Social Media Overload?
January 20, 2009
This christmas even E-Commerce figures goes red…
November 26, 2008
Consumer web spending dropped 4% so far in November versus the same period last year — the first time e-commerce figures have shown a year-to-year drop. Consumers spent an estimated $8.19 billion online over the first 23 days of the month, compared to $8.51 billion a year ago.
Weekly online holiday retail sales in millions ($)
‘Cyber Monday’: With love from online retailers
Online retailers are planning a promotional blitz to recoup some lost sales on the so-called “Cyber Monday,” the Monday after Thanksgiving, when consumers return to work, boot up their computers, and presumably start to think of all the shopping they have to get done.
In a holiday survey conducted this fall by Shopzilla, 83.7% of retailers will have a special promotion for Cyber Monday, up from 72.2% last year. The most popular tactics? Specific deals (38.8%), e-mail campaigns (32.7%) and one-day sales (24.5%). Additionally, almost a quarter of retailers are offering free shipping.
Consumers Speaks…. on cnn.com [results of CNN's quick vote as of 5.13pm (EST) 11/27/2008]
my Idea: A portable (desktop) Juicer
October 20, 2008
Background:
Fruit juice is best when freshly squeezed. It gives you a much greater supply of antioxidants, vitamin C, and other nutrients. Freshly squeezed juice tastes better too. But, if you don’t have the time to squeeze your own fresh fruit juice, you can buy canned fruit juice. A canned fruit juice tastes exactly like juice that has been heated, stuck in a tin can, and left for several months. It also turns out that mostly all the fruit juice available in the market comes with added sugar to make it sweeter. As if this were not bad enough, the canning process destroys many of the vitamins that make the juice healthy in the first place. You drink canned fruit juice thinking that they are drinking a healthier option. But, you don’t realize that in the hard economic condition you are giving away your hard earned money for a product that is pasteurized!
Pasteurizing is a process that makes foods stay fresh when they are put in cans, bottles, or cartons – destroyed many vitamins and minerals. All you are left with is the sugar, the water, and some fiber.
Need:
To maintain a healthier lifestyle, there is a high need for people to drink fresh juice.
Concept:
A new product innovation that enables fresh intake of fruit juice without wasting any time! A ready to go! Battery powered Mini juicer with USB Port & regular AC Adapter as attachments. Make juice anywhere you want, any time you want.
Target:
For the time starved, health minded people on the go! Be it students, super moms, travelling & had working professional. These are the people who understand the meaning of healthy drinking & realize the importance of fresh fruit in their daily food intake.
Details:
A compact 18 oz food juice thermos with daily intake marking for kids as suggested my Government Research (Age 06 – 6 years: 4‐6 oz, 7 years – 18 years: 8‐12 oz). Dent‐resistant stainless steel body. Compact juicer blade within the sound proof cap. The mini juicer comes with batteries & to enhance the mobility it has options to connect via USB port & regular AC adapters too! With this mini juicer, you put the fruit inside the cap & press the power button & carry it to your office, or drink it while you drive, or even while at work.
This super machine is handy, healthy, smart & cost efficient (as you don’t have to shell out your money to buy canned juice). One very important feature of this mini juicer is that it comes with a pre-installed ‘Calorie & Nutrition Manager’. This is small & effective software that acts as your calorie & nutrition manager.
- Portable (desktop) Juicer
- Press button to pull the container, insert the fruit. wait & watch the fruit to get sliced into the processor.
- The moment processor stops, the outlet (like a camera shutter) opens up to allow pure juice to fall in the mug (pull the black processor out & enjoy the pure juice from the yellow container as shown in the sketch).
- Stealth pen knife & fruit peeler, for people to cut or peel the skin from the fruit.
- Representation drawing for ‘Calorie & Nutrition Manager’.
Disclaimer:
I would like to bring to your notice that, I am no engineer. Am just a keen brand management student who has tried to explain his idea in terms of drawings. I am still trying to refine this design in order to make it more practical. I will be glad to hear your comments on this idea. I hope you like my attempt to add more fruits into your life!
Updates:
(a) I spoke to few people in electrical engineering & it has been brought to my notice that, USB charging may not be a viable option. Hence in my refined design I will keep this in mind. (actually, I had thought about this, but then could not control my instincts to make this juicer a USB charge enabled 
)
(b) Many friends I shared this concept with were concerned about pulp. So my refined design will also incorporate ‘pulp extraction’ – anything for you my friends!
(keep giving me feedback!)
Portable (desktop) Juicer by Anish Shah is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at interface.anish@gmail.com.
Integration. An old buzz word with new meaning.
October 19, 2008
Being a VCU Brandcenter student you have too many advantages, but one of my favorite is the ‘VCU Brandcenter Friday Forum’. Every Friday we have distinguished speakers in from the field of Creativity-Culture-Commerce. This Friday i.e. October 17, 2008 I got an opportunity to hear from Martha Jurzynski, Account Director – got milk? Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.
About Martha:
In only a few short years, Martha took the got milk? campaign from a traditional TV-only campaign to an award winning, integrated campaign that now plays in all forms of media. In particular, got milk?’s campaign websites; www.cowabduction.com, www.gettheglass.com and www.whitegoldiswhitegold.com have all garnered top industry awards – from Gold Lions to Effies. In early 2008, www.gettheglass.com took home Goodby, Silverstein & Partners first ever Black Pencil at the D&AD awards.
Most recently, Martha has stepped into the role of account director on Hewlett Packard’s “The Computer is Personal Again” campaign. Most well known for its “Hands” spot featuring Jay Z, Martha hopes to have similar success taking this global campaign to new heights.
On Friday she spoke about “Integration. An old buzz word with new meaning”. As we all know, advertising industry has been talking about integration since ages… integration in marketing, integration in campaigns, integration in companies, etc. But according to Martha, this new age demands new meaning to integration – “Internal Integration”
According to Martha, its high time agencies shift their focus on internal integration. And where does internal integration come from? It comes from employees. Today, employees who can play a role of integrator are in high demand. Agencies need people who can do it all! Gone are the days when agencies preferred “expertise in one field”, now industry needs employees who are ‘jack of all trades’. This integrators should be talented, generous, good politicians – who know how to get work done, etc. Martha said ” there are million attributes & adjectives that can describe a integrator. Good integrators are more desirable this days because they make people feel safer & more understood”.
As departments start to overlap more than ever, internal integration enhances the quality of output by sharing thoughts, helping each other, fosters shared shared ownership & creativity.
Team Silo
Overlap rocks!
Obama billboard in Xbox 360!!!
October 15, 2008
Presidential candidate; Senator Barack Obama’s campaign has made incredible use of virtual media. Obama already has a group of followers on ‘Second Life’, He is connected to people through his website, all their campaign events have been streamed live on his site; they use Twitter to keep people informed about them. Recently the campaign launched an iPhone application ‘Obama 08’ – and they’re not done yet.
Barack Obama billboard on EA's "Burnout Paradise"
The Obama campaign is now advertising in a very popular video game for the Xbox 360. Obama campaign has bought ad space within video games including Electronic Arts’ “Burnout Paradise”. One in-game ad, seen on a virtual billboard in the racing game, informs gamers that “Early Voting Has Begun” for the election, and includes a link to an Obama website.
Electronic Arts confirmed to GameSpot (a very popular gaming site) that the ads have been appearing on virtual Obama billboards since October 6, and will continue to run until election day in November.
According to the Seattle Times, the ads were sold by Massive, a Microsoft-owned ad agency (Microsoft makes the X-box, for the non-gamers here). The ads are also highly targeted and are only visible to gamers in the battleground states of Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Montana, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio and Wisconsin.
The deal with Massive suggests that the ads are appearing in the following games: Burnout Paradise, Madden 09, Nascar 09, NBA Live 08, NFS Carbon, NFS Prostreet, NFL on Tour, NHL 09, Skate
In a report on GigaOM, Holly Rockwood, director of corporate communications at Electronic Arts, told GigaOM. She adds, “Like most television, radio and print outlets, we accept advertising from credible political candidates,” she continued. “Like political spots on the television networks, these ads do not reflect the political policies of EA or the opinions of its development teams.”
In my earlier post I spoke about Google leveraging this medium & future of in-game advertising, but for a political campaign to be savvy enough to realize this opportunity exists and take advantage of it is really impressive. To my knowledge, this Burnout ad is far and away the most prominent use of a major online game to promote a presidential candidate’s campaign.
Now that Obama has entered this periphery! I really believe that we will see more in-game advertising & effective use of virtual media in next presidential elections. However, the challenges in this periphery will be very game-specific: advertising message will have to blend with the game & avoid falling into those obviously loud marketing tactics. Last thing a gamer wants is, an intrusion of marketers in their me-my time with their hobby time. If the advertising message is communicated in a clever & non-intrusive manner, the message will be received positively.
Last year Google strengthened its arsenal by acquiring Adscape Media last year & working along side developers & publishers such as Konami, Demand Media, Playfish, Zynga and Mochi Media. Google has done it yet again!
Few days back, Google announced ‘Google Adsense for Games’. As per the details released by Google, the revenue generated by the ads will be split between Google and the game company hosting it. This announcement now enables Google to spread its immense advertising influence in to the gaming periphery.
As Google is spreading its reins towards online gaming, its arch rival Microsoft (through its wholly owned subsidiary Massive) will continue to be the exclusive in-game ad network for PC & Xbox 360 platforms of the world’s largest racing franchise.
A research conducted by Massive inc. estimated that in-game advertising will reach $1.8 billions by 2010. 
As per DecisionNote report in-game advertising is estimated to reach $732 million by 2010. As we can see there is a startling difference between these figures. But one thing is sure, In-game advertising is here to stay & grow!
As demand for video games continues to grow, Advertisers see in-game advertising as a prime way to target the male 18-34 demographic, who are increasingly neglecting television in favor of computer and video games. Several advertisers are making strategic use of this medium & investing resources into in-game advertising.
Richard Dance, Group Account Director at MindShare Interaction UK, said: “The growing channel of in-game advertising provides an exciting and creative medium in which to work. Although we are only scratching the surface with regards to the opportunities it provides, more and more of our clients are keen to include in-game advertising as a part of their multichannel strategy.”
Other developments:
- Last year Microsoft acquired Masive Inc. for $200 million.
- In June 2008, IGA signed a deal with EA, to provide all their plugging for the Play station 3. (means the 13 million PS3 owners will now be bombarded with in-game advertising.)
- In March 2008, EA and Massive Inc. announced an expansion and two-year extension of their agreement to offer dynamic in-game advertising for EA video games.
my Idea: A widget for at&t
October 11, 2008
Triggers:
(a) It is always a hassle to visit at&t website & check my account information. it is a huge problem for me as I used to forget my password (even now i do not remember my password)
(b) I lost my cell phone & gone with the wind was my valuable contact information.
(c) Remembering the bill date is not my cup of tea. I set up reminders in I-cal, on my mobile, i also have a post-it on my desktop.
So, I wanted a genie to help me organize my life. But as I am not Alladin I had to think of something else. So here it is… A widget for my desktop. I am sure all of you will realize how handy this could be.
Concept:
A desktop widget by at&t (can be developed by any network provider) that enables you to sync your cellphone account from the at&t website to this widget. This widget effortlessly keeps you updated about your minute / data usage. My widget will come equipped with “Live Chat”, “Phone book” & “Payment Reminder”.
(a) Live Chat: at&t make their customer service right at your desktop!
(b) Phone book: Allows you to sync your contact list directly into this widget!
(c) Payment reminder: Option to set payment reminders
Benefits to the customers:
(a) Live Chat: Hassle free clarification of my doubts.
(b) Phone book: Safeguards valuable information from loss or damage.
(c) Payment reminder: keeps your mind (& may be credit history) fit & fine.
My widget:
widget! I hope at&t comes up with something like this. (optimistic?)
sign in to your account
check your minutes / data usage
click on the at&t logo & explore the widget!
click on 'customer service' for a for a "Live Chat" with at&t representatives.
click on 'my phone book' to explore your contact list from your cell phone. (connect your phone to sync).
designed & conceptualized by Anish Shah (thats me)
I believe this widget is a novel idea & creates a win-win situation for both subscribers & the company (in this case at&t). For people who share my problems will love this widget, people who don’t will still appreciate this. There are thousands widgets developed everyday, but widgets that really adds value & help me make my life more organized stay on my desktop.
This widget can be used by any network provider & expect to gain positive reviews on their commitment towards making lives of their subscribers simple. This small widget also increase the brand exposure as the widget remains on their subscriber’s desktop. To satisfy a marketer to invest in this widget, let me share that this widget can also be used as a potential platform to source out ‘promotional messages’ directly on the widget (but, pleaseee without intruding our privacy. Otherwise you will destroy the whole purpose of this widget).
Disclaimer: Over the years my innovative nature has come up with hundreds of ideas, but this is the first time I have actually spend some time & executed this. It would be great if you can leave your valuable comment on this post.
ATT Widget by Anish Shah is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at interface.anish@gmail.com.
Location-Based Services grips MILLIONS worldwide…
October 9, 2008
This post is in follow up on my past articles about “location-Based Marketing“. Thanks to the cost of smart phones, comparatively cheaper data plans, The iPhone & other clone iPhones of the world… worldwide location-based service users will be surpass 60 million mark! That is almost 224% up from 2007.
As per research conducted by eMarketer, the number of users is estimated to reach 486 million in 2012.
Consumer’s affinity to social networking is also one important reason for the increase. As John du Pre Gauntt, senior analyst says “Consumers have discovered that the appeal of location-based services extends beyond pinpointing locations, businesses and other points of interest”. Now looking at the consumer trend; time is not away when marketers will start following them to mobile location-based services, resulting in increased interests in terms of dollars towards Location-Based Marketing.
Partnering with LBS:
In February 2008, CBS teamed up with Loopt, a social mapping service, to offer location-based service-based advertising. CBS ran localized banners on CBS Mobile News and CBS Mobile Sports to point Loopt customers to local businesses based on their physical location.
In March, Loopt announced a partnership today with Filter Creative Group to deliver real-time, location-based broadcasting from the South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Festival in Austin, Texas to consumers everywhere.
In September, Quattro Wireless partnered with uLocate to offer location-based advertising inventory exclusive to the iPhone. uLocate’s application, WHERE, is already one of the most-popular downloads at Apple’s iPhone App Store.
product innovations in convergence with LBS:
uLocate Communications, the world’s leading developer 
of location enabled applications, announces an agreement with Garmin to add friend-finding capabilities to select current and future Garmin GPS devices. The partnership leverages APIs on uLocate’s WHERE™ platform to enable Garmin users to easily find and connect with friends nearby through the leading friend finding network, Buddy Beacon.
I will also take an opportunity to mention about Brammo’s Enertia Electric Motorcycle. Enertia comes 
equipped with GPS & WiFi! this bike is in class of its own. The company plans to use GPS to give riders more information about their driving pattern to make necessary adjustments to the battry output through computer. Brammo also plans to create a community out Enertia buyers by making effective use of inbuilt GPS. How smart! Enertia riders can share their route or discuss optimal driving settings, meet their friends by detecting their bikes on map, etc
In the end:
Location-Based Services are still evolving, but in years to come as consumers evolve, LBS it will also be an effective tool to enhance customer service & create loyalty. I believe that LBS will be a very good platform to tap in, and can provide phenomenal results if implemented (in synergy with brand strategy) correctly, efficiently, and effectively to create an engaging customer experience with the brand.
Location-based Marketing: Anytime, Anywhere…
September 27, 2008
Today Cell phones are virtually everywhere. Almost everyone are connected to cell phones! Therefore businesses see this as an immense opportunity to effectively reach nearly everybody by segregating the content through a device that triggers content relevant to your surrounding at that particular time & place.
This is the era of convergence and combination of location and accessibility with multimedia, navigation, and communication capabilities warrants what some have called, the birth of a new medium- Location based Marketing (LBM)
Location based marketing is an emerging medium to connect with consumers and being a student of creative brand management this intrigues me to dive deep into this emerging new wave of technological convergence. As per our beloved Wikipedia, “It is an information and entertainment service, accessible with mobile devices through the mobile network and utilizing the ability to make use of the geographical position of the mobile device.” LBSZONE.com a community established in 2003 for the technology professionals interested in Location-Based services (LBS) defines LBS in a very crisp definition i.e. “Delivering information on Location.”
Location-based service identifies a location of a person or object, such as discovering the nearest banking cash machine or the whereabouts of a friend or employee. It also expands its scope to include parcel tracking and vehicle tracking services, personalized weather services and even location-based games! Read the rest of this entry »
