SIXT Car Rental put in five Wi-Fi networks at Hamburg airport to promote their car rental specials. They made headlines from the Wi-Fi network names like 'Stop Surfing. Start Driving! The SIXT airport special: A BMW 3-Series from 159 Euros!'; then, when the user clicks on the network, a special SIXT microsite pops up promoting the offer and displaying an airport location plan that shows the user exactly where SIXT is in relation to their current position.

 

This idea is inspired! A simple and affordable way of communicating a marketing message using guerilla marketing. It was also brilliantly targeted. Their target audience was professionals and they are the people most likely to be accessing Wi-Fi networks at the airport.

 

 

Mirror mirror on the wall, who has the highest arterial palpation of them all? If you went to MIT you might be able to answer that question thanks to the work of grad student Ming-Zher Poh, who has found a way to tell your pulse with just a simple webcam and some software. By looking at minute changes in the brightness of the face, the system can find the beating of your heart even at a low resolution, comparable to the results of a traditional FDA-approved pulse monitor. Right now the mirror above is just a proof of concept, but the idea is that the hospital beds or surgery rooms of tomorrow might be able to monitor a patient's pulse without requiring any wires or physical contact, encouraging news for anyone who has ever tried to sleep whilst wearing a heart monitor.

 

 

Source: http://www.engadget.com

Email scams are getting more and more sophisticated all the time. Here's a bit of a refresher on what to look out for to ensure you don't get caught by a phisherman, by Sarah Greenaway

I just received this email:

I am Mrs Irina Gutavo a Cancer patient, i was informed by my doctor that i have a few weeks to live, I hereby give to you my £20 Million Pounds to set up a Charity Organization to help people that are in needs. Please respond for further instructions. Sincerely. Mrs Irina Gutavo.

Admittedly, I receive these kinds of emails all the time, but this time I got to wondering.... 'Do people really fall for this stuff?'. I mean, they must if I keep receiving email after email after email telling me that I have inherited vast wads of cash and that I've been carefully selected to take up the most lucrative investment opportunity of all time. Then I remembered... I was nearly caught out once. I had advertised my car on carsguide.com.au and got a bite from a prospective buyer who seemed legit. We traded emails (his was a Hotmail account) and we got to the point where the deal seemed signed and sealed. As what seemed like a bit of an afterthought, the buyer contacted me to ask  if I could arrange a transfer of $400 through Western Union to pay a representative to pick up the car as the buyer said he was overseas and the person he has initially arranged to pick it up was unavailable - okay, fair enough. In the interim, he sent me details of his payment through Paypal and asked if I could wire the $400 to the representative before his money hit my account. It was at this stage that I (thankfully) spotted the scam. The Paypal remittance looked authentic but was sent from an odd-looking email address, so I looked up ‘carsguide scam' and found that I was one of countless people who had been (or nearly been) swindled. Cyberthieves are getting more and more sophisticated all the time and it can be difficult to spot the scams, so here's a bit of info to help you identify the most common scams and assess whether or not an email is dodgy. Common scams (according to The Australian Communications and Media Authority) Common scams to beware of and avoid include:

1. 'Nigerian' scams – which appear to come from overseas and ask you to send money in return for a large lump sum being transferred to your bank account
2. 'pump 'n' dump' stock scams – which are sent as spam emails claiming to be from a successful investor who has made huge profits investing in a particular stock, and needs to offload some of it
3. ‘internet dumping’ - where some 'free' adult sites download automatic internet diallers that clock up a huge phone bill without your knowledge
4. work-at-home schemes, lottery wins and prizes that require you to send money before claiming them
5. pharmaceutical scams - offering ‘amazing' products that claim to boost your health, appearance or virility.
6. phishing emails that are sent from falsified or 'spoofed' email addresses. Many phishing emails often claim to be from a bank, online retailer or credit card company. These emails direct recipients to a website that looks like the real website of a retailer or financial institution, which is designed to encourage the visitor to reveal financial details such as credit card numbers, account names and passwords or other personal information.

How to assess if you're the recipient of a dodgy email:

1. If the email is from a 'free' email account (hotmail.com, live.com, yahoo.com) treat it with suspicion. In the example I opened the article with, the name given was Lady Irina Gutavo, but the email given was gutavodynasty@live.ru (Windows Live, Russia). In fact, the sender's email address is usually the first sign that somethings not quite right. If an organisation is emailing you, be mindful that legitimate institutions that send out emails to their customers generally send them from an email address that’s associated with their website.
2. Be wary of an email that tells you to forward the correspondence to everyone in your address book.
3. Look for a name and contact details. Is there  a phone number for someone you can reach out to to discuss whatever the email is offering you?
4. Is the sender SCREAMING AT YOU or adding lots of exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!? If so, it could be very well be dodgy as legitimate businesses don't tend to communicate this way.
5. Is the email more persuasive than informative?
6. Is it offering something that's too good to be true?
7. Is there a sense or urgency or high priority to the email, i.e. limited offer, important information, act now, get rich quick or was it sent as 'High Importance'?
8. Is there an offer of free money in exchange for personal information? - If so, you're likely to have a scam on your hands.
9. Hover over any links that are provided - does the URL matches what’s displayed in the email? If not, it may be a case of link manipulation, a tactic used by phishers to create bogus (and often very convincing) sites for the purposes of stealing your personal information.

A few more useful tips:

1. Ensure you don't fall prey to a phishing scam by checking off the list of tell tale scam signs above before you click any links!
2. Virtually any email chain letter you receive (i.e., any message forwarded multiple times before it got to you) is more likely to be false than true. You should automatically be skeptical of chain letters.
3. Do a search to see if the organisation they are purporting to be from exists and if the claims they're making are factual.
4. Hoaxers usually try every means available to make their lies believable -- e.g., mimicking a journalistic style, attributing the text to a 'legitimate' source, or implying that powerful corporate or government interests have tried to keep the information from you.

Take that, Mrs Irina Gutavo! (unless, of course, you really do have 20million pounds to give me...) Sarah

Or dancing around the living room in your underwear? Or reliving your last great trip away? Stereomood can take you there. I think this is really cool idea. The premise the site is built on is that 'behind every song there's an emotion', so it groups songs into playlists based on those emotions (and activities too like 'Doing the Housework' , 'Road Trip' and 'Let's Knit' - dubious as to how many plays that last one gets). I love that, not only can I indulge my mood, it also exposes me to tracks and artists that I've never heard of before. You can also share, 'ban', like, shuffle, buy (Amazon or iTunes) and add tracks to create your library so you can create your own playlists. You can upload mp3's as well.

All the tracks are submitted by users so the library is getting bigger as we speak. Right... it's 4.00pm, might tune in to the 'Busy As a Bee' list. Enjoy! Sarah

Interactive, moving signpost. It’s big!

 

Blackmores has launched a revolutionary new website that puts health-minded consumers in the driver’s seat. Working with leading digital services agency, Bullseye, Blackmores has created a destination that is set to become Australia’s biggest online community dedicated to natural health. The new website is personalised to each individual who joins, and is designed to inspire, inform and educate Australians to better health. Cassandra Brill, Blackmores’ Digital and Interactive Manager said: “We believe something truly revolutionary is happening with the way people are using the internet to learn about health and wellbeing.” “We want to help people take control of their own health. No longer will we be telling our consumers what we think they’d like to know, we are using technology to allow them to tell us what is most important to them, then supporting that with informed and reliable information they can use themselves and share,” added Brill. Concerned by trends highlighting Australia’s escalating health challenges such as its ageing population and high levels of obesity, Blackmores looked to its existing 288,000 Australian online members as well as trends from the social media boom to understand what Australians want to know about health and wellbeing. In response, the traditional ‘one-size-fits-all’ website has been replaced with a site that can be personalised for each member. This is generated from each member’s nominated interests and interactions on the site. Users can also view and share updates on the most popular topics that have been read and discussed by the rest of the community, and access an array of health-related communities where they can chat about the topics that matter most to them. Jason Davey, Bullseye’s Managing Director of Digital Marketing, said: “Consumers have little patience for irrelevant content, and everyone’s health and fitness outlook and experience is different. Using the intuitive features of leading-edge technology, we have built a website for Blackmores that offers a totally personalised user experience. It’s slick, clever and designed entirely to delight each individual visitor”. The website aims to ‘get to know’ each member, and then intuitively interacts to guide them to topics of interest, community discussions and product information. Users can then access reliable natural health information and a selection of interactive tools, which include: Communities Blackmores has developed ten inspiring and informative health communities. In each one, consumers can find groups where they can research and discuss personal health concerns. These are: • Women’s Health • Men’s Health • Digestion • Weight Management • Fitness and Energy • Stress and Mental Performance • Pregnancy, Preconception and Breast-Feeding • Parenting and Children’s Health • Healthy Ageing • Cold, Flu, Allergies and Immunity Virtual Wellness Centre For free natural health advice, members can ‘ask a naturopath’ with options to chat online, send an email for a detailed, personalised response, or speak directly by phone to one of Blackmores’ Naturopathic Advisory Team members. Health Topics Blackmores ‘Health Topics’ cover causes, symptoms and natural therapies for more than one hundred common health conditions. Learning Centre Stocked with articles, videos and podcasts, and regularly updated, there is an extensive collection of material covering a range of topics like diet, nutrition, lifestyle and exercise. Product Assistant The ‘Product Assistant’ tool helps consumers find the products they are looking for - quickly and easily. Wellbeing Blog The ‘Wellbeing Blog’ boasts the latest news and updates from our natural health bloggers. Shop Online Exclusive to members only, Blackmores products are now available to purchase directly through the new Blackmores website. To take a virtual tour and experience the new website, visit www.blackmores.com.au/sitetour.

Some interesting stuff coming out of the Sydney Google office for Google Maps. Live traffic conditions (hit the ‘Traffic’ button) RTA traffic webcams on the Harbour Bridge and Tollways (Click the ‘More’ button then ‘Webcams’) For full details, here's an article from today's SMH

By Coops (@ccoops)

Yesterday I attended a really interesting presentation about how to listen and engage in the social web.

The topics and speakers were:
The power of listening, analysing & measuring: Chris Ramsey, Radian6 USA
The power of engaging: Brian Giesen, Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence

Here are some of the highlights from Chris Ramsey:

Brand today is defined by the sum of what people say about you. This changes the way marketeers think and act. It’s no longer about the 4 p’s – place, promotion, price and product. It should now be the 4 c’s- content, community, conversation, connections and collaboration. When advising clients to start listening to conversations in the social web they need to understand that it isn't about measuring impressions and it certainly shouldn’t be thought of as a place to put ads. It’s about engagement, sentiment and share of voice. The key to success is through; transparency, authenticity and speed.

Brian Giesen then spoke about the power of engaging and these were his top ten tips:

#1 Drive smarter media planning (a soft drink company found loads of people were talking about their brand mid week – which then led to their hump day or Wednesday media strategy)

#2 Drive stronger creative and ROI (relevancy)

#3 Own search engine results (Recent deals between Google and social networks mean social conversations are more prevalent in search than ever before)

#4 Influencer love getting online (seek them out)

#5 Sharable content is king

#6 Offer talk-worthy experiences

#7 Great PR ideas drive engagement (KFC Free Cayan Chicken Burger example)

#8 Recruit brightest new talent (social media allows people to pinpoint great talent, Ernst & Young use Facebook as their main recruitment tool)

#9 Turn customer service into PR (responding to negative conversations to turn them into positive experiences can great a very powerful reaction that outweighs the original negative conversation. People are surprised and delighted that brands and listening to their conversations)

#10 Be relevant and respectful (engage bloggers but do it in the right way and always involve influencers- charterforcompassion.org is a good example of this)

It was a busy morning. The traffic was bad and the parking at UNSW was even worse.

The Federal Government’s Realising Our Broadband Future Forum was a highly sought after event, with a lot more people turned away than could attend. The first morning of the two-day event saw the rollout of heavy weight digital evangelists from around the world who spoke eloquently about the digital future. Prime Minister Rudd made it clear that the Government was committed.

Of the plenary sessions, I found Mike Quigley’s, CEO of NBN Co, the most beneficial. He gave a good overview of the actual network design. This is the perspiration to support the inspiration. The Forum was divided between the main plenary session and five specific streams: Smart Infrastructure, Digital Education, e-Community, e-Health and e-Business. Each stream was asked to address their topic in three stages, i.e. What are the Possibilities?, Reality Check and Next Steps. As the presenters were not advised of this approach till very late in the piece, many had already prepared their presentations and things did not flow quite to plan, but nonetheless, a lot of good ideas came out.

I was fortunate enough to be asked to speak in the e-Business stream and I summarised some of Bullseye’s thinking on ‘business@100mbps’. Our white paper had been read by many of the participants and that allowed for some meaty discussions to take place. The wrap up session was intended to bring the findings of the various streams back to the plenary group. It was difficult to condense all that was canvassed in the time available, but this was more than offset by utilising digital tools to capture and publish the outcomes. So as I cleared away my parking ticket (had to happen), I reflected on over 20-years in the telecommunications and digital industry and the many false dawns witnessed. This is the real deal and anyone with their head in the sand is heading for a rude awakening.

SixthSense, a wearable device that enables new interactions between the real world and the world of data, was presented at TED last year. With all the buzz about augmented reality, it's well worth revisiting. AR will take off this year, and this is a particularly innovative example. Actually, I have to admit, I had to pick my jaw up off the ground when this was sent around by a colleague. Imagine the possibilities a device like this holds for advertising...