8 months ago
CoffeeCompany WiFi headlines.
Holland’s largest chain of coffee shops is called CoffeCompany. They wanted to attract more students, so they installed WiFi in some of its stores near universities. The problem is, lots of students just come into the store for the WiFi but hardly look at the menu.
So CoffeeCompany decided to move the store’s menu into the WiFi menu of customers’ laptops. They periodically changed the wireless network name from the normal “CoffeeCompany” to hard-selling headlines. So as students looked for a network, they found menu lines such as “mmm….YummyMuffinsOnly1,99″
Agency: They Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
via stepa
1 year ago
Procter & Gamble sells Pringles for $2.35 billion - yes, billion
An unlikely marriage of innovative packaging, food engineering and super-consistent branding, Pringles was sold this week to Diamond Foods.
This New York Times article offers a fascinating history of Pringles. When first launched in the late 60s, they were the result of over ten years of R&D by P&G. Since the mid 50s, they had been trying to find a way to leverage their cooking oil expertise and distribution network to create a snack food brand.
Their unique form and packaging of Pringles was due to the constraints created by P&G’s other products: Mainly soaps and oils, their weight and lifespan meant that P&G’s distribution model couldn’t cope with shorter-shelf-life and fragility of traditional crisps.
The P&G employee who eventually solved all these problems was a chemist called Frederic Baur - who engineered a consistently shaped crisp by pressing dehydrated potato flakes into a mould. He also came up with the ubiquitious can as a means of protecting the product in transit.
This functional solution became so much a part of the brand’s success that Frederic Baur asked for his ashes to be interred in a Pringles can when he died in 2008.
There’s an aspiration for us all: Create a brand solution so strong that you’re buried with it!
1 year ago
MIT Media Lab Identity: 40,000 permutations, one brand.
It’s rare enough that we we look at a new corporate identity with slack-jawed wonder - but this stopped us in our tracks.
To mark 25 years of innovation, MIT Media Lab commissioned former student Richard The (working at agency The Green Eyl) to create a new brand identity.
He delivered a result as clever and innovative as the client: An algorithmic device that generates a new visual identity for each user - while still sustaining visual consistency and recognition for the brand.
Given the visionary students that give the Media Lab it’s well-earned reputation, this was an innovative way to reflect the ideas and aspirations of the individuals who study there as well as the institution itself.
And as a footnote - This story reminded us of how much Ireland lost when MediaLab Europe closed down in 2005. (Sigh.)
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Big thanks to Stepa for the find.
via stepa
1 year ago
Packs that really light up the shelf…
We’ve often talked about how successful consumer packaging is designed to act as a beacon to over-stimulated consumers from the tiny platform of a supermarket shelf.
Well, if the vision of a company called eCoupled is to be believed, that metaphor may become literal. They’ve created prototype cereal boxes that light up when placed on their proprietary powered shelf.
This company is actually in the business of finding practical applications for their wireless power technology - some of which could be quite useful - but we’re pretty sure that flashing, screeching packs would quickly evolve from appealing to annoying.
Thanks to @movingbrands for the find.
(Source: crave.cnet.co.uk)
1 year ago
How (and why) to think & act like a designer
If you have 10 minutes to spare on a sunny Friday, check out this presentation by Fred Durst from design practice IDEO. He makes an evangelical (and witty) case for the power of design to change behaviour, and how we can all “think like designers” to create a better world.
(I’ve made it sound irritatingly smug; just trust me - it’s worth a look.)
Thanks to Tumblr-pal creativeinspiration: for the find.
via creativeinspiration
2 years ago
Want to reach a customer’s heart? Try their stomach.
There is something very American about this idea - yet it is also quite appealing. (At least to a sweet tooth like me.)
In two relatively disparate market sectors - hotels and airlines - two established US brands have built their brand difference on giving fresh-baked cookies to customers. (Click on the picture to read a NYT article about these accidental confectioners.)
Midwest Airlines started their cookie-iniative in the mid 80s, after an inquisitive employee discovered that the (rather limited) in flight cooking facilities were actually great for baking cookies. Just imagine the powerful aroma of baking as it wafts around the confines of a plane: It would be a sensory overload hard to resist, and creates a tangible promise of real hospitality in an industry better known for plasticity and discomfort.
Hotel group DoubleTree Hotels’s commitment to the cookie promise extended to refit of all their reception desks: Each now has a heated “cookie drawer” to keep them warm and ready for each guest’s arrival. In a sector where the promise of a warm welcome is frequently diluted by a cold reality, the gesture of a warm cookie makes a memorable difference.
Caveats do apply: Yes, the idea is not very on-message for current worries about obesity and healthy eating: Yes, the idea is relatively generic and easy to copy; And yes, one warm cookie will not solve an otherwise dreadful customer experience. But as a way to turn a brand promise into a memorable and tangible experience, these warm cookie are a powerful tool.
2 years ago
As print-media gently slides into the abyss created by the worldwide recession, all eyes are on the forthcoming Apple Tablet - and other similar ideas - as possible saviours. These new communication devices could be particularly important for magazines, which haven’t been served well by the typical web viewing experience.
However, there is a particular challenge in how magazines will be experienced on a tablet device: For starters, designing a tablet-based magazine requires a hybrid of skills: From user interface design, to the creation of a layouts that engage the user as powerfully as a printed layout.
Swedish media group Bonnier and UK agency Berg have created a fascinating video of their R&D process as they start to explore how to solve these problems: It’s well worth a look, as are their respective blogs on the topic. A San Francisco based IA firm called Kicker is now working on turning these ideas into a “robust prototype”, according to their blog - watch this space!
We’re very excited by the way the values of print-centric design are starting to be demanded for screen-based communication. Perhaps because web-based design typically has to convey so much information to the viewer, its visual language has become dominated by complexity and detail. The ease, engagement and communicative power of a printed spread has never truly been matched by the on-screen experience - but perhaps the tide is now starting to turn.
All credit to finding this video goes to a fellow Tumblr user called Dugan.
2 years ago
This delightful animation explains the innovative applications that may follow from the development of “printable batteries” - power sources so small and thin that they can be printed in a magazine, or woven into a garment.
It’s taken from the fascinating (and lethally distracting) “Year in Ideas” issue of the New York Times Magazine, which we found via @bbhlabs.
The animation was produced by Labour, and illustrated by Justin Fines.
2 years ago
We’re always keeping an eye out for creative ideas to make the coffee experience even better… This one would work a treat, once you’re in arms reach of a radiator!
As winter’s cold creeps in, we all revel in the little things to keep cozy. The Natural Wave is ceramic plate that fits over an old school radiator. The heated plate keeps your drinks and snacks warm without having to use additional power and energy like a microwave or oven. Pretty ingenious and if anything, it makes those old rusty radiators look a lot better.
via creativeinspiration
2 years ago
This quote from Ken Chenault, American Express Chief Executive, is from the British Design Council’s website. It’s part of a comprehensive and well-argued article on why investment in design is essential in tough times.
Reading the article from an Irish perspective, it’s hard not to be envious of the tax credits on offer from the UK government when investing in design. A similar offer from the Irish Government would put some real muscle behind their aim of creating an “innovation economy”.
Thanks to @smudgedesign for the find.
