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Archive for October, 2006

Touch Me Tender Interface

21 Oct 2006

A little while ago I received an e-mail from Stan Kravetz, the COO of KsanLab. Over at KsanLab, they’ve been developing a tactile interface that looks really slick. The ‘Touch Me Tender’ interface is a product which is designed in order to use “natural” human interaction to avoid intermediates such as menus, mouse and so on. It makes interaction more convenient and eliminates the need for any special IT education. So it opens a door for new customer experience for a broader range of users. Interesting perspective. Not ground-breaking (I’ve seen such concepts before), but I’ve never seen the ‘paint’ application as extended as it is pictured in the clip below.

Over at KsanLab, they see following applications of Touch Me Tender at the moment:

Development of interactive P.O.S. terminals those can be integrated with web projects, services and campaigns.
Entertainment at shopping malls, restaurants, airports, museums, etc.
An experiential marketing tool: a customer interacts with the product in a tactile way (selection and virtual test of make-up, clothes, furniture).

What I’m fond of is that instead of focusing on the ‘gaming market’, they’ve shifted the focus to the ‘marketing market’, and by doing so they’ve drilled a far bigger audience. [Plus it got them on this blog :)]

More info? check out www.KsanLab.com

Other slick interfaces on Marketing Thoughts:

1 Comment

Posted in Design, Interactive, Technology

How To Thank Your Customers

20 Oct 2006

I was reading the Marketing & Management Update blog and came across these simple things you can do to make your customers feel appreciated for being a customer. Interesting read. A nice collection of marketing tips and tricks here!

Thank high value customers: All customers are not created equal. An annual handwritten thank you note to your “top twenty percent” from the CEO is a smart strategy.
Thank lost customers with a private “win back” offer: A handwritten note to welcome them back, with an irresistible offer works well. Reactivating past customers is one of those forgotten fundamentals.
Thank and sell: A handwritten note with a customizable gift certificate is a proven winner and can move inventory or get a plant to capacity!
Thank with a gift: Induce reciprocity and stimulate a sale or referral! A thank you gift works wonders. Think high perceived value.
Thank and save the sale: Beat the cognitive dissonance demons by reassuring the customer. Great for any high ticket item. Offer an add-on sale while you are at it!
Thank and cross-sell: A handwritten note to tell your best customers about a new product or service, with an offer unavailable elsewhere.
Thank the non-buyer: A handwritten note to the non-buying prospect of a high ticket item can influence a sale when the prospect is ready to purchase.

Make ‘thank you’ a strategic and conscious component in your marketing program and invest in the lifetime value of the relationships you have already established. The challenge, of course, is to implement a timely and sincere thank you program at a reasonable marketing cost. At the end of the day, it’s all about direct marketing mathematics but aren’t your best customers worth a couple of bucks for you to show your sincere appreciation?

Read more stuff like this on the Marketing & Management Update blog.

1 Comment

Posted in Marketing, Tips & Tricks

Delta Airlines

20 Oct 2006

At the Mets-Cardinals baseball game recently, this sign was posted at the beginning of the line to get into the stadium. It’s an odd example of out of the blue product placement, but it’s so weird that it actually might make sense. The sign is torn out of its context because normally you only see it at the airport when you need to check in at First Class. Its meaning is to fasten passenger traffic for people who don’t carry bags, so they don’t have to line up for a security check. What I find weird about it is its ambiguous meaning: “Non Stop Lines”, that’s not quite what you want to communicate now is it? To me it seems there’s always a line then. Anyway, apparently at baseball games in the US there are security checks. Delta placed their signs there and the “no bags” line was for people who (obviously) didn’t bring any bags with them and, therefore, didn’t need to have their bags inspected by security before entering the stadium. Cross-category branding. Interesting.

Thanks for taking the picture and sending this in, Tim

1 Comment

Posted in Advertising, Marketing

Not Your Average Dictator

20 Oct 2006

This ad campaign was made for the Belgian (Flemish) weekly magazine HUMO. Incredibly popular with teens and students, the outdoor part of this campaign didn’t last very long because the edgy posters soon made their way to dorm – and bedroom walls. The babyboomers and grey-haired people called it tasteless and insulting, but like it usually goes, if there’s anything that would make something popular with the younger generation it’s the fact that an older generation gets upset about it. Over at the Mortierbrigade agency, they thought that by mixing the cultures, they could even make the “worst persons” -interpret free at will- beautiful. These four different ads were placed in print in the HUMO magazine and wild-posted by night next to the real campaign posters for politicians for the regional elections that ran in the beginning of October.

Client: Humo
Agency: mortierbrigade ( Belgium)
Head of Quarters: Veerle Devos
Creative Directors: Jens Mortier, Joost Berends, Philippe De Ceuster
Copy: Joost Berends
Art Director: Dieter Vanhoof
Strategy: Tom Himpe
Illustration: Victor Sanchez
Producer: Thierry Lambot (Print Producer)
Photographer: Frieke Janssens
Retouching: Idéal23
Media: Posters, radio

5 Comments

Posted in Advertising, Campaigns, Marketing

Delta Lloyd

20 Oct 2006

For its “Safe Click Index” campaign, Delta Lloyd ordered an outdoor at Brussels agency Happiness. Happiness placed a cage in the streets with in it the with extinction threatened ’stressed homo sapiens sapiens’. A male species of the stressed human race, busy drinking coffee and working way too hard. The message behind this outdoor: because the solutions Delta Lloyd offers to its clients, the stressed homo sapiens sapiens is going to be extincted soon. With Delta Lloyd you can rest assure it’s going to be OK. Might not be the most exciting outdoor thing you’ve ever seen, but it’s a good try.
Some pictures from the action:

Besides this outdoor, there was also a sale on eBay of a relaxing aromatic lamp. The description of the item was:

“Let heavenly aromas and a relaxing glow take you away. Forget all the doomed stock exchange messages that threaten your investments or let a new light shine on your stressed life as an investor with the ‘Delta Lloyd Safe Click Index’.”

People were invited to check out the website “www.mijn-leven-zonder-stress.be” (my-life-without-stress), a landing page (now expired) that leads you to the Delta Lloyd website.

Client: Delta Lloyd
Agency: Happiness-Brussels
Account Team: Dimitri Mundorff, Lore Peersman
Creative Directors: Karen Corrigan, Dominique van Doormaal
Creation: Mohamed Oudaha, Grégory Titeca
Media: Street marketing, Internet

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Posted in Advertising, Campaigns, Marketing

Lola, Bambi & Candy

20 Oct 2006

Announcement: “Welcome to LynxJet Planet, the flight service that takes off where other airlines end. Not only do we take you to the world’s most exotic cities, we take you to the city’s most exotic girls. Your very own Lynxjet Mostess will act as your personal Tour Guide, catering to your desires and tastes. She will also offer wise tips on how to interact and charm the local beauties. So get aboard! The next flight to Tokyo, it’s just about to leave.”

Indeed you’ve got it right, it’s time to explore a new planet!

Registering is quite easy, but it takes a while before you’re logged in and the Tokyo level is loaded. Actually, the level didn’t load at all. I’ll retry later today, but it looks promising and fun!

Update – Tokyo is Live. The gameplay isn’t all that good, however the artwork has something from “softcore manga meets pixel art” and that makes up with a cuteness factor 8. Maybe it’s my computer, but the Flash reacts really slow to the clicks. First of all you’ve got to select an avatar. Next, apparently, you’ve got to go around and meet girls. If you stand on the spot next to them, you can ask them questions. Spraying Lynx deodorant will make the flashing question bar go more slow so you can choose what to ask. If you don’t spray Lynx, chances are big you’ll screw up.

Lynxjet Planet Tokyo 2

Frankly, I don’t care about the game. I want the golden limited edition version of this deodorant. Too bad my country doesn’t have Lynx.

Check out LynxJet Planet

1 Comment

Posted in Advertising, Campaigns, Interactive, Marketing

Le Défi – Awesome

19 Oct 2006

Very Impressive stuff for Stella Artois in Canada. I really feel bad about the fact this sort of cool things are never actually done in the land where the beer is brewed. But let’s not get into the pity-lane. This stunt is absolutely incredible. It’s a giant trap, a sort of ancient machine with a lot of elements that are all connected to each other. ‘Unravel The Trap’ is written on the socle of the installation, and that’s exactly what the digital 3D version of this trap invites you to do as well. “Le Défi” is French for “The Challenge”, and that’s the least you can say about this. Stella Artois positions itself as a luxury beer beyond the borders of this country. A highly sophisticated form of alcoholic pleasure with ancient traditions. This sort of ‘traps’ were used a lot in the old days. It has something mysterious, something enigmatic. The design was influenced by the work of sculptors Jean Tinguely and Masato Tahana, as well as 1700’s clock engineer Thomas Wright.
Here are some pictures of the ambient experience outdoor:

The installation is 5 meters high & weighs more than 2 tons, the concept kicked off at at the corner of Bloor & Avenue in Toronto, and it will “tour” other major international cities. In the middle of The Trap sits a pint of Stella…

Stella Artois, Unravel The Trap 2

Stella Artois, Unravel The Trap 3

Stella Artois, Unravel The Trap 4

Stella Artois, Unravel The Trap 5

So far for the outdoor execution. Now let’s take a look at the 3D rendered version of this ‘challenge’:

This game is a game of honour. You can challenge a friend to unravel the mystery. If he fails, tradition says he’ll have to buy you a Stella. If he succeeds, the round is on you. The game consists of many challenges, all of them require quick thinking. Time is running. Can you withstand the pressure?

Play the game !

Credits:
Concept development: Christina Yu, Patrick Shing and Ryan Spelliscy, Lowe Roche Toronto, Canada
Global team at the Stella Artois headquarters in Leuven, Belgium and in Canada
Designed by Lowe Roche and Jack Morton and engineered in conjunction with HBSource in London, UK
Interactive: Lowe Tesch, Sweden

Via: SeaSpace | Glossy

1 Comment

Posted in Advertising, Campaigns, Games, Marketing

Outside The Box

18 Oct 2006

I’ve blogged this campaign when it launched on September 13th, but I just came across these ‘individual’ ads (with an English copy) and thought it’d be great to add them to the blog as well. The elections are already behind us, here in Belgium, and the political candidates are still licking their wounds and cleaning up the mess. Most of the advertising was better than the content of what the candidates actually proposed. More women got elected, less middle-aged white men, which makes the campaign featured below a succesful one. These ads were clearly made for ‘international’ distribution, because the mentioned URL in the copy doesn’t even redirect to the original site.

UPDATE: 4:42 PM : MTFR just registered and linked the domain. It should redirect to the campaign website by the end of the day when the DNS settings are adapted. ;-)