When I was young, radio shows such as American Top 40, or Billboard were the established authorities on determining the most popular artist or album.
The internet has revolutionised the distribution of music and it’s no surprise that there is no shortage of innovation in the delivery of informational services.

Recognising that popularity includes discussions, consumption as well as purchase, the BBC has created an index of bands and tracks.

The index is updated every 6 hours, using IBM’s Semantic Super Computing which scans sites such MySpace, Bebo, Last.fm, iTunes, Google, YouTube, monitoring conversations, music listened to, artists watched, and songs downloaded, to establish the most popular 1000 artists and tracks on the web.

The more conversations an artist or song receives and the more it is is downloaded or played, the higher up the Sound Index they are listed.

The Sound Index can also be filtered based on genre, location of people and age group.

Whilst you are unable to "click through" to the actual conversations for a given artist, this index represents a good indicator of their marketing performance.

I can see these type of measures being applied to almost any industry or category. The Food Index, The Restaurant Index, even the Agency Index.
Are you monitoring what is being said about your brand or service?

New interactive technologies can help to bring brands or big ideas to life.
Bullseye in partnership with 808South are pleased to announce Australia’s first client demonstration of the iBar™.

Speaking about the technology, Ian Farmer Senior Brand Strategist for Bullseye said

“The iBar™ has received many innovation awards in Europe and we are excited about the digital possibilities this technology can provide to Australia. Designing a creative set of interactive experiences is an integral part of producing a rewarding and engaging brand interaction”.

Intelligent surface system

iBar™ takes consumer interaction to a new level. Integrated video projectors beam content onto the bar surface and the intuitive tracking system creates a new connection between real life products and dynamic digital content. This turns the bar into a giant touch sensitive screen allowing multiple people to interact with the content at the same time.
Coloured lights, animations or any rich media content can illuminate, link and follow every movement of a hand, bottle or glass.

The iBar™ software consists of two parts – tracking and displaying. All objects are tracked and their position is transmitted to the displaying-software. The displaying software can be adapted to your needs. The use of pictures, text, movies, animations or any visual content is possible. iBar™ is a modular, stand alone system that can be configured to suit your needs. The modules are 2m long and can be linked together to form a seamless interactive surface of virtually any length.

The iBar™’s can also be networked wirelessly to allow interaction between two or more separate units. Content can also be streamed via the net and bars can be fitted with Bluetooth technology to allow consumers to download content. Each portable module consists of its own cameras, projectors and computers. Any number of iBar™ modules are available for hire on short and long-term arrangements.

One of the emerging technologies that we have been researching is semacodes.
Semacodes look a little like an out of focus crossword puzzle, but are actually used to provide information to mobile phones.

Usually, the code or tag contains information such as a URL which the phone captures via it’s camera function.  This overcomes one of the barriers to using mobile phones for internet access, which is typing in long addresses.

This code shown here actually points to the URL http://www.bullseye.com.au/mobi which is a site we have created containing some useful mobile site links, along with a mobile version of this blog.

This link lets you tag any URL to create your own semacode.

Semacode readers are included on many new phones such as Nokia’s N95, but will also run on any recent camera phone if you download and install the free reader.

Here are some download links
Nokia http://mobilecodes.nokia.com/terms.htm
Other http://semacode.com/download
If you have web access from your phone you can simply go to http://www.i-nigma.mobi which automatically recognises if your phone supports the reader and provides a direct download (it’s about 400k).
Smartphones http://www.quickmark.com.tw/En/basic/download.asp

The uses for Semacodes are varied, but here are 2.

Print media.  Used in print media they can be used to link an article or ad to a particular website. Say you see an ad for a product  in a Health and Beauty magazine, the code could be used to enable people to directly go to a page containing more information about the product, a place to purchase or a page to enter a competition. 

Music. You have just released your first song and you want to provide people with a direct download to their phones. You create a semacode that links to the free song download URL.

Stories are the best forms of communication, and ones that you can wear can be great forms of conversation starters.

For charities, getting potential donors to feel involved with a cause can be difficult.  Rosa Loves facilitates this by selling t-shirts which have both a graphic and a story describing the cause they are supporting. The story is placed on the inside of the t-shirt next to the wearer’s heart to invoke a personal attachment to the cause.

Causes can be as simple as a person in need, or a disadvantaged community, but each one has a specific goal and a defined funding requirement.
60% of the sales from each t-shirt goes directly to the cause.  T-shirts are hand-numbered and created in small batches until the required amount has been raised.

This is a great example of a product serving a growing need for authenticity and personalisation.