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Sellsumers can already earn cash in exchange for wrapping their cars in ads via sites like Australian cashURwheels, but recently we came across an example in Singapore that offers a slightly different twist. Through a new carvertising campaign from local shopping magazine Chic and Chevron's Caltex gas brand, Singapore drivers can earn SGD 50 worth of gas. Consumers begin by registering their car with the GottaGetGas site, including license plate, model, colour and type of gas used. If selected, they're then invited to get an advertiser-provided decal affixed to their car at the nearest Caltex station. In exchange, they're rewarded with a SGD 50 GottaGetGas card, which can be used to buy gas at any Singapore Caltex station. Consumers are clearly motivated by cash, but a brand-sponsored reward like gas could be just as compelling while providing benefits for yet another partner in the equation. For the magazine, meanwhile, it's a nice way to connect with readers while expanding advertisers' options. A model to emulate on the roads near you...? Website: www.gottagetgas.com Spotted by: Donna Tang |
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Driven by the local food movement and the prospect of fresh eggs, more urban and suburban households are taking up small-scale backyard chicken farming. Tapping into that trend, Just Us Hens is a new Portland-based venture dedicated to tending local hens when their owners go away on holidays. Launched in May, Just Us Hens' chicken-sitting service includes twice daily visits to let the birds out and in, replenish their food and water and hose them down when the weather gets hot. In addition to their USD 15 per visit chicken-sitting, Just Us Hens also offers wing clipping and beak trimming for USD 25, and chicken farming consultations for beginners at USD 50 per hour. With around 65 percent of major US cities allowing residents to maintain small flocks of chickens in their backyards, perhaps there is a demand for expert chicken-sitting services in other poultry-permissive areas? It's (Related: Peer-to-peer petsitting service — Try-before-you-buy urban chicken farming.) Website: www.justushens.com Spotted by: CNN Money via Cecilia Biemann |
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There are myriad sites out there already that help to connect travellers—those using the same airlines, for example, or wanting to share a cab—but typically such connections are fleeting, and they aren't made until the trip is under way. Globetrooper, on the other hand, lets world travellers find like-minded companions to share a jointly planned group trip. Globetrooper is “a tool for adventurous travellers to create trips and invite people from all over the world to join them,” in the site's own words. Users of the free site can begin by browsing through the user-created trips already listed there, or they can create their own and invite friends, family and even strangers to join them. Trips listed on the site include ratings for difficulty, culture shock, remoteness and risk; they can also be shared via multiple social media. Examples currently listed include a two-month trek through the Mongolian Gobi Desert and a two-week circumnavigation of the Indian Railway network. Members who decide to join a particular trip are listed as “confirmed troopers,” while those still undecided can follow its planning progress. Numerous how-to tips are available on Globetrooper, as is a travel forum for users to exchange thoughts and share details. We've already seen plenty of mass-mingling innovations that help people meet up in the real world, but the expansion into world travel takes that “meeting up” to a whole new level. Website: www.globetrooper.com Spotted by: Ulrika |
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It seems fair to say that laundry is one of the great levelers in this life, which might explain why we've seen pop-up laundry services on so many occasions already. There are the brand butlers that offer laundry service at festivals, and there's the Method truck to facilitate the donation of clean clothes, but it wasn't until recently that we noticed Tide's Loads of Hope program. Inspired by the Hurricane Katrina disaster five years ago, Tide Loads of Hope is a mobile laundry service that provides clean clothes to families affected by disaster. Through a partnership with Feeding America and Frigidaire, the program has since washed more than 36,000 loads of laundry for some 27,000 families in many other disaster-struck communities as well, including those affected by the recent floods in Middle Tennessee and Pike County, Ky. One truck and a fleet of vans house 32 energy-efficient Frigidaire washers and dryers capable of cleaning more than 300 loads of laundry every day—staffers do it all for free, including folding the clothes afterward. Procter & Gamble's Tide detergent brand also runs a program through which it will donate USD 1 for every bottle of “Yellow Cap Tide” consumers purchase and register online. All profits from sales of its USD 20 Tide Vintage T-shirt, meanwhile, go toward helping disaster victims as well. How is *your* brand demonstrating its generosity for all the Generation G masses to see...? (Related: Donated site matches fire victims with extra beds — Donated site helps families keep their homes — Billboard-mounted dinghy makes a splash in monsoon floods.) Website: www.tideloadsofhope.com Spotted by: Jim Stewart |
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We've covered plenty of being spaces over the years, including several that target mobile warriors and nontraditional workers with a place to get something done. It wasn't until recently, however, that we came across a brand-sponsored version designed specifically for a particular category of professionals. Launched late last month, Wix Lounge is a being space for creative professionals that's equipped with workstations, wifi, comfy seating, cappuccinos and plenty of opportunities for working, networking and collaboration. The Manhattan lounge was designed and conceived by Wix, maker of a popular Flash website building tool, and there's no cost for freelance designers and other creatives to spend time there. The Wix Lounge will also host events including web design workshops, business boot camps and movie nights, the company says. Serving as a sort of B2B brand butler, the Wix Lounge is sure to win the hearts, wallets and loyalty of more than a few potential clients—far more effectively, we'd suggest, than any ad ever could. Other B2Bs the world over: how about setting up and hosting a little work nest for your own hard-working clients...? (Related: Sponsored iPhone app uses augmented reality to help road warriors find a place to work.) Website: www.wix.com/WixDemo/Lounge_2 Spotted by: Fran Wercher |
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Thousands of tents are left behind by revelers after the UK's many music festivals each year, creating a mess for festival organizers and an unsustainable burden for landfills. Inspired by the environmental implications, WiTHiNTENT salvages the fabric from those leftover tents to create rain-proof clothing and accessories for the festival market. A range of hoodies, ponchos, pac-a-macs and bags are now available from WiTHiNTENT, all of them designed and made in the UK. With a focus on the rain-protection needs of festival-goers, items are sold via stalls at the festivals themselves—including Glastonbury this summer—as well as weekly at Spitalfields Traders Market in London. Pricing ranges from GBP 10 for a WiTHiNTENT bag to GBP 55 for a zip-pocket jacket. In addition to the sustainability factor, of course, upcycling offers the added advantages of free materials for the enterprising upcycler as well as a good story for consumers to share. One to emulate at waste-producing events in your neck of the woods...? (Related: Five businesses that turn trash into appealing new products — Waste to accessories, with a charitable twist.) Website: www.withintent.co.uk Spotted by: Dan Calladine |
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The potential for digitally-enhanced games to help combat childhood obesity has already been widely recognized—witness Treasure World, LocoMatrix, Swinxs and The Hidden Park for just a few examples. Now the U.S. government has gotten involved with a contest inviting app developers to create tools and games that encourage kids to eat better and be more active. Launched in March, the USDA's Apps for Healthy Kids competition is part of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign to end childhood obesity within a generation. Toward that end, it has challenged software developers, game designers and other innovators to develop fun and engaging software tools and games that deliver nutrition and health concepts in a fun and engaging way. The submission deadline was June 30; tools and games had to be built using the USDA nutrition dataset recently made available to the public through the Open Government Initiative. All apps are now going through the judging process, with panelists including executives from Apple, Google, Zynga and LucasArts. In September, winners will be awarded a total of USD 60,000. U.S. obesity rates have tripled in the past 30 years, the USDA says, which could mean a shorter expected lifespan for today's children than their parents enjoyed. App-minded entrepreneurs: keep the fitness-focused innovations coming! (Related: Wrist device rewards kids for exercising — Volkswagen crowdsources apps for in-car info & entertainment — NYC challenges developers to create apps using city data.) Website: www.appsforhealthykids.com
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Tapping the crowd for creative input can provide a double-sided benefit for businesses: first, it unleashes a huge resource of ideas, often at little or no cost. Second, it's a powerful marketing tool, providing information about who potential customers are, and about what they like. Here are five recently spotted enterprises that make use of content from the crowd: 1. NAMING FORCE — Naming Force crowdsources name ideas for businesses, websites, and products. Clients sign up for a package of suggestions and provide a brief description of what they want named. The incentive for the community of namers is a cash prize of USD 100-500, paid by the client to the person whose idea is chosen. If the client doesn't like any of the suggestions, they're refunded the prize money. (Related: Name This.) 2. OPENFILE — Plenty of news sites carry content penned by readers, but the subjects themselves tend to be chosen by the editors. Toronto's OpenFile turns this model on its head: content is written by the site's staff, but the story suggestions come from readers. The idea is that this collaborative approach to newsgathering will uncover stories that traditional journalists might overlook, and generate content that better suits the local audience. (Related: Spot.us.) 3. HELP ME DECIDE — The makers of the Help Me Decide Facebook app argue that people trust recommendations from friends more than other advice found online. Accordingly, the app allows users to get decision-making advice from their social network. Users post a question—about anything from relationships to purchasing decisions—and then invite suggestions from people on their network. (Related: Hunch.) 4. LISTENER DRIVEN RADIO — Ohio's Listener Driven Radio makes a set of tools to help broadcasters become crowdcasters. Using LDR, a radio station's listeners can provide real-time feedback about what they're hearing—dynamically influencing the station's playlists. They can use the station's website, Twitter or mobile phones to rate songs and make requests, and this information is fed into a weighting system for the station's music library. (Related: Songza.) 5. DAN 3.0 — Taking the idea of consumers influencing what's being broadcast even further, online show Dan 3.0 launched this month. It's about a young man called Dan Brown, who for one year has allowed his audience to control his life. Viewers can submit suggestions and vote online on what they want Dan to do. Suggestions so far include writing a letter to the US president, and visiting a viewer on her birthday. Spotters: Stefan M Grimm, Jim Stewart |
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An urban campground in the Dutch city of Zwolle aims to stand out in two ways: by being sustainable and by launching as a cooperative, funded and managed by paying members. Inspired by MyFootballClub (the community-owned soccer club), Stadscamping Zwolle is enlisting people to sign up as campground shareholders. A Happy Camper membership costs EUR 35 and entitles members to two nights stay at the camp site, as well as a say in how Stadscamping will be run. Members will be able to vote on issues like site planning and sustainable power sources. The project was launched earlier this year and hopes to welcome its first guests next summer. So far, it has identified 11 potential locations, and will be hosting a camping demo at a Dutch sustainability event in November. If all goes according to plan, Stadscamping Zwolle will license its cooperative model to other towns and cities. Website: www.stadscampingzwolle.nl Spotted by: Jeroen Beekhuizen |
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We've looked at a variety of home energy monitors in recent years, including Google's offering, the attractive Wattson device and a smattering of others we recently rounded up. We couldn't resist sharing news of one more, however, primarily for its very appealing price. Belkin's Conserve Insight helps consumers monitor their energy usage by showing the true impact of various appliances and devices both financially and on the environment. Users simply plug any appliance into the Conserve Insight. Whether it's a TV, microwave or lamp, the Belkin device will show how much that device really costs each year in terms of watts, dollars and carbon dioxide. Whereas the customizable monitor is preloaded with the U.S. average electricity rate for use in calculations, users can enter their own rate from their electric bill; they can also set the CO2 emissions rate for their specific region. Equipped with a standard U.S. 3-pin wall outlet connector, Belkin's Conserve Insight is now available for preorder on Amazon.com for USD 29.99, with shipping from the California-based company expected this summer. Who will create counterparts at comparably reduced prices (and a similarly user-friendly design) for other parts of the world...? Website: www.belkin.com/conserve/insight/ |
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First we saw Gap partner with fitness chain Crunch to turn its rotating New York City concept store into a workout haven for a month. Now, sports brand Adidas is pushing the idea even further in Tokyo with a permanent store that doubles as an urban running club. Located near the Imperial Palace—an area that's already popular among the city's runners—the Adidas Runbase store is a far cry from your average sporting goods purveyor. Included in the brand-new space are 16 shower cubicles and 248 lockers for rent, for example. Also available are a broad array of cutting-edge Adidas shoes and clothing available for the borrowing, according to Weekender Japan. Expert staff are on hand to offer tips and recommendations, so runners could presumably try a different combination of goods each time they run, giving them the ultimate in try-before-you-buy purchasing confidence. While we're not too sure about the advisability of tryvertising when it comes to sneakers—the potential for health issues seems to loom large—the Runbase's real strength is surely its brand butler role. Imagine a brand that offers expert tips and product advice as well as enabling your fitness regime with a conveniently located locker room. Now take that thought and adapt it to your own helpful brand! ;-) Website: www.adirepublic.jp/runbase/ Spotted by: Weekender Japan via Dan Calladine |
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When we wrote about Australian Permablitz back in 2008, we were particularly taken by the instant urban-gardening gratification that could be achieved by the group's intense weekend “blitz” approach. Borrowing a page from Permablitz's playbook, The Crop Mob is a North Carolina-based organization through which farm-loving volunteers descend on one lucky sustainable farm for an afternoon each month and accomplish tasks it would take the farmers themselves months to do alone. On sustainable farms, work tends to be done using more manual labour than on industrial farms, where mechanized equipment and chemicals have come to be substitutes. There's obviously a high cost to that petroleum-based approach—as green-minded consumers the world over have come to realize—which is why there are growing numbers of twentysomethings taking to the land themselves, hoping to do it right. Toward that end, The Crop Mob aims to build the community necessary to practice sustainable agriculture and to make that community available to the world's future food producers. Monthly Crop Mobs have been going on in the North Carolina area since late 2008. Tasks taken on by Crop Mob teams have included building a greenhouse and removing rocks from fields; so far, the effort has contributed more than 2,000 person-hours to 20 or so farms, according to The New York Times Magazine. Many volunteer participants in Crop Mobs are apprentices or interns on sustainable farms themselves; others are experienced farmers and gardeners willing to share their knowledge with the next generation of agrarians. Either way, no money is exchanged at Crop Mob work days—rather, the hosting farm typically provides a meal for everyone. Crop Mob uses a Google Group to keep everyone informed of upcoming events, while a map displays where in the U.S. existing mobs have already been formed. For those who want to set up something similar in other parts of the world, a “Getting Started” guide is also available. Sustainable entrepreneurs: be inspired! Website: www.cropmob.org Spotted by: Judy McRae Photo by: TraceRamsey |
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For the 75 million or so people in the United States alone who sit at their desks for eight or more hours a day, work typically takes a toll on fitness. New York-based Compactix is a company that aims to change all that with a portable device that allows deskbound professionals to exercise while they work. The DeskMate attaches easily to any desk up to three inches thick. There, sedentary workers can use it to burn calories, decrease fatigue, flex muscles and relieve stress, even while simultaneously typing, reading or talking on the phone. With adjustable resistance levels, the device offers a light workout for the upper arms, shoulders and back. It's not intended to replace regular gym workouts, but it can achieve effective results with use from anywhere between five and 20 minutes per day, Compactix says. Though currently out of stock, the DeskMate is generally available through Amazon for USD 29.99 plus shipping. Compactix is also pursuing distribution agreements with retailers, it says. Fitness-minded retailers—this one's for you ;-) (Related: Fitness device coaxes users into action — Wearable device tracks fitness data 24/7.) Website: www.compactix.com |
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If consumers will pay extra to choose their own license plate number—or to customize their own notebooks, fabrics and sneakers, for that matter—it stands to reason they'd probably do the same for an opportunity to select their own mobile phone number as well. Sure enough, Name Your Number is a UK-based service that works with mobile operators to bring custom numbers to users with mobile phones. Name Your Number works in any country, language or culture to give mobile phone users a choice of numbers for their device. Telefonica, Vodafone, France Telecom and Deutsche Telecom are all among its current customers. Accordingly, for an additional fee, subscribers to those companies' services in select locations can choose their own phone numbers based on existing phone numbers, important dates, lucky numbers or alphanumeric matches to a significant word. Vodafone customers in Romania, for instance, must pay between EUR 10 and EUR 200 for the service. Additional benefits for operators, meanwhile, include improved differentiation and retention, according to NYN. Between gravanity and the customization trend, there doesn't seem to be any end to consumers' hunger for personalization. Other mobile operators: what about you? Website: www.nameyournumber.com Spotted by: Attiq Qureshi |
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