Hangout.net

So thumbs aloft, I am now an official Beta tester of Hangout.net. (Err …Yaay!) The fact that Hangout.net works on a Mac immediately endears it to me, and I am convinced 3D internet is the way of the future. I even built a (crappy looking) room … now wondering what next?

Haagen Dazs Bees, Uncommon Knowledge, Virtual Goods, Penguin Dating

• Haagen Dazs Bee Viral
  Associating environmental, social, or political causes with brands isn’t just a cheap trend. Done properly, it is also effective: studies say 7 in 10 consumers have purchased a product or service because it supports a cause they believe in.. American Express demonstrated this when it witnessed a 45% increase in credit card applications during its Statue of Liberty restoration campaign. Haagen Dazs chose Bees. Honey bees began dying mysteriously about two years ago. The reason for this hasn’t yet been discovered, but scientists’ failure to correct the situation may yield potentially catastrophic repercussions on the human food supply. Since 30 of its 73 flavors use ingredients that depend on bees for pollination (e.g., almonds, blueberries, peaches), it was considered a highly relevant issue to Häagen Dazs. The firm launched a multi-platform campaign that included TV ads, print ads that flower when planted, a microsite, and philanthropic sponsorships.
  (tags: haagendazs marketing socialmedia bees)



• Uncommon Knowledge
  From Ace Jet 170: “Designing is basically the practice of combining stuff; ideally in ways that haven’t been seen before. So the more stuff you know (about everything), the greater the chance you’ll find a relevant and distinctive, and therefore effective (and original) combination. The combinations thing goes for everything we do: On one level we combine colours with shapes and typefaces and words, and end up with logos. On another level we take an airmail letter and the idea of love songs and think about love letters, and end up with things like this, despite who the client is.”
  (tags: inspiration ideas design acejet)



• Virtual Goods Sustaining Poor
  In a game like World of Warcraft, some non-devout players often can’t be bothered to put the time & effort into gameplay to gain better weapons and armor for their avatars. So they’ll outsource gameplay to “gold-farmers” to play & advance their avatar. BBC reports that at least 400,000 people in China earn an average of £77 per month selling these virtual goods to players.
  (tags: wow gaming metaverse popculture)



• For Book Lovers Looking For Love
  PenguinDating.com is a new site by Penguin UK that aims to – you guessed it – help bookworms find love. In partnership with Match.com, Penguin launched the site to introduce a little literary twist to the online dating scene. While sites like GoodReads provide a virtual community for avid book readers, PenguinDating focuses more primarily on dating. Members of the site can search through Match.com’s member profiles to find people who share their literary tastes, as well as find members on PenguinDating through members’ mini-book reports on the latest books they read.
  (tags: penguindating popculture)

Links for 2007-10-22 : The Metaverse, Mobile, Andy McNab

• Virtual Worlds, Real Ad Dollars
  Parks Associates estimates that $15 million was spent advertising in virtual worlds in the United States in 2006 and projected that it would rise tenfold to $150 million in 2012.
  (tags: marketing business secondlife metaverse virtualworld 3dinternet)



• SAS man Andy McNab goes mobile …
  Ex-SAS man and action author Andy McNab’s latest Nick Stone novel is going to be promoted with a short-code that responds with a link to the first chapter of the book. I think this is an interesting idea – perfect for commuters looking for diversion, for example. Books on mobile don’t often work well as text, but this will also be available as audio. Come to think of it I recollect Nick Stone once killing someone with a mobile phone …
  (tags: marketing strategy literature mobile telecoms sas andymcnab)