Interactive Billboard Ad

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Written on Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Ok, this is definitely not mobile, but it is too good not to republish, though I'm sure some of you have already seen it.. Here's the original article.

The ad is from Amnesty International, and I am just amazed at how appropriately they have used technology in order to convey their message against domestic violence.

Camera technology within the billboard works by scanning the nearby area and tracking eyeballs. When the person looks at the poster it shows a seemingly happy couple, however when their head is turned away it changes to the male punching the female. There is a slight delay in the picture changing, just enough to figure out what’s going on.

Also check out the relevant video:



Wow, just wow...

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TGI Friday's Give Free Internet via Bluetooth

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Written on Monday, October 26, 2009

I just found out about this very interesting piece of news, which is about a month old, but I'd never heard about.

TGI Friday's, the well-known restaurant chain are now offering free internet access (via bluetooth) in all of their four restaurants in Ireland. Here's more from the press release:
BlueZone Media has agreed a deal with restaurant chain TGI Friday’s to supply free internet access in each of the chain’s four restaurants nationwide. The service enables anyone with a bluetooth mobile phone to surf the web for free and has been selected by TGI Friday’s after a successful trial in their Dundrum restaurant. TGI Friday’s St. Stephens Green, Blanchardstown and Blackrock in Dublin as well as Victoria Square in Belfast will offer the service.

As bluetooth mobile phones are now nearly ubiquitous, the service allows more customers to enjoy the benefits of the BlueZone service than a standard WiFi enabled hotspot.

To date statistics from the service show that one in four diners in TGI Friday’s Dundrum are using it, with a large number checking Facebook and searching Google.

“Being able to browse the internet on the go is now as important as being able to make calls on the go as so much of our lives are led online. We’ve had people chatting with friends over IM, updating their Facebook and even checking their CAO offers in TGI Friday’s. The great advantage of the BlueZone device is that it allows the vast majority of our customers to enjoy a quick browse while they eat, without the need for a laptop.” said Liz Gale of TGI FRIDAYS.

This type of interactive bluetooth marketing service is very interesting in this particular setting. Will people adopt it and start using it, or will they reject such services in these settings? They go there to eat after all, usually with friends who they go to see, don't they?

Somewhat surprisingly, here's what Liz Gale of TGI Friday's reveals:
“This might bode badly for table manners but people are increasingly co-ordinating their lives on Facebook and Bebo so browsing them in a restaurant is as normal as taking a call at dinner.”

...

Statistics from a new device, that allows anyone to freely browse the Internet through their phone, reveal that 1 in 4 diners in TGI Friday’s Dundrum are using the service to check Facebook and search Google instead of sharing the time with family and friends.

“We’ve had people chatting with friends over IM, reading emails and even checking their CAO offers,” said TGI Friday’s Marketing Manager Liz Gale. “Being able to browse the internet on the go is now as important as being able to make calls on the go as so much of our lives are led online. This might bode badly for table manners but people are increasingly co-ordinating their lives on Facebook and Bebo so browsing them in a restaurant is as normal as taking a call at dinner.”

Great stuff! I can't wait to see long-term results from this service, to see if this is something that TGI Friday's, or other restaurant chains, will fully adopt in their restaurants across a number of cities/countries.

It is obvious to me that if they do they will have created a huge bluetooth network, which offers huge potential for more exciting services. Let's just wait and see...

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Mobile Services: mGovernment Application

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Written on Monday, October 19, 2009

I just came across this mGovernment solution, called CitySourced, that allows citizens to report problems and/or make suggestions to the local authorities, through their mobile phones.

From their website:
CitySourced is a real time mobile civic engagement tool. CitySourced provides a free, simple, and intuitive tool empowering citizens to identify civil issues (potholes, graffiti, trash, snow removal, etc.) and report them to city hall for quick resolution; an opportunity for government to use technology to save money and improve accountability to those they govern; and a positive, collaborative platform for real action. Our platform is called CitySourced, as it empowers everyday citizens to use their smart phones to make their cities a better place.
Obviously, this is not a direct mobile marketing tool, but the potential for these types of applications is, I believe, obvious.

There's a pretty cool video presentation there as well, which is I guess the best way for you to really see what it's about:




Do note that it's worth seeing the video till the end, if this interests you, as there are some pretty interesting comments and suggestions to hear.

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Mobile Payments from Nokia: "Nokia Money"

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Written on Wednesday, October 07, 2009

I just found out about this over at the Social Mobilist; it's the new mobile payments service from Nokia, called Nokia Money. The article reads:

Nokia has announced a new mobile payment service, under the name Nokia Money.

The service is targeted mainly at countries with a limited bank infrastructure. Argumenting that there are 4 billion mobile phones worldwide, compared to only 1,6 billion bank accounts, Nokia considers the mobile phone as the perfect device to facilitate a payment or a money transfer.

Nokia will be using the tchnology of Obopay, a company they acquired recently. To use the Nokia Money service, one must have an Obopay account on which money has been transferred.

The service will be available in certain markets early 2010.

It sounds very interesting, so I did a quick search to find out more. The official Nokia press release:

Nokia Money has been designed to be as simple and convenient as making a voice call or sending an SMS. It will enable consumers to send money to another person just by using the person's mobile phone number, as well as to pay merchants for goods and services, pay their utility bills, or recharge their prepaid SIM cards (SIM top-up). The services can be accessed 24 hours a day from anywhere, meaning savings in travel costs and time. Nokia is building a wide network of Nokia Money agents, where consumers can deposit money in or withdraw cash from their accounts.
...
The Nokia Money service will be operated in cooperation with Obopay, a leader in developing global mobile payment solutions, which Nokia invested in earlier this year. The service is based on Obopay's mobile payment platform, with unique and newly developed mobile elements. Nokia intends the service to be open and interoperable with other payment services as well.
"Obopay shares Nokia's vision for bringing mobile financial services to millions of people worldwide. We're excited that Nokia has chosen Obopay's platform. Nokia's leading market position, strong brand recognition and global distribution channel, using the Obopay platform with uniquely developed mobile elements, means the Nokia Money service is well positioned to bring the next generation of mobile payment services to the world," said Carol Realini, Founder and CEO of Obopay.
Nokia Money is the result of a powerful collaboration Nokia is forging between different partners in different markets around the world. It is designed to work in partnership with mobile network operators and financial institutions, involving distributors and merchants in a dynamic ecosystem to seamlessly provide the new services.

I then also came across this blog post, from the Nokia Blog:

I checked out Obopay’s site briefly to see how their system works. I assume Nokia Money will work the same way. It is basically like Paypal, which most of us are already familiar with. We initially either add our bank accounts and/or credit cards then add funds we can use for the payments. The Nokia Money agents should be very useful for those who don’t have bank accounts.

It will be interesting to see how it all turns out with Nokia Money. It sounds very promising and hopefully this will be the start of widely successful mobile payment services.

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Mobile Services: Parking Meters with SMS Payments

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Written on Friday, October 02, 2009

I heard from a friend recently about the SMS parking services in Belgium and Holland. She told me she'd seen a couple of signs and tried to use it, but couldn't go through with it successfully, because she was on a roaming network and the SMS she sent never got through.

I just remembered it today, and did a quick search to find out more. The first relevant post I came across is about the Parkmobile service in Amsterdam:

I’ve been using Parkmobile in Amsterdam for the past couple of months, and I must say: this is a total killer app for my mobile phone. It’s my most used feature after voice and SMS. How does it work? Every parking meter in Amsterdam has a ID-number written on it in large fontsize. When you park your car, you dial a the Parkmobile service number and enter the parking meter ID. That’s it.When you leave you call again to sign-off. You receive a monthly bill with the parking costs. The great thing is that you never need change, you don’t need to walk to the meter and back, you never get a parking fine and you never pay too much or too little. When you forget to sign-off (happens a lot to me), they send you a SMS reminder after two hours.

It’s the best mobile service I’ve used in years. Parkmobile are now rolling it out in other countries in Europe. Watch out for them, I think they’re going to be big, very big.

The second interesting post I came across is about the reincarnation of SMS parking, i.e. using a mobile application, for the same service - only better.

Mobile-for, the Belgacom affiliate responsible for the SMS parking services in several Belgian cities, has launched a mobile application to facilitate this service. The app, which can be tested in Leuven as from October 2009, can be downloaded on all Google Android enabled smartphones (which kinda limits the testing audience…) In the coming months however, the app should be available for other smartphones, such as iPhone and Blackberry.

With the app, the user doesn’t have to sms his licence plate any longer. He also knows the remaining parking time at all time. The next release will also give GPS coordinates for the nearest parking automat and the occupancy status of parkings in the neighbourhood.

Early 2010, they will start a pilot project to pay your parking ticket through Ping.Ping’s NFC (Nearest Field Communication) technology.

Both great examples of working, useful, no-doubt successful everyday applications where the mobile phone just makes our lives simpler. My congrats to those who came up with the idea, but more importantly to those that turn such ideas into commercial products and services that find a place in our daily routines -- a sign of a job well done.

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