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The Wine Connection: iPhone Application Uses Image Recognition (Red Herring)
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Posted: 12/01/2010
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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.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer
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Call Me Social: Zingaya Hooks Up Twitter To Telephone (Red Herring)
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Posted: 12/01/2010
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Ever get the feeling that there’s more to a post than ‘tweets’ the eye? For those tweets that deserve a little elaboration, UK-based VoIp startup Zingaya recently unveiled a new social media application that allows Twitter followers to call the tweeter to get the inside scoop. The service, called zin.to elevates Twitter feeds to conversation status. The company also offers a VoIP service that enables voice calls through any computer right from a web page via a microphone. “Zin.to can be a very powerful tool for businesses,” the company explains on its website. "For example, company can send promotional offers to its followers asking them to call within a certain time to get an additional discount or to win a prize.” It's only available in the US currently but will likely expand as the company develops this capability. While call forwarding is eventually based on purchased credits, the first 30 minutes of the call forwarding service is free. Those looking for a more cost-effective solution with unlimited options can simply use their Skype user name.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
North America
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
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The Ultimate Question: To Optimize For Mobile Or Build An Application? (Marketing Vox)
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Posted: 11/11/2010
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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.
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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
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Clearasil’s Secrets & Science Of Looking Awesome (B&T)
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Posted: 11/11/2010
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Achieving clear, radiant skin is the ultimate goal from the onset of adolescence into maturity. Now, Reckitt Benckiser’s Clearasil brand has launched a new website to promote its new ‘Secrets & Science of Looking Awesome’ brand positioning. The Website uses an online magazine to offer practical advice based on user generated content and integrates social media into the campaign by prompting users to share links and “iLike” via Facebook. “The 11 - 24 target market for Clearasil is going through life changing landmarks and with the new online platform we’ve designed and developed for them, Clearasil is acknowledging the journey and forming a deeper bond with the brand’s users,” said Tim O’Neill, joint managing director of Reactive, the digital agency that launched the campaign.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Creative & Design,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
North America,
Europe
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
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Stamped And Delivered: Send Gifts And Goods Using E-Mail Addresses (BBC Business News)
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Posted: 11/11/2010
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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.
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Industry:
Retail & Products
Topic:
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Technology Implementation
Region:
North America,
Europe
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
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Filtering The Noise: Discovery Personalizes The Online Experience (Tech News World)
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Posted: 11/11/2010
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The internet abounds with buzzwords. Now, there’s new buzz about “discovery,” the real-time aggregation and personalization of content as it is applied to an online experience. Take Amazon for example, an online retailer that makes purchasing recommendations based on your past buying behavior and others that match your browsing and purchasing habits. True discovery, however, elevates this concept to the next level: It will tie together what you have liked, purchased, viewed, discussed, and browsed, into a real-time aggregator that provides recommendations on any category of your choosing. For discovery to be completely revolutionary, it must have both an online and mobile interface. From websites like Yelp to smartphone applications like mobile GPS, several discovery platforms are in the works, including Ping, a music discovery engine launched by Steve Jobs in September.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Content Strategy,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
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The Virtual Dressing Room (CNET News)
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Posted: 10/27/2010
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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.
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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
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Motricity Delivers User-Preferred Content On-the-Go (CIO Magazine)
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Posted: 10/27/2010
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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.
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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
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Diaspora Code Released Publicly; May Improve Framework For Businesses (CIO Magazine)
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Posted: 10/27/2010
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A new project, called Diaspora, was recently released to public developers in hopes of bringing the project to fruition as a new social network – defined by community – that promises “the benefits of Facebook without the privacy concerns.” The project’s creators are at a standstill, stating, "We began the summer a list of technologies, and a few bold claims and the goal to make an intrinsically more private social network. The overwhelming response that we elicited made us realize that technology wouldn't be enough." The Diaspora project could prove useful in providing businesses with a framework for implementing proprietary, internal social networks without running the risk of divulging trade secrets or sensitive materials. With the goal to integrate Diaspora into Facebook, businesses also won’t have to sacrifice giving up the social network’s huge audience.
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Industry:
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
Creative & Design,
Experience & Interaction,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
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InterContinental Hotels Group Offers Hospitality With A Technical Twist (InformationWeek)
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Posted: 10/14/2010
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It’s easy to chalk IHG's, InterContinental Hotels Group, ubiquitous success up to one thing: customer loyalty. Tom Conophy, IHG's CIO, said the company’s core focus is on making customers "the center of our universe," and customer loyalty is vital to growth in the hospitality industry. The ever-growing hotel group, which owns seven hotel chains, including Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, and InterContinental Hotels, keeps its guest doors swinging by making business intelligence one of their core competencies. 200 million guest profiles currently occupy the company’s 25 TB database, with detailed information on 43 million loyalty plan members. The company currently receives 30 million availability requests per day, supported by its own proprietary search technology, the Bottom-Up Optimum Search Strategy(BOSS). "Search is the killer app for us," Conophy says, and with IHG’s iPhone app as the industry’s most downloaded, adding mobility is another success factor with a concept the group has named “Virtually Me.”
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
Creative & Design,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer
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We cut through the clutter of the web to highlight innovation and forward-thinking. The best stories from leading publications – hand selected and organized to provide you a single point of access.
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