In order to create more traffic on their website, “Bronx Shoes” company decided to implement an original outdoor billboard, based on their motto: shoes selling are not (only) made for women. With an idea of enhancing manhood, they created a hairy billboard: Each passer-bywho “liked” the brand on Facebook could see the beard spread in real time. HLNTV
The bear makes the man
An ambient campaign that celebrates bad drivers
Parking in cities is always tricky especially in Paris, France, where drivers are famous for their being extremely bad at parallel parking. With this consumer insight in mind, Ford created an ambient concept called “the Parisian Pinball Park” to promote the new “Active park assist technology” found in the Focus car.
A giant pinball was set up just above a free but very tight parking space, flanked by two cars. The worst driver, who made the best score at Ford pinball, won the lasted Ford, with “Active Park assist” technology. Docnews
When the sun reveals QR Codes
To promote special lunch offers while staying creative and be seen by dwellers, corean food shop Emart Wall launched an outdoor operation. Instead of setting up a giant QR code on the street, they launched a work of art that becomes a QR code everyday at noon, with the sun’s rays. Street Planneur
Who said a bathroom should be just a loo?
During this 2012 edition of famous furniture design event “salone internazionale del mobile” in Milan, Italy. Ikea set up an ambient disposal. After the entrance of what seemed to be an ordinary chemical public toilet, people had access to a luxury and innovative bathroom. This aims to emphasize the brand’s new claim: “Who said bathroom should be just a loo?” PSFK
Stay connected. Even in a plane
Travelling by plane is sometimes scary and often boring, but maybe this will soon come to an end. Thanks to the partnership between Inmarsat and Honeywell, passengers will be able to stay connected while in the sky. The mobile satellite operator is planning to launch the first 10 mo/s connection in 2014. Le Journal du Geek
Google Drive : heading to the clouds
Google recently launched an on-line platform storage, where internet users can“share and collaborate in real time”. They can stock and use basically everything: spreadsheets, pdf, images. Despite being at an early stage, this is a step further in cloud-computing storage. Design Taxi
Collaborative spaces inside the city
It is called “Konzepp” and has settled in Hong Kong. Concept-store but also co-working space, this strange, yellow-cornered boutique, was created by Geoff Tsui. This is a new concept imagined for consumers, which can stop to shop or work as they’re wandering through the city. PSFK
Mickey is also working on our future
Disney labs research is working on the future of tactile technology. They launched a prototype of touch recognition called “Touché” which allows any surface to be turned into a “multi touch interface technology”, including human bodies or liquids.
This systemdoes not work with some specific hardware. It can be implemented everywhere. Still a patent, this feature may be considered as the future of interactions between mobility and technologies. Les Ardoises
Smart city : People & companies gathered for the future of urbanism
The “Smart city” is a genuine concept aiming to gather institutions, companies and citizens on daily city-life topics as sustainability, economy or sociology.
This designation has become a new way to speak of original city initiatives that help improve citizens’ daily-life. Some of them are more anecdotal, others are definitely based on long-term city policies, but they all have one thing in common: citizens must be at the heart of all creations. This collective “big picture” is now a reality. With the help of new technologies, companies and public government, cities become “smarter” every day. Here are the latest news and applications concerning this vast but highly innovative subject.
Smart Planet
SFciti
SFciti, which literally stands for San Francisco Citizens Initiative for Technology and Innovation, is an initiative created to improve the “city by the Bay”, especially in its interactions between citizens’ daily lives and new technologies.
It gathers San Francisco government, start-ups, citizens and tech industry.
SFciti aims to “organize the tech community around policy issues” and “uses “collective resources” to identify and solve issues. Atelier
How to transform Rio?
Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, Eduardo Paes was the last TED speaker dealing with cities issues. With his great ambition, he was able to design a new approach for a huge city like Rio. He explained his vision for cities around four statements: A city of the future has to be
1/ environmentally friendly then 2/deal with mobility and integration. It must also be 3/socially integrated and last but not least 4/ use technology to be effective. He demonstrates his point of view through an interesting and didactic TED talk you can access here.
TED
Which color is your city?
Have you ever wanted to know which color reflects your city? Or how to choose your clothes when you’re travelling? Well it is now a reality with the “Pimkie Color Forecast” application. This real-time app, sponsored by the brand Pimkie, is based on the clothes of pedestrians. It captures the dominant colors through cameras installed in different cities.
With daily data-based ingenious software, people can see what the current color of their city is. Not only is this a true help for doubtful fashionistas, but also a crafty project which aims to capture the essences of cities through a different point of view. PSFK
Datavizualisation is coming
Emerging usages for cities are not always easy to find. Thanks to a partnership with Lift conferences, Interactive Things and the city of Geneva, Switzerland, a concept called “Ville Vivante” was recently designed. Based on the feature that mobiles phones leave traces, the objective of this project is to make data visible and show citizens the importance of mobile flows in their everyday life. It offers “new insights about the city, which are of great interest both from an economic and political perspective”. LiftConference
Our future mobile phone will have… two screens
It is not surprising that Microsoft is currently working on the future of Mobile phones. The surprise lays on what kind of prototype they’re working on. What exactly will our future mobile phones do in a few years? It seems that instead of making coffee, phones will have…two screens. A recent patent from Microsoft imagines a new phone with two faces, allowing its users to access information and text message on one side, while keeping on playing their favorite game application on the other. Patentboltvia
Le Journal du Geek
DOOH Advertising Revenue Grew 15% to $7 Billion in 2011
According to PQ Media, DOOH Advertising revenue grew 15,3% to 6.97$ billion in 2011. These revenues generated by place-based networks and other billboards or digital signage, are “projected to expand 19,2% in 2012” according to new data. ScreenMediaDaily
Consumers’ trust in advertising
Internet users seem to be more and more influenced by “earned media”, such as recommendations from friends and family. According to the latest Nielsen Global Trust in Advertising Report, conducted in 56 countries, 92% of consumers say they trust earned media above all other forms of advertising. This is an increase of 18% since 2007, which can be linked to the explosion of generated consumer media and, obviously, social media. Nielsen