Social Site Announces Location-Based Functionality, Marketers Eager to Leverage 'Check-Ins' Look for Scale

by Michael Learmonth and Emily Bryson York
Published: May 10, 2010

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- This could -- finally -- be the year of mobile marketing. But not exactly in the ways first predicted.

The combination of location and social networking -- once confined to tiny players like Foursquare, Gowalla, MyTown, Whrrl, Loopt and others -- is about to get massive scale in the form of Facebook, which as of last month had 450 million users and is adding a million new users each day.

MAC ATTACK: Facebook is building a location-based functionality that lets users 'check in' at restaurants and share menus with friends.

Facebook is expected to launch location-based functionality as soon as May, according to an exec with knowledge of Facebook's plans. Marketers will be allowed in soon after.

Related Stories

Facebook to Add Location This Month, Integrate Brands Later

Marketers Line Up to Try New Updates That Allow Users to Share Their Whereabouts

Last week Ad Age reported that McDonald's is building a location-based functionality with Facebook that will allow users to "check-in" at restaurants and share menu items with friends. That campaign is expected to be rolled out some time after the consumer launch, when Facebook integrates brands into the system.

The social impact of including a physical location in a virtual sharing app is immense; so is the marketing application as brands are then able to turn their physical locations into media channels connected to real people across Facebook's social graph.

"People talk about location-based advertising, but location removes the need for advertising," said Seth Goldstein, co-founder of SocialMedia.com. "If you know where the consumer is, and that she is physically touching your brand, then you do not need to rely upon traditional mass-media channels to reach her."

Mr. Goldstein sees marketers adding location as a key part of the value exchange with consumers. A store could, for example, offer free Wi-Fi to patrons who share their location to their friends.

McDonald's declined to comment on its Facebook plans, but one can imagine it could allow users who "check-in" the ability to share an offer or promo, as well as their location, with their social connections.

Jumping on bandwagon
Brands quickly recognized the power of location-aware social networks, and Pepsi, Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks, Bravo, Warner Bros. and others jumped on the bandwagon and did deals with Foursquare.

But location-based marketing is very much in an experimental phase, mostly because the medium is tiny. Foursquare just signed up its millionth user, for example; MyTown has 2 million; Loopt has 3.5 million; and Gowalla still under a million. For a marketer that needs to reach hundreds of millions daily, geolocation social apps just can't provide the scale yet.

"Today no one can do location-based social marketing at scale other than potentially Facebook, should they release something," said Mike Lazerow, CEO of Buddy Media.

But with the proliferation of smartphones and location-aware networks -- including Facebook -- lots of marketers are betting that the sharing of physical location is about to become as natural and ubiquitous as a status update. Indeed, where you are could become the most valuable part of social networking. See a friend is having a coffee down the street? Why not join him?

Budgets devoted to this kind of marketing are tiny, just like social media budgets were a few years ago. But unlike some other recent social phenomenon -- take Twitter, or even Facebook itself -- it didn't take marketers long at all to figure out that the marketing potential is immense.

"We're always looking for the next big thing that isn't just a passing fad, but a viable wave in consumer behavior," said Chris Fuller, emerging media director at Pizza Hut. "Geolocation services appear to be just that." Pizza Hut built a Facebook ordering platform in 2008.

But the greatest opportunity for geolocation apps could be for local businesses, for which scale is less important than reaching the right people to generate foot traffic. "This will be the biggest thing to happen to local businesses since paid search," said Ian Schafer, CEO of DeepFocus, which just launched specialty practice GEOFocus. "It enables people to move in flocks or herds; you create waves of people."

Boon to local businesses
Some local businesses are catering to their Foursquare "mayors" with offers and special services. The Scholastic Store in New York is offering visitors 10% off any purchase, just for checking in while visiting.

Facebook, incidentally, has a self-serve ad platform created for small advertisers, the types most likely to benefit from location-based services.

Still, some wonder if this could be too much. Facebook is a platform that allows people to share their lives, and it makes sense that location would become part of that. But each feature Facebook adds -- such as its recent Open Graph function, which brings its social graph to third-party sites -- brings pushback from users, mostly in the form of privacy concerns.

"Being fully connected and available 24/7 to all your peeps and tweets may not be as healthy as it seems," said Scott Bedbury, CEO of BrandStream. "Not being available, being off the grid and being fully present in whatever moment you're in, and with whoever is with you, is my measure of 'engagement.'"

Future of mobile commerce, in a skinny vanilla latte?

Thanks CNET for this on an iphone app that's actually useful:

Your decaf caramel macchiatos and no-whip pumpkin spice lattes are going mobile.

In a double-shot launch (sorry), coffee giant Starbucks unveiled late Tuesday its first two iPhone apps. The first one, called MyStarbucks, is a no-brainer: you can use the phone's GPS capability to find nearby stores (previously, this was available via text message), search ingredient and calorie information for Starbucks beverages, study coffee bean varieties, and build virtual drinks to see what exactly would be in one if you ordered it.

But it's the second app, called Starbucks Card Mobile, that could be worth a double-take. The app allows for balance check and refilling of Starbucks gift cards, which the company has expanded into a customer loyalty program by offering discounts, free refills, and two hours of free Wi-Fi to cardholders. And in two experimental test markets, the Starbucks Card Mobile application can use a barcode to replace the plastic gift card altogether.

As far as mobile e-commerce is concerned, this could be a big deal.

Mobile retail promotions, from text-message codes to redeem for free drinks to the nascent pop-up deals in geolocation app Foursquare, are nothing new. And mobile payments are commonplace in countries like Japan and South Korea. In the U.S., they haven't caught on yet. But having a ubiquitous national retailer like Starbucks in the game could change this.

The barcode-based electronic gift card from the new Starbucks iPhone app.

(Credit: Starbucks)

"We're really venturing into new waters in terms of mobile payment," Stephen Gillett, senior vice president of digital ventures at Starbucks, said regarding the Starbucks Card Mobile app.

"The mobile app is really the powering of some of our most frequently used functions on (the Starbucks card's Web site) and our in-store activity in terms of balance and payment and favorite orders," Gillett said. The app was developed internally with some help from third-party companies like mobile billing start-up mFoundry, he said.

Unless you're geographically very lucky, you won't be able to pay for a venti frappuccino with your iPhone just yet. Only 16 Starbucks outlets, eight in its home turf of Seattle and eight in Silicon Valley, can currently handle the barcode-based gift cards. These are stores already internally designated as test spots for new Starbucks technology, Gillett said.

"In some of these Seattle stores we've tested store manager laptops, allowing them to get instant messaging, full access to e-mail, and conferencing," he said. "These are some of the stores that got the new AT&T Wi-Fi earlier."

As a result, that means the integration process may be smoother for the test stores than it would be for a random Starbucks elsewhere in the country. "The store employees are used to getting new kinds of technology, new kinds of services earlier than most markets," Gillett said.

Estimates vary on just how big the U.S. gift card industry is, but according to the Federal Reserve, it's certainly well into the billions and continues to grow. As for Starbucks, already one in seven transactions at the coffee chain involves its array of gift and loyalty cards, Gillett says. "We see a significant amount of our traffic represented by loyalty cards of some sort," he said.

And eliminating that need for a physical gift card is a pretty obvious next step, especially if you've ever spent any time fishing around for one in a handbag.

The question is whether a new concept like barcode-based gift cards can easily scale to a chain as widespread as Starbucks. Mobile barcode systems have typically been rolled out in far smaller contexts--short-term advertising campaigns, for example, or companies with far smaller reach such as Equinox, a high-end gym in a handful of U.S. cities that recently began letting members check in with an iPhone-based barcode. And while Starbucks has been battered by the recession and has closed several hundred stores in the U.S., it still operates or licenses over 10,000 outlets in the U.S. and thousands more overseas.

So Starbucks is taking a slow approach to mobile payment testing, which means that customers outside of Silicon Valley and Seattle might not be seeing it any time soon.

"We're really working on getting that (customer) feedback before we put any long-term plans in future markets," Gillett said. "This really is a consumer-driven app in so many ways. This is an app that we need the customer experience to have a very strong influence on."

He was equally mum om whether Starbucks Card Mobile will offer advance mobile ordering options or other potential features. "Again, we're really looking to this app hitting the real world before we lock in future functionalities," Gillett said.

The same goes for taking the app beyond Apple's handset. Apple and Starbucks have a years-long and complicated history encompassing both iTunes and AT&T wireless service, but a mobile payment option ideally wouldn't be restricted to the iPhone.

"We are definitely interested in non-iPhone based platforms, particularly Windows and Android and BlackBerry," Gillett said. "But at this point we're just really focused on the launch for this."

FREE via twitter

Thanks Mashable for sharing this twitter based free stuff finder

Finding Free Stuff via Twitter Just Became Really Easy

August 29th, 2009 | by Ben Parr14 Comments

Doesn’t it just feel great when you get stuff for free? Free t-shirts? I’ll take five. A contest to win a Macbook? I’m game. There’s even an eBay for free stuff now.

Still, finding free stuff is tough because it isn’t easy to find all the great free offers on the web. More and more though, people have turned to Twitter () to help me find those deals. Many (myself included) have saved a bundle on quality clothing and free giveaways. But Freezly looks to be the coolest and most efficient way to find free stuff yet, and its discovery algorithm is powered by tweets.

Freezly is a lot like Tweetmeme () in that it finds link and tweets and shows you their popularity based on retweets. Freezly though only picks up free giveaways and items with its algorithm. You can see the hottest free deals being shared on Twitter, the most recent deals Freezly has found, and an archive of past giveaways.

Mashup, app based promo - Day in the cloud

Really nice work from Virgin America and Goolge - use google apps to solve the problems and gain altitude. And it's hard!

http://www.dayinthecloud.com/#

KFC's reinvention plans

Thanks Mashable

KFC has put a lot of marketing muscle behind their new “Kentucky Grilled Chicken,” most notably with the free meal giveaway by Oprah. While that campaign generated enormous online buzz – some of it rather unfavorable as stores refused to honor the coupons – the chicken chain is now turning its attention to social media.

Specifically, KFC has launched a promotion on MySpace (), where the user that submits the best video ad for the brand will both star in an upcoming TV ad campaign and receive a lifetime supply of chicken. KFC will then pick three finalists, and users will get to vote for the winner. How much is a lifetime’s supply of chicken you ask? According to Brand Republic, KFC will be on the hook for around $16,000 USD, or roughly 2,600 two-piece meals.

KFC’s broader strategy, however, is called “unthinkfc,” and features its own website, as well as a presence on Twitter (), YouTube (), and Facebook (), where the company has amassed nearly 200,000 fans. There are also games – like uploading your own “chicken dance” and a “custom grillz” (get it?) application for iPhone.

Ultimately, KFC appears to be a company trying to re-invent itself somewhat, and they’ve setup a well rounded campaign that can certainly generate buzz if executed well. On the other hand, for fans to enthusiastically endorse KFC and participate, the in-store experience will also have to win them over. Having yet to sample the colonel’s grilled chicken, I can’t speak to how they’re doing, but given the clumsy Oprah launch, it would seem the company still has a ways to go.

Every brand is celebrating an anniversary...

As Melissa pointed out at the beginning of the week, it would seem that every brand in the US is celebrating it's anniversary... Have a look-see at these examples she picked out for us:

Maccas:ttp://profile.myspace.com/index.cfmfuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=386269716
Nike “Courage” article: http://adage.com/article?article_id=129723
Nike Courage website: http://www.nike.com/nikeos/p/nike/en_US/courage
Chupa Chups: http://www.chupachups.com/en/
Breast cancer awareness: http://comunicadores.info/2008/07/20/caixa-de-cd-duplo-para-prevencao-do-cancer-de-mama/
And one from Simon for Converse:http://www.brandrepublic.com/Discipline/Creative/54818/converse-paper-dolls-anomaly-new-york/

Pot Noodle - the musical

Thanks to Gerry for sharing the musical love, found at The Guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jul/21/advertising

Now it's Pot Noodle: The Musical

The world of Pot Noodle, a brand that made a virtue of the catchphrase "slag of all snacks", is to be turned into a musical comedy at this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Pot Noodle's ad agency Mother London has been developing a stage production - Pot Noodle: The Musical - based on some of the creative concepts used in advertising the snack in recent years and aims to dish up a "smorgasbord of comedy".

The show is set in the "idyllic all-singing, all-dancing Pot Noodle factory", where workers "pluck Pot Noodles fresh from trees, bottle feed and show them a whole heap of tender loving care".

It follows the story of the hero Steve, who tries to woo Sandie and overthrow the "bloated overlord" of the Pot Noodle factory, Allan Little, who has killed his brother in a bid to siphon off money to "spend on fast cars and loose women of virtue".

Little has a "beastly asthma suffering henchman" called Flick Ferdinando.

The show, which will run at the Assembly in Edinburgh from July 31 to August 25, has drawn creatively on the songs and themes that have run through Mother's recent un-PC Pot Noodle TV campaigns.

In the musical Digger, who has just fled from his wedding, and the hero Steve walk down the street singing the "Pact song" from the Pot Noodle ad about never putting a woman before mates.

"We can stay up late till dawn, watching classic vintage porn," the duo sing. "We can scratch our balls with pride, our man breasts don't need to hide."

The idea of a benevolent Pot Noodle world first appeared with a TV campaign featuring a fictitious Welsh town of noodle miners.

And the irreverent songs that will feature in the Fringe production have come from the recent "Pot Noodle says" ad campaign.

The campaign also featured two crooners spoofing Meatloaf's Bat out of Hell and a 1980s power ballad with lines praying for women to be "easy, simple and hassle-free" like the snack.

Mother is no stranger to extending brands beyond traditional TV advertising. Earlier this year the agency produced a feature film funded by Eurostar with Shane Meadows, the award-winning director of This Is England, which won top prize at the Edinburgh Film Festival.

The film, entitled Somers Town, is named after an area near King's Cross in north London and tells of the friendship between two teenagers, one of whom is the son of an immigrant working on the new Eurostar terminal.

Burger King cooks up world's most expensive burger $190

http://adage.com/article?article_id=128056 This is a great example of PR and stunt marketing... thanks to Emma Hall and AdAge.

Is BK's $190 Burger Worthy of a King?
London Store Offers Customers VIP Dining Experience to Change Perceptions of Chain's Quality

LONDON (AdAge.com) -- The world's most-expensive burger -- at $190 a pop -- is not to be found in an exclusive Manhattan restaurant, but in a tiny branch of Burger King in West London. The $190 Burger from Burger King is available only on Thursdays at a single location in West London.

Yes, Burger King. Determined to show the world that it takes meat quality seriously, the fast-food chain is marketing a limited-edition gastronomic glory available once a week, Thursdays only, in this single location. All proceeds go to a local children's charity.

"The idea is to change perceptions by pushing the envelope to raise awareness of our ambitions," said Mark Dowding, Burger King's head of product and innovation for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. "We have emphasized the quality to create noise and interest in the market."

Flurry of publicity
Enough noise, in fact to draw a flurry of publicity in the U.K., stoked by Burger King's PR shop, Cow PR, and the curiosity of this Ad Age reporter.

With scaffolding outside and part of the entrance boarded up, the Gloucester Road branch does not inspire culinary confidence. It has been chosen because it's the nearest branch to Harrods and the wealthy people who shop there.

Inside, $190 burger customers, who have pre-ordered by telephone, are ushered through a red velvet rope and up some steps to a more upscale dining experience than the regular diners. There is crisp table linen and free-flowing 2003 Tapanappa Cabernet Shiraz from the Whalebone Vineyard in South Australia.

A free limited-edition bottle of Coca-Cola, declared by the attendant on duty to be worth $300, is presented on arrival -- as if the hope of a quick sale on eBay will make up for the price paid for the burger.

Made from Wagyu beef, topped with white truffles and Pata Negra ham (which owes its nutty flavor to the fact that the pigs are fed on acorns), the burger nestles in a bun spread with organic-white-wine-and-shallot-infused mayonnaise, plus pink Himalayan rock salt, and dusted on top with Iranian saffron. It is served with Cristal champagne onion straws (inspired by the "angry lobster" dish at David Burke & Donatella Manhattan restaurant) and a garnish of lamb's lettuce.

The customers' take
While I wait, I chat to some fellow customers. The first is Ireen Esmann, who won the burger in a newspaper competition. She shrugged, "It's a burger." Then she whispered guiltily, "It's very dry. The Pata Negra and champagne onion straws are nice, though."

Next up are two Leo Burnett employees (who preferred not to be named). They were sharing a burger on expenses, checking out the competition on behalf of client McDonald's. "The experience is terrific," they said, "and it's a unique occasion, but the presentation and the service are better than the burger -- the ingredients are good, but it's overrated."

Anna Martin and Bernard Coyle, both employees at Because, an experiential-marketing agency across the road, won an in-house competition to taste the world's most-expensive burger and were also on expense accounts. Ms. Martin said, "It's a nice combination of flavors. It's very meaty and you can taste the truffles. It's a treat and a real brand experience."

My burger arrives, beautifully presented, and I tuck in nervously. Mr. Dowding ("Call me chef," he said), is waiting to speak to me about the product that he has spent six months developing and personally prepared for me this lunchtime.

Not about the meat
Unfortunately the meat has to be cooked to U.K. Food Safety Standards at around 74 degrees Celsius (165 Fahrenheit), so it's overcooked by anyone's standards and pretty dry. Mr. Dowding acknowledges that he's more of a "medium" person. "But food safety and consumer protection are more important to us," he added.

So the meat's not perfect but you can really taste all the other stuff -- the mayonnaise, truffles and Pata Negra are something special. The bun is dry but the saffron coating is a new experience. I'm even finding myself convinced by Mr. Dowding's suggestion that "the saffron's aroma puts your nose in synch with your taste buds."

"Food to me is entertainment; the emphasis is on igniting the senses," he said. So far the chain has sold 30 of the burgers in the U.K. and plans to introduce the $190 burger in Spain and Germany, also for a limited period.

Coming next
Burger King's other big initiative in Europe this summer is the 6-Pack, which challenges KFC and Pizza Hut in the "sharing" category. The Angus 6-Pack consists of six mini-burgers set inside six rolls that are joined up so that consumers can tear off their own portions. There are three different types of burger to choose from -- plain, with cheese or cheese and bacon.

David Kisilevsky, Burger King VP-marketing, EMEA, said in a statement, "It has been developed as a new menu item that can be shared and enjoyed sociably amongst friends and family at home as well as in restaurant. With a summer jam packed full of tennis, football, the Olympics and cricket, the new 6-Pack is set to be a sporting success."

What McDonald's has planned
Rival McDonald's will not admit a similar move upmarket, but has hugely increased its appeal to the British middle classes with stylishly refurbished restaurants, healthier, better-sourced menus, and staff uniforms designed by Bruce Oldfield -- a favorite of Diana, Princess of Wales, Queen Noor of Jordan, Faye Dunaway and Angelica Huston.

The modernized restaurants, a cheerful homage to the classic Danish designer Arne Jacobsen, are showing an average sales uplift of 6%. The modernist setting, combined with organic milk, Rainforest Alliance-certified coffee, free-range eggs and "locally" sourced produce, have made the middle classes feel more comfortable at McDonald's without alienating its traditional customer base.

Aspirational eaters can also bask in the kudos of McDonald's new U.K. head of food, Mike Faers, who has worked with the Roux brothers and done time at two of Europe's most-celebrated restaurants, Le Gavroche and Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons. He is currently developing the "M," a more fanciful burger, where "the beef is the hero."

Everybody loves "Family Guy" - but do they love watching ads online?

Google in LA is experimenting with a new method of distributing original material on the web, which involves a plan to syndicate a new program by the creator of "Family Guy", Seth MacFarlane, called "Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy", using its AdSense advertising system to thousands of websites that are predetirmined to be gathering spots for Mr MacFarlane's target audience. 

Instead of placing a static ad on a Web page, Google will place a "Cavalcade" video clip. Advertising will then be incorporated into the clips in various ways.

I don't know about you, but the clips would have to be pretty freakin' hilarious for me to sit through the ads just to watch a two min clip online.

Thanks to the NY Times for this post. To read more, visit:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/business/30google.html?_r=1&th=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&emc=th&adxnnlx=1214874203-XpPyo0ZQXLn5mY3x5XVnjw

Give real gifts on facebook

Contagious 25/02/2008 00:00:00

Obviously a stunning idea, but the problem with this in a market like Australia is the gaping break in the chain between mobile and POS. In store scanners that can read mobile vouchers are the holy grail here, but until they come along there are many ways to overcome the gap. We just need to convince our clients of the immense value in linking the most ubiquitous device directly with the till...

What do a blank piece of paper, a cow bell, a rock and a slightly crumpled jock-strap have in common? Answer - they are all examples of gifts which can be bought and exchanged on Facebook. Now in fear of sounding cynical, we can think of a few better ways to spend $1, or 50p than on a virtual lump of granite - unless of course it was to throw at the individual who thought of it in the first place. However, what does 50p buy you in the real world? A newspaper? A pint of milk? How about a Mars Bar? Now you're talking... Cue The Light Agency and their multi-award winning M BAR GO platform...

Mars Snackfood UK has become one of the first marketers to utilise the new 'Celebrate' application, which allows Facebook users to exchange real-world gifts as they would any other virtual pressie. The process is simple - the user selects their choice from a variety of popular Mars snacks, pays for it using their PayPal account and then the recipient is sent a voucher ID code via SMS, which can be scanned in a shop in exchange for the chocolate bar. The platform binds together mobile phone technology, retail terminals (EPoS systems) and a campaign database managed by The Light Agency, which facilitates the redeeming of these mobile offers.

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=7774284449&ref=s

Lynette Cowen, Client Services Director for The Light Agency, told Contagious: 'With more than 50 percent of Facebook users returning to the site each day, it gives us and Mars an unprecedented reach and opportunity to build a business highly relevant to people’s lives

'Our technology is currently deployed in the PayPoint branded network which consists of over 12,500 retailers with PayPoint terminals located in their shops (including SPAR, NISA-Today’s, Texaco and thousands of independents) in all parts of the UK.Therefore, we wanted to focus on products which can be purchased within these kind of retailers, that fit with the gifting theme - that is why the synergy with Mars is perfect.Their products are leading brands; ubiquitous within the shops and perfect for gifting on Facebook.'

M BAR GO has already scooped a number of industry accolades and awards including the Real Business/O2 50 to Watch in Mobile 2007 and the Most Innovative Digital Business (Revolution Awards 2006). Will it catch on with consumers and the die-hard social networking devotees though? The Celebrate application is now live on Facebook, so the proof will indeed be in the pudding, or Mars Bar - as it would seem.