#MKT_Innov8 115 Innovation Ideas for the Modern CMO

p. 2 | www.covalentmarketing.com

115 Innovation Ideas for the Modern CMO

These interesting concepts were collected during the summer of 2012 by people who organically started to create a catalogue of innovation ideas. We supplemented what we found with entries from around the web, trendwatcher.com and our beloved Ted.com. It is not perfect, conclusive or exhaustive. It’s a set of thought starters. It acts as an accompaniment to four other thought pieces developed for MKT_Innov8: a Whitepaper, a Marketing Technology Brief, a perspective on 6 Unsung Heroes of Innovation, and a Discussion Guide for MKT_Innov8 Results. I chose the water butterfly to introduce you to our innovation ideas because it reminds me that ideas are fleeting, and the only way we sustain them is to act on them. Things at rest generally continue to be, according to the physics of the universe and life itself. To that end, we continue not to rest - adding ideas on our MKT_Innov8 blog pages. We encourage you to begin your own innovation journey, start anew or be excited about the path you’re on. What you are trying to do only looks impossible to those not brave enough to attempt it. Thank you. Cristene Gonzalez-Wertz – MKT_Innov8 Study Lead With… Kevin Cunningham, Debbie Rosenfeld, Liz Kaufman, Kyla Moran, Matt Pufunt, Stanton Willins and Ryan Kosanic

Ideas that are well crafted, fit for purpose and crave engagement.

A category that covers reduce, reuse and recycle in ways that are good for the planet and its peoples.

A category that covers all the ways data has infused itself into our lives.

The term “oversharing” is in the public consciousness. However, here are some great examples where sharing is caring.

Our 3D world was 1D for too long.

Finally, one of our favorite categories, bringing you a host of interesting items from the places we love most: Stores.

People and brands are joining together for the public good. Herewith, we share examples that make us smile.

In this section, we pay homage to great ideas that affect our senses – tasty, touchy, smelly things that you might find interesting.

p. 4 | www.covalentmarketing.com p. 4 | www.covalentmarketing.com

> ARTFUL UTILITY Ideas that are well crafted, fit for purpose and crave engagement Elegant solutions to everyday problems. Innovating your life

• Haiku Deck • 70 billion books on a thumbnail • The T-Shirt OS • The Grow Bike • The Medical Locket • Day Use Hotels • Smart Phone? Nah,Smart Fridge • Resolving the Outlet Shortage • Ever Seen a Charging Handbag • Putting Presentations Readily at Hand • The Cure for MRI Boredom • The Portable Restaurant • Smarter Footballers • Hotel Haiku • Taking on Pancreatic Cancer • The “Murse” of Bike Baskets

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>Haiku Deck - presentations that work like poetry

ARTFUL UTILITY p. 5 | www.covalentmarketing.com

With many presentations taking place on iPads, the type and style of presentation is becoming more visual. At last, an easy way to source images that match with your text and create engagement.

0ur Take: Creative Commons allows people to share and users to mine massive stores of free content. With Haiku Deck’s free price, creating simple presentations is easier. Expect templating and functionality increases as adoption does at a nominal cost. What it also means: Anyone can compete with professional looking presentations.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/haiku-deck/id536328724?mt=8

http://creativecommons.org/

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> 70 billion books on a thumbnail:


The point here is not just the books (which are coded in DNA), it’s the size dimension. The ability to place massive data stores at our fingertips is here today.

0ur Take: It’s interesting that people talk about what organizations need to have to work with big data. The point here is that it’s not storage. Strive to resolve the access issue.

http://wyss.harvard.edu/viewpressrelease/93/

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> Wear your life: the TshirtOS


The look and the feel of your internet, email, music and phone connected to your t-shirt. Currently only a prototype, it displays your tweets, videos and other media as you curate it.

0ur Take: Wearable has been on the horizon for some time due to sensor technology. And while there are no present funding initiatives to move TshirtOS into production, you can expect that an effort like this will exist by 2014.

ARTFUL UTILITY

http://www.cutecircuit.com/tshirt-os-the-future-only-a-tweet-from-you/

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>Greater utility means extending item life: Grow Bike


Grow Bike: It’s no secret, kids are expensive. The ability to increase the life expectancy and comfort of a child’s bike is not only artful, it offers renewable utility.

0ur Take: While the reduce/reuse/recycle approach continues on, the alternatives around extending life are just beginning to take hold. Expect this to continue not simply via extended warranty but by modular extensible design.

http://www.orbea.com/es-es/bicicletas/

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>Fashionable Information: The Medical Locket.


Diabetic? Food allergies? Now there’s an attractive way to take your entire medical profile with you. An embedded USB makes it easy.

0ur Take: Given the aging global population and the rise of multi-lingual nations, the ability to provide medical professionals with detailed health information remains necessary (at least until we are willing in general to stick the microchip under our skin).

http://www.emilyrothschild.com/index.php?/ongoing/medical-locket/

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>Questionable Ethics or Artful Utility? You decide


How do you solve the problem when part of your asset sits totally unutilized – and without generating revenue all day? You reposition.

0ur Take: Check-in times are moving later and later which generally leaves you in the lobby or Starbucks. When you need a quiet workplace for a few hours, hotels are equipped with everything you need minus the hovering waiters. Which of your assets have sellable downtime?

http://www.dayuse-hotels.com/en/US/

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>Smart phone? Nah, smart fridge


With apps like Epicurious for recipes, Pandora for music and the entire family’s Google calendar, the refrigerator becomes the next smart device.

0ur Take: Few surfaces remain untouched in the information sharing war. The latest to come over is the refrigerator. This Samsung model offers a small messaging space that makes it ideal for checking calendars on the fly. Where can surfaces share information for you?

http://www.samsung.com/us/appliances/refrigerators/RF4289HARS/XAA?cid=ppc-

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>Ending battles for power outlets: charging furniture


A Finnish company introduces a simple means to prevent clutter while charging phones. The tables are in production, available commercially and accessible at Helsinki Vantaa airport.

0ur Take: For your business, what can act in a multi-functional capacity to meet the needs of users? There is a foreseeable revenue advantage to the first QSR to use them at full scale.

http://www.powerkiss.fi/

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>Ever seen a charging handbag? Yup.


Heretofore handbags that charged your phone had no sense of style, bad fabric or were designed for men. In the Fall of 2012, all of that is changing. I mean charging.

0ur Take: It’s wholly expected that we would see an uptick in the adjacencies to smart phone technologies. Some innovations are bigger, but smaller adaptations can offer great value in shorter times to market.

http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-features/TMG9087413/Richard-Nicoll-designs-mobile-phone-charging-handbag.html

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>Where’s the presentation? Readily at hand


All those lovely French cuffs can now serve a dual purpose. Anyone who has had to dig to the bottom of his bag to find the USB key can see the value in having one so close and easy to use. It’s also a wifi hotspot.

0ur Take: Using space wisely, the needs of executives who require sleek and elegant solutions to small problems can now be met.

http://www.brookstone.com/polished-silver-oval-wifi-and-2gb-usb-cufflinks

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>Cure for MRI boredom? There’s an app for that.


MRIs can be scary. They can be boring. However, now, they can be a little bit more entertaining as iPads are beginning to see integration into medical testing and treatment suites.

0ur Take: We believe there is a significant advantage to any improvement in patient experience. The ability to create engaging experiences will make those needing treatment more likely to pursue it.

http://www.pdcbiz.com/products/mr-experience/

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>The portable restaurant, food trucks need not apply


In this lovely example from Electrolux and Italian Architect Park Associati, A 140 sq meter restaurant called the Cube is transported from place to place every 4-12 weeks. It’s not cheap, but it’s certainly an experience

0ur Take: There is an opportunity to curate truly unique experiences that cannot be duplicated. Fine dining is not something ever considered “portable” in the past. However, for an experience in which few can partake, these are tribes who will find an undeniable lure to this.

http://www.absoluteblue.eu/thecube/

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>Adidas may not be able to give footballers brains,


but they can make coaches smarter. In a new shoe, a chip calculates and stores speed, distance and movement.

0ur Take: Embedded intelligence allows much better performance data to be traceable and usable for everyone from the professional athlete to the Sunday rugby player.

http://news.adidas.com/GLOBAL/adizero-f50-powered-by-micoach/s/3353ae67-c34c-4b23-a446-516696142f97

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>Hotel Haiku – poetry for Public Houses


In the second entry for Haiku, viewers can see a hotel picture, read a brief description and then move to the hotel’s direct site.

0ur Take: The continued blending of art and technology…while this will not be a primary usage for finding hotels, such entrants provide a unique way to parse content that will be attractive to a small tribe of users.

http://hotelhaiku.com/Welcome-to-Hotel-Haiku

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>Those silly kids – they’re curing cancer


In my favorite entry in this section, 15- year old Jack Andraka of Maryland purposes diabetic-style test strips to take on detection of Pancreatic Cancer. It’s 26x less expensive, 168x faster and 400x more sensitive.

0ur Take: Kids are proving themselves adept at solving cancer (in an industry that spends more than $5B USD on research). What should you do when your next potentially great idea comes from your teenager? LISTEN.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupbin/2012/06/18/wait-did-this-15-year-old-from-maryland-just-change-cancer-treatment/

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>It’s the man-purse of bike baskets only cooler


Given how urbane it is to be urban now, bike baskets needed some serious upgrading. At $150 USD, this offering isn’t cheap, but it is beautiful and durable.

0ur Take: Simple, elegant functionality will win every time. Just ask Apple.

http://www.thebikecrate.com/


> RE-NEWAL A category that covers “reduce, reuse and recycle” in ways that are good for the planet and its peoples Taking “waste not, want not” to a new level

• DIY: Part 1 - Bionic Hands • DIY: Part 2 – Prosthetic Hand • Very evocative: Ecovative • Ford: Drive Green • Lightning Strikes >>> EV-Sexy • Electro-Ag • Standing for Something, Like It or Not • New Yorker’s Newest Membership: Bike Share • Competing to Save Energy: O-Power • Nike’s Reuse Shoe • How Does Your Garden Grow: YiMuTian • Icebreaker’s BAACode • Thinking Inside the Box: Boxed Water • Samsung Thinks Inside the Box, too – for schools

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>DIY: Part 1, Bionic Hands


A 51-year old Asian man built his own from scrap parts when he couldn’t afford others.

0ur Take: We need to continually consider what parts can serve which function. In many cases, it’s a matter of stringing together what works, not necessarily creating everything new.

RE-NEWAL

http://inhabitat.com/chinese-man-builds-his-own-bionic-hands-from-scrap-metal-after-losing-limbs-in-explosion/

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>DIY: Part 2, Prosthetic Hands


Another entry for the kids: Max Shepard created a prosthesis from Lego, proving once again, those little bricks build just about anything.

0ur Take: Things made with Lego will always be more than sum of their parts. The ultimate in modularity, they are magnificent, extensible and totally reusable prototyping tools for creative users.

RE-NEWAL

http://inhabitat.com/student-max-shepherd-creates-an-incredible-prosthetic-arm-from-legos/

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>Evocative Ecovative: Mushrooms are the new cool

RE-NEWAL p. 24 | www.covalentmarketing.com

Using compostable crop-waste, Eben Baver creates new eco-materials that can replace $20B USD and 25% of our landfills. You put 1.5 liters of petrol in the trash every time you get a package.

0ur Take: Insulating, fire-resistant, and fully sustainable. The organism does the work, using regional byproducts and mushrooms. Can you replace packing materials with nature’s alternatives?

My hometown, Kennett Square, PA is known as the Mushroom Capital of the World because mushroom farming in the region produces over a million pounds of mushrooms a week.

http://www.ecovativedesign.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennett_Square,_PA



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>Drive Green for Life: Ford and SunPower


Don’t get hung up on perfect here, but what if you really could use solar to power your car and your life? It’s not cheap yet, and it’s still working with offsets, but it’s about as green an option as you can get.

0ur Take: The sun is among the largest renewable energy sources we have. With more and more interest in solar, how can it be used in your supply chain and fleets?

http://us.sunpowercorp.com/homes/ford-focus-electric/

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>Lightning Strikes: Making EVs Sexy


It goes 0-60 in 5 seconds and is magnificent to look at. It has 150 mile charge and a normal charge time of 15 hours, with fast and ultra-fast options. It’s expensive and not yet in the US, but still worth watching.

0ur Take: When ultra-luxury owners have a choice of a true EV, will they embrace it? If you look at the MPG on most models in the ultra category and other luxury lineups, alternatives absolutely make sense.

http://www.lightningcarcompany.co.uk/Lightning/Lightning.html

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>Electro-Ag


New Holland continues to pursue EV for big equipment. This summer, it’s testing at an energy-independent farm in Italy. Highly efficient and cool to look at – it’s what all the cool farmers will want.

0ur Take: We are learning to make EV functionality available for all types of heavy equipment.

Expect this to continue, as sustainability continues to become more important in most G20 nations.

http://www.thecleanenergyleader.com/en/hp_en.html

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>New Yorkers covet a new membership: Bike Share


When you can offer people something less expensive than public transportation, even the jaded take notice. Launching March 2013.

0ur Take: With Citibank and MasterCard fully funding this effort, there is no taxpayer impact. There is however quite an expected benefit. Its owners expect it to be profitable and extensible. 600 stations and 10,000 bikes on offer. Good business, great advertising – what’s not to like?

http://a841-tfpweb.nyc.gov/bikeshare/

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>The OPower app: competing to save energy


A social app that allows users to compare their energy usage with others. A set of offers focused on saving energy and some friendly competition encourages consumer participation.

0ur Take: 70 utilities use OPower’s platform, generating customer engagement and $170M energy savings. Industry partnership often makes data usage more effective, providing context and content. Where can you share to be more effective?

https://social.opower.com/

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>Nike’s Reuseashoe program


Has collected 28mm pairs of sneakers and turned them into gym flooring, playground surfaces or even new sneakers and zipper pulls

0ur Take: Using every part of the shoe in creating new materials keeps them out of landfills and puts them to longer-term use. How can you make your consumers’ trash into treasure?

http://www.nikereuseashoe.com/

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>How does your garden grow?


Just watch… a Chinese organic produce farm allows viewers to watch their organic farming in action. By making their efforts fully transparent, they increase trust.

0ur Take: Yi Mu Tian updated its systems to include community digital cameras that “broadcast” the entire farm. This high-tech organic operation allows consumers to completely trace their food, farm to plate. What parts of your operations can you show off to the world?

http://www.1mutian.com/product/xinwen1057.html

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>Icebreaker’s BAAcode helps you count sheep,


Specifically the ones who provided the wool for your garment.

0ur Take: Sustainability and traceability go hand in glove with this company. Easy-going and direct is an ownable position in performanceware. How honest, easy-going and direct can you be with customers? Gizmodo.com called Icebreaker the greatest t-shirt in the world.

http://baacode.icebreaker.com/site/baacode/index.html

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>Thinking inside the Box: BoxedWater


BoxedWater aims to reduce the 1.5mm tons of plastic water bottles and 47mm gallons of oil that are used to manufacture them. They donate 20% of their profits to charity. It’s estimated that 80% of these bottles are simply thrown away.

0ur Take: I’m not sure if this is sustainable, or if it’s truly innovation. However, if you don’t want to carry your own personal bottle and Brita filter, this is a good alternative. Sometimes, just evaluating your packaging is a good start.

BoxedWater was the official water sponsor for Lollapalooza in Chicago.

http://www.boxedwaterisbetter.com/

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/status-update/2012/jun/27/boxed-water-and-lollapalooza-team-think-inside-box/

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/status-update/2012/jun/27/boxed-water-and-lollapalooza-team-think-inside-box/

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>Still thinking inside the Box: Samsung


Samsung aims to educate 2.5mm African citizens by 2015 with their Solar Powered Internet Schools. The program works in combination with Samsung’s other programs on Engineering and Mobile Apps, also aimed at Africa

0ur Take: A classroom by day, a community center by night, these shipping-container schools help develop solutions for their region. Are your social investments going as far as you’d like?

http://www.samsung.com/africa_en/africancitizenship/blue-internet.html


> DATA DRIVEN A category that covers all the ways data has infused itself into our lives. Tapping into the data created everywhere by everything

• Data “Crack” for Marketers: Rival IQ • Bluetooth Aims a Little Lower • It’s the Journey – Ford Makes It Informative • The Brains behind a Breast Cancer Detection Brain • Parker, removing rage, one spot at a time • Exerci$e – the new currency • Are you “Upwardly Mobile?” • Bumping Up Responds to Potholes • BMW to the Rescue • Turn Up the Heat – Oh, the Thermostat Already Did • Sleep Better, Seriously • Nike for Women, Again • Ann Romney, Women and Facebook • Wikinvest Makes It Easy

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>Data Crack for Marketers


Want to look at what your competitors are doing on their websites? Want to know when they launch new pages or offers? Soon, this data will be ready with just a few keystrokes.

0ur Take: Timely competitive intelligence is central to business success and responsiveness. Applications such as RivalIQ deliver insight that keeps you in the know.

RivalIQ has not yet been released.

DATA DRIVEN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFMP8G4pK3Q&feature=relmfu

https://www.rivaliq.com/

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>Bluetooth aims a little lower.


They launch a health monitoring device. While it’s not a perfect 10 for looks and usage, it’s more durable and has more utility than other category entries.

0ur Take: Non-medical health and fitness monitoring is expanding seemingly as fast as our waistlines. While some entries only aim to reposition or repackage existing offerings, others actually strive for improvement. Be one of “them.”

DATA DRIVEN

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>It’s the Journey – made more informative by Ford.

DATA DRIVEN p. 38 | www.covalentmarketing.com

Ford teams up with AT&T to capture information via wireless for Focus EV drivers to deliver a personal EV status.

0ur Take: The biggest hurdle for EVs is the consumer’s fear of being stranded. The best to counter that? Let them prove it to themselves. Where can sharing data make a customer’s life richer, a little better?

http://www.ford.com/technology/electric/drivinganev/?tab=AppsForYourEV

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>The brain behind a breast cancer detection brain


Is 17-year old Brittany Wenger. With 99% accuracy and a fully open model, her approach to open data collection can change cancer research.

0ur Take: Using neural networks, predictability goes from being a total SWAG to being more and more valid by detecting patterns. It works for predicting breast cancer, and it works for predicting marketing campaigns.

http://www.google.com/intl/en/events/sciencefair/projects/gsf83.html

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>Parker: removing parking rage


1 spot at a time. Parking in San Francisco will never be the same. Parking is complex because the inventory is filled with moving targets. Using sensors makes all the movement work for the system. A direct-from phone pay option is nice.

0ur Take: Small sensors do a big job in tracing parking availability. What can you put a sensor on, in, or around to help make your customers’ lives easy to navigate?

DATA DRIVEN

http://www.streetline.com/find-parking/parker-mobile/

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>Paying for your groceries with Exerci$e


The folks at Artefact are predicting that tracking your exercise might be a new form of currency in the “Fat Economy.” The people behind Modwells are tracking this trend here.

0ur Take: Using sensors can improve not only what you know about your health but what you can do about it. Since data is gathered continuously, what works – and doesn’t becomes quickly clearer.

DATA DRIVEN

http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/modwells-system

http://www.artefactgroup.com/

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>Upwardly Mobile.


The Sunlight Foundation for Open Government launches Upwardly Mobile. This app uses government cost data to calculate and compare the cost of living in various cities and shares the results.

0ur Take: While it lacks a reuse component (in earnest – you’re not going to make it a primary destination), it shares interesting data that can make you a more informed citizen.

What information do you share that makes for a more informed community?

DATA DRIVEN

http://upwardly.us/

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>Bump up responds to potholes – with automatic reporting


When accelerometers and GPS are in play, the user doesn’t need to do anything, except hope his tires and rims are okay.

0ur Take: Why are you making customers report data that technology can detect?

http://www.newurbanmechanics.org/

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>BMW to the Rescue


Sending responders crash data. Specifically, severity data so the responding organization knows what to do. Beyond airbag deployment, this allows responders to prepare appropriately.

0ur Take: Why are you making customers report data that technology can detect?

http://www.euroncap.com/rewards/bmw_assist_advanced_ecall.aspx

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>Turn up the heat. Oh, your thermostat already did.


Smart thermostat, Nest, learns your habits and programs itself, allowing you to save ~30% . A little leaf shows up when you’re saving energy – and money.

0ur Take: Again, devices that learn us are making life easier. And saving money. Why wouldn’t these become standard? And quickly

http://www.nest.com/

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>Sleep better, seriously.


Your breathing tells a lot about the quality of your sleep. Brought out by MIT students (yes, those kids again – are you watching them?) While not commercially available yet, Restdevices.com is actively working on it.

0ur Take: It’s estimated that more than 50% of the population sleeps less than it should. Medication is a remediation, not a solution.

How can embedded fibers help you help customers? (Let me know when one can physically prevent you from eating a Twix bar. That would be really helpful.)

http://www.restdevices.com/devices.php

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>Nike for Women, again


The Nike Women’s Training Club app trains you like a professional would. And we love the count-down timer. It leverages your own music via iTunes.

0ur Take: This is simply a continuation on Nike’s journey. It’s here not only because it is focused on women, but because it provides a series of rewards, badges and effective encouragement. Nike views its mission not as selling goods but on improving fitness and we think that’s a fundamental shift in how most companies view themselves.

http://www.nike.com/us/en_us/lp/womens-training?rh=true

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>Ann Romney, women and Facebook


The Twitterverse, love it as we do, doesn’t reflect the national demos nearly as well as Facebook. Which makes them a little cool again, especially as the election comes upon the US.

0ur Take: The misuse of social media data is rampant, as is the overwhelming desire to encourage friending and fanning and then doing little to build community. However, Facebook still provides a critical view into our social consciousness. When you look to social data, look to the right tools and techniques. Start with hypotheses and then use the data to prove what actually happened.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/02/do-women-love-ann-romney-only-facebook-knows/?grcc=33333Z98ZtrendingZ0Z0Z0Z0Z0&grcc2=00295e8fe641cf83df3ea06c9208924f~1346697797647~fca4fa8af1286d8a77f26033fdeed202~f95b63be786cd106d476b366478fa5e3~1346465983225~98~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~9~3~0

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>Wikinvest makes it easy


Portfolio tracking is an art form for people who want to play a lot with their accounts. However, what happens with the regular investor who has ended up with multiple accounts? Enter Wikinvest, a site that consolidates and displays your data in one easy and informative place.

0ur Take: Most companies focus on themselves. We understand that. However, when an offering consolidates people’s tasks and makes viewing easy, it generally catches on. Sometimes collaboration and cooperation go further to aid consumers and generate brand love than being independent does.

https://www.wikinvest.com/account/portfolio/regx/start


> SHARABLE The term “oversharing” is in the public consciousness. However, here are some great examples where sharing is caring. Meet the people giving great stuff to their friends, family, communities and random strangers

• Gaming for Good • Twit Happens • Characters Welcome – 140 of them • Life’s for Sharing, Especially With Angry Birds • Hard Truths and Ugly Reviews Are Helpful • The Zombie Apocalypse Occurred: Now What? • Marketplaces: Bidding Online for Bodywork • State Farm Next Door • Chipotle Changes Menu After Avid Customer Complains • Crowdsourced Travel for Geeks: Nerdy Day Trips • Dabble: Learn Something • Academic Earth – Learn From the Best, For Free • Innovation on the Fringe: The Misfit Economy • Spotify Enters the Dating Game: Fellody • Kickstarter 2.0 • Hey, Wait – Let’s Hashtag the Plane

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>Gaming for Good


In MKT_Innov8, we describe how the modern CMO must get with the hacker code. In this case, indie developers contribute games where they receive part of the profit, and charities get the rest.

0ur Take: Marketers must embrace the sharing culture – opening code sets and data to developers to create not simply goods for themselves, but a more common good.

SHAREABLE

http://www.humblebundle.com/

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>Twit Happens


The Red Cross elegantly replies to a sorely misguided tweet accidentally sent by a drunken staffer from the branded account. It actually received donations with the hashtag #gettingslizzerd or slizzard. Apparently the sober can’t spell it anyway.

0ur Take: Accidents will happen. Don’t get alarmed. Take it with good humor and your customers will likely as well. Admit the mistake and don’t, whatever you do, pull an “Akin.”

SHAREABLE

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/red-cross-employee-accidentally-tweets-from-the-of

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>Characters welcome – 140 of them.


KLM personnel undertook a live tweeting exercise in an airline hangar to demonstrate their social competency to respond to each tweet in an hour. Each person grabbed a letter – or space – and replies were “tweeted.”

0ur Take: Social sharing – such as Twitter – is designed for relevant and timely interactions. There is nothing in there saying you can’t have a personality and have some fun. So, go and see if you can’t be a little more lighthearted with your social efforts.

SHAREABLE

http://www.freshnetworks.com/blog/2011/10/social-media-case-study-klm-royal-dutch-airlines/

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>T-Mobile is no stranger to great viral campaigning

SHAREABLE p. 54 | www.covalentmarketing.com

Oops, they did it again.

First, it was flashmob dancing. Then it was a massive sing-along in Trafalgar

Square. Let’s not forget the instrument-less welcome home in Heathrow. Now, along with a band and fully interactive flying birds and crashing pigs, they bring us a life-size Angry Birds.

0ur Take: When a game takes such hold over the public that it becomes a movie and is featured on planes (yes, Finnair went there) it’s fair, well, game. In creating a live display, 14mm views later, T-Mobile continues its path of engaging videos that capture their brand: #Lifesforsharing

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>Hard Truths and Ugly Reviews have an upside


Let’s say you’re truly customer centric and the customer’s voice means something to you. Here’s how you prove it, and find out what to change. Starwood Hotels Group is making reviews visible. When they’re great, they’re next to the booking widget. When they’re bad, they’re in the same place. That’s incentive. Also notice, the response is from the general manager. #Fullyengaged

0ur Take: This sort of honesty, and willingness to publish customer-provided reviews is not just a best practice. It should be an only practice. Yes, not every experience is perfect. Admitting it makes your guests more willing to come back. #honestymatters

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/

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>Zombies, Run!


A story told in parts, designed to encourage runners to complete “tasks” like go on a medicine run, while listening. It’s not a fitness app, but is it worth the $8.00 price for 30 episodes (23 are currently released)? This gamification of fitness is a model worth considering.

0ur Take: Again, drawing from relevant social context allows fun and engagement. It goes in a totally different direction, than say, the Nike or Body Bug offerings.

What social contexts are relevant for your brand?

https://www.zombiesrungame.com/

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>At last…a Priceline for Car Repairs


Few of us ever really know what the mark-up is when that little fender-bender you don’t want to report to insurance is. So, what would happen if you could get a better price than rack rate. This platform will let you know, easily.

0ur Take: We have a soft spot for marketplaces that bring buyers and sellers together – like Etsy. We also have a great and abiding love of getting a deal. Who doesn’t? We think this includes your customers too.

http://www.bodyshopbids.com/

4


>State Farm Next Door


When State Farm put up a community center in a Chicago neighborhood offering coffee and financial coaching, one would expect it to be a sales pitch. But it’s not. It’s a nice relaxing space where you really can learn a little bit more about how to make your financial life a little better.

0ur Take: It’s on-brand – neighbors are next door but not overbranded. We like it.

https://www.nextdoorchi.com/

4


>Chipotle changes menu item


Social listening at least implies that a company will take social action. At least for Chipotle that held true in response to an avid customer’s twitter complaint. It took abut 2 hours to make the decision, according to Consumerist.com. The menu boards will take longer, but at least they acted with speed and interest.

0ur Take: Simply put, don’t say you are listening and then not take action. If you respond, then you are on the hook. No ifs ands or buts.

http://consumerist.com/2011/08/tweets-get-chipotle-to-change-menus-to-show-pinto-beans-cooked-with-bacon.html

4


>Crowdsourced Travel for Geeks


While not the smallest market in the world, geeks are a tribe. And travel is all about connecting to your tribe. Welcome to Nerdy Day Trips.

0ur Take: Geek chic is certainly a force to watch. Nerdy is the “new black “– having a geek or nerd attachment is now a badge of honor worth taking advantage of.

What are you doing to cater to a population interested in smarter things to do?

http://www.nerdydaytrips.com/

4


>Dabble: Learn something


Find, teach or host a class, all made easy with a new service called Dabble. The student pays $20, the teacher gets $10 of that. (Materials may be extra.) Rustic benches in Chicago? Beer-making in Denver? Manicuring skills?

0ur Take: We mentioned our love of marketplaces already, so we will spare you (or not). However, with a spin that makes it easy for the DIYer to find a mentor, this works.

Consumer goods manufacturers – what can you teach? We bet quite a lot – recipes, perfect laundry, home cleaning in 20 minutes or less? Yup, you’ve got this.

http://dabble.co/Chicago

4


>Academic Earth: Learn from the best


So, you can’t afford the Ivy League? Who cares, you can still learn from their best professors with free lectures from Academic Earth. The world of education is fast becoming egalitarian.

0ur Take: We think stimulating curiosity and pursuing knowledge is always worth the effort – even more so when it’s free. There are 218 lessons and 6 courses on statistics and 2 on marketing. So go for it.

http://www.academicearth.org/

4


>Innovation on the Fringe: The Misfit Economy


This book (recently funded through a Kickstarter campaign) is coming out in Fall 2014. It’s premise: “Across the globe, diverse innovators operating in the black, gray, and informal economies are developing solutions to a myriad of challenges.”

0ur Take: Not only is the Kickstarter model for publishing going to reinvent that industry (again), this concept of innovation deriving from places like the slums and back alleys makes sense. Necessity being the mother…and all that.

http://www.misfiteconomy.com/

4


>Spotify enters the “Dating Game”


So, it took forever for Spotify to reach the states. The online music app extends its reach by allowing playlist sharing and “flirting.” In 70 countries already, it’s more a global than perhaps a local thing, but imagine finding someone who shares your love of the Talking Heads is just across town?

0ur Take: Taking something you like and being able to connect with others is a time honored method of community building. This sort of application works to build strong communities (as long as participation is solid).

It works well with creating interest in the base product and loyalty – the part we like best.

http://www.fellody.com/

4


>“This one time, at Bandcamp…”


With a fun funky and definitely high-brow style, Bandcamp is the new way to buy independent artists. According to their site you can browse 4,906,615 tracks and 608,744 albums from artists spanning 183 countries.

0ur Take: This is the disruption model – similar to what’s happening in publishing. It started with Derek Sivers’ CD Baby.

Continued disintermediation of traditional retailers will provide new ways for buyers to connect to sellers. Understand where your competition is – especially interesting new entrants who tend to be particularly rabble rousing.

http://www.bandcamp.com/

4


>Kickstarter 2.0


Kickstarter is not new, but there are a few people who have not heard of it. With a planned UK expansion and greater public visibility into the number of projects and their statistics, Kickstarter is embracing transparency. While very few projects reach stratospheric funding levels, there are some that have gone over $1mm USD.

0ur Take: In addressing one of the most sizable barriers to entry for lone innovators or small teams, Kickstarter has defined a niche that allows increased competition – and competitive threat. Understanding what types of projects in your markets are on Kickstarter is a fair use of a few minutes.

http://www.kickstarter.com/

4


>Hey wait – let’s hashtag the plane. No, really.


Look, we got a new plane and in celebration of Geek Chic – let’s name it #nerdbird. Thanks, Virgin America, somehow we needed that?

0ur Take: At first blush, we thought it was ridiculous. Then we considered, if you want to make it easy for your customers to reference you, why not? Make it short, make it sweet, but there isn’t any harm in making it.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/virgin-america/meet-nerdbird-our-new-plane/10150211151442106


> SOCIAL GOOD People and brands are joining together for the public good. Herewith, we share examples that make us smile... Doing well by doing good is a great business model.

• Socially Conscious Gaming • Customer Friendly, Even When Your Vehicle Only Has Two Wheels • Not Just Giving, Giving of Yourself: Bicycle Academy • Pedal Powered Cinema • Vodafone Justtext Giving • Tide Loads of Hope • Standing for Something, Like It or Not • Grenewal: What to Do With That Old Strip Mall • Own a Color For Unicef • Guerilla Gardening • Lifelens: Simplified Malaria Testing • A Child’s Right: Transparency and Fresh Water • NGOs: Show Me the Money (Where You Spent It) • Chicago Plow Tracker • Smarter Cities Need Smarter Citizens • CiteGreen – Rewards the Right Actions • Free Wifi for Finand • The Robin Hood Tax

5


>Gaming Goes Social…Awareness In a Facebook game that doesn’t involve the mafia, vampires or supervising a neighbor’s crops, America2049 shines a bright light where you address drug smuggling, human trafficking and other important issues.

0ur Take: Facebook has had a rough few months, we get it. However, bringing forward a socially responsible game is noteworthy and resonates with their market. Being willing to take a stand on key issues is worthy of time and attention.

Brands need to be more visible in the dialogue, despite the risks.

SOCIAL GOOD p. 69 | www.covalentmarketing.com

http://america2049.com/

5


In a lovely example of embracing all vehicles, Statoil gives us a grand example: "Dear Cyclist, You can care for your bicycle here. You can pump and wash your bicycle and, inside the shop, you're welcome to borrow a free bicycle care kit with oil, tire levers, Allen keys, etc. Enjoy. Statoil"

0ur Take: Yay! We love this example because it takes negative space – a wall – which wasn’t doing anyone any good and would likely contain a soda or crisps ad and puts it to good purpose.

At the same time, that cyclist is likely to come in and grab a bottle of water and an apple. Everyone wins, the investment was minimal but the brand goodwill is outsized.


>Customer Friendly, Even When Your Vehicle Has 2 Wheels

http://www.copenhagenize.com/2011/09/bicycle-care-station-by-statoil.html

5


Want to learn how to build a bike? The bike you build goes to Africa, the skills you learn are yours to keep via the bike academy (a crowd-funded startup). Take 4 days and see what good can come of it. (We’re only crushed it’s so expensive).

0ur Take: While the price puts us off, the concept does not. We think there is a role for these sorts of high end learning sessions, taught by experts, where the benefits accrue to those in need. Think celebrity chefs teaching classes where the outputs feed shelter residents or Home Depot classes that are in Habitat for Humanity houses.


>Not Just Giving, Giving of Yourself

http://www.thebicycleacademy.org/

5


Why be a couch potato? You can now be part of the generator for the movie. They have a 20-bicycle generator that drives the display of the film (or the amplifiers in the case of music). What a great date idea. (Only in the UK so far.)

0ur Take: A similar program in France encouraged ladies to pedal to watch a neon man disrobe, but don’t let that put you off. Ideas like this could work for any environmentally conscious business or brand, or those in bicycle friendly cities and towns. Boulder? Otterbox? Trek? Local water brands (or Coca Cola…)?


>Pedal-Powered Cinema and Music

http://www.magnificentrevolution.org/bookings/magnificent-cycling-cinema/cycle-in-cinema/

5


Using a simple code, UK telecom provider Vodafone allows charities to receive donations easily and quickly from just about anyone – leveraging their infrastructure for transmission and billing.

0ur Take: Social good programs need to be simple to understand and simple to execute. The best ones encourage the tribe to drive participation. They are not self-aggrandizing and they are not splashy. When they use assets the customer is already familiar with, it’s even better.


>Vodafone “justtext” giving

http://www.vodafone.co.uk/vodafone-uk/about-us/just-text-giving/just-text-giving-for-donors/

5


Proctor and Gamble (P&G) helps disaster-torn communities with something you simply didn’t think of – clean clothes. Being able to do something a little bit normal, and have a little sense of order and control seems priceless.

0ur Take: The brand fit is flawless. The charitable aspect absolutely meets a need. The reusability of the assets invested – sustainable and extensible. This is a fine example of how it’s done.


>Tide Loads of Hope

http://www.tide.com/en-US/loads-of-hope/index.jspx

5


It’s not easy being yourself in the public forum – but more and more brands will be rewarded or punished for not being transparent in what they believe. For instance, Gay Marriage. Both Lush Cosmetics and Ben & Jerry’s have voted with their products and media support. Alternately, Chick-fil-a’s less than public stand against gay marriage originally hurt them. However, supporters turned out for them as well.

0ur Take: Consumers may love or hate your views, but if those views influence your way of doing business, expect action, support and of course, opposition. It’s not wrong to take a stand if you believe in something. It’s wrong to expect consumers not to do the same.


>Brand personality means you stand for something.

http://www.lushusa.com/

5


Green space has been disappearing for decades. Up cropped the myriad of malls to support a housing inventory we finally found out we didn’t need (or could ill-afford). Now what? In Los Angeles, they’ve got a solution: Reverse the song: we place paradise in an old parking lot. Ok, we modified it a little.

0ur Take: In terms of giving back to the community, as so many brands aspire, the ability to address issues like renewal is wide open. It provides a chance to get your name out there. Don’t buy a stadium – buy a strip mall and make it a park. Family oriented brands, here’s your chance.


>Greenewal: what to do with that old strip mall

5


In one of my favorites of the many great examples in this section, Glidden in the US and Dulux in the UK team with Unicef to make a point about the broad spectrum of paint colors and offer you the naming rights.

0ur Take: Again, on-brand and a great tie in make for compelling social responsibility. When it’s done right, it’s compelling, engaging and interesting.

I will personally buy the color of your choice for the first 250 people who tweet the link to this presentation, DM me @hermione1 for both the link and with your choice.


>Own A Color For Unicef

http://www.ownacolour.com/

5


Find a neglected space. Get a few plants. Grow something good. The UK has become home to a new phenomena – pop-up gardening. What a great way to take a small space and renew it for good? In this case, if you build it, they will come.

0ur Take: The concept of urban farming is rising and fast – as is small space gardening. The ability to stake out a small space and make it green, hang a sign and provide something beautiful is worth it. Plus, your town will love you for it. Doing it yourself is a lot more productive than buying a mile of highway.


>Guerilla Gardening: Greening Anywhere We Can

http://www.guerrillagardening.org/

5


Not every cause gets Bill Gates as its front-man. Malaria is a little lucky that way, because he’s optimistic. And wealthy. But when 5 US-based scientists and developers build an app to quickly and easily test for the disease, it’s a win.

0ur Take: We see apps like this all day. Developed by people wanting to do great things. They’ve given their time. Imagine what they might be able to do with a little sponsorship money. It never hurts to ask.


>LifeLens – Simplified Malaria Testing

http://www.thelifelensproject.com/

5


When you focus on getting clean water to a child, it’s not like the McDonald’s 1 Billion Served. The number goes up and down every day. And while most charities report static results, delivering water is a daily thing, so the results need to reflect that.

0ur Take: This example made the list for its inclusion of a “living number.” In every charitable effort, there are ups and downs. Sharing the success and the failures is all part of transparency.


>A Child’s Right: Transparency and Fresh Water

5


In January 2012, the City of Chicago created an app to show where plows are so residents could understand when they expect to be free to get that quart of milk they missed.

0ur Take: Oh, grocery chains? This one is for you. It’s a simple, low investment model that gives you a much better opportunity to connect with community.


>Chicago Plow-Tracker

http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/mayor/iframe/plow_tracker.html

5


Or at least socially active ones. Seeclickfix.com allows citizens to report a problem – graffiti, potholes, uncollected trash – and see the response.

0ur Take: As the service looks to go national, a glocal model makes sense. Being able to support and fund local community engagement should be a high priority for retailers.


>Smarter cites need Smarter citizens

http://www.seeclickfix.com/

5


Never mind that it should be called Cite Verte, but if you sign up, you can pick the actions you want rewards for – carpooling, recycling. Via local partnerships and agencies, the model accounts for actions and credits points toward the desired rewards

0ur Take: Activism at its best is when you participate because you see good. Everyone else needs a nudge. So, how about if you sell something in a bottle, you take on the recycling piece? Fuel companies, please have carpooling. It’s yours for the asking.


>CiteGreen rewards the right things

https://www.citegreen.com/

5


Okay, so I don’t know how many Fins are as addicted to Angry Birds as everywhere else – simply that it’s a source of national pride. To make it easier to access those flying little bombs, Finland announced digital access for all Fins by 2015. It’s considered a life requirement, not a luxury.

0ur Take: Expect to see this trend continue globally, although more countries will be less able to fund it. If you do business in a country that needs better access, go for it. And get your logo on the connection screen. Daily impressions – of the favorable kind.


>Free Wifi for Finland

http://www.lvm.fi/web/fi/243

5


A less than 1% tax on non-human bank transactions – in other words investments and non-retail transfers – could raise billions each year for environmental, community and social program. Named for the thief who stole from the rich to give to the poor – you can guess who the banks are…

0ur Take: It can be very hard to argue with this one. Given the absence of punishment dealt to the banks for starting the financial crisis, and furthering it along, this would seem sound. However, that’s what lobbyists are for. Expect this one to generate interest but get nowhere.


>The Robin Hood Tax

http://www.robinhoodtax.org/


> SENSEABLE In this section, we pay homage to great ideas that affect our senses; tasty, touchy, smelly things that you might find Here are the people putting us in sensory overload.

• Coke: Blend Your Own • Pepsi: Social Vending • Dunkin Donuts: Wake Up and Smell The Coffee • Vitamin Water: Energize • Kindness – The Cure For the Common Cold • Renew Yourself • Going Public: Fee Elimination for Room Service • Join a Road Train • Fully Engaged Travel: American Express • An Interesting Substitute: Brown Shugga Ale • The Oven: Caribou Coffee • The Honest Store: Honest Tea • Living Your Brand Values: Sustainability and Biodiversity • The Allianz Drunk Mirror • The Sephora Sensorium • Gamified Medication • You’re Not Going to Eat That, Are You? • Eating the Cookbook • NatGeo Visual Magic

6


>Coca Cola: Blend Your Own

SENSEABLE p. 87 | www.covalentmarketing.com

When you ship the syrup to a restaurant, weight counts. More concentrated syrups take up significantly less space. They also allow something else – the ability to offer more choices, even ones a company might not have deemed economically feasible in standalone versions. But what’s super-smart here is to be able to see what people are blending in the online world and use that as a better market indicator than traditional research.

0ur Take: The online-offline component of this has legs. The app makes users familiar with the machine – which is a little intimidating when you first approach it. The ability to customize what once was totally standardized is cool. Try Sprite and Raspberry Iced Tea.

http://coca-colafreestyle.com/

6


>Pepsi: Social Vending


As part of their Refresh project, PepsiCo unveiled a social vending machine with the aim of donating 1.25mm USD in grants every month for worthwhile causes. Drinks can be purchased, gifted (via SMSS code). All participants were linked to the project website, where they could vote for the projects they liked most. The goal was to provide 480 grants supporting arts, music, education and communities.

0ur Take: The gifting part was a great idea. The social tie in comes across as a little more challenging since it defers execution (you might not want to connect to the website at the time of purchase). All in all, a worthwhile approach – but the gifting part, should definitely go forward.

SENSEABLE

http://www.refresheverything.com/

6


In Seoul Korea, a town of coffee drinkers, (yes, we meant that), Dunkin Donuts created a unique means of delivering the scent of freshly brewed beans just as an ad played. At the next stop, in front of a Dunkin Donuts, people got out and got a cup of that fine stuff. This resulted in a 29% lift in sales during the test period.

0ur Take: Playing with scent on-location is nothing new – Starwood Hotels and others have done it for years. However, using it off-premise to drive on-premise traffic, now that’s genius.

SENSEABLE

>Dunkin Donuts: Wake up and smell the coffee

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/design/2012/07/advertising-s-squirted-your-nose-your-morning-commute/2747/

6


>Vitamin Water: Energize


Bus shelters in Chicago, Boston, New York and Los Angeles featured USB ports to charge devices. This went well with the brand positioning of “Alternative Energy Source”

0ur Take: When you see the opportunity to give users a chance to “power up,” it’s a good idea to take it. Especially when you can match it to your brand position…

SENSEABLE

http://www.vitaminwater.com/

6


>Kindness: The Cure for the Common Cold


Kleenex launched a campaign in Israel to promote its products with random acts of kindness. They scanned Facebook for mentions of illness, then connected with friends and others to get addresses and deliver a care package in under 2 hours.

0ur Take: This one makes the list because when you are feeling unwell, the last thing you want to do is get your own soup and tissues. Relevant, timely and different, it can be made to work well for multiple brands.

SENSEABLE

http://www.adverblog.com/2011/12/27/kleeenex-helps-you-over-the-sneeze/

6


>Renew Yourself


There are people who want to wake up fast, and others who want to be gently stirred. The Renew Sleepclock offers you an option. It uses a radio frequency emitter to capture movement and breathing data. An easy to use app provides a useful display.

0ur Take: No wires or wearables, this makes great use of ambient sensors to capture information – making it a great choice for many.

SENSEABLE

http://www.gear4.com/product/_/426/renew-sleepclock/?cid=38

6


Customers feel nickel and dimed everywhere. And in a hotel, you are often the most captive audience (guest, bosh!) Ian Schrager and Jean-Georges Vongerichten make room service fees go away flawlessly.

0ur Take: Removing fees makes people happy. So does good food. Anytime you can cause happiness, and do so at a nominal risk, it’s worth consideration.

SENSEABLE

>Going Public: Fee elimination for room service

http://www.publichotels.com/chicago/home/

6


Texting and driving, trying to answer that one email…even talking on a phone is dangerous. But for people who need their vehicle, an option might be available. Road trains are under exploration where cars might follow a guided vehicle to move forward.

0ur Take: What this does to vehicle design and safety assurance is anyone’s guess. However, Volvo’s involvement allays some concerns.

SENSEABLE

>Join a Road Train

6


Again, it’s not for everyone, but Amex will prepare customized itineraries based on your travel sign (with more of your input, of course) and then offer up surprises and delights to keep you fully excited about your trip.

0ur Take: It’s unique and fresh – creative and interesting for those wanting high-end travel and adventure. The aspect of “not knowing” sets one’s heart racing a bit. Nicely done.

SENSEABLE

>The travel zodiac, prepared and interpreted by Amex

http://www.nextpedition.com/travel-signs

6


Let’s say you produce a holiday brew, but for some sad and mystifying reason you can’t this year and will let customers down. How do you handle it? By making yourself the joke. In language we won’t share, we can only promise you it was funny in a profane kind of way.

0ur Take: Beer is not the world’s most serious product. For many, it is convivial and enjoyed with a sense of ease and delight. However, when we see an example as clearly engaging in this, we’d simply like to encourage you to look it up, and see if you wouldn’t forgive their difficulties.

SENSEABLE

>Interesting Substitute: Brown Shugga Ale

http://www.lagunitas.com/

6


Warming bus shelter advertising that promotes a product actually crosses the border to innovation. Caribou Coffee provided warming shelter in a place not exactly known for friendly winters, Minneapolis. As the shelters looked like warming ovens and featured oversized yummy sandwiches, we can only imagine they saw a nice lift for keeping their fellow Minnesotans warm.

0ur Take: As with all the examples in this section, activating one’s senses is now more than a static or even online tactic. Bringing a brand and product to life requires thinking outside a warming box. Kudos!

SENSEABLE

>Bus shelter advertising, not new, but it might make you want coffee

http://www.cariboucoffee.com/

6


>The Honest Store from Honest Tea


Unmanned pop-up stations featured ice cold Honest Tea in 7 large cities. The stands were accompanied by a bucket saying $1 per bottle which would be donated to charity. Now for the nice news 87% of Americans acted honestly (the areas were canvassed with CCTV). 0ur Take: The brand match here was well done and effective. The investment was small (racks and signage were not overdone) when you consider the potential for media coverage, it was worth it.

SENSEABLE

http://www.honesttea.com/

6


>Living Your Brand Values


We’ve talked about urban gardens, but how about an ad comprised of plants that passersby can even water? Banrock Station installed a large flowering billboard that showcases their attentiveness to biodiversity and sustainability.

0ur Take: Eye-catching, this breaks through clutter, offers an interactive experience and promotes brand values. A worthy consideration for those who produce things from fresh goods.

SENSEABLE

http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2102860/banrock-station-toasts-living-billboard-help-biodiversity

6


>Allianz Drunk Mirror Demo


A two second delay makes the Allianz Drunk Mirror Demo more than a campaign We’ve been declaring things we really liked throughout the 115 or so examples, but this video stopped us all. A remarkable impact on a topic that needs a discussion – at the exact point it needs it. Watch the video. It’s powerful without overplaying its hand.

0ur Take: We talk about light-hearted a lot for brands. But there are topics that need to be handled seriously. When you can tell a magnificent story powerfully, it’s absolutely worth doing.

SENSEABLE

http://www.fastcocreate.com/1681472/drunk-mirror-experiment-gives-bar-goers-something-to-reflect-on

6


>The Sephora Sensorium


A pop-up fragrance museum hit the walls of Sephora where a carefully curated and interactive journey was delivered. Participants could learn more about how scents affect the brain. Videos were enacted by breathing, and there was of course, a $15 entry fee – redeemable at Sephora stores. 0ur Take: This presented an interesting look at a category dominated by annoying personnel at department stores and those samples that fall out of simply everything. While it might not be easy to reproduce, it might be effective use of dead retail space available in most malls.

SENSEABLE

http://blog.sephora.com/2011/10/opening-night-of-sephora-sensorium-with.html

6


>Gamified Medication


For anyone who takes medication regularly, it’s easy to forget. It’s even harder with meds that require specific dosing –especially for kids. However, with asthma, getting the correct dose is critical. So, the T-Haler for Cambridge Consultants uses a computer game where the correct dose gets the ball in the hole. This visual aspect encourages learning and better treatment.

0ur Take: Anything that makes medication easier to remember and more fun to take, we’re in. This was nicely done.

SENSEABLE

6


>You’re not going to eat that, are you?


Gone are the days of sniffing the milk carton to determine if it’s okay to drink. Sensors can now tell you if your food is still safe to consume.

0ur Take: Sensors made of silk and gold can detect electromagnetic properties in your fresh foodstuffs.

Freshness dating will be replaced by sensor detecting, and it will make things much easier.

SENSEABLE

http://ase.tufts.edu/biomedical/unolab/research.html

6


>It’s a lasagna. It’s a cookbook. It’s both.


In this truly interesting application of ingenuity, the recipe for lasagna is printed on the pasta.

0ur Take: Well, at least you can’t lose it, right? Exactly what do you do with the broken noodles? At all costs, it’s different enough to break through, even if it is harder to follow than the sticker on my spaghetti squash.

SENSEABLE

http://www.korefe.de/en/2012/1960/das-erste-und-einzige-kochbuch/

6


>Visual Magic. National Geographic


Leveraging content submitted by users, NatGeo curates a rich perspective of the beautiful people and places on this earth.

0ur Take: In making this a community versus a display mechanism, NatGeo creates a reason to participate – pride of work. Incrementally, they also offer the more casual viewer the tools to get better; guides, tips and tricks to better photography.

SENSEABLE

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel


> STORE-AGE WARS Finally, one of our favorite categories, bringing you a host of interesting items from the places we love most: Stores. These retailers are wining the battle for consumer attention

• Tesco’s Virtual Subway Store • PUMA Teams With SolesforSouls • Uniqlo’s Happy Machine • A Gilt-y Pleasure – the Many Brands of Gilt.com • Square Evens Out the Playing Field • Malls For Men • The Rue 30: 30 days, one shipping charge • MAC: Bloggers Obsessions • Variations on a Theme: Gap Goes for Social Influence • American Retro: Blogger Cum Designer • Target, Neiman Marcus and the CFDA, Oh My • Social Influence Drives Design Collection at DKNY • Banana Republic Goes Mad, Men • From Window Display to Your Hands in 24 Hours • The IKEA Adult Sleepover • The Book and The Cook: Intriguing Mixed Use Retail • Virtually Filled Prescriptions: Walgreens

7


>TESCO HomePlus Virtual Subway Store


Brings the store to the very busy people of Seoul, Korea. Please note that it looks like a real display case.

Just tap to buy and pay with your phone, pick it up on your way home.

We found this via video – which has 1.2mm views. It’s obviously gotten some attention.

0ur Take: With displays that look like a real beverage case and other elements that make it easy to select and buy, this idea will continue to grow. In fact, others are already getting on board – like Peapod in the US.

STORE-AGE WARS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJVoYsBym88

7


>Puma teams with SolesforSouls


Bring a gently used pair of sneakers in and PUMA will make sure they get to those in need. Meanwhile – the donating party gets 30% off a new pair of kicks. Other events in the campaign included two one-day non-store donation days via a big red drop box where those giving people – literally – the shoes off their feet – got flip flops and a coupon.

0ur Take: Stores had outdoor signage (I found out about it in front of the Rush Street store in Chicago) and other promotional support. It’s good when you can create an effort like this and make it carry over year after year. Careful planning and well-chosen partners are critical to success.

STORE-AGE WARS

http://www.soles4souls.org/news/2009/06-15/puma-wants-you-to-give-us-your-shoes

7


>Uniqlo’s Happy Machine


Featured items that dropped out at various times within operating hours during the relaunch of their Regent Street store in London. Additionally, early shoppers received breakfasts, cashmere scarves and limited edition bags.

0ur Take: This is a buzz maker. For three days, Uniqlo became the place to be – and the follow-on, memory traffic continues. The store is known for quality and service. Now, it’s also known for a happiness machine. That’s what makes retail great. Can Whole Foods do this?

STORE-AGE WARS

http://www.biglight.co.uk/Uniqlo2/happymachine.html

7


>Guilty Pleasures: The Many Brands of Gilt.com

STORE-AGE WARS p. 110 | www.covalentmarketing.com

What started out as a well-crafted set of short-inventory sales at discount prices has turned into an empire including city-specific offerings (including very exclusive events), well curated travel experiences and a whole site for the foodie. Gilt.com’s rapid expansion has made them a force to be reckoned with.

0ur Take: Making judicious choices into expansion is critical. They need to be carefully aligned to the brand yet distinct enough to stand alone. Additionally, Gilt.com’s ability to customize their emails into thousands of combinations supports preferences built on shopper histories. Using data, display and visual merchandising makes Gilt.com a winner.

http://www.gilt.com/sale/women

7


>Square evens out the playing field


For smaller retailers, and mobile ones as well, its often been a cash business. Now, every retailer, taxi-cab driver and street vendor can take plastic. Setting the stage for a complete upset to the payments market, Square announced a flat fee that will offer many retailers the opportunity to compete more effectively.

0ur Take: Square is leading a charge to reinvent payments and fees. This should be beneficial to many retailers. What’s more, its mobility aspects are driving the ability to put payments on the sales floor – making it easy for consumers to check out. While there is not a multi-unit program that we are aware of, we would expect one soon.

https://squareup.com/

7


>The Middle East offers malls for women, Czech goes to the men


The Czech Republic caters to the other gender A gentlemen’s arcade featuring 19 luxury shops is opening in the Czech Republic.

0ur Take: For many years, ubiquity ruled the day. Now, with men not being fully satisfied with having to deal with a myriad of shops not focused on them, we will start to see more interesting approaches to “divide and conquer.”

STORE-AGE WARS

http://www.springwise.com/retail/panskapasaz/

7


>The Rue 30


One shipping fee covers 30 days of purchases Online retailer RueLaLa.com changes the way people view shipping while encouraging repeat transactions. One payment of $9.95 covers every purchase made in a 30-day period.

0ur Take: We all know it. Customers hate shipping charges. Retailers like Overstock.com make it worse for everyone else with their $2.95 for any order – even a mattress or rug. However, this move makes sense and provides a sense of continuity while encouraging loyalty. A tough nut to crack handled with a deft touch.

STORE-AGE WARS

http://www.ruelala.com/blog/2011/08/25/the-rue-30/

7


>MAC went to the blogs


MAC, the brightly colored and unabashed retailer went to the blogs or at least the Bloggers when they teamed up to create customized lipsticks and eye shadows in a special collection.

0ur Take: Making friends with the social community gets you mentions. Make the right friends and you actually gain influence. This was a great execution of a great idea. And everyone can do something like it.

STORE-AGE WARS

http://www.maccosmetics.com/whats_new/6408/index.tmpl

7


>Gap: Social Influence – variations on a theme


Gap teamed up with Refinery29 and FabSugar to ask their teams of expert bloggers to style models with their collection for Styld.by. All the images and outfits could be tagged via social sites and links to purchase were included.

0ur Take: Women connect with various content-based sites who understand their style and offer them a perspective. In leveraging these experts, Gap got a boost that was worth more than advertising through implied credibility.

http://www.styld-by.com/

7


>American Retro Makes Bloggers Designers


Take six influential fashion bloggers, offer each the opportunity to design a limited edition item. Feature their work in your windows in Paris. Make friends – who will write about you - for life.

0ur Take: This is a variation on the theme, and one to be cautious with. Just because you write about fashion doesn’t mean you can design it, although in this case, the ladies did extremely well, by all accounts.

http://www.americanretro.fr/

7


>Target, Neiman Marcus and the CFDA, Oh My.


These two brands don’t seem to fit together at first glance. Yet, they are teaming up on a very limited edition set of items from the Council of Fashion Designer heavyweights this holiday. Target is no stranger to creative retailing – from their Shoppes concept to a custom-for-Target Missoni line that sold out in hours. The items will span all price points and include men’s and womenswear.

0ur Take: Target is the category innovator. Neiman Marcus, the cool style-maker. Putting these brands together is a stroke of brilliance that will gain more attention as 2012 draws to a close. There may not appear to be overlap in the brands, but both will see a healthy draw from this effort.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/10/target-neiman-marcus_n_1661244.html

7


>Social Influence drives a designer to engage a snob, The Bag Snob


The Bag Snob – an accessories blog tweeted rather negatively about DKNY. In a stunning turning of the other cheek, DKNY invited the ladies to work with them on a collection. Given their influence, a collaboration made sense and allowed DKNY to win back some respect while getting a bunch of free publicity.

0ur Take: If you are not listening – and reacting to what is said about you in the marketplace, you are missing opportunities. There are free tools, there are great paid tools. Just get yourself a really decent understanding of your social persona. You need it.

http://www.bagsnob.com/2011/10/the-dream-comes-true-bag-snob-x-dkny-at-net-a-porter-com.html

7


>Banana Republic Goes Mad…Men


Capitalizing on the success of AMC TV’s show Mad Men, Banana Republic designed a limited edition collection featuring vintage styling.

The collection was unveiled in a unique way – with style bloggers and staff on a Virgin Atlantic plane from New York to LAX. Social media abounded – due to airplane wifi.

0ur Take: The more moving parts you put in, the more opportunities for something to go wrong. If you are planning something like this, double and triple check. Then engineer in redundancies. It’s worth it to have it come off effectively.

STORE-AGE WARS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqT1-RRHpiw

7


>The IKEA Adult Sleepover


The first 100 people over age 25 were asked to reserve a bed for an 8PM to 8AM event relaunching IKEA’s bedding department. They were given treats for participating and the event – including pajama-clad participants was catalogued for all to see.

0ur Take: We’d call this more creative than repeatable. That being said for a brand known more for its design, it seems a little off. We wished they’d have spent the money on better assembly directions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pKoCOajRoKE

7


>Cook and Book: Intriguing Mixed Use Retail


In Brussels, this concept store is divided into nine themed areas each with a distinctive style and dining offering.

0ur Take: The concept of creating themed areas is not new. However, creating brilliant experiences in each one will always be fresh. How much can you change and still be within your brand standard. That’s up to you.

http://www.cookandbook.be/

7


>Virtually Filled Prescriptions


After checking and banking took a turn for the scanner, how long could it be until other things followed? In a wonderful bout of “easy” Walgreens delivered a free app for customers to reorder prescriptions. Four months after launch, it accounted for 50% of all refills.

0ur Take: Enabling repeat purchase is what makes this so attractive. How can grocers and other quick turn items capitalize on this? How about QSR, that one’s a no-brainer.

http://www.walgreens.com/topic/mobile/apps/learn_about_mobile_apps.jsp


> THE 3D WORLD Our 4D world was 1D for too long. No special glasses needed to experience this 3D world…finally.

• Thingiverse and Copyrights • 3D Fetus • Print a Couture Pair of Shoes • Print Steak or Chicken For Lunch? • Security Is Key • Nokia Launches Their Latest Phone in 4D • 3rd Planet • 3D room mapping with Kinect • Really hands free with Mercedes • Urbee • The New Theme Park • Microsoft Operating and Kinect team up • Fine Italian craftsmanship meets modern commerce

8


>You lost that one little piece you need, “print” it yourself

THE 3D WORLD p. 124 | www.covalentmarketing.com

To complete your 1969 circa airplane model, no reason to get upset, simply 3D print a new one from the picture in your instruction manual. What an innovative solution to a vexing problem. However, who owns the rights to that one little piece you are 3D printing? That is currently the question. .

0ur Take: We foresee that this will continue to be a copyrights issue, however a simple solution to an innovative tool can be crafted. Think outside the copyright and move towards the music industry. Royalties could solve this, right? Let the people print!

http://www.thingiverse.com/

8


>The DVD of your unborn baby is so last year


Who needs an ultrasound when you can have a resin-cast 3D model of your live fetus? That’s the latest development in 3D printing, now available at a health clinic in Tokyo. It costs about $1300 and parents can opt to have a single body part instead of the entire fetus. (OK, that’s even creepier).

0ur Take: There are people who will want this, we are sure, but it is expensive. Parents could wait and just upload to Thingiverse, at a significant less cost. Since babies cost enough as it is, how sustainable is this?

http://mashable.com/2012/08/10/japanese-printing-live-fetus/

8


>3D printed Couture is beyond a dream come true


For the girls at Covalent Marketing. Continuum Fashion recently released a pair of 3D printed Cinderella shoes. They are created with a super lightweight 3D printed layered nylon and a patent leather inner sole. The bottoms are made from synthetic rubber. They are supposedly super comfortable. They come in all different colors and cost $900. Gulp

0ur Take: The cost of 3D printing will be decreasing rapidly over time and lets face it, these are one of a kind, custom PRINTED shoes. We also wonder if this is a hint of what fashion will be in the future.

http://www.continuumfashion.com/shoes.html

8


>Craze or crazy is what comes to mind: 3D Meat


When considering 3D printed food. A startup wants to create 3D printed meat to fill the human craving for animal protein without continuing to take an environmental toll on the planet. Billionaire Peter Thiel is directing between $250,000 to $350,000 from his philanthropic foundation toward Missouri-based Modern Meadow to create the bio-printed meat.

0ur Take: Not to worry, this isn’t coming to a table near you anytime soon, however if you look beyond the consumption factor and into the possibility of 3D printing medical grade tissue, then innovation is achieved.

http://www.reeis.usda.gov/web/crisprojectpages/0228895-engineered-comestible-meat.html

8


>Zip ties may work, since handcuffs might be a problem


Now that handcuff keys can easily be replicated with 3D printers, it seems that some areas of our culture will have to be completely re-innovated.

0ur Take: This is the key, so to speak, of innovation, never to stop creating. That is exactly what happened with the security consultant that used 3D printers to replicate the handcuff keys. Use innovative products to solve problems, even if the problem and product don’t necessarily seem to go together.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/07/16/hacker-opens-high-security-handcuffs-with-3d-printed-and-laser-cut-keys/

8


>Nokia launches their device with 4D in London – with DeadMau5.


We’d like to say more on the display on the Millbank Tower but we were speechless. In a good way.

0ur Take: When you want to do something right, rehearse. When you want to draw a crowd, be totally off the cuff amazing and rehearse a lot. When you’re losing your place in the scheme of things, renewing relevance counts for a lot. Nokia pulled it off with a core group of the phones’ target audience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX2Gd-kqV5s

8


>3D World, Third Planet


Third planet takes you around the world in 3D. Want to zoom up the side of the Statue of Liberty? Hover on the embankments of the Thames? We understand if you lack the budget. So how does free sound?

3D Planet enables interaction with surfaces beyond traditional geographical feature mapping. Now you too can hover with the gargoyles on Notre Dame.

0ur Take: We can continue to expect to move from 3D geography into an object orientation. The technology will let us experience things at a level of detail that has heretofore been unprecedented.

http://www.3rdplanet.com/consumer.php

8


>Is there someone not in on the 3D mapping craze?


It’s moved to interiors and the ability to layer on effects and human movement. In a surprise move, Amazon picked Nokia’s 3D mapping application over Google Maps for its next gen Kindle Fire. But the bigger news is moving inside – MS Kinect is now 3D mapping rooms, objects and people.

0ur Take: As the TechCrunch video shows the complexity of the 3D assembly process, the rich outputs on the immediate right make it clear that this process can transform space planning and usage.

http://maps.nokia.com/3D/plugin/?referral=http://maps.nokia.com/48.2693837,14.3453292,3,0,0,3d.day

http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/10/video-free-moving-kinect-used-to-map-room-and-objects-in-detailed-3d/

8


>How is this for hands free?


At the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Mercedes Benz showed off a windshield in development that displays icons of nearby restaurants or landmarks which the driver can gesture at or point toward to view more information. In addition to this augmented reality windshield, Mercedes Benz launched an update to the voice and touch screen controlled system entitled Mbrace.

0ur Take: Our phones have the ability to learn from our patterns, our phones sync with our cars and now our cars can make the visualization of information more accessible. Anything to make data easier to process and safer for the driver is a plus.

http://www.mbusa.com/mercedes/mbrace

8


>The term Additive Manufacturing sounds like Urbee to me


Sounds innovative. This is the type of 3D printing manufacturing used to build the Urbee. It is a two person hybrid car that can be charged with a traditional electric plug socket. Kor Ecologic hopes that the Urbee will go into commercial production by 2014.

0ur Take: This car is amazing, however what is more interesting is the improvement cycle available to this type of manufacturing. The ability to rapidly improve, tweak and improve again will re-invent the entire manufacturing industry, supply chains and time to market.

http://www.urbee.net/

8


>RFID, 3D & Augmented Reality…: LivePark


Immerse guests in this South Korean “Live Park.” This park gives guests the opportunity to experience and interact with a virtual world. Here, individuals can create an avatar and become the main character in a unique, augmented reality adventure.

0ur Take: Theme parks will only get more engaging, more participative, more personal. The separation between ourselves and the media grows ever thinner, for better or worse.

http://www.thelivepark.com/blog/en/

8


>MS Kinect goes beyond gaming


And you no longer need the console for interactions. Any consumer operation Windows 7 or better can use Kinect hardware and software.

As an outgrowth of the tremendous interest in motion sensing/gesture recognition, concepts like Aurasma and KinectHacks.com gain true followers. 0ur Take: It’s extremely reasonable with a price tag of $250. However, a lot of people will not see the potential of Kinect to create much more engaging customer experiences. That’s a shame because this technology has the potential to reinvent how we interact with devices – and not just on the glass.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/kinectforwindows

8


>Nike uses motion sensors demonstrating NikeFuel


NikeFuel is the brand’s metric fitness activity. Using a wall full of motion sensors, (MS Kinect strikes again) customers could see their reflection on the wall as a digital archetype. Their digital self can be shared socially. 0ur Take: If you have been to Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas or stepped on an elevator in an Aloft Hotel, you’ve seen motion/pressure sensitive devices at work. They will continue to reinvent digital displays and the level of interaction users can have with them. One pioneer in the category is YCD. Others exist. Regardless of whose wares you look at, the use of digital versus paper or static displays will continue to proliferate and customize.

http://nikeplus.nike.com/plus/what_is_fuel/

8


>Fine Italian craftsmanship meets modern commerce: Zegna in_STORE


Ermenegildo Zegna released an iPad app called Zegna in_STORE, offering consumers a 3D mobile online shopping experience. Available in the App Store, it delivers two virtual floors to shop along with brand content.

0ur Take: This approach will take a while for it to take hold, but it will come. Say by 2017, we will expect to be able to navigate a 3D store to either enable the digital transaction or enrich the live one that will follow.

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/zegna-instore/id444370629?mt=8

#MKT_Innov8 115 Innovation Ideas for the Modern CMO

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