A Wider Net

According to Next Generation, Burger King has found gold in video games. We described the XBOX video game promotion back in November - you travelled to BK, bought a value meal, then you got to buy games for the XBOX and XBOX 360 for only $3.99. Apparently the games and the promotion were good enough to boost Burger Kings profits a whopper-ing 40%.

The lingering effect of this promotion will be felt for some time, since the games are still out there being played. Each game basically immerses you in BK content. You drive a bike as a Whopper, sneak around as the King himself, and bump around with BK cashiers. In one game, your goal is to distribute their product.

It was a fairly well-targetted promotion, making good use of gaming technology in the XBOX community which is about as virally active as it gets. They understood that the games had to be good enough to be desirable at the price. The inclusion of (expensive) model/actress Brooke Burke in each game was an obvious matchup with the target demographic.

I personally bought all three games (yes, I’m a gaming nut and a sucker for a good deal). Driving a pocket bike as a giant double whopper while planting a land mine to knock Brooke Burke off her bike is truly one of the most surreal entertainment experiences I can recall. And they got my burger money that day.

Eleksen showcased their new line of Windows Vista-compatible laptop bags at CES. They utilize a new feature of Vista called SideShow. SideShow allows Vista to reach out to other devices and display small bits of information on them. The devices include remote controls, bags, peripherals, etc. The display can support a variety of user-friendly applications. For starters, a remote control with a SideShow display can display context-sensitive information to help navigate a media center PC remotely. A keyboard can display information about your application, incoming text messages, email status, weather, etc. A speaker can display the current status of your media player.
Here is a shot of a SideShow applications at Microsoft’s CES booth - it’s a smartphone controlling a PowerPoint presentation - with the presentation visible on the phone. Here are two other products - a keyboard and a speaker each with integrated display.
You can read more about these devices, along with loads of other SideShow devices at this site devoted to all things SideShow.

Marketers have long appreciated the value of branding carry-ons. Now we can start to think about what to place on these feet-on-the-street micro billboards.

Of course, the first thing that comes to my personal-space-minding mind is a shoulder bag that displays “if you can read this itty-bitty sign then you’re TOO CLOSE”. But in reality it’s plenty big for an animated version of your brand, or even a side-scrolling message. Folks waiting to board an airplane will spot your billboard-baggage while stranded in the jetway and strike up conversations like “You work for Google? Cool - we’ve been thinking about adding Google Enterprise Search to our company - can we talk about it on the 12 hr flight to Auckland?”

NewTeeVee has a nice list of 10 great video mashup sites. Don’t forget to check out the ones in the top paragraph, too.

Each one has different functionality - some are designed to track popularity of videos across multiple sites like youtube and google, while others provide make-your-own-thing-and-share-it tools.

It will make your head spin a little, but if you’re attempting to follow the social/web/viral/video/mashup thing, then consider NeeTeeVee’s list a “to-do” list for ya.

This is becoming a perennial favorite: fosfor gadget’s top 10 weirdest USB drives.

The winner has my vote, too:

What’s a widget? Check here, here, and here. Widgets are basically virtual desktop accessories - clocks, radios, cd players, weather indicators, stock tickers, etc. They’re fun, wildly customizable, potentially super-useful, and most importantly - they’re entirely up to you.

From a marketing perspective there are great opportunities in widgets - ranging from advertiser-funded displays to entirely branded widgets like this Harry Potter widget. Once this baby adorns the screen real estate of their target fan base, the marketing job is over. This one provides a countdown timer and a news feed. Believe it or not, it’s not the first Harry Potter widget - this one conjures up a quote from the movies on request. Also, these widgets did not come from the film publisher. Movie makers ought to be looking at these widgets and integrating them into the overall fan experience - connecting them to direct news, fan programs, movie microsites, trailers, etc.

You may have noticed that those two examples were only for Macs. Macs have built-in widget support. PC users can use Yahoo Widgets - found here. And yes, the Harry Potter widget is available there, too.

At CES I also spotted a neat desktop device, the Emtrace WidgetStation that uses widgets so you can change it’s display features as often as you like.

Custom widgets for corporate communications are being created all the time - some using a platform like Yahoo, some are simply stand-alone applications. Basically, these mini applications are designed to sit on your computer screen and make available crucial information at all times - critical internal notices, announcements, schedules. The corporate widgets can combine critical updates with company brand, vision, and value reinforcement, as well as helpful information like local traffic updates, stock, and weather.

I’m buying stock in the really big companies that make really, really, really big monitors.

Symon Communications announced a new SDA line of small network appliances for digital signage. Designed to be small, low maintenance, and low cost - these little boxes can transform any display into part of a powerful digital signage network. They can support the native resolutions of most any LCD or Plasma display, providing the highest possible image quality. Their software makes it easy to add content to the sign network from any location, and remote managers can view a “snapshot” of what’s on display at any location in the network.

This is an impressive new offering since signage networks this robust have historically required a full-blown computer at each sign location. Now, if you’re trying to set up a network of informational signs in your enterprise, a series of promotional displays at a venue, or a network of signs in retail stores, these appliances will make the process simpler, the network more reliable, and the total cost of ownership lower.

I’m a big fan of digital signage (when they’re done well). The industry is growing rapidly. In fact, for the past several years InfoComm has been completely packed with signage displays and software applications all aimed at making it easier to manage content. I especially like solutions like Symon’s where you can design displays that utilize real time data automatically. Real time data solutions allow you to provide content based on a variety of criterion - time of day, sign location, current special offers (retail), scheduling information, stock prices, weather, current sales volumes, customer service call wait times, etc. So, in addition to displaying critical daily information that is entered manually, the signs can provide a wealth of valuable data automatically.

I’m not a big fan, however, of digital signage done for the sake of digital signage. At the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas, for example, one of their restaurants uses a large LCD display to showcase their menu. The problem is - you have to stand there and wait while the menu slowly changes from page to page. If they had simply tacked their menu to the wall, I could zero in on what I was looking for (breakfast) and be on my way. Instead, they blew $10K on a sign that represented an inferior replacement for a laminated piece of paper.

The true test of a sign is whether the content owner would use it. If you’re creating content for a sign or sign network, and you can’t say without a doubt that you would stop and view/read/experience the sign content, then it probably has no business being there.

At CES, I found eStarling, a manufacturer of digital picture frames, and to my knowledge the only one out of about 50 exhibiting manufacturers, that allows you to email a photo directly to the frame. Apparently Thinkgeek was selling the WiFi versions these puppies at one point. Regardless, you can certainly “picture” these being used to send your loved-ones photos from far-far-away-land. Would it be so wrong to give these to customers and slip them a promotional image every so often? They are, after all, premium-priced premiums, and they have to put up with corporate logos tattooed all over their other SWAG. This just feels a hundred times cooler. Digital signage to the individual desktop. Banner Ad Designers rejoice! People may be ignoring you on the web, but they can’t ignore you if they’re waiting to see pics of the grandkids.

You can also have the display automatically grab images from an RSS feed, such as a feed from a Flickr photo sharing account. It’s a pretty neat device, and I bet there are lots of clever ways to use it for marketing and signage applications. Yes, I’d like one.

Their products have been featured many times on Engadget and USB News and at CES, Dream Cheeky had a booth full of crazy USB devices. These are the kinds of things that define the concept “would not buy for yourself but wish someone would buy for you”. From the office warfare USB Missile Launcher to the cuddly USB Kitty, there’s something here for everyone that you can’t send liquor to.

At CES, I was impressed with Samsung’s unique digital signage solution “MagicNet”. Most digital signage systems use some kind of central server and a network of signage player devices - one per digital sign.  Then, of course, you need the flat panel displays. Samsung integrated their player device into a few LCD models, greatly simplifying the system. Now all you need for a complete digital signage solution is a bunch of these Samsung monitors all networked together, and one standard PC running their MagicNet software. The capabilities are generous, including playback of most media file types and graphic file formats, and the ability to incorporate live video.

This is a good option for new installations (where you don’t own the displays already) and touring applications that want to simplify setup. You can use it for enterprise communications, event signage - pretty much all the typical digital signage applications.

And here’s where the love-fest ends. Try to find MagicNet on the Samsung website. Here’s a link to a MagicNet LCD screen. In the center of the screen it clearly states, (spelling error and all) “Super high contrast ratio with 178°/178° viewing angle topped of with MagicNet.” but nowhere on the page is a link to learn about MagicNet. Nice.

So - their online marketing may be a mess, but the technology looked pretty spiffy. I’m sure your favorite A/V system integrator, marketing partner, or Samsung dealer can help you get going with MagicNet.

Use caution if you’re considering digital signage, since we see it done poorly more often than not. Make sure you have a clear idea of who the signage will target, what content they will find interesting enough to stop and absorb, and most importantly - who will be producing this content and how often.  Often times the content isn’t changed often enough, it’s poorly targeted, or the sign’s layout is too complex and confusing - rendering it highly ignorable.

For example - at one recent trade show I attended, the digital signs in the lobbies were display scheduling information for the three days prior to the day I arrived. Page after page of information was outdated, making the signs dreadfully ineffective. There’s nothing quite as sad as an unwatched digital sign.

One of the devices from CES that I’ve found myself thinking about often is the Pepper Pad. This Linux-based tablet is in a word, loaded. It’s bright touch/stylus screen is large enough for browsing and watching movies without all the bulk of most laptops or tablet PC’s. A 20G hard drive is adequate for a decent amount of movies and music, and it’s WiFi connection allows viewing of media stored elsewhere. Add to that a VGA camera, bluetooth, dual infrared, USB, and a few other bells and whistles and you have a mighty entertainment and browsing device.

You may have noticed that, unlike other tablets, this device has a split thumb board in the upper corners, plus a scroll wheel, and a 5-way directional pad. All this tactile control input at your thumbtips makes this device extremely versatile for browsing and email. It’s also splash-resistant and fairly light at 2.2 lbs.

From a marketing perspective, this makes an interesting portable kiosk or presentation device. You can hand this to someone and, after they get over the coolness of the thing, they can watch a short presentation, fill out a survey, or play a learning game. While not as light and portable as a PocketPC device or even a UMPC device, the larger screen and easier text entry may make this a superior choice for data entry or media viewing. It’s battery life is limited, however, to less than three hours, which may affect it’s usefulness in mobile applications. It’s worth considering in a lobby to fill out forms and watch informational videos, and it’s worth considering at an exhibit where it can sit on a charger between users.

Edit: I changed the above text to reflect the fact that the camera is, in fact, VGA resolution - not 2 Megapixel.