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Adidas is no stranger to the street culture scene, and their latest move seems right on target: the Adidas Urban Art Guide to Berlin is an iPhone travel guide listing Berlin’s best graffiti. Users download the application for free, giving them access to a Google map of Berlin that’s pegged with the locations of its urban art masterpieces. The map can be navigated in several ways: "Find artworks nearby" provides users with a map of art works in their immediate vicinity; "Tour guide" calls up a curated walking tour of local urban art; and "Gallery" gives users the option to browse the city's street art and then seek out their favourite pieces. Users can click on each marked location to call up images as well as information about the piece, the artist and further references. The app’s interactive elements including rating and commenting functionalities, and letting users upload their own snaps of new art, which keeps the map cutting-edge at no extra cost to Adidas. Berlin is currently the only city on the Urban Art Guide's map, but plans are underway to develop similar guides for other cities. Although a growing audience appreciates street art, few traditional guide books make any mention of it. So this is a smart move on behalf of Adidas, getting the brand straight into the hands of its target audience, while reaffirming its street credentials. Other brands—what kind of map-related content can you offer your (niche) audiences on the go? (Related: Free coffee for iPhone users at Swedish 7-Eleven — Louis Vuitton’s walking tours of Beijing, Shanghai & Hong Kong — trendwatching.com's take on mapmania.) Website: www.urbanartguide.de Spotted by: Susanna Haynie |
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We've seen several companies already that allow consumers to help sell the music of their favourite bands—with rewards each time they do—and now a new contender out of Australia is giving them a way to promote upcoming concerts as well. Music fans begin by registering for free with Posse and choosing from among the list of gigs with tickets for sale. They add the ones they like to their personal store and then put the ads or links to those concerts on their MySpace or Facebook pages, in their email signature, or on Twitter or any other website. Each time someone clicks through one of their ads or links and buys a ticket (Ticketmaster handles all sales), the consumer earns a commission of 5 percent, payable 14 days after the event has taken place. Once they've reached a level of AUD 5 or more, they can get paid into their PayPal account. Currently, Posse is open only to Australian consumers 14 and older, but we're pretty sure members of Generation C(ash) in all parts of the world will relish the opportunity to get paid for promoting the bands they already love. Still in beta, Posse says it aims to expand globally "very soon"—one to partner with in your neck of the music-loving woods? (Related: An online music store of one's own — Viral music sales through widgets — Payout time for SellaBand fans.) Website: www.posse.com |
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Hand-in-hand with the joy of being a new parent comes exhaustion and the feeling of being overwhelmed, as anyone with children can undoubtedly attest. For entrepreneurs, of course, it's a ripe opportunity, and joining the ranks of those we've already covered comes Baby Angel of New Zealand. Auckland-based Baby Angel was launched in 2007 by Rebecca Cass, a nurse with paediatric, neonatal and obstetric experience and also a mother herself. Targeting new parents who get sent home within days or even hours of delivery, Cass set out to create a service that provides all the extra care and support missing from those important first weeks at home. Baby Angel now offers a range of services including fresh food delivery, household help and in-home baby-care instruction. Everything from sweets to full meals and "pantry fillers" are available for delivery to new parents' door—dinner with dessert for a family of four or five, for example, is priced at NZD 80—while a variety of housework packages offer cleaning assistance, such as a week of help for two hours a day priced at NZD 495. Baby-care education, meanwhile—including a class just for Dads—is priced starting at NZD 360. So helpful have Baby Angel's offerings proved, in fact, that consumers have begun ordering them for other people in need of extra care as well, such as the ill and bereaved, the company says. The Lesson? No end in sight to the opportunities for comforting, nurturing and pampering services! (Related: In-hospital spa services for new moms — Concierge service for busy moms.) Website: www.babyangel.co.nz Spotted by: Margie Beattie |
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Half of all internet users enter online sweepstakes and contests each month, according to Forrester Research, yet few companies have the technical know-how to integrate such promotions with the social networks they're typically advertised on. A California startup aims to change all that, however, with a new online service that gives companies an easy way to build interactive promotions that tap into the viral capabilities they need to succeed. Most social network ads for sweepstakes, contests and giveaways take users off the social network to engage with the promotion, meaning that those promotions can't take advantage of viral features such as friend invites, activity streams and notifications. Wildfire's patent-pending technology aims to solve that problem with a self-service web application that allows corporations, small businesses, marketing agencies, bloggers and nonprofits to easily create their own attractive, branded interactive promotions and simultaneously publish them in multiple social networks. Users begin by creating a branded interactive promotion using Wildfire's easy-to-use software—available promotion formats include sweepstakes, coupon giveaways and user-generated video, photo and essay-based contests. That promotion gets simultaneously published on multiple social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo, as well as on the company's own website. Users can then engage with the promotion via a widget on the company's website or via applications within the social networks; either way, they can invite their friends with a few simple clicks and generate activity feeds that promote the brand around the globe. A Facebook fbFund winner, Wildfire is currently free but available for use by invitation only; ultimately, fees will start at USD 0.99 per campaign per day. Its technology is hosted on Amazon Web Services' fully scalable EC2 platform; customers so far have included Red Bull, Pepsi and Facebook itself. Companies that run contests or sweepstakes have twice as many fans on their sponsored social network pages as those that don't, Wildfire says. One to put to work for your own agency, blog or brand? Website: www.wildfireapp.com |
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Posting a Twitter address is easy to do online, but until now there have been few offline opportunities for consumers and businesses to recruit new Twitter followers. Jumping at the entrepreneurial opportunity, StickyTwits (@stickytwits) designs stickers featuring Twitter addresses for easy distribution in the analogue world. The idea for StickyTwits came from a signage designer and a marketing expert who wanted to stick their Twitter URLs on their cars, computers, office windows, etc. The Australian venture now sells customized stickers made from professional grade vinyl and durable ink, for AUD 14.95 per set. Each sticker pack contains 30 multicoloured customized stickers—15 large (292x50 mm) and 15 small (145x25 mm)—which come in four seasonal colour schemes: spring, summer, autumn and winter. Obviously, StickyTwits is a niche business and depends on Twitter's continued popularity. But it's a fun example of entrepreneurs latching on to the latest buzz to launch a side business on the fly. Website: www.stickytwits.com Spotted by: Doug Garske (@dhgarske) |
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While watching the coverage of the infamous Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, hair stylist Phil McCrory was struck by how rapidly otters' fur absorbed oil. He soon began testing how much oil he could absorb with the cast-off clippings from his salon, and voilà, the Oil Spill Hair Mat was created. McCrory teamed up with the environmentally-driven fiscal sponsor Matter of Trust, and set up shop in a San Francis warehouse. Following the hair mat's inception in 2000, thousands of hair salons now donate their excess hair to Matter of Trust to be recycled into absorbent mats. And with salons collecting on average one pound a day, that's a lot of hair mats. Hairdressers signing up as donors are asked to cover shipping costs, compensated by the happy knowledge that they’re helping clean up oil spills. The program also accepts other natural fibres such as dog fur from groomers, horse hair, waste wool, and even nylon stockings that can be filled with hair and used to contain spills. Not-for-profit Matter of Trust is developing other ways to reuse man-made and natural surplus, too: since launching the hair mats a few years ago, they've worked with McCrory to explore the use of hair as a natural fertiliser. While the concept might not be entirely new, its combination of eco-action and corporate generosity is definitely of the moment, as is the organisation's focus on creating green collar jobs. (Related: Garbage into gold, via worm poop.) Website: www.matteroftrust.org Spotted by: Wendy Rosenoff |
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Back in March, we featured SmartyCard, a program for kids that combines educational games with virtual and real-world rewards. Focusing on an older crowd, GradeFund offers college students the opportunity to be rewarded for academic achievement. GradeFund lets students recruit sponsors—usually friends and family—who donate money for each good grade. Participating students upload their transcripts at the end of each term and GradeFund verifies them and then collects funds from the sponsors, who can set their own criteria such as sponsoring students from their alma mater or choosing specific grade levels to sponsor. They can determine donation amounts for each grade, from as low as USD 5. GradeFund also allows employers to find students anonymously through their performance record, potentially netting students job and internship offers. So far, over 16,000 people have signed up for the program. With the cost of college increasingly difficult for students (and parents) to cover, innovative programs that provide an alternative to loans and scholarships are only going to get more popular. If you're in financial services or education, time to get involved? Website: www.gradefund.com Spotted by: Susan Johnston |
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Pop-up, recyclable and foldable hotel rooms are all familiar concepts to regular Springwise readers, so we couldn't resist sharing yet another application we recently learned about, this time in Malaysia. Located in Kuala Lumpur, 41 Berangan is an 11-room budget hotel that has made the most of its limited urban space. Nine of the hotel's variously sized rooms are a traditional style situated within the hotel building itself, but two of the rooms—what the hotel calls its courtyard rooms—are constructed from empty, 20-foot shipping containers and form a small courtyard in the empty lot outside. Each features a garden view as a result, as well as an attached bathroom and all the other amenities enjoyed in the rest of the hotel, including air conditioning, internet access, continental breakfast and 24-hour reception. Also in use at the hotel, which just opened in February, are beds of its own design based on recyclable paper pallets. Given the high cost and limited availability of space in most urban areas, using the flexibility of shipping containers to make the most of what's there is a smart approach. Expect to see this strategy popping up in other parts of the land-crunched world! Website: www.41berangan.com |
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Fantasy sports league fans already have myriad websites to choose from, but nearly all of them focus on professional players. UK-based Fantastar, on the other hand, offers a grassroots alternative that lets sports clubs create sport leagues based on their own teams, players and results. Fantastar enables sports clubs and schools to generate funds by setting up their own fantasy sport leagues and then charging friends, family and club members to register teams. Participants simply sign up with the site and then create their fantasy team by choosing from among players in their club or school. Scoring is designed to motivate and encourage players of all levels, helping them to develop their skills. Points are scored for performance and sportsmanship, for example, with rewards for those who play fair and penalties for those who don't. Fantastar currently supports hockey, football/soccer, cricket, rugby, basketball, ice hockey and handball, and is used by hundreds of clubs across 13 countries. The London Wayfarers Hockey Club, for example, recently managed to draw 170 fantasy team registrations and GBP 800 through its effort. Fantastar cofounder Rob Tong explains: “To date fantasy leagues have only been associated with professional sports but our mission is to turn this on its head. By offering a similar service to schools and clubs, we can help them raise money for new kit, equipment and even training facilities. Through ploughing money back into amateur sport we hope to ensure that sport in this country has a bright future at all levels." Indeed, Fantastar also hopes to help build interest in grassroots sports during the build-up to the 2012 Olympics. One to try out, partner with, or otherwise get involved in? Website: www.fantastar.com |
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Carsharing and carpooling are gaining ground across the world, mainly through the efforts of non-profit organisations and for-profit startups like Zipcar and Zimride. An unexpected new member of the movement is Galp Energia, Portugal’s largest oil and gas company. In March 2009, Galp Energia launched Galpshare, a carpooling platform where commuters can create a profile, specify their daily route and find others heading the same way. Users can also list their musical preferences and interests (politics, sport, business, etc.), helping them find people they’d enjoy sharing a ride with. Galpshare was created by Galp Energia as a way to promote energy efficiency, helping consumers to save money and decrease their carbon footprint. Which isn’t as counterproductive for a gas company as it may seem; most petrochemical behemoths are actively branching out into renewable energy sources and sustainable energy consumption. Galpshare’s launch was widely promoted to commuters through an ad campaign, and the service is available throughout Portugal. Big brands looking to reap the rewards of eco-bounty: have you already figured out how to help your customers be green(er)? (Related: Rewarding consumers who drive less.) Website: www.energiapositiva.pt |
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With all the uses organizations are finding for Twitter—whether it's keeping political constituents up-to-date or alerting customers to fresh bread—there's no doubt the platform is becoming increasingly prominent in the corporate world. Little surprise, then, that Pizza Hut has created an internship position to focus specifically on Twitter and other social media. Pizza Hut's new "twinternship" is a full-time, 10- to 12-week paid assignment to work with the PR team at the company's Dallas headquarters this summer. The intern will focus on new and emerging social media, including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and others, and will be given "unprecedented access" to marketing meetings, brainstorming sessions, ad shoots and special events, the company says. He or she will be expected to collect and share the insights and experiences that result, as well as any pop culture news or notable stories they come across in the social media. Creating and posting videos, conducting media outreach and assisting with national PR programs will also be part of the job, as will managing the company's new Twitter page and watching for mentions of the company in the social media. Candidates are expected to be a junior or senior in college, with fluency in social media. The deadline for application is May 3rd, and the job will begin June 1st. Besides focusing Pizza Hut's digital strategy, the twinternship position is intended to help the company connect with college students, one of its key demographics, senior PR manager Chris Fuller told PR Week. It's also apparently a sort of trial run to help Pizza Hut determine if the job warrants a full-time position. And although Pizza Hut's internship was reportedly already in the works before the Domino's YouTube disaster hit, that prank underscores the need for corporate vigilance, if nothing else. How long before every company has a dedicated twintern, tweetmaster or social-media maven...? Website: www.pizzahut.com |
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YouTube regularly spawns flash-in-the-pan celebrities, but few have managed to build a profitable business out of their exposure. Lauren Luke is a rare exception—the British self-taught make-up guru built such a loyal following with her chatty tips on how to imitate celebrity looks, that she just launched her own line of cosmetics: By Lauren Luke. In contrast to high-profile make-up artists like Bobbi Brown, Luke has true girl-next-door appeal. The former taxi dispatcher started experimenting with brightly coloured make-up in high school. While selling cosmetics on eBay as a 26-year-old single mom, Luke started making simple, unedited YouTube tutorials for her customers, which have been viewed over 40 million times since she started posting them 18 months ago. The By Lauren Luke line, sold exclusively through Luke’s website to customers in the US, Canada and Europe, features kits of hand-picked shades. Naturally, each kit comes with a video tutorial on how best to apply ‘Fierce Violets’, ‘Vintage Glams’, ‘Sultry Blues’ and ‘Luscious Greens’. Luke hopes her customers will do what she does whenever she receives new cosmetics in the mail: “chew the postman's hand off with excitement”. From her deft use of social media, to how she generously shares her skills to attract a loyal following, most seasoned entrepreneurs could learn a thing or two from Lauren Luke. Website: www.bylaurenluke.com |
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Back in 2006 we wrote about Belgian tour operator Wasteels' Club Tour program enabling amateurs to plan trips for customers and then earn a commission. Now taking the customer-made theme a step further comes YourTour—which also happens to be Belgian—which lets consumers do it all themselves. YourTour is a free, personal tour planner that uses a mathematical algorithm to automatically generate fully customized trip plans. Currently focusing on self-drive tours of France, the technology was originally developed for tourism professionals by deciZium, a spinoff company from the Faculté Polytechnique de Mons. Users begin by entering their initial criteria, including the region they'd like to visit, the dates, the type of tour, and the starting and ending points. YourTour then generates a proposed tour including hotels, activities and budget, allowing the user to choose at each step along the way whether to keep or delete any suggestion. deciZium has partnered with Lonely Planet for the suggested activities while Booking.com handles the online hotel reservations once the user is satisfied with their plan. For professional use, YourTour is accessible as a web service in ASP or in XML. More countries will soon be added to its trip-planning capabilities, the company says. While YourTour undoubtedly offers myriad benefits for DIY consumers, there are clearly also intriguing opportunities for related businesses. A hotel chain, for example, could use the technology to suggest tours built around its own hotels, as the site suggests itself; similarly, a tour operator could let clients create customized tours around its own offerings. Hospitality professionals: time to do some brainstorming! (Related: Trip planner suggests travelling music — Route planner with a wiki twist.) Website: www.yourtour.com |
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In this era of crowdsourcing and customisation, consumers are accustomed to having their say on matters large and small. Demonstrating that customer input can be applied to just about everything, a car park is giving its customers a say in how its stairwells smell. UK parking provider NCP recently adopted new technology that helps it combat the "special" smell so commonly found in parking stairwells. Gone will be the olfactory suggestion of recent unsavoury activities, replaced instead by the aroma of roses, freshly baked bread, roast chicken or some other pleasant smell. All that remains is for consumers to choose which delectable odour they'd prefer, because rather than pick one in autonomous fashion, the company is asking its customers to vote instead. So, users of four trial NCP garages—in London, Birmingham, Cardiff and Leeds—are now invited to chime in with their preferences on the company's site. The smells with the most votes will be implemented, and if the program is really successful, NCP will roll it out nationwide. Need we say more? Let the crowds have their say whenever possible, and you'll rarely go wrong; fail to do so, and you may not like what you hear! ;-) Website: www.ncp.co.uk/stairwellsmells |
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