» Retail

20 Interesting Things: Vending Machines

David Stutts — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:53:44 +0000

This is the sixth deck in our summer series 20 Interesting Things. It deviates a little from the other social/digital topics (Foursquare, QR codes, augmented reality, crowdsourcing and goodness) and takes a look at something that is over 100 years old – the vending machine. But these aren’t the soda and snack vending machines we all know and love, these are 21st century vending machines that have realized the power of instant gratification for a wide variety of products. Location + 24/7 access is a sure winner for those clever enough to build it. Anyone need some gold?

20 Interesting Things: Vending Machines June 2010

View more presentations from David Stutts.

New Location-Based Check-in Service Asks You To “Check-in” To Products For Charity

David Stutts — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:16:23 +0000

Would you check in to a box of Tampax like you’d check in to a bar on Foursquare? How about a jar of Miracle Whip? P&G, Kraft and a Silicon Valley startup are betting you will, well, at least for charity.

CauseWorld is a mash-up of location-based game apps such as Foursquare, GoWalla or Loopt with cause marketing, and has added checking into actual products in retail stores as the newest way for consumers to use mobile-check-in services to earn money for charity.

This seems like a very cool/engaging/topical idea for CPG marketers to get customers looking for their brands in-store. Will be interesting to see how this concept does in the coming months.

Read the full AdAge story here.

Foursquare Potential

David Stutts — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:49:50 +0000

Nice read in AdAge today on how brands are trying to tap into the potential power of location-based social networking site FourSquare. Since its inception, the service had slowly been rolling out into selected markets, until late last year when it went nationwide. It currently has a little over 300,000 users and is growing rapidly. Users check-in and are awarded with a various combination of points and badges.

Some restaurants and bars (mainly in NYC) have jumped on the bandwagon and are offering their own rewards (discounts, free appetizers, drinks, etc.) for users who check-in at their location and flash their mobile screen as proof.

As the service continues to grow, there seems to be strong opportunity and potential for savvy marketers to tap into this mobile consumer in a way that can be unintrusive, but engaging.

eBay shows just how big a player it has become on Black Friday.

David Griner — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:35:09 +0000

Here’s a hypnotic video showing exactly what one million purchases looked like on eBay.com during Black Friday:

What’s really incredible isn’t the data within the map — it’s the map itself. This is no academic exercise. It’s a savvy marketing decision by eBay, a site whose popularity is dependent on, well, it’s popularity. The auction site makes its money off sellers, not buyers, and sellers want to use a site where they know they’ll find plenty of buyers.

As more e-retailers try to claim a slice of the Black Friday pie (not to mention today’s Cyber Monday shopping spree), the smartest ones will focus on the long game, not just the one-day blitz.