deinde

+living product placement

Here is an interesting idea for Jaguar by Euro RSCG, Reality-Based Product Placement. They have selected jet-setters in 7 markets to use their high-end cars as living product placements. This underground idea compliments Jaguars Gorgeous campaign nicely.

It is reality-based product placement, the eerie place where real life blurs seamlessly into advertising. Other car makers have tried it on a smaller scale: General Motors Corp. chauffeured VIPs around the Super Bowl in Detroit earlier this year in Cadillac Escalade SUVs. Last year DaimlerChrysler AG lent out the new Mercedes-Benz R Class SUVs to selected consumers for a week. They drove the SUVs around and entertained their neighbors at R Class parties in their homes, where they talked about the vehicles.

The Jaguar campaign is more underground. It isn't obvious to passersby -- nor even to casual acquaintances -- that Mr. Bossi's XK is part of an elaborate marketing come-on. He isn't paid beyond the free use of the car, nor is he reimbursed for parking or restaurant bills. (Jaguar insures the car under the same kind of policy it has for the fleets it lends out to automotive reviewers and other media.)

You should also check-out Ryan Berger's interview at coBRANDiT.

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+mobile web rules

Some of the biggest web and technology companies have agreed to some website guidelines to enhance the mobile internet experience. The Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) is behind the 60 new guidelines for web designers and developers. The W3C is backed by 30 industry players, including Nokia, Vodafone and Google. 

The majority of cell phones today have Web browsers as wireless providers hope to expand beyond voice services, but only about 19 percent of U.S. mobile phone users regularly use the Web on their phones, according to researcher M:Metrics.

"We're now seeing devices in users' hands that are capable of browsing the Web, but they're not being used as much as they could be," said Daniel Applequist, a Vodafone executive who chaired the group that worked on the guidelines.

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+management trends fade fast

Here is an article at the Wall Street Journal about why management trends fade so quickly.

A recent academic study suggests management consultants may be partly to blame. That is because of what the study calls "fashion surfers" -- consultants who rush to offer services when an idea is hot, even though they don't have expertise in the area.

Those "marginally competent" surfers tend to be most numerous while a management craze is booming -- when demand is highest and managers need the most help, says McGill University management-studies professor Robert David, a co-author of the study. The authors suggest that the surge of less-qualified consultants contributes to ensuing frustration as businesses struggle to implement the idea. Eventually, interest falls off and the boom ends.

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+global warming call out

Here is Ari Sharabi's call out to all marketing/advertising/creative folks to help "save the planet". Check out his No Man's Blog to download the brief.

How to change hearts, minds & behaviors? How to communicate urgency? How to move people from positive attitude to positive behavior? How to make people care enough and change their lifestyle? How to contribute to the formation of a much needed critical mass, or tipping point that will alter the potentially catastrophic course we’re heading to?  How to best exploit the emerging opportunities of the social web to ring a warning bell that its echoes will reverberate throughout the UK or even the world?

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via Chroma

+cellfire

The scenario of walking by a McD's and being sent a coupon for a $1 off a McGriddle is now real. This new placed-based couponing company is called Cellfire.

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+rise in alt media

Here is some new research released by PQ Media showing the growth of alternative media.

• Spending on alternative media strategies surged 16.4% in the first half of 2006 to an estimated $53.37 billion compared with the same period of 2005. Growth was driven by double-digit gains in most of the 23 subsegments of alternative media.
• PQ Media estimates that spending on alternative media will accelerate in the second half of 2006, growing 18.5% to $115.77 billion for full-year 2006. The alternative advertising sector is forecast to grow 19.9% for the year, while alternative marketing is expected to increase 17.6%.

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+pravda surf

An ex-New York financial services executive has started a new company in Huntington Beach. The new company is called Pravda Surf. This is a new spin on board making, it's the only company on the planet specifically dedicated to teaching people how to make their own surfboards by hand.

"We work by appointment only,” Shmidov says. “Our goal is to provide complete attention to our customers, some of whom fly into Orange County from as far away as New York to make their own boards. You can do as much or as little of the work as you want. We provide the materials and tools, and have shapers who can work with you to make your board.”

The name “Pravda” means “truth” in Russian. “Most of our older customers associate the name with communism, while the younger ones just think it sounds cool,” he says. “But the idea is that communism, in the beginning, was about the serfs overthrowing the nobility, and everyone being equal, supposedly. And surfing is the same idea: everyone being equal in the water and sharing the waves together. Surfing has gotten so aggressive, but with Pravda, I’m trying to bring it back to its roots.”

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via John Winsor

+bloggers have found financing

Here is an interesting article looking at how some independent bloggers are getting financing by technology and media investors.

In the latest example, Rafat Ali, the 31-year-old editor and publisher of PaidContent.org and two other news and analysis sites focused on digital media and other high-tech trends, has raised money to expand his Web-publishing business from venture capitalist Alan Patricof.

The financing, though small in comparison with most Web deals, is one of several in recent weeks that indicate optimism on the part of early-stage investors in the viability of blogs as an outlet for journalism, rather than the gossip and personal opinion that characterizes much of the medium.

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+ibm and innovation

With everyone talking about innovation, here is an interesting PDF from IBM that compliments the ad campaign. Here are their top 7 innovation enablers.

1. Smart objects - Last year, the world produced more transistors (and at lower cost) than grains of rice.
2. The connectedness of every thing - The Internet of people is one billion strong. The Internet of things is headed toward a trillion.
3. Supercomputing for everyone - By 2010, supercomputers will be capable of one quadrillion calculations per second.
4. Information put to work - By the year 2010, the codified information base of the world is expected to double every 11 hours.
5. Collaboration and co-creation - As many as 40 percent of a company’s customers modify or tinker with its products in
some way.
6. The marketplace for expertise - Today, exceptional talent is everywhere — from quality design, to HR, to order fulfillment and more. In 2004 alone, India graduated more than 200,000 engineers and China 600,000.
7. The virtual corporation - A business can now be built from interchangeable blocks of expertise, assets, capital and information.

Download innovate_with_IBM.pdf
via Influx

+metro out, macho in

Here is another article looking at how men are changing from "Metrosexual" to "Machosexual". Men are still in touch with their "feminine" side, but they just aren't flaunting it.

Leo Burnett, a Chicago advertising firm, conducted a global study of masculinity last year, which found half of men say their role in society is unclear and that they feel "less dominant" than in previous decades. More than 70 percent of men said advertising was out of touch with men's "reality," leading company executive Rose Cameron to recommend that advertisers "reassure men of their masculinity."

Perrine said going to the gym is still considered macho, as long as it's focused on health and not just physical appearance. He said hybrid cars are part of the macho trend, too, as is a suit and tie for the office.

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