« Older Entries

Case Study: Santatize Yourself App

March 30th, 2012 by Caitlin Rose

Background

Every year, Hyperquake tries to find a new and exciting way to show appreciation for our clients. In the past we have sent out more traditional gifts such as books and cards, but this year we wanted to send something different and more importantly, something that would demonstrate how Hyperquake and its brand have evolved within the last year. Aside from the gift itself, Quaker’s love to give back and chose to use our innovative idea as a way to thank clients, as well as show support for a local charity, at the same time. Our Daily Bread was selected as our charity due to our prior involvement with the organization and our appreciation for what they do for the local community.

Existing Brand Experience

When it came time for Hyperquake to brainstorm holiday ideas, we immediately decided that this year’s gift would be different. In the past year our brand has evolved and our abilities and talents have expanded. With the success of OFFF and our first mobile app, we chose to encompass these new talents and show our clients what we’re capable of.

 

Brand Evolution Solution

After multiple brainstorms regarding our holiday gift, we finally settled on the idea of a mobile app. With the help of research and scouring the internet for ideas we decided to create an interactive app that would allow our clients and friends to “Santatize” their photos. This allowed them to personalize their personal photos with festive accessories, as well as share their creations within the app and on Facebook.

The Santatize app was a way of demonstrating how our own Hyperquake brand has evolved from traditional printed holiday cards into a completely mobile and online experience.

In order to spread the word about Santatize, we paired the app and Facebook page with a Santa Beard mailer. This further demonstrated our creativity by adding to the overall experience of the app and again allowing users to submit photos of themselves wearing the beard in support of our charity.

Results

259 total downloads: 227 iPhone, 32 Android.

Over 200 photos submitted to the Facebook gallery.

 

 

Tags: , , , ,

Posted in Case Studies, Design, Technology | Comments Off

Brands Break Into Text Messages

April 8th, 2011 by Chris Strong

So I stumbled upon an interesting article the other day about how a new service called GroupMe is providing brands the opportunity to break into group text conversations.

Now, there are a number of group texting apps out there already. These apps allow you to communicate in mass with selected contacts in your phone, thus aggregating a large community conversation into one thread.

What GroupMe is now doing is unique in that the app allows users to set up a ‘Featured Group’ which is then tied to a partner brand. This gives the partner brand the opportunity to basically hack users private texts and send them special brand related information.


(more…)

Tags: , , ,

Posted in Technology, Uncategorized | 213 Comments »

Google Art Project

February 8th, 2011 by Katie Winkler

Street View from Google maps has come to the art world. Google Art Project launched early last week and I have to say, I’m pretty stoked about it. Art museums from all over the world (14 at the moment), on display and fully navigable from anywhere with an Internet connection.

National Gallery interior Shot

Nation Gallery, London

I spent a bit of my morning roaming around the National Gallery in London and the MoMA in NYC and plan to check out the Palace of Versailles next. Yeah, you can always look up images of artwork online, but there’s a different feeling when you see the work in a gallery environment –  nothing to be compared with seeing it in person, but for people like me, only dreaming of traveling to across Europe to admire priceless masterpieces, it’s a great opportunity.  Not only that, but I think I’d be tackled by security guards before I ever got this close to a Van Gogh.

Van Gogh's Starry Night Close Up

Seriously, there are 7 billion pixels per image. Close enough to see the cracks in the paint.

Tags: , , ,

Posted in Fun, Technology, Uncategorized | 205 Comments »

Intel’s Virtual Footwear Wall for Adidas

January 17th, 2011 by Adam Daniel

Last week at the National Retail Federation’s convention, Intel and Adidas unveiled a new in-store interactive display that allows shoppers to browse as many as 8,000 shoes on a large touch screen wall.  The interactive experience could land in stores in the U.K. as early as next year.

Check out Fast Company’s article with video for more info.

Tags: ,

Posted in Technology | 122 Comments »

3G vs. 4G. Huh? What? Wait?

January 14th, 2011 by Chris Strong

So yesterday I posted an blog entry about the growth in mobile consumer engagement. Specifically the positive results from recent studies around mobile browsing and shopping.

In writing that one of course, the 4G topic came up. It would’ve been hard for it not to….. With 4G ads smacking you in the face everywhere from the major carriers, it’s hard to not be both curious and skeptical. At least if you are me.

So, I did a little investigating and came upon an article on Advertising Age about this very topic. In reading it, I couldn’t help but think about the razor blade ‘wars’ a few years back when it seemed like Gillette and Schick just kept trying to one up each other by adding another blade. I think that this skit from MadTV way back in the early mid 90′s actually did a good job taking a jab at the subject. Say hello to the Mach 20:

Okay, so back to the topic of this post…. So, Verizon and AT&T have been fighting it out for the last few years, with rumbles over coverage areas, dropped calls, network reliability, who’s 3G is faster that whose…. It really did get to the point of annoyance a little while back. Now, it looks like it’s going to start all over again with the 4G topic.

Apparently AT&T just jumped onto the 4G wagon at the CES 2011 show (for our thoughts on that, check out Adam Daniel’s post here), but they are a bit late to the game because Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile have been at it for what seems like awhile now. The funny thing about 4G though is, there is apparently NO standard for what it means, or is. Yep, you read that right, no standard. So it’s just a term at this point.

The assumption of course is that it means fourth generation mobile internet; implying faster speeds for downloading. The ridiculous thing is that apparently some of the providers claiming 4G are really just using “faster 3G.” So is it really 4G then? Hmm…… Confused? I am.

Now, there are of course a variety of technologies that make up the mobile internet genetic code and I can’t even begin to pretend I know anything about that. But to the average consumer, what does or will that technology actually mean? They just want to know they are getting something better and faster. So that’s what the marketing tells us. But what’s legit and what isn’t is really ambiguous at this point. At least from my perspective.

All this said, the landscape of the 4G, what it is and what it means (and more importantly again, what it will bring to consumers in terms of value in the long run), is most certainly up for debate and speculation at this point. As with all things technology and mobile related, many already are and will be waiting to see how things develop and what comes of the newest mobile provider battle.

I of course, as I’m sure many of you reading this, will be among those waiting and watching.

Tags: , ,

Posted in Technology | 145 Comments »

Mobile Engagement Opportunities Continue To Grow

January 13th, 2011 by Chris Strong

So, mobile internet usage only continues to grow, we’ve all heard that pretty much everyday for the past few years. I, for one, feel like I read it all day, every day, in every industry related publication around me. In light of the recent news yesterday that Verizon will start carrying the iPhone next month, breaking AT&T’s exclusive contract, I figured a post on this topic was very fitting.

With carriers offering more and more internet capable devices, at lower start-up costs to consumers and with even better data rates, internet on your phone is more available today than ever before. Also contributing to this is the blow for blow  boxing competition between the major carriers, be it through their marketing or their continual race to have the most, the best, the fastest of the newest technology (hello 4G!)). I always have believed that competition breeds good things and in the mobile world, this is no different.

So it’s not surprising that according to a study done the last part of Q4 2010, between November 29 and December 15, a survey of users visiting online retailers over the holiday period (conducted by ForeSee Results) showed that a third of online shoppers also browse on Mobile.

The study (which you can download for free here by providing some info) polled almost 10,000 users who visited one of the top 40 U.S. e-commerce sites during the two week period.

In the study they compare results to the same period in 2009, which found at that time that 24 of online shoppers browse on mobile. They also examined purchase results on mobile devices resulting from browsing. Though only 11 percent of the respondents  polled apparently made purchases from their phones after browsing, the bright spot is that data shows that is up 56 percent year over year. (In 2009, only 2 percent of respondents purchased from mobile devices). Of course, none of these numbers are HUGE, but it’s important to consider the value of engaging with these audiences early (and often). What can brands learn from these users? How can they use this period of growth and relative uncertainty to lay the foundation for what the mobile landscape means and is in their business vertical.

Of course, lots of predictions abound in the mobile world from all ends of the spectrum, as to what 2011 and the years to come have in store. No doubt with all the carriers stepping up their 4G game, Android phones continuing to grow in market share, the iPhone hitting Verizon and the continued explosive growth on the app side of things (especially with branded apps), consumers will have more opportunities and better technology to support their desired mobile experiences. What will that mean? More money invested in mobile. More money spent by consumers on their mobile devices. More marketing dollars hitting mobile. Etc., Etc.

On the flip-side, all this offers brands some very unique opportunities to continue engaging new and existing audiences. Still very much uncharted territory in my opinion, the mobile landscape will continue to evolve this year, yielding benefit for everyone, consumers and brands alike. Best thing I can say is ensure you are aware and considering mobile’s impact now (and in the short and long term future) on your brand. For those that get left behind, it’s going to be very hard to catch up…

Tags: , , ,

Posted in Technology | 135 Comments »

Calling All Sculptors! Tired of Getting Your Hands Dirty?

November 30th, 2010 by Chris Strong

So, I’m by no means a sculptor. I don’t know the first thing about it or how to do it. (Though I do remember sculpting a box in some 9th grade art class. Didn’t turn out well…)

Regardless, I can appreciate how awesome this new iPad app — Beautiful Modeler — is and the potential impacts it might have on sculpting in general in the 21st Century. Plus, it lets you sculpt without ever having touched the clay, thus your hands stay clean. (Bonus!)

So what is it? Well, Beautiful Modeler is an iPad application that allows you to mold virtual clay on your iPad into whatever model you want. There are apparently no limitations (from what I read in the article about it here) as you can stretch the clay, squeeze it, twist it around, etc. Basically, my take is whatever you can do with real clay, you can do with this. Pretty cool. While you are using your iPad to creating your masterpiece, the model you are creating is displayed on your laptop or desktop computer. This allows you to better see what you’re actually sculpting.

From there, once you finish your model, you can actually print it out, export it as an STL file and fabricated it immediately. There is a video that shows the whole process here:

All this was created by the Karl D.D. Willis. More info on him and his work here.

As the article points out, the potential impacts of this tool are pretty huge. For many, using CAD software for 3-D modeling just isn’t an option. Why? Well, apparently it’s pretty hard to learn and sometimes even harder to actually use. For those designers out there that actually want to use it to produce their own stuff, it seems as if it may be more of a hindrance than a help. I’m no pro on this, so don’t quote me. I’m just passing along what I read and hear.

If sculpting is as easy as this video makes it out to be though, I might just need to take it up. A new generation of Michaelangelos may soon be born.

Tags: , , ,

Posted in Technology | 15 Comments »

The New World (And Future) Of Loyalty Cards

September 10th, 2010 by Chris Strong

Do you ever feel like you have way to much stuff on your keyring? I mean, more than just, well, keys? It is called a keyring after all, but it sure seems like over the past few years with more and more stores putting consumer loyalty programs in place, keyrings have started becoming filled with loyalty card after loyalty card. I don’t know about you, but I’m not a fan of having a ring of dangly plastic cards of various colors and sizes taking up every bit of the free space on a 1/4 inch in diameter metal ring.

The present day reality is that if you shop at a variety of stores and have become a member of multiple programs so you can get those all important discounts, this image might seem all too familiar and insight a headache and some overall nausea….

which, one, to, choose...

Yep, it’s not fun looking at that, but the good news is there is finally an interesting (and potentially revolutionary), albeit buggy solution.

So over the course of this weekend, in an attempt to streamline and organize my life, specifically related to shopping and saving money, I went crazy in the iTunes App Store. In addition to downloading a grocery list app called Grocery IQ (highly recommend it by the way!), I stumbled upon an app called Keyring that allows you to put all your loyalty cards into the app which are then stored on your iPhone (or Android based phone). When you are at the store and want to get your loyalty discounts applied, you just have cue up the appropriate loyalty card in the app upon check out and have the store employee scan it and your discount is applied.

You can enter the cards manually or even use a scanner function to capture the data on the bar-code via your phone’s camera. Despite reports of this not working well for others, it worked fine for me. If a store isn’t in there, you can just enter it in manually without any worries.

So in my mind, this caused great feelings of joy and glee. “Hello keyring with just keys on it!” I though. Well, kinda…. Everything about this app sounds sounds well and good, in theory, but as with most technology, it’s just a wee bit buggy. And it’s a wee bit buggy at the wrong time, like when you need to have your info scanned at the store.

I tried it twice the last few days. Once at Kroger and once at my gym. It didn’t work either time. Bummer…. Good news is that you can always have the employee at the store enter your data manually. Bad news, the people behind you get mad and look at your funny. Odd enough that 100% of people have never seen anyone hand their phone to the cashier at a store to scan it, the fact that it didn’t work either time was cause for people surely thinking, “Look at this guy trying to be cool with his iPhone.” One reason it might not have worked was the fact that I have a screen guard on the phone, the app developer says that’s no good. I’m going to try it without next time and see what happens.

Either way, the future hold good things for this type of app, I’m convinced of that. It’s a logical progression in the empowerment of consumers and just the overall use of technology to consolidate and help make our lives more efficient. The beauty of the app will surely become at some point, it’s ability to tie into other apps like Grocery IQ to push coupons, alerts, limited time deals, etc. to your phone based on your loyalty data and stored shopping lists.

If you are interested in a much more thorough (and well-written) review of the app, you can check out a story the New York Times did on it here.

Tags: , ,

Posted in Technology | 187 Comments »

Do Your Emails Need A Tone Check?

August 24th, 2010 by Chris Strong

You might think that your emails are perfect and that your recipients don’t misinterpret what you’re saying, but you might want to think again.

According to research done by behavioral science professor Nicholas Epley, who is with the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, people only correctly interpret emails slightly over 50% of the time.

Consider some research done by Justin Kruger, a professor at NYU, which found that people only accurately ascertained the meaning of emails (distinguishing sincerity from sarcasm) roughly 56% of the time (as the professor said “A rate not much better than chance”) and you’ll see we’ve got a problem on our hands.

It’s no secret that the issue with email communication is the context you read it in. You are in a vacuum. You read words on a screen without being able to hear the senders tone or see their nonverbal cues (anything from body language to facial expressions). This misinterpretations can lead to negative impacts on business in and out of the workplace, with business clients, as well as friends and family.

So what do you do about it?

Well, you couldcreate a program that helps deal with your email tone. Think grammar or spell check, except for tone. As the story points out, Matt Eldridge apparently was a good salesman in person, but turned people off when he emailed them and could thus not close sales. So, to deal with his issue, he created the ToneCheck program.

Apparently, the program scans the phrases in your emails for emotions and ‘loaded phrases.’ How does it know what a loaded phrase is? Well, through an initial ‘tone tolerance’ check after downloading the program, you can set levels for various emotions that you are willing to communicate.

Is this interesting? Yes. Do I think everyone needs this to help them with their tone? Not really. Sometimes you can easily determine if your emails tone is wrong by, well, just reading your email before you send it.

I mean, take this example on the ToneCheck homepage. Some people might actually write this, but I’d like to think these sort of email communication issues would be few and far between:

Bob,
You should get off your pedestal and listen to your sales team.
They do support you and will do what needs to get done.
Sincerely,
Mary

That’s pretty much the most emotionally confusing email I’ve ever read. First, it seems like Bob’s getting yelled at, then it ends with a ‘Sincerely’ which seems more sarcastic than truly sincere.

So, all in all, I guess I’m intrigued by the application. Heck, I wrote a blog post about it and a lengthy one at that. The research shows that something like this would be helpful, so I can’t dispute that. The cool thing about the program is that apparently, as more people start to use it, it becomes smarter and richer with what it can offer and catch in terms of poor tone, as its database continues to grow.

It’ll be interesting to see where it goes from here. Maybe in 5 years it will even be something that’s built in to our email programs.

Tags: , ,

Posted in Technology | 166 Comments »

Coming Soon… The Apple Liquid Metal iBike?

August 19th, 2010 by Chris Strong

Yep, you read the title of this post correctly. It’s apparently true that Apple has filed a patent for a bicycle.

As an avid cyclist and an Apple fan (not Fan Boy), I’m more than intrigued and excited by this. When you combine the technological know how that Apple has with something like cycling, that has a number of variables that Apple could somehow integrate with, the future for a product like this seems endless.

It’s important to note that from essentially, innovation in the world of cycling has always been confined to:

1.) Making frames and components out of new materials, so they weigh less, enabling riders to move faster.
2.) Building frames with new and improved geometry to maximize the physical output of the riders body.

Aside from carbon fiber dominating the bike frame landscape over the last 5 years and replacing things like aluminum, there really hasn’t been much more evolution.

But this patent, this could begin writing a whole new chapter in cycling….

So, If you think of the Nike + iPod products out there, you’ll get an idea for what this iBike could potentially be about. The iPod + Nike product essentially measures a few key metrics output while an individual is running. With cycling though, the ability to get more rich and robust data, from heart rate, cadence, wind speed, distance, mph, etc. is more than possible. I can only imagine how awesome and more importantly informative in my training, an integrated LCD screen on my bike measuring all this data would be. I literally could talk the most informative levels of trash to my cycling buddies after we finish fighting it out against one another as we climb (i.e. race) up some of the hills in Indian Hill.

As far as the whole liquid metal thing goes, I’m not to sure what to make of that. Apparently Apple has signed a contract with a company called Liquidmetal Technologies so it’s probably a pretty safe bet this will happen. Apparently the material looks like glass, but is infinitely stronger and requires little machining and polishing.

Could this material be the next carbon fiber? If Apple is committed to making it work, I’m willing to put bets down that it will.

My only fear is that this bike, with all the technology that it could have, will be priced so astronomically high that very few cyclists may be able to afford right away.

I’m already salivating over this so I’ll just have to start saving my pennies.

Oh, the only other thing to add here is that apparently this kangaroo will be helping out with the testing of the bike. Maybe not, but it’s still an awesome image.

Tags: , , ,

Posted in Design, News, Technology | 134 Comments »

« Older Entries