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Zappos Implements “Video Experience” (CIO Magazine)

Posted: 04/15/2010

Zappos recently launched interactive videos detailing Nike products, one of the shoe and clothing company’s largest brands. Initiated from customer queries that were best addressed visually, Zappos used software from Overlay.tv to link videos about various Nike items to its supply-chain system. Among the perks: shoppers can click on featured items to view any current promotions and find out if the product is available in stock. Customers can post video links on Facebook, upload their own videos to Zappos.com and post comments. Zappos objective is not necessarily the bottom line, but it will track stats on customer click-thrus and purchases. "The goal is to create a more pleasurable experience on our site," Kalma says. "The general philosophy is that will lead to purchases."

Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications, Retail & Products, Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Creative & Design, E-Commerce, Experience & Interaction, Marketing Communications, Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Consumer, Peer Groups & Communities

Write It. Snap it. Post it. Done. Posterous Launches Mobile App PicPosterous (Fast Company)

Posted: 09/25/2009

Touted as the simplest blogging tool to date, Posterous makes it easier for bloggers to post content to multiple accounts with just one step: by emailing post@posterous.com. Anytime users send a document or upload a photo or link, Posterous autoposts the content to any other accounts users specify, including other administered blogs and emailing posts to subscribers. Add the photoblogging app PicPosterous to the mix for yet an even easier way to upload photos and video to your sites quickly. By replacing your built-in camera app and using Apple’s in-app emailing, you snap photos continuously and post them live instead of having to wait until the end of an event. With ease and speed at the forefront of this power-tool app, this may just be the app to woo even non-experts.

Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications, Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Experience & Interaction, Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Peer Groups & Communities

Where New Technologies Emerge: The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (New Media Knowledge)

Posted: 03/18/2010

Driven by innovation, the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas again brought hot products to the forefront. A traditional showcase for new and emerging technologies and gadgets, the show provides an interactive forum for companies to reveal their latest and greatest products and services. This year, Yahoo announced a host of new partners for its Connected TV project, which aims to provide Internet service to televisions. In addition, Panasonic TV’s new built-in video camera allows customers to make Skype video calls. Andrew Lim, editor of mobile reviews site Recombu, told NMK, “It's about giving consumers better access to existing services….” Car manufacturer Ford is integrating social media into their services with its Sync MyTouch in-car Internet system, which allows on-the-go drivers to access the Web via WiFi or 3G mobile connection. CES 2010 demonstrated that once-complex technology continues to become more user-friendly.

Industry: Retail & Products, Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Experience & Interaction, Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Consumer

What's In A Name? The Term Cloud Computing Breathes New Life Into An Existing Technology (Forbes)

Posted: 08/05/2010

In an industry where fancy buzzwords abound, "cloud computing" really signifies more of a generational evolution than a new technology. While there may be some hype related to doing business "in the cloud," on-demand, internet-based computing leverages the same technology companies like Google and Amazon pioneered and perfected through trial and error. Now, companies can access even more highly evolved programs like Google App Engine and Apache Hadoop - as well as a steadily increasing list of other options - to write their own data center infrastructure applications. In a virtual world where complete computer security is always somewhat questionable, the flexible and economical strengths of cloud computing remains very attractive to corporate computing operations. The end-goal is to partner with trustworthy, security-focused services that respond to and eliminate threats as they are exposed.

Industry: Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Business Intelligence, Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business

Wharton’s Future of Advertising Project (Knowledge@Wharton)

Posted: 11/19/2009

According to Wharton School's SEI Center for Advanced Studies in Management, advertising has gone the way of the black and white television. Asking the question, “what will replace it?” Wharton’s effort is aptly named the Future of Advertising Project. Practicing what it preaches, Wharton is not only collecting case studies, data and fresh expert insight to identify best practices for the future; it is employing New Media techniques to expand its own audience. Wharton’s approach includes partnering on the launch of a new channel on Google's YouTube site called Fast.Forward. The site features short video clips called "quick perspectives" that elaborate on the future of marketing from executives, ad gurus and academic thought leaders. The project examines the creative combinations of old and new media that are defining the radical new terrain of advertising and expands it to a wider audience.

Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications, Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Business Intelligence, Content Strategy, Experience & Interaction, Marketing Communications, Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business, Business to Consumer

Watch Out iPhone – Dell’s Android Mini 3 Smartphone is Coming to China (Tech News World)

Posted: 12/17/2009

Dell is well-known for its PCs, but smartphones? That’s right. Dell’s answer to the iPhone, the new Android Mini 3, hits the global market in both China and Brazil in December with help from companies like China Mobile and Brazil’s Claro. Facing competition from a crowd of Android smartphones already on the market, Dell’s decision to focus its Mini 3’s release outside of the U.S. could prove to be a smart move. According to Gartner’s predictions, “[the Mini 3] could take the No. 2 spot in global marketshare by 2012, overtaking the iPhone.” Foreign consumers base purchasing decisions more on the brand’s name, which could position Dell to be first to market in China and Brazil. The technological goodies included in the Mini 3 are yet to be revealed. For now, consumers will have to wait until the smartphone is released.

Industry: Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services, Telecommunications
Topic: Business Intelligence, Technology Implementation
Region: Asia Pacific, South-Central America
Audience: Business to Consumer

Video Girl Barbie Goes Viral (Promo Magazine)

Posted: 09/30/2010

In true Barbie fashion, the social girl charged the virtual social world this July to build the buzz for her latest professional stint: videographer. Mattel tapped into social networks Foursquare and Twitter to launch a campaign that criss-crossed the boundaries of traditional marketing. The campaign celebrated the new Video Girl Barbie with a scavenger hunt that had fans scouring San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York to locate Barbie’s real whereabouts. The first follower to find the fashion-forward doll in each city won a Barbie Video Girl doll. “We really embraced social media as a marketing platform a year ago as part of a major campaign in support of Barbie’s 50th anniversary,” says Lauren Dougherty, director of Barbie marketing at Mattel. Barbie currently has 17,600 Twitter followers and about 440,000 likes on Facebook—more than 200,000 of those added since January. Future plans include a promotion that puts the camera in the consumers’ hands with user-generated video, as well as introducing other members of Barbie’s entourage, including Ken, onto the social platforms.

Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications, Retail & Products
Topic: Content Strategy, Creative & Design, Experience & Interaction, Marketing Communications, Technology Implementation
Region: Global, North America
Audience: Business to Consumer, Peer Groups & Communities

Turning a New Page: Penguin Demos Interactive Books For The iPad (Digital Arts)

Posted: 04/01/2010

Imagine pointing on an interactive screen to accurately reveal constellations lighting up the night sky. Penguin Books recently unveiled fantastically interactive books like this one, which uses iPad’s compass app, at the Financial Times Digital Media and Broadcasting Conference in London. Taking Apple’s ePub application beyond the traditional narrative text it is designed to support, CEO John Makinson demoed how a number of titles ranging from popular children's literature to medical textbooks could be ported for the iPad. Makinson views the iPad as an out-of-the-box approach for e-book publishers, saying that "the definition of a book itself, as we can see, is up for grabs." Extended capabilities include embedded audio, video and streaming for both “learning and leisure apps” to further strengthen “Pearson’s, the publishing powerhouse that owns both Penguin Books and The Financial Times, push into digital and online education.”

Industry: Retail & Products, Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Creative & Design, E-Commerce, Experience & Interaction, Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Consumer

Transforming Innovation: New Technology. New Speed. New Price. New Customers. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Posted: 10/08/2009

Technology continues to transform the face of innovation at breakneck speed. Where it used to take major moxie, manpower and minutes to launch comprehensive testing campaigns, the newfound ability to incorporate new Web features faster and immediately measure consumer response means companies can now achieve rapid fire results for next to nothing cost. The result? Innovation–the lifeblood of growth–is not only more efficient and cheaper, it also more accurately pinpoints behavior to identify exactly what consumers want. Sophisticated tracking systems enable businesses–from web-based companies to retailers–to exploit new information technology to conduct testing and collect meaningful consumer data to ultimately capture even more consumer spending.

Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications, Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Business Intelligence, Creative & Design, E-Commerce, Experience & Interaction, Marketing Communications, Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business, Business to Consumer

The Wine Connection: iPhone Application Uses Image Recognition (Red Herring)

Posted: 12/01/2010

Intent on increasing consumer interaction Snooth, a social site for all things wine, recently unearthed an iPhone application that gives consumers the low down about bottles of wine. All the consumer needs is a picture of the wine label to find out everything from the nearest place to find a bottle to how much it costs. Other details include reviews, similar products, and food pairing suggestions. The high tech app uses software from Canadian startup TinEye, which allows for a coded image on the wine to be taken by a photograph, despite the curved glass of the wine bottle or the mood lighting of the restaurant or winery. With 820,000 searchable wines and links to 11,000 wine merchants around the globe, the gist behind Snooth's image recognition tool is akin to QR codes, which use matrix codes to effectively marry digital and print information, bringing consumers even closer to information about the goods they consume.

Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications, Retail & Products
Topic: E-Commerce, Experience & Interaction, Marketing Communications, Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Consumer

The Virtual Dressing Room (CNET News)

Posted: 10/27/2010

Finding the right fit is often one of the most frustrating elements of shopping online. Now, with the help of a new, headless “shape-shifting robot mannequin,” shoppers don’t have to simply leave their purchases to chance. Created by Estonian start-up Fits.me, the virtual fitting room service allows customers to enter their measurements and presto! The “me”-shaped mannequin previews the coveted item in whichever styles and sizes the customer specifies. The service is being tested by retailers across Europe, including Germany's Quelle and U.K.-based Hawes & Curtis. Apparel has potential for huge e-commerce gains. "Only 8 percent of clothing is currently sold online, and Fits.me Virtual Fitting Room is the disruptive technology that will enable online apparel retailers to successfully compete with traditional brick-and-mortar clothing shops," Heikki Haldre, CEO and co-founder of Fits.me said. Initial findings are very positive with a 28 percent reduction in online apparel returns, while sales increased threefold, said Haldre.

Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications, Retail & Products, Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: E-Commerce, Experience & Interaction, Technology Implementation
Region: Global, Europe
Audience: Business to Consumer

The Ultimate Question: To Optimize For Mobile Or Build An Application? (Marketing Vox)

Posted: 11/11/2010

A report by Taptu, “The State of the Mobile Touch Web," compares mobile web and applications and reveals upcoming trends business should keep in mind. These days, with so many vendors offering touchscreen devices, it’s not just a matter of optimizing websites or mobile, but determining if the site should also be optimized for nimble navigation and rapid loading pages on mobile touchscreens. While retail and service oriented sites are the most likely to optimize for the mobile touchscreen (20% compared to 3.6%), many consumers are already demanding the technology from the sites they frequent. The report states, "With support for HTML 5 features already being rolled out in these browsers, it's getting easier and easier to create rich touch screen user experiences with the browser without having to create platform-specific apps." Google has integrated mobile browsing into its service offerings. For instance, consumers that conduct searches will now pull up relevant apps accompanying the typical search results that can be downloaded to an iPhone.

Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications, Retail & Products, Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services, Telecommunications
Topic: Content Strategy, Creative & Design, E-Commerce, Experience & Interaction, Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Consumer

The Social Factor For Online Retail (New Media Knowledge)

Posted: 03/03/2011

New Media Knowledge recently reported that social networks are responsible for directing 13 percent more traffic to online retailers than they did in 2009. “As more time is being spent on social networking sites, we are seeing retail brands tapping into the power of social media to drive online traffic and sales,” said Robin Goad, Research Director, Experian Hitwise. The competitive intelligence research company says that while Facebook, YouTube and Twitter dominate the social sphere, others sites such as Vimeo, Badoo and tumblr have increased their online traffic by 50% or more in the past year. “It is important that retailers understand which social networks their customers and potential customers are using,” Goad told NMK. What about mobile? “Successful retailers will be those that support their customers across multiple channels depending on the scenario – allowing customers to add items to wish on the go, integrating location based services to provide (opt in) special offers and discounts, mobile price comparison via photo or barcode recognition,” Goad said.

Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications, Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Business Intelligence, Content Strategy, E-Commerce, Experience & Interaction, Marketing Communications, Technology Implementation
Region: Global, Europe
Audience: Business to Consumer, Peer Groups & Communities

The New SimplicITy – Technology for the Ages (BBC Business News)

Posted: 12/17/2009

The Office for National Statistics recently reported that “6.4 million people over 65 have never used the internet.” Responding to this age-old need, a new PC was developed to make computer technology more user-friendly for the 60+ age demographic. The SimplicITy–taking its name to heart–features a mere six buttons that allow users to perform a variety of practical applications like web browsing, file creation and documenting photos. Andrew Harrop, head of public policy for charity Age Concern and Help the Aged said, "Pensioners who aren't online are missing out on... potential savings... [and] also often miss out on the best interest rates for savings accounts, not to mention the social benefits of being online.” The SimplicITy is a smart investment for seniors seeking to further open themselves to a tech-savvy world.

Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications, Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Creative & Design, Experience & Interaction, Technology Implementation
Region: Europe
Audience: Business to Consumer

The Name Game: The Web Becomes Truly Worldwide (BBC Business News)

Posted: 12/17/2009

Until now, Web addresses for other countries have only been written using the English language. Thanks to internet regulator Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), the Web just became more accessible by allowing countries to request new internationalized domain names in their own languages, including non-latin languages and scripts like Chinese. "The IDN [International Domain Names] program will encompass close to one hundred thousand characters, opening up the internet to billions of potential users around the globe," said Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of Icann. Approved in June 2008 and expected to go live in 2010, the months in between were dedicated to working out kinks in the translation system.

Industry: Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Experience & Interaction, Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Consumer

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly: Crowdsourcing Provides Answers For Online Marketers (Marketing Vox)

Posted: 07/22/2010

For marketers looking for solutions to a plethora of problems, crowdsourcing could be the answer. Marketers gain key insight while spending minimal dollars to survey the expertise of entire online communities. Still, crowdsourcing is not without limitations. Primarily, crowdsourcing is dogged by knowing how to separate the great ideas from the bad ones. To illustrate, Jez Frampton, CEO of Interbrand, tells of a creative director who tried crowdsourcing for a campaign and within 48 hours received hundreds of ideas, leaving him with the even bigger problem of how to sift through the crowd’s offerings. (via Forbes). Marketers should not be deterred, as crowdsourcing has a number of advantages, including web usability testing sites like UserTesting.com and Feedback Army, where companies post questions about their websites and testers choose which questions to answer.

Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications, Retail & Products, Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Content Strategy, Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Consumer

The Domino Effect: Popular Pizza Company Taps Into Social Marketing (ClickZ)

Posted: 09/16/2010

On the heels of a 61 percent increase in online sales in the UK and Ireland from the same period last year, Domino's is singing the praises of Facebook and Foursquare promotions. The global pizza chain credits growth in web-based sales (jumping from 26 to 33 percent this year) to its social media marketing tactics – which include cultivating a strong presence online with both a global Facebook page and individual local pages, as well as securing 531 Twitter followers and launching Foursquare’s geo-location service. "We've had nearly 10,000 check-ins since it launched from around 3,500 unique visitors," Georgina Wald, spokesperson for the London-based division, said. The company has also enjoyed recent growth in sales by turning their attention to search marketing.

Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications, Retail & Products
Topic: Business Intelligence, Content Strategy, E-Commerce, Experience & Interaction, Marketing Communications, Technology Implementation
Region: Europe
Audience: Business to Consumer, Peer Groups & Communities

Text-Happy In 2G:GupShup Offers Simple Texting Service To Millions (Forbes)

Posted: 08/19/2010

With 1.8 billion global Web users and 4.6 billion mobile phone subscribers, including multiple SIM cardholders, the reach of social media is hard to ignore. Beerud Sheth, cofounder of Webaroo, gets the message loud and clear. Text messaging via basic handset and SMS opens up a path to reach an overwhelming market of hundreds of millions, particularly in India and other parts of Asia. UK’s Portio Research expects the $100 billion market of simple texting to grow by 20% by 2014. Taking text messaging social through a service called SMS GupShup, Sheth aims to enlarge the social scope of interaction from one to one to one to many, or even many to many. Much of GupShup’s (Hindi for "chitchat") revenue comes from a feature that allows users, called publishers, to send messages to users signed up for a group. Another feature targets smaller groups for more personal communication. GupShup makes ideal sense for mass consumer products – Webaroo suggests that as many as 150 brand advertisers like Pepsico and 10,000 smaller-size enterprises like Mumbai Traffic Police are using the platform.

Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications, Retail & Products, Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services, Telecommunications
Topic: Marketing Communications, Technology Implementation
Region: Asia Pacific
Audience: Business to Consumer, Peer Groups & Communities

Surging Ahead: Companies Unveil New Cellular WiFi (Internet Evolution)

Posted: 07/03/2009

With WiFi spreading like wildfire, cellular companies can no longer ignore the technology without ignoring consumer demand for higher speeds, better coverage and performance, and low- or no-cost access. As consumers also begin to expect computer-like functionality from their cellphones, carriers like AT&T, Comcast, Qwest, Cablevision, and even Verizon, the biggest WiFi hold-out, are embracing WiFi as an important part of their strategic business plans. Recently, Qwest launched free WiFi to both consumer and enterprise customers, while T-Mobile introduced a low-cost WiFi business phone service. Consequently, Verizon will offer free service to DSL and FiOS customers as early as this summer.

Industry: Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services, Telecommunications
Topic: Experience & Interaction, Technology Implementation
Region: Global, North America
Audience: Business to Business, Business to Consumer

Strength in Numbers: Unveiling the Benefits of Eclipse (Forbes)

Posted: 05/24/2009

Faced with the increasing squeeze of a down economy, many companies are forgoing the expense of programming their own software without losing their competitive edge. The experimental Eclipse software consortium offers companies within sectors like technology, finance and insurance the opportunity to collaborate, build and share computer code. “People these days are interested in doing more with less,” says Michael Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation. With a budget of $5 million this year, the company is seeking to expand its 185 member base even further into the automotive and telecom industries. Nonmembers can take advantage of the foundation's free software library, while companies who pay dues of up to $125,000 a year get to hand-select upcoming programming projects.

Industry: Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services, Telecommunications
Topic: Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business, Peer Groups & Communities

Stamped And Delivered: Send Gifts And Goods Using E-Mail Addresses (BBC Business News)

Posted: 11/11/2010

In an age where security and privacy top the list of priorities for most, a new method of sending mail is likely to garner attention. In order to acquire goods through sites like eBay, individuals are required to provide their physical address to a stranger. Now, there are several companies offering services that depend on e-mail addresses alone to deliver the goods. While most of the companies are primarily U.S.-based, gift-giving site Parcel Genie delivers across 40 countries. To send packages, all the sender needs is a username from Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Going beyond gift-giving, the U.K.’s Send Social enables users to send and receive any type of package with a special label only partner delivery companies are capable of reading. "The only piece of information you see is the information you already know - that might be a Facebook name, a Twitter id or e-mail address," says Jonathan Grubin, head of Send Social. One such partner, Bybox, operates a network of locker boxes around the UK, and deliver box-to-box, rather than door-to-door.

Industry: Retail & Products
Topic: E-Commerce, Experience & Interaction, Technology Implementation
Region: North America, Europe
Audience: Business to Consumer, Peer Groups & Communities

Social Sampling: The Campbell Brand Joins Facebook (BrandWeek)

Posted: 08/19/2010

In an effort to grow sales of its healthy beverages and baked snacks, Campbell Soup Co. has launched a Facebook campaign to promote its new V8 V-Fusion + Tea line via social sampling. Each week through September 30, the Camden, N.J.-based maker of Chunky and Select Harvest soups will give away 1,000 free samples. Another Campbell brand, Pepperidge Farm, also launched a page to promote its new strawberry flavored Milano cookies, gaining nearly 9,000 fans in the month since its launch. Taking a cue from other big name brands – like Ford and P&G's Gillette – Campbell is incorporating more social media marketing into its overall marketing plan to drive consumption. The strategy to connect with consumers online seems to be working: In the first 24 hours, all 1,000 samples of V8 V-Fusion + Tea were gone, Campbell rep Juli Mandel Sloves said.

Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications, Retail & Products
Topic: Experience & Interaction, Marketing Communications, Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Consumer, Peer Groups & Communities

Social Media Becomes Key Tactic For Strategy Execution (Forbes)

Posted: 09/02/2010

Scores of consumers are using social media to connect, express and impact the world around them, and savvy marketers are tapping its power, too, with nearly 80% implementing the medium to bring their customers to the table rather than talk at them from the proverbial soapbox. While much of the literature highlights how companies can implement social media outside of their organizations, there is significant room to use social media as an inside strategy tool, too. Bad communication can freeze any organizational idea, especially if employees feel ostracized from the process. What better way to get the entire organization on board with a branding initiative or new program than using social media as a strategy to help organizations better talk with, rather than talk at their employees. The tool will not only help companies build and execute better strategies but build stronger employee cultures in the process.

Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications, Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Content Strategy, Experience & Interaction, Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business

Silk Drinks Up New Media for YouTube Campaign (Strategy Magazine)

Posted: 01/06/2010

Silk Soy Milk is milking a new interactive-rich media campaign to boost public perception about its products. The natural strength of the campaign centers around a newly branded YouTube channel which houses “deep link annotation,” a first for YouTube worldwide. Users stay tuned to the Silk-branded and skinned channel while they play the game, “Bust it or Believe it”. The campaign also takes advantage of a QR code-enabled print buy with Metro commuter newspaper, which gives users the opportunity to believe or bust the facts presented when they activate the embedded codes on their phones. "The whole goal here was to use new and innovative technology to engage the consumer," Robin Hassan, digital director, Starcom Mediavest Group, told MiC.

Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications, Retail & Products, Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Creative & Design, Experience & Interaction, Marketing Communications, Technology Implementation
Region: North America
Audience: Business to Consumer

Shoutlet: One-Stop-Shop For Social Media Management (Ecommerce Times)

Posted: 12/16/2010

Shoutlet’s social media management application now features CRM functionality. The app is designed to let customers monitor and manage multiple accounts and brands with additional functionality that eases the process for companies to post and monitor responses to content. Given the number of users that use social media to complain about a service or product, or get help, one of the app’s most powerful features is its collaboration component. One such collaboration feature includes the ability to tag a prospect or commenter and then forwarded it internally for someone within the organization to take care of. "Let's say a company has several customers talking about or complaining about a certain issue," President and COO Aaron Everson said. "Shoutlet can tag all of those commenters and send them to someone for follow-up or assistance." The company intends to enhance functionality even further by increasing its reach to mass influencers and adding a mobile component.

Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications, Retail & Products, Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Business Intelligence, Content Strategy, Experience & Interaction, Marketing Communications, Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business, Peer Groups & Communities

Shopping-enabled Display Ads are Blooming Success for 1-800-Flowers.com (Internet Retailer)

Posted: 08/27/2009

Success bloomed for 1-800-Flowers.com during its 2009 Mother’s Day e-commerce campaign, resulting in a 41% spike in sales per impression compared to traditional display ads. The campaign enabled consumers to purchase directly from “buy” buttons planted into display ads powered by Alvenda. According to Alvenda, consumer interaction among the ads, called Shoplets, flourished at more than 10.5 times greater than traditional banner ads. To accommodate the traffic spike and speed up response times, Alvenda shifted the bulk of the floral Shoplet campaign content over to Akamai Technologies Inc’s content management server. “We believe the majority of future online sales will happen offsite. Customers will be able to shop with brands wherever they happen to be, whether they’re on YouTube, a favorite blogger web site, or on Facebook,” says Wade Gerten, CEO of Alvenda.

Shazam! How One Company Plans To Change The Advertising Industry (.net)

Posted: 09/30/2010

Shazam CEO Andrew Fisher recently sat down with Oliver Lindberg to discuss why the company chose to charge for the popular mobile music discovery app and how the company plans to change the face of advertising as we know it. While Facebook may be the most downloaded iPhone app in the US, Shazam is Europe’s frontrunner. The app, which identifies a piece of recorded music via a mobile’s mic, tallied 50 million users across all platforms in October with the goal to double that number by the end of the year and reach 300 million users by 2015. Users are apparently willing to pay the price: the London-based start-up introduced a paid-for version of its iPhone app – Shazam Encore – with a limited free version offering five tags per month for new users. The service offers unlimited tagging, faster performance and a range of extra features such as music search and geo-location ticketing.

Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications, Retail & Products, Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services, Telecommunications
Topic: Business Intelligence, Content Strategy, E-Commerce, Experience & Interaction, Marketing Communications, Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Consumer

SaaS Hits the Sweet Spot for Business Intelligence (Intelligent Enterprise)

Posted: 10/22/2009

You’d be hard-pressed to describe a major business intelligence deployment as fast, flexible, and affordable. Which is exactly why BI service software (SaaS) is primed to change business intelligence. SaaS-based BI vendors aim to get the implementation process off the ground in days rather than the months it usually takes. Shaklee CIO, Ken Harris, views SaaS as more than a stopgap to on-premises BI software deployments. Harris deploys SaaS to stretch his small IT staff and budget by storing data in a PivotLink-hosted data warehouse and using report and query tools to evaluate the data across a network that has expanded from 50 employees to as many as 5,000 independent business people who sell Shaklee products. The cost is perfectly reasonable for small to mid-size companies with limited IT resources.

Industry: Retail & Products, Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Business Intelligence, Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business

Rice University Study: Facebook Fan Pages Excel at Niche Marketing (ClickZ)

Posted: 04/01/2010

The results are in for Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business study to determine how creating a presence on Facebook impacts businesses. The study incited an article in the March issue of the Harvard Business Review, with the study authors calling the Facebook page a qualified success for niche marketing. Rice professors collaborated with social media virgin Dessert Gallery, a local bakery and café chain in Houston. The study revealed fan pages have impact; however, mostly when targeting niche groups. First, after taking a preliminary survey, 75 out of 700 loyal customers accepted the invitation to fan Dessert Gallery’s Facebook page. Three months later, respondents completed another survey that revealed Facebook had a significant impact on their interaction with the brand. The bakery’s fans stopped by the cafe 20% more than non-fans, spending 33% more. The fan page also seemed to cultivate brand affection and loyalty.

Industry: Retail & Products
Topic: Experience & Interaction, Marketing Communications, Technology Implementation
Region: North America
Audience: Business to Consumer, Peer Groups & Communities

Retailers Dial-In To Smart Phone Shopping Trend (CRM Daily)

Posted: 01/04/2011

With one-third of mobile phone usage to be “smart” this holiday season (Nielsen), retailers are getting dialed-in to e-commerce. The 21 percent increase over last year indicates that retailers can no longer rely on independent strategy for their retail outfits, whether they are bricks-and-mortar stores, Web sites or mobile shopping channels. Heather J. Brunner, chief operating officer of Austin, Texas-based Bazaarvoice, said a phone is "just a mini-computer, and our challenge now is to transfer the Internet experience to a much smaller screen." For instance, outdoor brand Patagonia recently launched a new application that suggests similar items and price ranges while customers browse. In-store, the app will recommend complementary items based on the tag’s bar code. Companies like Neustar are working on types of “second-generation” bar codes for smart phones that are square rather than rectangular while Pronto, a company owned by New York-based IAC, plans to launch a mobile app for product price alerts.

Report Shows That B-to-B Marketers Harness the Power of Social Media (BtoB Online)

Posted: 09/11/2009

B-to-B marketers tend to dedicate a greater portion of their budgets to newer media platforms, so it’s no surprise that the report, “Harnessing the Power of Newer Media Platforms for More Effective Marketing,” shows a dramatic increase in social media among b-to-b marketers. The updated report from BtoB and the ANA (Association of National Advertisers)documents that 66% percent of marketers surveyed currently employ social media, up from 20% in 2007. An overwhelming 57% now target social media, a 42% increase over respondents two years ago. Blogging and mobile are the “newer media” tactics not currently being employed, but respondents claim they’ll begin using both in the next year. LinkedIn is chief among the social networks utilized by b-to-b marketers, while Facebook ranked highest overall. Viral video and podcasts are chalked up to be the next go-to b-to-b marketing tactic over the next year.

Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications
Topic: Business Intelligence, Experience & Interaction, Marketing Communications, Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business, Peer Groups & Communities

Pulling Klout: Website Helps Users Measure Their Social Influence (CNN Money)

Posted: 08/19/2010

Users can now discover their social “Klout” by numerical rank by inputting their Twitter name into Klout.com. The San Francisco-based social media start-up is shoring up its position to become the online standard for measuring social impact by partnering with Virgin America to offer a hand-picked group of “influencers” a free flight from San Francisco or Los Angeles to Virgin America's newest destination, Toronto. Here’s how the new type of marketing campaigns (implemented by brands like Starbucks and Cover Girl) work: (1) Users accept product offers; (2) In return, Klout requests for disclosure of the freebie; (3) Klout measures some two dozen variables, including the number of times their comments are retweeted, the size of their Twitter audience, and the influence of those followers, to come up with a numerical value and ranking on a 0-to-100 scale.

Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications, Retail & Products, Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Business Intelligence, Content Strategy, Marketing Communications, Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business, Business to Consumer, Peer Groups & Communities

Programming With Screen Shots, Not Just Code (Dr. Dobbs)

Posted: 03/04/2010

Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have developed a new system that allows one to program with screenshots. For more than three decades, the graphical user interface (GUI) has dominated computer programing, but its underlying reliance on code manipulation means it’s still relatively labor intensive for computer programmers to customize or build programs. The new system, Sikuli, enables programmers to develop programs using GUI screen shots. While it requires some knowledge of Python, the system enables even casual users to create new programs without mastering complex programming language. The user simply draws a box around the desired content, captures the screen shot and then places it appropriately into the Python code. The research team plans to present a paper entitled GUI Testing Using Computer Vision at CHI, the premier conference on human-computer interactions, where they will describe new applications of Sikuli aimed at large software development projects, both for programmers and non-programmers.

Industry: Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Experience & Interaction, Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business, Business to Consumer

Procter & Gamble Seeks E-Commerce Innovation (Internet Retailer)

Posted: 07/08/2010

Consumer favorites manufactured by Procter & Gamble are now even more available. P&G’s new retail web site offers 52 products (with more coming) for consumer purchase, including Tide detergent, Oral-B toothbrushes, and Gillette razors. Though P&G made $76.7 billion in sales in 2009, increasing those sales is not the Web site’s main goal. According to the manufacturer, the site will provide a “living learning lab for developing e-commerce innovation.” Data gathered about P&G’s online consumers will provide a better understanding of various shopping behaviors and preferences. “As big and influential as Procter & Gamble is, there is no doubt this is a sign of a broad trend with consumer goods manufacturers,” says Jim Okamura, senior partner with consulting firm J.C. Williams Group.

Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications, Retail & Products, Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Content Strategy, E-Commerce, Experience & Interaction, Marketing Communications, Technology Implementation
Region: North America
Audience: Business to Consumer

Powerade Dives Deep In YouTube Social Campaign Video

Posted: 07/08/2010

In preparation for the FIFA World Cup, Powerade will provide players sports drinks and promote the importance of rehydration through a social media campaign. The campaign is a digital, viewer-interactive video of a never-ending football game on YouTube.com. Using the "Deep Dive" technique, viewers are able to click on a player in the video and "get a glimpse of that player’s psyche, showing them what effect Powerade has on his game", according to executive creative director Juan Morales. Click-through hotspots lead viewers further into players' stories providing a deeper level of meaning to the campaign. Following the digital ad world philosophy to "fish where the fish are", Morales says it makes sense to feature the video on YouTube where the viewers already are.

Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications, Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Content Strategy, Creative & Design, Experience & Interaction, Marketing Communications, Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Consumer, Peer Groups & Communities

Opera Offers Android Users Faster, Nimbler Mini 5 Browser (InformationWeek)

Posted: 04/15/2010

The beta version of the Opera Mini 5 browser for Android is alive and well. The mobile browser features standard Opera features such as speed dial, tabbed browsing, password manager, speed and a slick design. The proxy-based browser is connected to Opera’s main servers, making it capable of remotely compressing data by up to 90% before sending it to the phone, a beneficial feature for low-bandwidth data connections. In addition to highlighting the browser’s desktop-like Web experience, initial reviews from InformationWeek blogger Eric Zeman said, “…the "killer feature," is the browser's speed. Opera Mini 5 loads Web sites dramatically faster than both the native Android browser and the Dolphin browser on both the Droid and the myTouch 3G."

Industry: Telecommunications
Topic: Experience & Interaction, Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Consumer

Opening the Line of Communication with Feedback-Form Analytics (Electronic Commerce Guide)

Posted: 02/04/2010

We’ve all heard of shopping cart abandonment. Until now, companies have had no way of knowing if this so-called digital window shopper’s syndrome was due to Web glitches or other, more personal, reasons. Kampyle is changing that by offering on-demand feedback-form analytics so companies can improve their turnover rates by learning more about their customers. The customizable forms promote open communication between customer and company by directly asking customers relevant questions to reveal why they chose not follow through with their purchases. The software also features “smart pop-ups” that can be personalized to appear when the visitor clicks off the site. Easy to implement, companies can have the service converting clicks into sales in as little as five minutes.

Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications, Retail & Products, Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Business Intelligence, Creative & Design, E-Commerce, Experience & Interaction, Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business

Online Communities Strengthen Brand Power (Chief Marketer)

Posted: 05/24/2009

No matter your product or service, building online brands means building virtual communities that cultivate customer loyalty and provide lasting value. Shaping customer experiences that allows for custom-control, targeted e-mail follow-ups and strategic communications will not only maximize the time your customers spend with your brand, it will also increase your messaging impact and build mindshare, too. It never hurts to make the experience enjoyable, too, through elements like compelling visual design, intuitive navigation and user-generated content. Take for instance, the Pen Collective, by eROI and Wacom. The group now boasts more than 3000 active members, due to the brand’s intuitive mix of tutorials, testimonials, wit and social networking to create an inimitable personal connection to the brand.

Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications, Retail & Products
Topic: Business Intelligence, Content Strategy, Experience & Interaction, Marketing Communications, Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business, Business to Consumer, Peer Groups & Communities

On-the-Go with Target’s Mobile Gift Cards (Promo Magazine)

Posted: 03/18/2010

Now, with its mobile gift card option, Target, the second-largest U.S. discount chain, makes paying with plastic old school. The retailer is letting customers use mobile phones to redeem gift cards as more consumers use phones with Internet access. Shoppers simply save the account numbers for their Target GiftCards to a PIN-protected area at either online or at the retailer's mobile-optimized site. Customers access the mobile site on their phones, enter the login and PIN for the card and complete the purchase when the cashier scans the unique 2D barcode on the display screen into Target’s P-O-S system, which has been outfitted across all 1740 Target stores nation wide. Customers can also access the mobile site to view merchandise, check product availability, manage gift registries and find locations, among other things. Other retailers like Starbucks and 7-Eleven are testing similar barcode technology to incorporate into their mobile business strategies.

Industry: Retail & Products
Topic: E-Commerce, Experience & Interaction, Technology Implementation
Region: North America
Audience: Business to Consumer

On-Demand Software Adds Flexibility to Direct Digital Marketers (Ecommerce Times)

Posted: 01/21/2010

The robustness of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) products positions them to effectively tackle emerging trends in direct digital marketing. The secret to their success? They share the same “it” factor ideals that often boost the best new businesses to the top of the rung: they are cost-effective, easy to implement and inherently scalable. On-demand products must seamlessly integrate between the three primary channels of direct digital marketing–email, mobile and Web–meaning developers must create software that is simultaneously heightened in usability and simple to implement. The bottom line is that the functionality and flexibility of SaaS and universal profile management systems enhance direct digital marketers’ own flexibility and success in their drive to leverage customer information and boost sales.

Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications, Retail & Products, Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Business Intelligence, Content Strategy, E-Commerce, Marketing Communications, Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business, Business to Consumer

New Tweet Button Simplifies Sharing (Digital Arts)

Posted: 09/16/2010

In an effort to simplify sharing and make retweeting one of its core functions, Twitter recently launched a new Tweet Button, which prompts a pop-up box allowing visitors to share a Twitter feed without leaving the site they are visiting. The feature also allows publishers to incorporate custom text into their Tweet Button box, as well as suggest other Twitter accounts to follow. "The Tweet Button will help publishers grow traffic and increase their Twitter following," reads Twitter's announcement. While TweetMeme will be phasing out its popular “retweet” service, the company plans to launch other Twitter-related services. "We have grown to more than 750 million daily retweet button impressions.... That said, the market requires an official solution that can accelerate this growth. So today Twitter is launching its own Tweet Button and we are very pleased to be partnering with them to continue to grow the overall Twitter ecosystem," reads a TweetMeme statement. CNN.com, YouTube, Time.com, Hulu and USA Today have already incorporated the function into their websites.

New Runa Software Helps Convert Customers Into Sales (Electronic Commerce Guide)

Posted: 02/04/2010

A huge challenge for e-commerce retailers is getting visitors to actually click through to purchase items. Runa, a company specializing in conversion marketing, is helping companies capture and convert Website vistors into paying customers before they abandon the process entirely. After tracking a variety of “actionable analytics” including key words, transaction history, profile information, products viewed and search patterns, Runa drums up a new dynamic sale price that evolves from the merchant’s criteria and shopper’s preferences. Price is typically the deciding factor for whether consumers follow through with transactions, so the new deal is only revealed once the shopping cart has been abandoned. Retailers can then expect to turn up to 15% of “recapture” offers into sales. Since the dynamic special offers are only revealed to visitors that abandon their carts, those paying full price from the get-go never even get wind of the deals.

Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications, Retail & Products, Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Business Intelligence, E-Commerce, Experience & Interaction, Marketing Communications, Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business

New Online Business Show Opens Up the Boardroom to “Everybody’s Business” (CRM Daily)

Posted: 07/31/2009

Microsoft is opening up the boardroom with an innovative new online show featuring Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, and his wife, Suzy to promote emerging new products and services. An extension of Microsoft’s business-to-business marketing platform and mission, the duo, who also write a weekly BusinessWeek column, will help companies like Hertz car rental company take on crucial business decisions and discover “people-ready solutions” to meet whatever business challenges are on the horizon. Co-created by reality show producer Reveille Productions (credits include the Biggest Loser) and ad agency JWT, “It's Everybody's Business” is available at http://EverybodysBusiness.msn.com. The Web site also featuring out-takes, behind-the-scenes footage and in-depth information about the issues and products discussed.

Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications, Retail & Products, Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic: Content Strategy, Creative & Design, Experience & Interaction, Marketing Communications, Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business

New Old Spice Campaign Aims To Go Viral With A Little Mystery (Fast Company)

Posted: 08/19/2010

Ad firm Wieden+Kennedy has taken a successful “Old” television ad concept viral. Old Spice, owned by Procter and Gamble, is leveraging the appeal of its TV spot star, Isaiah Mustafa, by taping 30-second YouTube videos in response to Twitter feeds. The team behind the campaign works in conjunction with technology to scan responses and identify the social influence of those responders to choose messages that will create a wow factor and perpetuate themselves throughout “virally-relevant” communities. Wieden's global interactive creative director Iain Tait asserts that rather than using a dedicated proprietary site, the campaign gets maximum exposure on YouTube, especially since the current spots are being watched and re-tweeted extensively. The ability of embedded material on YouTube to be liked, shared, favored and dispersed quickly factored into the decision for which social medium to use. Heeding the nature of the ‘want it new, want it now” internet culture, the company strives to produce the video responses in real time to the keep the content fresh, relevant to the brand and newsworthy. The content goes successfully beyond pure entertainment value to make “the connection between the content, the product and the experience of the product.”

New AT&T Applications Target Enterprise (Info World)

Posted: 12/03/2009

AT&T, the nation’s 2nd largest wireless carrier, launched new hosted applications for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile targeting the merchandising and hospitality industries: AT&T MEAP: Merchandising for the Consumer Goods Industry and AT&T MEAP: Maintenance and Repair for Hospitality. Built on its Mobile Enterprise Applications Platform, the vendor is leading the trend of offering new apps that encourage enterprises to entrench smartphone usage in their daily operations. The merchandising app allows product distributors to submit delivery data in real-time for better tracking, smarter stocking and faster billing. The hospitality app allows hotel maintenance crews to access and update work orders and service requests, report incidents and receive alerts, resulting in quicker response times and more workflow.

Industry: Retail & Products, Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services, Telecommunications
Topic: Experience & Interaction, Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business, Business to Consumer

Mozilla’s Raindrop Seeks to Personalize the In-box Again (CNET News)

Posted: 11/19/2009

E-mail no longer has the last word in online communication. Mozilla's Thunderbird team created Raindrop to consolidate communications channels like e-mail, Facebook and Twitter into a single interface intelligent enough to differentiate correspondence from the high-priority to the pedestrian, from the personal to the pile. Raindrop developers blogged, "We hope to lead and spur the development of extensible applications that help users easily and enjoyably manage their conversations, notifications, and messages across a variety of online services." The smart technology will pinpoint and file messages from e-mail lists, retailers and social media outlets that send continual updates. Unlike Mozilla’s flagship applications Firefox and Thunderbird, Raindrop is a Web application, not downloadable software, but the vendor will also support front-end software, including mobile applications, that can use the Web-based service.

Motricity Delivers User-Preferred Content On-the-Go (CIO Magazine)

Posted: 10/27/2010

Motricity recently launched mCore MobileCast, a service that allows wireless carriers and large companies to define content based on their smartphone users’ preferences. Requiring "zero touch" by the users, the cloud-based service takes a user’s location and prior usage into account before delivering audio, video, text and HTML5 content streamlined to the user’s preferences. For instance, a mobile user purchases tickets to a rock concert via a mobile device. Enter mCore MobileCast: The service ingests the concert data in combination with GPS data to disseminate auxillary information to the user, such as the concert's opening act, parking locations and even places to eat nearby. "All that information is in separate places today, but we aggregate it all up," said Jim Ryan, Motricity’s chief strategy and marketing officer. The company provides mobile infrastructure services to "hundreds of enterprises" and 10 major wireless carries, including the top four in the U.S., Ryan said.

Motorola SmartPhone Targets Social Network Crowd (Internet Evolution)

Posted: 10/22/2009

Motorola’s new smartphone, the Cliq, targets a young crowd addicted to social networking. The Cliq features a dynamic home screen with a collage of emails, tweets and status updates flashing over the sender’s profile pictures. The moderately priced Cliq, estimated to cost around $100, will be available this fall from T-Mobile. Another more expensive version will be available from Verizon. Both phones use Google’s Android operating system, but Motorola transformed the Cliq’s software to include Motoblur–the wow factor that makes the phone stand out from the crowd of Android phones expected to launch in the 2009 holiday season. Users simply supply their account information and the Internet-based service will combine all the information from a user’s e-mail and social networking accounts into one handy address book.

Industry: Telecommunications
Topic: Creative & Design, Experience & Interaction, Technology Implementation
Region: North America
Audience: Business to Consumer, Peer Groups & Communities

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall: Macy’s Magic Fitting Room (CNET News)

Posted: 12/01/2010

Looking for an interactive dress-up experience without actually taking your clothes off? Clothes shoppers had the chance to, quite literally, tap into a 21st-century shopping experience at the new Macy's Magic Fitting Room in the retail chain's New York's Herald Square flagship store. The 72-inch multi-touch screen let shoppers select clothing items like tops, dresses, bottoms, and coats and then superimpose the pieces on their reflection. Macy's hired LBi International to create the interactive mirror, heralding in a new era the company deems as “the future of retail.” The experience becomes even more interactive and social when customers share their new looks on Facebook, or via SMS or e-mail.

Industry: Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications, Retail & Products
Topic: Creative & Design, Experience & Interaction, Technology Implementation
Region: North America
Audience: Business to Consumer, Peer Groups & Communities

Mini 5 Mobile Browser Means Big Business for Opera Software (Internet Evolution)

Posted: 11/08/2009

Norway's Opera Software, the leading maker of mobile browsers, recently released Mini 5, a redesigned, more user-friendly instrument. According to John Strand, chief executive of Danish consultancy Strand Consult, “Opera Mini has been the main driver of growth for Opera.” New features are designed to simplify web surfing: like speed dial, tabs and a password manager. Statistics from StatCounter show that Opera captures 25% of global mobile internet traffic, while Apple (22%) and Nokia (21%) are close behind. Google’s recent entry into the market and Mozilla Foundation’s plans to enter soon promises to widen the playing field. Opera, which markets its browser to cell phone makers and operators, gained 22% for its shares over the first three quarters of 2009. The browser can be downloaded directly by consumers for free.

Industry: Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services, Telecommunications
Topic: Technology Implementation
Region: Global
Audience: Business to Business, Business to Consumer

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