In a special session filmed during the PSFK CONFERENCE NYC 2011, leading marketers talked about how mobile tags could be used in marketing communications. Speakers from Microsoft, Womans Day Magazine, QR Arts and 2D Bracode Strategy explained the creative uses of mobile tags in advertising and product promotion.
First seen on www.psfk.com
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Application Hosting, Managed Service Hosting, Retail IT Solutions | Tagged: Advertising, Agencies, Business, London, Marketing and Advertising, Microsoft | 
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Posted by david ricketts
We have looked at this technology a number of times and now it appears that Aurasma is really gaining momentum. Below is a press release from their site taliking about how Tottenham Hotspur are the first football team to adopt the technology.
LONDON — October 1, 2011 — Tottenham Hotspur has launched a revolutionary new way of communicating with fans by delivering quality video content using Aurasma – a new technology for mobile devices developed by the Club’s Premier League sponsor Autonomy – which recognises key ‘triggers’, kicking off with the team shirt, official team photo and Club badge.
Aurasma is the world’s first visual browser. Running on your mobile device, Aurasma recognizes and understands real-world images and objects – much the same way the human brain does – and then seamlessly blends them with interactive multimedia content such as videos and animations called “Auras”.
Fans can now point their Aurasma-enabled iPhones and iPads at the front of this season’s Tottenham Hotspur Premier League shirt to launch footage of this season’s Premier League goals. The videos will be updated throughout the season and will include, for example, exclusive, behind-the-scenes footage from around the Club, player interviews and news. Even photos of Spurs players wearing the Premier League shirts, when reproduced in newspapers, will be able to trigger video content – provided the photo includes a ‘trigger’ such as the front of the shirt and the Aurasma logo.
To get closer to the team than ever before, all fans have to do is download the Official Spurs News App to their iPhone 4 or iPad 2.
The Official Spurs News App is already packed full of exclusive features, including live commentary from every first team match and can now, thanks to Aurasma, bring the Club’s merchandise to digital life. In addition, fans will also be able to use the Spurs App to create their own Auras and share them with their friends.
In addition to the Premier League shirt, Tottenham Hotspur has also created the first ever Aurasma-enabled official team photo. Wherever the official 2011/2012 team photo appears – newspapers, on postcards or even posters – the players will instantly come to life in video when viewed with Aurasma. As with the team shirt and official team photo, the historic Club badge delivers video too – in this case, classic goals from Tottenham Hotspur’s 20 consecutive years in the Premier League.
Tottenham Hotspur Executive Director, Donna-Maria Cullen, said, “Aurasma is an exciting technology and provides a new way to engage with our fans. It allows us to share exclusive, behind-the-scenes video content in totally new ways. We are extremely proud to be the first ever Premier League club to bring the Aurasma experience to fans.”
To date, two million users have downloaded Aurasma and Aurasma-enabled applications such as the Official Spurs News App. Over 400 commercial partners are now using the technology in campaigns or have embedded Aurasma into their own applications, including Panasonic, GQ magazine, J D Wetherspoons, Hyundai, Magners and Virgin Atlantic.
Aurasma’s Managing Director, Martina King, said, “We’re delighted to be partnering with such a historic club to bring football home to fans in a completely new way. This is just the beginning – Aurasma is going to transform the way we all see and interact with the world. For the first time, it brings an interactive multimedia experience to newspapers and magazines, product packaging, clothing and even physical places. And best of all, Aurasma’s really useful – whether for example it’s showing an easy to follow video of assembly instructions on a box of Ikea flat-pack furniture, a Jamie Oliver video on a jar of pasta sauce, or simply enabling the sports pages of red tops like The Sun or The Mirror to instantly come to life with match highlights.”
I have dropped a video below to highlight the technology:
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Posted by david ricketts
Westfield Stratford City Shopping Centre in London is the first place in the UK to place a commercial order for the award winning Pavegen, which uses kinetic energy to turn footsteps into electricity.
It’s the brain baby of 25-year-old Pavegen Systems Ltd director Laurence Kemball-Cook, who realised that human footfall is a criminally wasted source of energy. To harness those steps, Kemball-Cook and his team made the rubber Pavegen slab.
Here’s how it works. Littered throughout normal paving slabs you’ll find these colourful rubber steps that flex very slightly (an unnoticeable 5mm) when stepped on. The innards absorb that kinetic energy and either store it in a lithium polymer battery or instantly pump it to nearby electronics.
It’s all made from recycled materials (recycled aluminium for the internal components and the steps are made with rubber from old tires) and each step has an estimated life of about five years of use, or 20 million steps. Oh, and when you step on a tile it emits a faint glow (using 5 percent of energy produced), to say thanks.
The London retail hub gets about 30 million shoppers a year, so that’s plenty of steps to harvest. Plus, the slabs will be placed heavily trafficked crossing outdoors between the shopping centre and the London 2012 Main Stadium. As the paving stones create 2.1 watts of electricity per hour, the energy will be used to subsidise the shopping centre’s lighting system.
thanks to http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-09/30/pavegen-in-london-shopping-centre
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Energy development, Kinetic energy, London, Pavegen, Shopping mall, Westfield Stratford City | Permalink
Posted by david ricketts
In The Times yesterday was a fantastic article about Westfield‘s new shopping centre in Stratford City which lies next to the 2012 Olympic site. The development has seen massive interest from retailers and Westfield have recently sold 50% of the scheme; a year before opening, to the Dutch pension fund APG and the Canada Pension Plan investment Board for £871.5 million apparently giving Westfield a £150 million profit.
Although the information is interesting in itself, further statistics were released about shopping for online and offline shoppers. American retailers are working with web companies to develop even more creative ways of getting online shoppers into real bricks and mortar businesses, the reason conversion rates. Although online sales are growing faster than those of traditional shops 93% is still done in person and this is not expected to drop in the near to mid-term and the conversion rates also outstrip there online rates too.
Statistics recently released show that online conversions run at as little as 3%, compared to 20% in retail clothes stores, 60% in electronics stores and 95% in supermarkets, however online does influence as much as 42% of retail sales due to research undertaken before purchase. So the new push is now to look at developing strategies that allow customers to use their smartphones to shop online and in store at the same time, thus increasing conversion rates of in store shopping. It is clear that companies now need not only to reward shoppers with discounts/coupons on purchases but also rewards for simple browsing.
It would seem that organisations like Westfield now have a fantastic opportunity to deliver real value to their clients both online and instore, it is plain that shopping in the real world is not dead it is just that people are better informed.
Leave a Comment » | Marketing, Retail IT Solutions | Tagged: 2012 Summer Olympics, Canada Pension Plan, London, Online and offline, Pension fund, retail, Retailing, Shopping mall, Westfield, Westfield Group, Westfield Stratford City | Permalink
Posted by david ricketts
Image by H4NUM4N via Flickr
C24 presented to a number of leading Birmingham business figures yesterday at the Birmingham Science Park Aston. The presentation highlighted the current situation within social media and the direction, plus looked at how businesses could benefit from a social media strategy.
The discussion after was interesting as it highlighted the talent within gaming, creative IT and social media, that is within Birmingham and the West Midlands and how this talent was disappearing to other areas of the UK or worse to other countries. The general consensus was that we really need to develop a cohesive strategy in Birmingham to promote the region and its talent in digital media, whether this be gaming, social media or mobility as it seems that there is a fear that if we don’t we could be just another ‘commuter’ town for people working in London.
The reach and scale of social media, we believe could help us position and at the same time create awareness for Birmingham and the fantastic talent that we undoubtedly have, we really need to start to drive this home.
Leave a Comment » | Marketing | Tagged: Aston Villa F.C., Birmingham, Birmingham City F.C., Business, England, London, Science Park Aston, Social media, West Midlands | Permalink
Posted by david ricketts
The application hosting business at C24 is gaining incredible momentum to such a level that we have had to increase our footprint within one of our datacentres. The business has decided to put further investment into a full POD at the site. This development is fantastic for C24 as we are seeing not only the hosting business but the systems integration side go from strength to strength. The increase in business has also seen us add three new heads within the business two on the helpdesk and one in the back office.
Unfortunately we are unable to show to many images due to the high level of security however i will attempt to get permission to show a few more of the C24 area from the owners of the centre.
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Posted by david ricketts
