Friday, May 25. 2007
UGC Tour Guides - Live it Like The Locals
Posted by Paul Simmons
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Convergence
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08:06
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People power has made UGC film or restaurant review websites/blogs as influential as the professional critics, and now this trend has moved on to the humble tour guide...
What could be better than having an insider walk you through his or her favourite spots in a new city or travel destination? That is exactly what Chicago-based AudioSnacks is now offering consumers - users can download audio tours of select destinations and can put up their own tours for purchase.
Many of the large bank of USG tour guides also feature downloadable maps to accompany the audio files, and customers can listen to a sample snippet of a tour before deciding to purchase.
Already there are tours available for destinations in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, South Africa and more. Customers get a unique perspective and insights: they can take an audio tour through Chicago with a Jewish hip-hop poet, for instance, or see the sights in New York with a cool DJ. Since members are encouraged to create and upload their own tours, the library is likely to grow quickly.
The brand is also building a new category, offering campus tours for prospective students who look lost even with a map, and are keen to get the insider tour on where they will be spending their university years.
http://www.audiosnacks.com
What could be better than having an insider walk you through his or her favourite spots in a new city or travel destination? That is exactly what Chicago-based AudioSnacks is now offering consumers - users can download audio tours of select destinations and can put up their own tours for purchase.
Many of the large bank of USG tour guides also feature downloadable maps to accompany the audio files, and customers can listen to a sample snippet of a tour before deciding to purchase.
Already there are tours available for destinations in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, South Africa and more. Customers get a unique perspective and insights: they can take an audio tour through Chicago with a Jewish hip-hop poet, for instance, or see the sights in New York with a cool DJ. Since members are encouraged to create and upload their own tours, the library is likely to grow quickly.
The brand is also building a new category, offering campus tours for prospective students who look lost even with a map, and are keen to get the insider tour on where they will be spending their university years.
http://www.audiosnacks.com
Monday, May 21. 2007
It seems as if the internet is lending a hand to it's predecessors, making their time in the metaphoric 'retirement home' a little easier.
The first example is a new service in Holland which allows you to send 'snail mail' via the internet. Dutch Gratis-Post allows consumers to order envelopes with free postage for mailing within the Netherlands (registered users can order a maximum of 5 envelopes per week) - all with the help of advertising. Ads are printed on the back of the envelope, and in exchange for 5 free ready-to-mail envelopes, users also agree to receive advertising messages by email for a period of four weeks.
Such a scheme would seem destined for failure, especially with our own postal service suffering due to the public's dislike of junk mail. Yet, if you think consumers would not be interested in being ad-bombed for four weeks in exchange for EUR 2.20 (one stamp is EUR 0.44) worth of postage on ad-covered envelopes, you would be wrong. Gratis-Post ran out of its first print-run of 52,500 envelopes a few hours after they launched 2 weeks ago.
http://www.gratis-post.nl
The first example is a new service in Holland which allows you to send 'snail mail' via the internet. Dutch Gratis-Post allows consumers to order envelopes with free postage for mailing within the Netherlands (registered users can order a maximum of 5 envelopes per week) - all with the help of advertising. Ads are printed on the back of the envelope, and in exchange for 5 free ready-to-mail envelopes, users also agree to receive advertising messages by email for a period of four weeks.
Such a scheme would seem destined for failure, especially with our own postal service suffering due to the public's dislike of junk mail. Yet, if you think consumers would not be interested in being ad-bombed for four weeks in exchange for EUR 2.20 (one stamp is EUR 0.44) worth of postage on ad-covered envelopes, you would be wrong. Gratis-Post ran out of its first print-run of 52,500 envelopes a few hours after they launched 2 weeks ago.
http://www.gratis-post.nl
Thursday, May 17. 2007
The ever expanding Virgin brand has now introduced a novel service to their US mobile phone customers. Virgin Mobile has created a zine for consumers on their network that updates the users regularly with music news, reviews, tour/festival updates, chart rundowns and other essential info for even the most dedicated of music fans.
http://www.virginmobileusa.com/stuff/music/headliner.do?initCookies=true
It's interesting to see the downloadable file has been positioned as a magazine as it will also have live updates via RSS and provide search facilities for live events based on artist, city, or venue - much like the increasingly popular UGC music site www.tourfilter.com
http://www.virginmobileusa.com/stuff/music/headliner.do?initCookies=true
It's interesting to see the downloadable file has been positioned as a magazine as it will also have live updates via RSS and provide search facilities for live events based on artist, city, or venue - much like the increasingly popular UGC music site www.tourfilter.com
Tuesday, May 1. 2007
Politics has always been a social event - from politicians going on the election trail down the high street, to meetings down the local town hall. The marriage between this and the Internet was always a natural progression and the Internet has played a growing part whether through blogs and forums or even in one of our recent post USG video.
The next format to dance to the political jingle is the social networking giant, Myspace. A new U.S. concept called 'Independent' will debut on the site in an attempt to engage younger voters with the 'exciting world of politics'. What the concept allows is for anyone to declare their candidacy for a political post. Individuals submit their candidacy via a speech video on Myspace Video.
The online concept will link up with a television show (most likely on the Fox network) where viewers will rate candidates through weekly voting with the overall winner gaining $1 million for their campaign budget.
Though it is unlikely a Myspace promoted candidate will end up enjoying life in the Oval Room but the projects aim of engaging young/disinterested consumers with modern politics seems very realistic.
The next format to dance to the political jingle is the social networking giant, Myspace. A new U.S. concept called 'Independent' will debut on the site in an attempt to engage younger voters with the 'exciting world of politics'. What the concept allows is for anyone to declare their candidacy for a political post. Individuals submit their candidacy via a speech video on Myspace Video.
The online concept will link up with a television show (most likely on the Fox network) where viewers will rate candidates through weekly voting with the overall winner gaining $1 million for their campaign budget.
Though it is unlikely a Myspace promoted candidate will end up enjoying life in the Oval Room but the projects aim of engaging young/disinterested consumers with modern politics seems very realistic.
Friday, April 27. 2007
The popular entertainment brand Sony is to launch a video-sharing rival to YouTube. The service will make Sony the latest to challenge the Google-owned YouTube. Only last month, News Corporation and NBC Universal agreed to form a partnership to take on YouTube. The two US media giants plan to make thousands of hours of programming, movies and clips available that the two have in their vast catalogues. After launching the service in Japan, Sony said it planned to roll it out internationally after gauging its initial impact in its home market. Last month, Viacom said it was to sue Google and the content sharing site for over £517m, claiming the search engine firm has committed "massive copyright infringement".
