i [love] marketing.

New Report: Sharing is the new buying

You can see the full report Download Sharing-new-buying-collaborative-economy-report. It's a pretty comprehensive reference for those interested in collaborative economy. Recommended.

Instagram is a wonderful place to shop

Clothes and cityscapes. Clothes and food. Clothes and sunsets. That's what I mostly like on Instagram. So fashion brands being there is mostly a gigantic bonus for me. It turns out, I am definitely not the only one, as Instagram is quickly becoming one of the top online shopping destinations. While e-commerce is still not part of the app, the browsing - a.k.a. the virtual window shopping is. Instagram strengths are in the really careful curation of displayed items (the bar for artsy/beautiful/lifestyle photos on Instagram is pretty high) that are interspersed with the photos of friends (and food. and sunsets). More than impersonal Facebook or Twitter update blasts, meant for mass audience, Instagram photos exude a sense of craftsmanship and personality (while also being meant for wide audience). 

A free advice for fashion brands: post a link to displayed products for each of your photos. Drive users to product page. Every opportunity is conversion opportunity. You'd not believe how much traffic you'll get.

Image above is a pic of Prada magazine ad, from my Instagram account.

 

 

In praise of unfairness, by Benedict Evans

I came across this excellent Benedict Evans' post on unfairness as a positive competitive advantage over at Responsive.org. Great read, you can find Benedict's whole post here.

Let me tell you a Good STORY

Story is a concept store on Manhattan that updates its theme and products ever week. To add a do-good twist to the store, its founder, Rachel Shechtman, partnered with notorious social entrepreneurs, like TOMS and FEED Project, to create a brand new Good STORY. The Good STORY will run until June 1, and every item for purchase has a direct positive social impact. My takeaway: more brands, traditionally sustainable or not, should embrace the STORY idea. It’s all about the concept stores these days, anyway. Might as well do some good with it.

How do you feel? Let this app tell you

 

There is an ever increasing number of people who claim that their relationship with technology is a deeply emotional endeavor. Just look at “Her:” humans are depicted as emotional-connection craving beings; in return, technology wanted nothing but independence from us. Interesting as it may be, there is a real happening in the next-gen apps that monitor our heart rate, facial expressions and warmth of our skin to understand whether we are happy, cranky or tired.

The so-called “emotional data layer” can indeed help our interactions. It can make them more personalized, effective or more fun. In other words, it can make an experience more seamless a.k.a usable.

The ultimate role of emotional technology is better usability. I like this thought.

Lord of the Rings

This ring is the lord of them all. It’s something like the Sauron of rings. By putting it on, you can write anything you want in the air, and all the machines and humans around you will obey. Well, maybe not the humans. But you get the idea.

The ring’s magical powers are due to the combo of Bluetooth, a touch sensor, a few motion sensors, LED, vibration motor and a connection with iPhone. It’s the iPhone that actually reads all that air-writing and executes commands.

While the mechanism can seem a bit clunky and unintuitive (um, writing in the air?), this idea is pretty much aligned with where the gestural interactions and invisible technology are going. Check out the Ring’s Kickstarter here.

 

The ultimate guide to collaborative economy movers and shakers

I don't see AirPnP here, but hey. 

First Kiss and the birth of invisible advertising

The “First Kiss” video gets me every time. It doesn’t matter that, in addition to being the first kiss among two strangers, it is also a very very clever ad for a clothing company Wren. The video has gotten a considerable traction on YouTube (79 million views and counting).

Despite some negative reactions ("this is advertising!!"), I really love both the idea and its execution. In the age when invisible technology is all the rage, why should invisible advertising be looked down upon?