Chalkbot chalk's up my vote as creative idea of the month

Nike and Neil Armstrong's cancer foundation Livestrong create a robot called The Chalkbot that paints user's messages along the streets of the Tour De France.

You can send in your message via the campaign's website, text messages, or Twitter.

Watch the Chalkbot in action or submit your own message here.

QR Codes slowly being adopted in North America

Since 2007, QR Codes have been a mainstay on billboards and print advertisements in Japan. Here in North America, it appears that only highly tech-savvy people have shown interest in this potentially groundbreaking marketing tool.

QR or Quick Response Codes look like this:

Application developers have created mobile phone apps such as BeeTagg, that allow you to snap a picture of a QR Code that in turn will send you to a URL or display some text. The code above will take you to Wikipedia's main mobile page.

Campaigns that include billboards with QR Codes are being used in North America, but not with nearly as much frequency as in Japan.

The National Post has recently printed small QR Codes in their publications to encourage those who have abandoned reading a traditional paper to read their news articles via a mobile phone. See the National Post using QR Codes here, or watch this video for further explanation.

Iran election crisis proves Social Media can be the best source for news

The very touchy subject that is the latest Iran election and the subsequent protests has become an eye-opener to many about the speed of obtaining news through Social Media.

From the beginning of the election, results were being tracked through Social Media. The controversial Iranian Presidential results spread like wildfire through numerous websites, including Twitter. Where things got interesting is when Twitter's host NTT America delayed a scheduled maintenance downtime due to the abundance of Twitter activity around the election. It appears Twitter was not keen on blanketing the news flowing from Iran to the rest of the World.

Multiple Social Media outlets have continued to cover the situation since the beginning. Mashable Blogger Ben Parr has documented how Social Media has covered the chain of events in a timeline seen here.

Keep everyone on the same page with a Wiki

Technological advancements in Wiki software are broadening the range of businesses that could benefit from using a Wiki.

I used to think Wikis were only clearly effective if used by large companies or a consortium of businesses that needed a collaborative area to upload, read, and edit documents. After doing a bit more research, it has become obvious to me that almost any business of any size can benefit from using a Wiki.

On a large scale, Wikis can be used by a consortium of businesses that are in geographically distant locations to make changes or edits to the same document residing on their wiki software platform.

On a small scale, a start-up two person partnership venture could use a wiki for financial spreadsheets to reside on, so either partner could keep them up to date.

Just as the uses of a wiki change depending on the type of business and its needs, the number of wiki software platforms to accommodate those needs has increased coincidingly. Mediawiki has a completely free Wiki software package you can download from their site, though the time it might take to familiarize yourself with the syntax and coding might be discouraging. Sites claiming to have a more quick and easy learning curve include PBworks, Wikispaces, and Socialtext.

meetup.com puts the social back in social networking

While the vast majority of my peers have embraced social networking sites as a way to connect, keep in touch, and communicate with others, there are still a few who argue these online conversations take the human one-on-one aspect out of the picture. I would have a hard time arguing that communicating in an online world has the intimacy of an in-person chat, and that's why meetup.com has put the social back in social networking.

meetup is an events based social networking website that claims to be the World's largest network of local groups. What meetup does is ultimately "make it easy for anyone to organize a local group or find one of the thousands already meeting up face-to-face."

You make a personal profile just as you would with any Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn account, and you browse through "meetups" in your local community. I am most interested in attending business networking meet-and-greet groups, but the wide range of possible meetups include groups about parenting, dance, hiking, dating, and many more.

meetup.com takes the online realm to the real world. So, the next time someone tells you that social networking sites are hurting genuine, old-fashioned, in-person chats, tell them about meetup.com.

Ecological creative simplicity at its finest.

It is almost always the simplest of ideas that are the greatest. This morning when I was engaging in my ritualistic search for creativity, I stumbled upon yet another great idea that is almost painfully simple.

Andrea Romani is an environmental consultant who had to find a way to produce her business cards in the most eco-friendly manner possible. Most businesses are requesting cards that are made from recycled paper or from trees grown in sustainable practice forests. Romani decided that using any new form of paper for a business card was wasteful. Instead, her card is a stamp that can be used on any previously used paper. Take a look at her business cards on carton paper, cigarette packs, napkins, or just about anything.

Integrating the right social media mix

More now than ever, we are all trying to improve our online brand presence. There are numerous Social Networking tools that are being used effectively by some to do this. Now, before going overboard and trying to leverage each and every one of them, you have to think about the right mix and integration for your business.

Jumping into social networking head first and simply signing up for everything is like trying to shoot a fly with an elephant gun. One of the tools you use might actually be accomplishing your objective, but which one is it?

Doing some research on each Social Media tool and coming to a definitive conclusion of the marketing objectives they can and can't accomplish seems to be a reasonable first step.

Once the most beneficial Social tools are decided upon, they must be properly integrated! Some companies have Facebook groups, but don't have any links to the group on their corporate web site. The Facebook group page on it's own will not sustain itself unless it is integrated into the other Social Tools you are using.

Decide what objectives you want to accomplish, determine what Social Media tools can assist you, and link them all to one another.

Microblogging

Microblogging is the official term used to describe the massive trend erupting in the form of Twitter, Plurk, Jaiku, and the recently redesigned Facebook. If you haven't heard this term yet, get ready, because it's going to be coming at you from all angles very shortly.

What is Microblogging? Well, if you're reading this then you're probably aware of what a blog is. A 'micro' blog allows a user to post text updates (usually 140 characters or less), photos, links, or audio from either a mobile device or the web. Microblogging takes the traditional model of blogging about current topics to a more immediate level. This is illustrated well with Twitter's prompt, "What are you doing?"

Why is microblogging blowing up? While traditional blogging can require some research, style, and effort, a microblog takes up only 140 characters. The short messages work perfectly for a young generation not intent on focusing on one web page, application, or device for too long. Cellphone applications like TwitterBerry, Twitterific, and Tweetfon allow users to follow their Twitter social network where ever they go. This cellphone crazed demographic can't get enough socially connective applications. With microblogs being so short, users can text a brief status update from their phone in seconds. What the microblogger may or may not be aware of, is that by repeatedly blogging they are adding the user generated content to the website that keeps it continuously fresh and current.

Possibly the main reason there is such a marketing fuss over microblogging is its relative infancy. It falls under the growing social media category that many businesses are dipping their toes into, but are hesitant to dive in head first. Many new ways are being developed to leverage these social networking sites, like Senator John McCain's recent live interview via Twitter deemed a 'Twitterview'. Other companies are creating branded Twitter profiles, like The New York Times, who post captions of articles they have written with a link to their web site and the full story.

One of the newest uses for microblogs is enterprise microsharing. It is a way for corporate office workers to not only communicate to each other, but for file storage, filtering and tagging purposes. Check out Communote as an example of this.

Trends in advertising (The 3rd Screen)

What is the 3rd screen? Probably the device you hold more near and dear than any other...your smartphone. Do you think that your precious, super personal phone is immune to marketers and advertising? Think again.

Average response rate to an online advertising campaign, 3%.
Average response rate to mobile campaigns..................... 13%

How can there be such a dramatic difference?

I chalk it up to being because people do really believe that their cellphones are the most personal item they own. People have a genuine love for their cellphones that they don't have for their personal computers. They like using their cellphones as much as possible, even if it means purchasing branded applications.

The most common mobile advertising is SMS advertising. Since I changed from a 'basic' phone to a smartphone I haven't gotten anymore of these, but I remember getting rather intrusive and random SMS advertising messages from time to time before the switch.

You better get used to it too. Estimates predict 5 billion in mobile advertising dollars to be spent in America by 2011. That's a lot of 2 inch messages. But messages and video aren't the only way to build your brand image. iphone sells an average of 1 million dollars worth of branded applications a day!

Trends in advertising (post 5)

Broadband killed the television store.

That's mine, don't use it... So with websites like hulu where you can stream almost any television show on earth, television seems to be becoming old news. Many of the television networks have full episodes available on their websites. It seems that this is even putting PVR's to rest. If you have a laptop with an internet connection, you can watch the show whenever you want, where ever you want. I was thinking the other day that the only reason I ever watch TV is because of the big picture on my 46" screen. That's it!

If you notice on the websites that stream television programs, you have no ch0ice but to watch the advertisments. They have effectively solved the PVR problem of fast forwarding the commercials. The convenience of watching the show at your leisure on your computer is enough that people don't mind watching the advertisments! Amazing isn't it?

Trends in advertising (post 4)

Brand Utility. Sum it up by saying something useful to you brought to you by a certain brand. This can be an extremely effective and powerful marketing tool. Imagine your daughter goes to teach English in Japan and the only way you can keep in contact with her is through Skype. Wouldn't you have a positive brand image of Skype? Of course you would. The iphone, or any smartphone for that matter, is a perfect opportunity for companies to use brand utility. Google maps seems to be owning the GPS and maping aspect of cellphones. Mapquest had a great opportunity to capitalize here, but seems to have missed the boat.

Trends in advertising (post 3)

The twitter epidemic. I'm sure that everyone has at least heard of this by now. If status updates on faecbook wasn't enough to let the world know what you are doing at all times, Twitter now makes sure they do. A twitter user can realistically post things like "taking a shower" "combing my hair" "Grabbing a bowl of cereal" "driving to work" etc etc etc. If you ask me, someone would have to think they are pretty important to think anyone would actually CARE! Twitter users have essentially eliminated the need for saying "What's up?" or "How was your day?", becuase if you would have read his/her twitter posts you would have known they were "Having a terrible day".

Trends in advertising (post 2)

One of my favorite pieces of Guerilla marketing is the "kit-kat bench".
Seen here.

This one, for a children's hair cutting salon, is brilliant. The phone number tabs look just like long bangs infront of the kids faces. This is low budget, well executed, and maintains its effectiveness as phone numbers are taken.

A little bit of a more risky idea is a shopping bag for a condom shop that looks like you are grabbing a male or female crotch. Take a look. Dont know exactly how effective this one will be, but definitely an eye cathing display.

Trends in advertising (post 1)

The blog I have been following for some time now is www.psfk.com. The site features great new and interesting advertising campaigns, cultural themes, and design.

The most recent thing I thoroughly enjoyed was an article about the most complained about adverts of the year. http://www.psfk.com/2009/01/australias-most-complained-about-adverts-of-2008.html

Another article featured on psfk is this great piece of work done by adbusters in Berin. http://www.psfk.com/2009/01/advertisements-get-a-street-art-photoshop-makeover.html