Girls Rule Online

Came across a really interesting article in the NY Times today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/fashion/21webgirls.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

Basically it says that "the cyberpioneers of the moment are digitally effusive teenage girls." They are "the primary creators of Web content (blogs, graphics, photographs, Web sites.) "

I shan't go into all the details because you really need to read it all but I think that the explanations for why this is (they are storytellers, they crave connections etc) are very interesting and have real implications on the way we should think about communicating with this group.

What do you think?

Do We Have Any Juice Clients In The House?

Scratch and sniff is so ‘90s. Marketers for Welch’s have gotten a lot more savvy when trying to appeal to the senses of their customers. The company has launched a new lickable ad campaign for their grape juice.

Similar to perfume ads that have panels you pull back to offer a hint of the fragrance, Welch’s is launching tabs in this month’s edition of People magazine in the form of a one page print ad that let the customers peel to taste.

Image when kids start to offer their friends a taste. Imagine the problems this could pose in the waiting room of a doctor’s office…

“If someone doesn’t rip off the whole sticker, First Flavor says, the flap can’t reseal, giving people an easy way to know whether the ad has already been licked,” the WSJ reported. I guess they’ve got all bases covered.

The idea is fantastic, but parents are still going to have to start watching out!

The ad was created by First Flavor who has launched other taste campaigns to test everything from pepperoni pizza to soy milk and flavoured kid’s cold medicine.

“In some lickable ads, including the Welch’s ad, some of the essence of the actual product is added to the strip, while in others, the strip is made up of unrelated flavors, both natural and artificial,” the WSJ wrote.

From Trendhunter

Look to Gen Y for Mobile’s Killer App

I thought this was a nice article from NGT although I'm personally not convinced mobile UGC video is it......

At last week’s OMMA Mobile, Roger Wood from Amobee speculated on the elusive yet inevitable mobile “killer app”, claiming that it will be created by someone born after 1990. “A Facebook will happen to messaging,” he said. He’s not alone in thinking this. Kanishka Agarwal from Fierce Wireless put it thus:

Early adopters we are, but our experience does not match the true
mobile generation, who most likely have carried a phone since they were
pre-teens and who are avid users of data content and mobile media services.

The idea is that a person who hasn’t grown up with the technology cannot possibly grasp all its potential. Youth have grown up with a different mindset where mobile is inextricably tied to their lifestyle

Wood, decidedly not under the age of 18, later speculated that on what that killer app would be: mobile UGC video. Youth are documenting their lives with picture phones, and increasingly on video capture phones. “Such video phones would let you do some level of a mashup, adding audio overlay send via mms,” he said, “that becomes Youtube or Metacafe on steroids.” This would create many niche channels to run highly targeted advertisements to micro-audiences, which could sustain a high CPM.

Given this proposition, carriers will look to raise ARPU through services that enable multimedia creation and communication. These services should replicate what’s been happening on the web—UGC video, mashups–but adapt them to a wireless environment. YouTube Mobile lets users watch video on the handset, while Kyte TV Mobile enables mobile lifecasting to the web. AT&T’s Video Share goes a step further, allowing users stream live video to one another all on the handset. Such data intensive apps are key to monetizing the future of mobile usage ad we’ll likely see many more in the future. But as for the killer app, ask your little brother.

Grand Central - Frozen

http://www.improveverywhere.com/2008/01/31/frozen-grand-central/

Pretty cool stunt that ImprovEverywhere did at Grand Central Station.

Enjoy!
Jessica

Our First VISA Post!

Hooray to all of us at OMD around the world for winning VISA!

Now here is something I came across on Trendhunting.

Following the custom Visa gift cards, Capital One is letting you personalize their credit cards too! The Capital One Image Card lets you upload your own photos or select from a variety of gorgeous designs and patters on the site.

Uploading your own, of course, is the obvious choice if you want to have fun with your money! Get a photo of the kids, one of your dog, a shot of your sail boat at sunset or the family photo you took skiing this holiday.

Surely it is only a matter of time before Canadian card issuers do this too?

Cheapest New Car in the World?

Last night I was discussing bicycle sharing schemes in Amsterdam. Somehow the discussion morphed into providing bicycles in India. That reminded me of a piece of news I had watched yesterday morning about a new car launch. Here is a piece on it from Coolhunting.

Tata Motors, India's largest automaker, unveiled this week what could become the Ford Model T for the 21st century, the $2,550 car.

Marketed in India as the “one-lakh” (100,000 Rupee = $2,550) car, with a two-cylinder 623 cc gasoline engine, the world is reacting to what has been touted as a “people's car” for the developing world.

The announcement is making waves in India with the country's Commerce Minister calling it “a proud moment for India.” But not everyone is so enthused with the idea of hundreds of thousands of inexpensive vehicles flooding the market.

“The ultra-cheap small cars in the pipeline will tilt the skewed balance against public transport and two-wheelers irretrievably,” argues Anumita Roychowdhury of the Centre of Science and Environment, an environmental advocacy group in New Delhi. “The result will be an urban congestion nightmare and an unsustainable fuel load.”

Be that as it may, at only 10 feet long, a maximum speed of about 60 miles per hour and getting about 50 miles per gallon, the Tata may have some appeal outside its home country. Especially considering SmartCars have achieved a modicum of success in Europe and United States, despite the most basic model costing nearly five times as much as the Tata Nano.

Amazing Animation

fantoche from blu on Vimeo.

Happy new year!

Came across this wonderful video. There isn't any sound but it's still incredible. In fact, maybe the lack of sound ameliorates the experience?

More incredible animations at their blog: http://www.blublu.org/blog/.