Potato Chip Machine

And the stupidest media-usage award goes to…

CitySpa. Congrats. Really, what were you thinking by buying a spread in local women's magazine and placing two ads in the row. Two logos, two slogans. Two different USP s. Please decide what you want to say and say it out clearly with confidence. Do not try to say it all out in a way that screams we have money, but we re stupid and can’t decide what to do. So we just buy media.

The OD caught my attention even before that print disaster on the magazine and I was tempted to photograph it, as it was so senseless, absurd and absolutely unintelligent, considering the fact that they position themselves as an elite gym and spa. The crème de la crème. Good luck in the future. At least it is entertaining to follow their attempts.

Chip-vinyl-book

Something inspiring from National Library of Estonia. They published a collection from the covers of vinyl records. Rarities for music junkies and nostalgic pieces for every Estonian. Beautifully composed collection is published in a book and an e-book. Designed by Maile Tali. I’m especially excited about the design for the e-book memory stick. Cute and smart.

E-book differs from the paper-back mostly by the function that finding an desire item you want to get acquainted more deeply, it brings you the the library environment to see if the piece is available for rental and where you can find it.

One step further would be if the audio tracks would be available for a listening as well, but that is another era I hope they will reach soon.

Don't drink'n'swim

Finally something totally brilliant from my home country. The Estonian Rescue Board made a campaign to prevent people going to swim while drinking. So they found that the best way is to alert their friends to look after them. The viral-campaign’s main message is that any method for stopping your drunk friend from going to water, is a good method. I think they have nailed the target group pretty good as well.

Method no 68 – Give wrong directions

Method no 18 – Lure them to the bushes

Method no 2 – Glue them

Planking

The new generation of young people are considered to be, among other great things, pretty convenient and lazy. Their look of life is that all the fame and fortune should come in an instant and pay check to be relevantly high on their first job. And what do they do on their spare time when they want to be creative, besides video games? Check out planking. Ridiculous, but has it’s own charm and as you can see, is addictive to older generations as well:

Relevance through-the-line

Audi’s representative in Estonia, Reval Auto’s marketing manager has pointed out that they are identifying themselves as sporty, innovative and prestigious. What kind of previously mentioned values do tea bags carry on?

Here is a gift found from our car after the service. Thank you indeed. Considering the target group they are aiming for and what they are charging, tea bags do not pull the trigger. Perhaps washing the car or even just the windscreen would lift the mood. But this did not happen!

Donate a word

As a keen admirer of unconventional ideas, media usage and boldness, this is the idea I had to love.

Purple is the new black

Some pics made from my drive home. Apparently all the marketers who have read Seth Godin’s “Purple Cow” decided to act now. Only forgetting the “cow” part and concentrating on the "purple".

Universal wrappers

In the web there are cleaver things. Something for the crosswords lovers. A word for every occasion… well almost. See yourself:

Innovation through innovation

I should call my blog “Cool phone apps blog” as this post again is about one cool app made for smart phones. Volkswagen shows innovation through innovation. Smart.

Let the game begin

Here is one very nice use of smart-phone capabilities. If I would be younger and had more free time I would totally love games like this. It’s an upgrade to the oh so popular GPS games used around here. And it’s branded. Total brand involvement.

Even better would be if it would be done in the style on The Game movie, launched more than decade ago, but still carries an idea how to excite and suprise.

And what a nice business idea to do personalized adventures in a smart-phone platform. For workshops, team-building events, personal suprises and message delivering etc. Dream, dream, dream.

Making taking my money easier.

I have good memories of my Hong Kong years. Vibrant, busy, innovative city with very short people and my wallet being lighter and easier to carry. Not like now, just having accepted Euro with all those numerous coins. It was thanks to one simple card.

Octopus card is a rechargeable contactless stored value smart card used to transfer electronic payments in Hong Kong. To say it more simply it’s a card, with what you go close to a certain electronized area and the purchase/identification is made. I used it mainly for public transport, but quickly it became a secure mean for payments in supermarkets, cafes, fast food restaurants, vending machines etc. At that time I took it as a natural part of Asian developed society and enjoyed the benefits of it. Now doing some research: 95 % of Hong Kong citizens aged 16-65 are using it everyday, generating over 11 million transactions worth over 12.8 million USD a day. Wow.

A week ago Strabucks launched a free Starbucks card app for iPhone, iPod Touch and Blackberry owners. This not only enables to pay with their smartphones for the purchase, but also add money to their cards, check balance, locate stores and earn reward stars for free drinks. It works very simply, you just give your phone for a second to the cashier and she/he accesses a bar code on the screen, wipes out a scanner and hands you with your order. Easy. In the era when companies are trying their hardest to outsmart the competitors with new apps, this is actually the one that generates extra value for the Starbucks and is useful at the same time. It’s a win-win for both sides.

So now, being an Estonian and having been introduced to Mobile ID, which allows us to access our bank accounts and digitally sign documents, I believe that there is some more effort to be made. Please combine the idea form octopus card, Starbucks app and Mobile ID and give me a smartphone app, which allows me to pay with my phone, check my balance, locate businesses accepting this app and earn bonus. Estonia is very small, just like Hong Kong, so ideal for a test environment to develop systems like that. I believe that this dream comes true just like this one did as the know how and the demand excists.