Tales from the Bleeding Edge
Well, this session was pretty "out there" and often had little to do with the web. One of the demos failed miserably (I guess Steve Jobs wasn't running rehearsals), and one was a real stretch as far as technology was concerned. But I must confess, it was fascinating and engaging, certainly entertaining. Six panelists presented some cool stuff.
Marc Ruxin of McCann and Bill Capodanno of Microsoft were the most tame presenters. They talked about some of Microsoft's less traditional initiatives, and mentioned the Microsoft "Surface Computing Device" (remember the table computer?) spoof on Youtube. Microsoft wants to spend 50% of media in digital, and is willing to take the risks to test it. I guess McCann's in the right place.
Patrick Ream of Next IT showed off their Avatars, in particular "SGT. STAR", your friendly and informative online host of Army.com. Sgt. STAR has generated some amazing web stats: average sessions of 19.5 minutes, session quality 180 times better than the "normal surfer". Better than your average Army recruiter, I'm sure. It's quite engaging. Google it.
Next, Larry Harris of Ansible (an Interpublic company), which works to develop and deploy mobile advertising and marketing solutions. Larry showed his mobile barcode system-- how should I describe it? -- you take a picture of an ad with a cellphone and, bingo!, you get presented relevant content (except the demo didn't work). Anyway, take his word for it, it's a great way to extend the outdoor or magazine ad and allow viewers to dig deeper via mobile communications.
Karen Rostmeyer talked about "Dutch Umbrella", her free citywide umbrella lending project which started in Philadelphia. Very similar to the Dutch "borrow a bike" system (get it-- Dutch + umbrella?), you simply pick up an umbrella at a participating location (café, store, etc.) when it starts raining and drop it off at another one when it stops raining. It's a great ad medium and a good magnet for merchants. So far, it's been very popular and a nice example of thinking outside the box.
Of course they saved the best for last...
Olivier Barth of Total Immersion showed us his unbelievable virtual demo system, Augmented Reality. Take a product box, in this case a Lego Mindstorm tractor, "show it" to the video camera and-- VOILA'!-- you get a totally cool 3D animation/product demo which you can actually control. Olivier drove the tractor around the table, had it climb a virtual ramp, etc. It's hard to describe unless you see it in person, but the in-store merchandising possibilities are endless, not to mention the cool things you can do online. You should have heard the "OOHS" and "AAHS" of the audience. Their website (www.t-immersion.com) will give you a better idea, as a picture is worth a thousand words.
