Reading Will Never Be the Same

With all the ways that people can express their opinions through comments, post articles bashing other articles, and tell the world their preferences, the only escape from other people’s opinions has been reading a book. No longer.

Jason Johnson and Jason Illian have created a new mobile application called Social Books. Reader use it to leave comments on any paragraph, quote, or excerpt from a book, and even highlight their favorite parts, plus post it all to Facebook and Twitter.

Currently, the application is only available for books in the public domain such as The Great Gatsby. But this will likely soon change.

[Contributed by Hannah Greenberg]

Keep Track

Facebook connects people all over the world as the biggest way of staying in touch with friends and family. Now, in addition to staying connected with others, you can use it to keep track of where your friends are.

Through its “Places” app, Facebook is taking advantage of GPS satellite tracking systems that are installed in phones to allow people to post their current location, which only their friends see.

This app takes keeping up with your friends and their hot spots to a new level. It takes away the hassle of having to call and see where your friends are hanging or also having to ask around to find the hot spots in town.

By using the GPS capabilities of phones that are so familiar to so many people, this app makes keeping track even easier.

[Contributed by Richard Samuel]

Group Gift-Giving Goes Social

Popular auction website eBay may be what you think of when considering a gift for a friend. But how about eBay to ask other friends to help you pay for it?

Facebook has recently partnered with eBay to allow users to share in the cost of buying an item from the fixed-price gift section. Using Facebook Connect, users can form groups, wait for enough money to be pooled between the friends within the group and, when the item’s value is reached, the gift will be mailed to the recipient.

As a great way to save money and to connect with friends, this innovation will change the way people buy gifts. As more and more big name companies jump on the social media bandwagon, eBay has found a new way in to the social-media market.

By linking friends, websites, and online shopping in a way never before seen or possible, Facebook and eBay have created a great example of really new media.

[Contributed by Paige Garson]

Virtually Experience Restaurants

Ever gone to a new restaurant and instantly wanted to leave? Whether due to menu selection, poor service, or décor, trying new restaurants is often a hit or miss. Even after reading reviews or hearing word-of-mouth recommendations from family or friends, nothing is as good as actually trying the restaurant for yourself.

Well, now you can, and without leaving the house or the office.

Everyscape Eats, a new app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users, lets diners explore local restaurants remotely. Use it to search for a restaurant based on cuisine or neighborhood, see the inside and outside of the restaurant with virtual 360-degree views, read menus and reviews, and call the restaurant directly from the app.

Restaurant not to your liking? Drag your screen outside, where neighboring restaurants are tagged and also available for a virtual look. Users can also share their restaurants with friends via email or Facebook.

While only diners in in Boston, Seattle, and San Francisco can use it, New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago are in the works for next year.

Word of mouth? That’s so 20th century.

[Contributed by Taylor Henriquez]

New Ford Interface Mimics Phones and iPods

Recent market research conducted by Ford Motor Company has revealed that young buyers are more attached to their cell phones than to their cars.

This revelation has led Ford to create a design program that would evolve the dashboard controls of their vehicle models to mimic the design of popular cell phones and TV remote controls.

The program was called HAL, and Ford teamed up with the design consultancy Ideo, renowned for developing various electronics for major high-tech companies. Ideo applied the use of ethnographic research to help steer the design direction; they polled everyone from teenagers to airplane pilots. Ford and Ideo also utilized a driving simulator with a PlayStation 2 console and a dashboard of an older Ford Edge model.

The 2011 Ford Edge will be the first model that will feature the new redesigned dashboard controls. Some of the main features of the new dashboard design include the five-point controller on the steering wheel, which mimics a TV remote and an iPod.

A central screen is organized around four corners and four colors to differentiate phone, navigation, climate control and entertainment. The design concept is meant to be flexible, and designers have stated that the system could have a different look in various Ford models.

[Contributed by Daniel Rodriguez]

Jeep campaign integrates Foursquare to reward offroad drivers

There is a certain honor within the Jeep community: thumbs up to fellow drivers, the unspoken appreciation of every passing Liberty or Grand Cherokee, and the understanding by all that if one is a Jeep owner, he or she is by no means limited to traditional traveling. For every Jeep driver, there are also several Twitter accounts, one or two iPhones, and a countless amount of appreciation for social media.

Bring them together (as aspiring copywriter Clay Summers has done in this spec project) and you get a new spin on a traditional Jeep campaign, one that integrates Foursquare technology to bring recognition, a sense of community, and tangible rewards.

Foursquare, of course, allows users to "check in" to locations they frequent. Those who follow them on Twitter will receive updates such as "so-and-so is at Starbucks at 5th avenue," and once that so-and-so checks into that Starbucks enough times, they are presented with gifts and honor: either with gift cards, titles such as "mayor of Starbucks at 5th avenue," or both.

To run with the idea that drivers of their vehicles will be passing through uncharted territory that is not especially host to coffee shop check-in points, Jeep established its own set of locations using GPS navigation and physical landmarks that can be photographed with smartphones and sent directly to the app. Once a driver has passed through enough of these checkpoints, the Jeep Twitter account announces their dedication for all to see, and rewards them further with a free tank of gas for further rugged exploration.

This does not digitize or take away from the "real life" adventurous experience that a true Jeep owner allegedly seeks; it merely supplements it by providing the opportunity to Tweet on the road and receive a payoff for it. Jeep augments the image put forth by their campaign, Foursquare and Twitter are invited once again to the social media party, this time one hosted by the sort of clientele previously untapped to an extent, and Jeep owners get to tell the world just how spontaneous and off-road they are, all the while being reaping the gas-tank benefits.

[Contributed by Alina Yudkevich]

What color is that?

Paint maker Sherwin-Williams may not be on the tip of everyone's tongues when thinking about companies that blaze trails in new media--yet.

Its new mobile application relates colors in the world to colors you find in paint cans, making it point-and-click easy to color your world wherever it may be.

The remade ColorSnap application (launched February 2010) works on iPhones or Blackberries. Using the smartphone camera, users take a picture of a color they like, whether a leaf, a sky noonday or twilight, or a beach or forest trail. The application then identifies the closest match in Sherwin-Williams paint colors (1,500 of them). Of course, it also identifies the closest Sherwin-Williams retailer for those of us who have to have that color right now.

By linking the world's colors to those in a can through a device (smartphones) and activity (snapping a picture) already known and widely used, this is a great example of really new media thinking.

Levi's Inaugurates Social Shopping

For women of all ages, shopping is a pastime as classic as baseball. Beautiful clothes, celebrity endorsements, and the rush of finding a great deal all play a role.

In addition to hunting down their favorite items, today’s consumers are also obsessed with social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. These sites allow users to connect in all sorts of ways with not only their “friends” but with the entire online community.

Retail companies today are just beginning to merge these two worlds, and one such brand taking advantage of their customers’ online lifestyle is Levi’s. What could be more American?

Levi Strauss & Co has begun to implement a new system on their main website, that allows users to browse products and publicly “like” an item via a Facebook button. The shopper can also see how many other Levi’s customers “like” that particular item and the rest of the products on the page, as well as publish their opinions on their Facebook page.

This method of “social shopping” takes the idea of online shopping and seamlessly blends it with the world of social networking. It’s like a trip to the mall--minus the traffic and pretzel stands.

[NOTE: This is the first of what I'm hoping are many postings from my students currently taking my class "Principles of Advertising" at the University of Georgia. This was contributed by Caitlyn Searles.]

Let's Really Go Mobile

Bicycles already get you places. But two examples of melding bicycles to mobile media (GPS, social networks, smart phones) push the envelope.

The Copenhagen Wheel is a kind of wired hubcap to retrofit regular bicycles. It stores energy, releasing it on uphill grades for easier pedaling. But it also turns cycling into an even more social affair, as the release notes. "By using a series of sensors and a Bluetooth connection to the user's iPhone, which can be mounted on the handlebars, the wheel can monitor the bicycle's speed, direction and distance traveled, as well as collect data on air pollution and even the proximity of the rider's friends."

The Social Bicycle System, as explained on the site, is a "public bike share system that uses GPS, mobile communications, and a secure lock that can attach to almost any bicycle and lock to any regular bike rack." It allows users to "find and unlock bikes using a mobile phone [to] provide a viable public transportation alternative"

By augmenting cycling in urban areas using mobile media and social media, these are great efforts.

Twitter Mural for Browsers

People on the street browsing, that is.

Great idea by the Canadian Tourism Bureau to generate awareness about Yanks' reactions to vacationing in Canada.

The video clip really shows how approachable and inviting the iPod-Touch-like interface is for folks walking by on the street. Nicely done.

It's Not Just Me!

When reading up on the Cannes Cyber Grand Prix awards, I came across another way of putting how I've been talking about and evaluating the use of digital technology: whether it fits seamlessly into everyday life. Everything else being equal, if it does, that's really new media.

A recent Advertising Age story on Grand Prix award winners Wieden & Kennedy's "Chalkbot" and DDB Stockholm's "VW: Fun Theory" puts it in terms of technology that was "invisible" rather than call attention to itself as some kind of special thing, and that enabled "real-time interaction" to weld a tight connection between user (experiencer?) and experience.

"The greatest innovations supported 'this notion that technology will reach its peak when you don't even realize it's there,' said Mr. Benjamin, quoting one of the jury members. 'The stuff that was so innovative was the stuff that seemed magical. It had technology, but that's not what was showing.'"

Making (Virtual) Babies

How to tackle the perennial (and important) issue of condom use, for all the reasons we know?

Two Danish digitally inclined designers Peter Ammentorp and Nicolai Villads and interactive designer Raul Montenegro came up with an idea for an on-spec iPhone app to promote Durex condoms.

Rather than irritate its way into a user's consciousness through repetition, it mimics the daily routine of baby care--and the implications of unprotected relations--in a way no conventional ad can do. How do you get the app? Their idea is to gently rub "face to face" two iPhones, then let Bluetooth do the transfer.

Because of the way it brings to everyday life the realities of baby care (and in a fun, jokey way), it's a super example of innovative new media thinking.

Friends Online Are Not Friends Outside the Dressing Room

Just when I thought that any significant efforts at really new media went the way of 2009, along came this.

It only took this long for a company to try to integrate Facebook (and the activity of sharing) with retailing. Clothing maker Diesel gives it a go in this instance with its Diesel Cam.

Watch the video explanation, and you'll see what I mean about this being wholly UNintegrated with everyday life. Put on your garb, run out in your stocking feet, log in to your Facebook account in a dumpy looking kiosk (who's watching your purse/wallet still in the dressing room?) using an equally dumpy touch on-screen "keyboard," then pose. (And do you like that funky 1980s Euro-synth soundtrack? Shades of Abba!)

A fine example of asking much too much of people. Pitch this effort in the trash, and reset.

Where's Spring Fever?

Pretty paltry pickings the past few weeks. May wish to check out the upcoming Webby Awards.

Eyewriter Lets Eyes Write

I can only imagine the isolation experienced by someone paralyzed either by disease or accident.

That's why this award-winning DIY effort is so great. As noted on the website for The Eyewriter, "a low-cost, DIY system can be made that will allow ALS patients, with the help of their family and caregivers, to make visual art. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that when combined with Mobile Broadcast Units, or similar outdoor projection system, a networked version of the EyeWriter can enable patients to have a large-scale, uncurated presence in public spaces."

And this is no MIT Media Lab extravaganza. Again, from the website: "This system is constructed from material found in local Venice Beach hardware and electronics stores and the software is written using an open source set of C++ libraries for creative coding from openFrameworks."

What more could really new media accomplish than a low-cost effort to enable personal, direct composition?

Have a Ball With "The Ball 2010"

How do you get a potentially world-size group of people personally engaged in an event? Let's kick this one around a little bit...

To promote the World Cup in South Africa, organizers will use the journey of a single soccer ball and its use in "organized games of football, in impromptu kick–abouts and in freestyle sessions. From street to stadium, anyone and everyone can engage with The Ball, sign it, kick it and help it along its way."

What a great way to enable people to give a personal, tactical, tangible connection and experience to what otherwise would be--and is--a very remote event.

Is this new media? You bet.

Keep An Eye on CaT

A good organization to keep an eye on regarding technology and creativity is, well, the "Creativity and Technology" group (CaT--like that capitalization?).

It's largely a trade show of sorts, which invites presentations from practicing professionals. Perhaps a little bit on the brainy, conceptual side, it's none-the-less full of great insights into the trajectories today. A huge archive of videos of past presentations at its summertime meetings.

A Flickin' Good Try

Nikon has jumped on the "use-the-webcam" bandwagon with its Coolpix "Virtual Touch" promotion.

Once the software recognizes your body and your hand, a finger wave (instead of a mouse click) flips through a series of online pictures, while a pinching your forefinger and thumb together or moving them apart zooms in or zooms out of whichever image you're viewing.

It's an idea with potential, but as yet not fully a part of day-to-day life. It's easy to imagine "sometime in the future" where we might control a video display this way. But I couldn't get it to work very well.

And, compared to running into a friend unexpectedly and whipping out an iPod, iPhone, or other touchpad-equipped device that people normally carry anyway, cranking up your computer just to view pictures by flicking your finger doesn't yet make much sense.

An "A" for effort, but "C+" for execution.

Share Instead of Fight

What two things do all urban drivers have? Antiacid pills to calm the nerves when cruising the blocks looking for parking, and a cell phone.

A new iPhone app can't do anything about sour stomachs, but it can do something about parking. ParkShark lets people collaborate over parking rather than fight over it.

According to its promo copy, it makes the most sense for use in big urban areas with little onstreet parking and lots of residents who rely on it.

As the promo copy goes, the app puts people in real-time contact with each other who want to share a parking place (think of people working different shifts, for example). "Once you specify the time your spot will be available, it is visible to the other members who are searching for a spot."

Not only is it a social-networking app, it incorporates self-policing through user ratings a-la selling services such as eBay and Amazon. It displays "available spaces to those members with good ratings before displaying to other members. This encourages you to be a good ParkShark citizen and build a strong user rating. Good citizens are those that share and reserve in a reliable and consistent manner with infrequent cancellations."

This is some great new-media thinking: Working with and within already established daily routines and capabilities while directly addressing an already existing problem. Now if it only works...

Read 'em

Forget the typical industry books describing examples of new media in advertising. Check out instead either/both of these: Christina Spurgeon, Advertising and New Media (New York: Routledge, 2008), and Andrew McStay, Digital Advertising (New York: Palgrave, 2010).