People like knowing what they're getting before they open their wallets.
For those looking to get a new haircut, MopShots offers an online lookbook of real cuts on real people, with details on the salons that created them.
www.mopshots.com
Snapshots can be submitted by anyone (including hairstylists showing off their handiwork), but not every photo is accepted.
Before being featured on MopShots, the website's 'dictators'—a group of 25 fashion bloggers, stylists and tastemakers approve the photos.
Engaging users as they contribute, and commenting on each cut, the dictators look for models with character rather than ones cut from a glamour magazine.
MopShots is not sponsored by hairdressers or hair product companies.
Each hairstyle has its own page with up to four photos, listing the salon name and location.
Styles are searchable by colour, type, style, length or salon.
The site works both as inspiration for people looking for a new style, as well as those seeking a salon based on its real-world results.
Ref. http://springwise.com/fashion_beauty/mopshots/
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Take a leaf out of Veggie Trader’s book.
In the US, frugal consumers who’ve been busying themselves growing their own produce can now make a bit of cash on the side.
Veggie Trader’s new website provides green-fingered individuals and locavores with an online network where they can buy, sell or trade their homegrown bounty.
The site’s founders hope to encourage users to specialise in certain crops too through a concept they call ‘cooperative gardening’.
‘A group of neighbours agrees at the start of the growing season to a list of produce they want to grow.
Each household then raises the types of produce it believes they’re best at growing.
By concentrating exclusively on just a few crops, each household will (in theory) enjoy greater yields and better quality produce.
The resulting harvest can then be swapped and distributed among the whole group, with everybody getting a little bit of everything.’
Originally launched so that at-home gardeners could sell off their excess produce, the website has now grown to be a fully-fledged trading system for people concerned with sustainability and local food.
Ref. https://www.lsnglobal.com/seed/view/573
Advertisers have always played with consumer emotions.
Usually with campaigns to promote positive brand and product associations, e.g. detergents that fight grease while leaving hands soft, or SUVs that help us escape the 9–5 while still being kind to the trees.
Nowadays, given the dire state of the economy, some brands are tapping into our outrage.
For example, Miller High Life in the US is using a blue-collar character who delights in removing their beer from hoity-toity bars, restaurants and stores that he believes are short-changing shoppers.
The New York Times has even reported on this latest advertising trend that attempts to translate consumers’ fear and frustration directly into sales.
The ads hope to mark a return to honesty – a quality that has been sorely lacking in all aspects of our society, not just the advertising world, by expressing messages most people can relate to.
Ref. http://www.psfk.com/2009/05/advertisers-tap-into-consumer-outrage-see-bigger-sales.html
Ref. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/business/media/15adco.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=all
Summer is fast approaching – time to explore the great outdoors, hang out at festivals and go camping.
So try thinking like *** Box who recognise the possibility of getting caught short as we explore nature’s bounty.
Flat-packed, the *** Box opens out into a rigid but comfy loo into which you can drop your fudge, again and again, without making a mess or gassing everyone within a five-mile radius.
That’s because it comes with 10 biodegradable poo bags.
Brilliant.
Available in two sizes, the 14” original and a smaller ‘Little Jack’ version for nippers, it’s ideal for festival goers, campers, Portaloo-less builders, fisherman and kids caught short on long journeys.
It even comes with a fetching shoulder bag.
(Thanks to Jules for this big one.)
Ref. http://www.firebox.com/product/2351/***-Box
Honesty, as they say, is the best policy.
Which why it’s refreshing to see Pizza Hut being frank about who they are and about what they do best.
The tent card below says it all, and it ties in well with their current online ‘limp lunch’ promo too.
In these days of political correctness, it’s nice to see a bit of good old-fashioned attitude and fun.
(Many thanks to big Nick)
Ref. http://www.pizzahut.co.uk/restaurants/restaurant.aspx
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Think like Everton football club.
They’ve come up with a great piece of marketing for their new club shop at the new £920 million ‘Liverpool One’ shopping centre.
It’s name is ‘Everton Two’, making their address: Everton Two, Liverpool One. Very nifty.
And this appears on all carrier bags too.
Local bragging rights to the Toffees on this occasion.
(Cheers Mino.)
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Follow M•A•C’s ‘Back to M•A•C’ scheme.
As the cosmetics company says, “M•A•C cares about the environment and takes back its primary packaging to recycle for new packaging.
Return six M•A•C primary containers to a counter or online, and you’ll receive a free M•A•C lipstick of your choice.”
And whenever people take back their empties we wouldn’t be surprised if they end up buying another product too.
(Big thank you to Gemma for sharing her free lippy tips.)
Ref. http://www.maccosmetics.com/giving_back/btm_return_packaging.tmpl
New Balance is taking themed sneakers to new levels with their Coffee Bean 576s.
These kicks feature a hemp upper, such as traditional coffee harvesters would use to carry and transport their beans.
And the traditionally stitched ‘N’ on the side is hand-painted on.
Other ‘earthy’ elements include cork panels and a woodgrain effect on the heel.
(Thanks to Steven S in Leeds for this.)
Ref. http://www.nicekicks.com/2008/03/new-balance-576-coffee-beans/
Think like Cadbury’s.
They’re setting up video cameras in cinemas and filming the audience waving their arms in time with the music.
This ‘motion’ is captured to ‘play’ the Cadbury brother and sister’s eyebrows, Guitar Hero-style. Brilliant.
(Thanks to Chris Teabag for sharing his time at the flicks.)
Ref. http://www.chunk.co.uk/?p=156
Think like chewing gum giant, Wrigley.
Wrigley is targeting the premium category in the UK’s competitive gum market with its ‘sense-stimulating, edgy’ 5 gum, out in June.
http://www.5gum.com/five/index_normal.do
What’s so premium about this new brand?
The 5 range is available in cobalt – cooling peppermint, electro – tingling spearmint and pulse – crisp tropical flavours, complete with ‘embossed black gloss packaging and sharp eye catching bursts of colour’.
Apparently, this new range is Wrigley’s response to the increasing demand of stylish consumers for a wider range of available flavours, or ‘taste sensations’.
Ref. http://www.schmoozyfox.com/
Follow Paper Beats Internet’s lead, an ‘analog’ social networking site that uses hand-rendered drawings as communications tools.
Users post an initial drawing on the site, and others create comment and response-drawings that work off the first drawing’s theme.
Besides being aesthetically pleasing, the time and care that goes into the drawings themselves adds a little depth to the usually quick, off-the-cuff social media world.
The project is a collaboration between the New Directions in Pictoral Design class at the Ontario College of Art and Design, and a group of invited collaborators.
http://www.paperbeatsinternet.com/
Ref http://www.psfk.com/2009/05/paper-beats-internet.html
It’s not always easy to be cheerful.
The extent to which ‘bad news' dominates the headlines may – on the face of it – leave few reasons to be cheerful.
So think like Optimistworld.com, the new site dedicated to taking a daily look on the bright side.
If you’re one of life's optimists – or aspire to be – then here you'll find daily good news headlines, inspiring charity stories, positive CSR activities, good sports and sustainable travel news, and lots more.
These stories show the best of human spirit, and illustrate a genuine desire by many to improve the world we live in.
It’s easy to point the finger at the media for doom-mongering but some stories – disheartening as they may be – simply have to be reported in full.
And that means less room for ‘lighter’ items.
At Optimist World they believe there's an appetite for news that enriches the soul and lightens the heart, which is why they’re bringing the best of the world’s good news to us, daily.
(A big thank you to Julia for this.)
Ref. http://optimistworld.com/Articles.aspx?id=3e95a261-b3b3-41e1-ad8a-0fcb2564f7eb&page=1
Think like Walmart.
They’ve developed Elevenmoms, by reaching out to the writers who are already blogging about great money-saving ideas.
http://instoresnow.walmart.com/Community.aspx?id=100
As the story goes, Walmart began by making contacts in Twitter, leveraging Facebook profiles, and viewing related YouTube videos to see how they could participate.
As well as posting their own messaging, they also made friends, communicated with critics and began interacting as both Walmart associates and as people.
Then they began reaching out to bloggers to see if they‘d be interested in building a connected money-saving community.
Finally they invited 11 ‘mom bloggers’ to join in.
Hence the name ‘Elevenmoms’.
What makes Walmart's efforts so interesting is their ability to ‘own’ the concept of value online.
It launched free classifieds last year, and its site (thanks to its blogger outreach and message boards) is already crammed with content about saving money.
This will grow as the Save Money Live Better portal grows.
In fact, amid all the talk of how digital has allowed marketers to be their own creators and distributors of brand content - some people would call this a media company - perhaps no one has the potential to be as big as Walmart.
Ref http://adage.com/digitalalist09/article?article_id=135579
Take a leaf out of ‘Boxed Water Is Better’s book.
With only 14% of disposable water bottles being recycled, it’s no wonder designers are flooding the market with eco-friendly alternatives.
'Boxed Water Is Better' is part-sustainable water company, part-art project, and part-philanthropic project. The Michigan-based company creates each water box using around 90% tree matter, sourced from certified and ‘well managed’ forests, which continuously replant harvested trees. The boxes are also shipped flat to reduce carbon emissions from transportation, and each box is filled as needed.
The company returns 20% of its profits back to reforestation and world water relief organisations. (Many thanks to big Nick for this one.)
Ref www.thesun.co.uk
http://www.psfk.com/2009/04/boxed-water-is-better.html
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At a recent Mindshare event in San Francisco, organisers mined attendees’ Facebook and Twitter accounts for personal info and opinions.
They then presented them as thought bubbles whenever that attendee faced the screen with a readable badge.
It’s called the Cloud Mirror project, created by Eric Gradman, and aims to show how much personal data is easily available and how it can be linked to you in the real world.
http://www.exothermia.net/monkeys_and_robots/2009/04/27/cloudmirror/
http://vimeo.com/4370631
If you think about the ‘face detection’ ad that Apple is running, and all of the ‘recognition’ software you can buy, it’s not difficult to see this applied at both a more fun – and a more scary level – even without a badge or opt-in.
The latest version of iPhoto has Faces – a facial recognition program that enables a user to tag individuals once, and then the program will automatically do it in the future. The program is free with a new Mac, or $79 if users want to upgrade from an older version.
Ref. http://www.psfk.com/2009/04/the-cloud-mirror-social-media-privacy.html
Greg Taylor
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