The newly designed smart soccer ball, Ctrus, took home this year’s Red Dot concept award. Designed by the Mexican studio, Agent, the concept was created to reduce referee errors, which have been a problem for years in the sport, as well as providing fans and team managers a new perspective.
Ctrus, has the ability to Continue reading
Have you ever wondered how many people were tweeting right this very second? What about now? Frog Design recently launched a site showing Twitter activity all over the world. Seems like it would be pretty busy huh?
Their new site shows the activity with a heat map based on activity all over the world. As you watch the map over a course of several minutes you can see the hot spots for twitter. It seems that the US, Europe, and Indonesia are clearly the tweet addicts. The site also shows statistics Continue reading
Almost a year ago Google launched Google Goggles, an app for mobile users that allows them to instantly find more information about something simply by taking a picture of it. People have been using this device to look up information on text, landmarks, books, artwork, logos, and contact information.
It is a very interesting concept but now Google is taking it a step further. Google is performing their own marketing experiment with 5 brands, Buick, Delta Airlines, Diageo, Disney and T-Mobile. Continue reading
We’ve all seen them before, commercials that are so bad they actually catch your attention. It may not be the best strategy or even a good one, but for some they are doing the best with what they’ve got. It seems that lawyers, mortgage companies, and local doctors have a knack for the worst commercials out there. At Asylum.com they’ve posted their top 10 worst lawyer commercials but the one for Greenstein & Milbauer, LLP seems to be at the top of the list. Their practice targets victims from accidents and they figure what better way to represent this than an animated squirrel. He seems to be popular enough that they’ve used him in several of their other commercials as well.
Let us know what you think. What are some of the worst commercials that you’ve seen?
Call of Duty: Black Ops is one of the hottest video games coming out on the market just before the holiday season. Wal-Mart, GameStop and other suppliers are opening at midnight tonight when the game will first be released to the public in the US. The game will be released for PS3, Xbox, and Wii and is widely known for the online play.
I’m not sure if you were watching any of the commercials during the football games yesterday but the commercial for Call of Duty: Black Ops was quite unique. This may have been the first ever Continue reading
There was a great article posted this week on Ad Age by Al Ries that really hits a point most people do not understand about marketing. That point is the difference between common sense and marketing sense. While both are crucial to business operations, you cannot run your operation without one or the other.
Everyone remembers the “Pizza, Pizza” slogan of the 90’s used by Little Caesars, but what most people don’t know is where they are today. They are virtually invisible. Ranking as the second largest pizza chain in 1994, they are now sitting in 4th well behind the current leaders Pizza Hut, Domino’s, and Papa John’s.
What happened to Little Caesars is simple. Continue reading
We say it a lot – and I’m not about to retract one of our most-loved mottos right now. But after the GAP’s latest logo design fiasco, perhaps “Stop doing the same old s***!” needs some further clarification.
It doesn’t mean you should make a change just for change’s sake. And for heaven’s sake, don’t make a tasteless, weak and insipid change to your logo – which is the powerful visual symbol and definition of your brand – just to make a change.
“Stop doing the same old s***!” means make a strategic and bold change. Think creatively, get out of the box (and in this case, literally get out of that faded blue box!) and come up with something that doesn’t resemble an example of horribly stale ’90s design. Continue reading
For 24 years now, McDonald’s has used one of the most popular promotional games that will always seem to get people excited. This genius marketing idea lures people in with the chance of winning cash prizes, cars, vacations, gift certificates, as well as free food. It is extremely rare to see a promotional contest last this many years but I have a feeling this one is here to stay. Over the past few years the prizes have been getting larger and larger with the top prize being $1 million. This has only added to the hype as you can see advertisements about the monopoly game on TV, billboards, and hear them on the radio.
Students at the University of Michigan have gotten involved as they created their own blog about their McDonald’s Monopoly experience. They have vowed to keep track of their game pieces and statistics based on the winning percentages of each item they purchase. They want to find out if the more expensive items have a greater chance of winning as well as testing McDonald’s claim that one in four wins. Bargaineering, a personal finance blog, has even posted tips on how to win with the McDonald’s Monopoly game.
What is most exciting for the players is the vast amount of prizes offered by the game. McDonald’s has teamed up with EA Sports, Wal-Mart, Ford, Beaches Resorts, and several other companies to offer a wide variety of prizes in the U.S. The contest ends today, so if you’re looking to get that $1 Million top prize good luck. Although, the guys at University of Michigan say the cheapest item you can get a game piece on is a 24 cent medium water…happy hunting.
