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.