The Long Finger of a Friend

And we're not talking the middle one, either...
Have you always thought that texting to a friend or significant other that you're thinking about them was a bit cold?
As noted in Ad Freak, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners' GSP BETA Group has come up with a nice antidote to try to make this exchange of data a bit more human.
Once you and your friend or S.O. both download this nifty little app and entering a virtual room, when you both touch a spot on your phone, each phone vibrates.
Okay, so it's hardly a hand squeeze of support. :) But it shows some good thinking about how to bring the digital world in line (if only) a bit more to the human one. Hand squeezes, back slaps, etc. are ways that we try to give each other a little boost through the day. This makes it a remote activity but perhaps a less remote possibility.
While this is hardly a part of a campaign, it still represents some good really new media thinking by bringing the digital and the human just a bit closer together.

How's It Look?

Envisioning furniture as it might look in your living room can be pretty tricky. Buying it because you think it might look good, then getting home to find out it doesn't, happens all too often.

IKEA's 2013 product catalog uses a number of digital technologies, but the use that caught my eye is how the catalog, a downloadable app and your mobile phone, tablet or computer combine to show you what a piece of IKEA furniture would look like in whichever room you want.

Unlike promotional uses of augmented reality technology in the past (GE's early effort comes to mind), this use of AR addresses the already existing need to get a good idea of how a piece of furniture might look. A nice example of really new media!