Cool New Marketing Technologies: Caught and Served

Archive for July, 2008

Health Care: Intel Health Guide

By Rob Everton

I look forward to the day when a computer will sense what’s wrong with me and prescribe a solution, whether it be a prescription, a trip to the ER, a good night’s sleep, or a lengthy discussion about my childhood.

As we head there in baby steps, there’s this. A device of such obviously clinical design that it almost can’t live in plain sight in any household. It screams “I need constant medical attention” but it also represents one more step towards effective remote diagnosis.

I believe iRobot is working on a robot for health care purposes and I bet this is the sort of application for which it is being designed. My other guess is that it is designed to pump epinephrine into the hearts of overdose victims ala Pulp Fiction, but while that vision is the stuff of future-shock sci-fi horror magic, I somehow doubt that’s the case.

In the meantime, as we struggle to help companies establish connections with their customers, it looks like Pharma (doctors, actually) may establish the most wired remote connection of them all. Wouldn’t everyone like a feedback mechanism that tells them how their product is working? Frankly, I’d probably let them plant a tiny sensor in my noggin if it meant I never saw another popup “how do you like our website” survey ever again.

Apple is looking at this and thinking they can do it all with an iPhone

What brands are using Twitter? An index.

By Rob Everton

Found on Twitter and about Twitter – a fabulous index of brands currently active on Twitter.

I can’t remember how many times I’ve been asked “ok, so what companies are using Twitter/Facebook/YouTube/Second Life/etc”. This is a fantastic answer to one permutation of that question.

I’d thank the author by name but I couldn’t find it on his blog. Thanks, though!

And thanks again, Pistachio, for another great link.

Pitvertising – Armpit Video for Right Guard Ads

By Rob Everton

At Cramer, we have inserted little video displays into some crazy places. But so far, we’ve never had the call to stick them into people’s armpits. There are, I suppose, a few other undiscovered bodily territories that we have thus far avoided turning into video billboards. I’m sure Ridley Scott has tried them all.

For videos that really stink.

According to Ananova, who also deserves credit for the image, and through Engadget, we learned of Right Guard’s underarm video displays that are, fortunately, not scratch-and-sniff. They do manage to redefine awkward as one leans in to get a better, um, look.

I’m still waiting for the “back of head display” so we can give everyone at a general session a “jet blue” experience.

The bottom line here is that – if you can think of a cool reason to put video somewhere, it can be there. I would just try to think of places that people WANT to look and where people are ALLOWED to look.