Vacation pictures found a new home.

For those who love taking photos and always have trouble with sharing i.e. vacation pictures or any other (baby, weddings, birthday-party, nature etc), Trip Advisor launched a new photo-sharing platform called Trip Wow.

You can actually make a movie-like interactive slideshow, which looks good and you can stop it or zoom in any time you like. The coolest feature is the sharing option. You can embed it to your website, blog, send via email or share in Facebook, Twitter, MySpace etc. Only thing missing in my opinion is the commenting feature.

Here is a nice slideshow from the Great Flood in Soomaa during this spring. Welcome to Estonia:

This travel slideshow of Aivar Ruukel’s trip to Parnu was created by TripAdvisor on Tuesday, April 27, 2010 at 12:50pm UTC.

Monton on the right track

Here’s a very good example how Estonian fashion brand Monton has captured the essence of the social media and realized that it is all about two-way communication.

My homebank's new imago

Hard times in banking, so during the renovating period a hairdressing saloon was opened in SEB branch located in a shopping mall. Wider the area of expertise, bigger the client coverage.

Ok, that’s not quite true. I love my homebank and was very surprised to see this SEB branch turned into a hair saloon last night. Unwillingly and caused by pure boredom I assume.

Here’s a little recommendation. While renovating, please use curtains or do it overnight. Otherwise all those fancy image campaigns do not pay off.

Still, if they finish renovating, i’m hoping for free head massages while waiting for my number. That would be something to remember and buzz about !

Pixels are taking over

I love the idea and production.

So sweet.

This ad invites you to personalize your own M&M candies and do it online.

How to start a movement.

As said in this presentation: If you really care about starting a movement, have the courage to follow and show others how to follow.

Spring sales are here!

Spring sales are here. Everybody is screaming louder than the others. As my everyday path to the office goes through the main shopping centers in Tallinn, Viru keskus and Kaubamaja, then I had the pleasure to witness the madness this morning myself. Usually I rush through it, but today this beautiful girl caught my eyes. She was telling me where to travel in the serene and relaxing tone. Inside the shopping madness and people with determined eyesight rushing toward the cashiers, she was just glowing. Actually, she was a moving picture and projected to the plexiglas figure, voice coming from speakers. But look at the good signs. She never gets tired, never needs to use the toilet and is always glowing. More - the pictures in her hand are moving to illustrate her words. Just a ray of sunshine inside this gray and rainy day.

Insights from Password 2010 vol.2

Today I’m talking about Johan Ronnenstam’s speech in Password 2010. First of all: he was outstanding on the stage. Now to the less important matters.

He had a very liberated way of thinking. Should send him to brainwash large monster companies to let go from stamp-thinking what to do and what not to do.

For ages there has been belief that all the traffic related to your company should be inside your own web frames. So you could control it. Better write a blog in your company platform, share news, manage comments and post videos. But today you have to be where your fans are. And if fans are not coming to you, you can go to them. Anyway, why to pay for a web platform if it’s been already invented and working.

You can build your brand in different channels like YouTube, Facebook, Flicker, Wordpress, Wikipedia etc. and manage all the channels not killing your brand but expanding it. As these are the places where the eyes of your fans are. Still you need to provide value to get traffic and conversation, as the media only is not buying peoples eyes.

Another brilliant thought was about compromising/interesting information. If you happen to possess something valuable and you think others could find it interesting as well, do not run with it to the newspaper and get paid peanuts. Invest. Share it to all your friends via social media, you get more responds and in the longer run you DO get your money.

He was fascinated by this guy, Gary Vaynerchuk, doing Wine Library TV in his basement 5 days a week. Let’s face it. He is quite a handful to watch. Wine has really got into him and the charisma really shines through the screen. Check him out. The whole concept is actually so outstanding, that he deserves his own blog post someday.

I’m still waiting for the Best Marketing to publish the answers to the questions asked during the conference from the speakers and were not answered on the stage. If somebody sees them answered, let me know.