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9 campaigns that won with humor 0

Humor is one of the hardest things to do well in digital advertising. These nine efforts of 2011 succeeded in a whole range of ways. Take a few minutes and give them a look. It will be good for you to laugh. You see, laughing builds up endorphin levels that help us deal with the stressful situations in our hectic workdays. Better stock up now, you’re going to need them today. Because in 10 minutes, you’ll be getting a call about how all your click tags are redirecting to the wrong site. Just kidding.


Axe: Clean Your Balls



 No brand stands more erect than Axe when it comes to consistently thrusting itself inside. Our popular culture, I mean. This is a brave brand — as brave as a Trojan — with a ménage à trois formula including pretty woman, double entendre, and impeccable comedic timing. Millions stalked this video on YouTube, Yahoo, AOL, and more. “Clean Your Balls” is just another notch on the headboard for this hot playa. But don’t expect this campaign concept to last long. Axe’s MO is to come and go, scoring new themes, formats, and executional styles while always leaving us wanting more. Let’s all hope this brand’s edgy character never gets put to bed.

Office Max with JibJab: Elf Yourself 2011


It’s simple, customizable, G-rated fun. Every year the action gets better and the tools even easier to use. The Elf Yourself concept is a new Christmas tradition everyone looks forward to. And it makes Office Max come to mind right when people begin to get their holiday shop on. My favorite part of this effort is…no edge or snark required. This is something everyone can enjoy.
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TomTom: Bert and Ernie




Driving gadget sales with something other than tech talk — that’s the road TomTom took with this viral campaign. When you’re facing a traffic jam of devices and competitors, sometimes it makes sense to change lanes and leave all the performance factoids behind. The new Bert and Ernie voices for TomTom devices put a little fun in the shotgun seat — at a time when work commutes are getting longer, and people need a little chuckle. Say Chuck + Ull. Chuckle.



Audi: Slider



Every day, ads appear in new places. Airline trays. Urinal cakes. Golf balls. Golf cups. Just when you think there is nothing left to use for marketing, along comes a stroke of brilliance. Make the slider into a race car. Who could resist unlocking the Audi magazine delivered in tablet editions of leading magazines! OK, this is more fill-you-with-smiles versus yucks, but it’s just too brilliant not to highlight!



Lanvin: Dancing



The democratization of…well…everything, is perhaps the biggest trend of the last decade. It seems even to be affecting the couture fashion business, if this Lanvin video is any indication. The genius of it is that the clothes continue to be defined by a design elite, but the approachable execution makes the brand more contemporary and relevant. Sort of…exclusively inclusive. Either that or that last sentence was a complete pile of crap. Either way, it’s fun to watch models that lack rhythm.



The last Testament of God: The Tweet of God






Verily I say unto thee — scratch that. Verily He says unto thee. To support the release of the book “The Last Testament: A Memoir by God,” Yahweh and his able acolyte David Javerbaum provide bits of sage wisdom that are at once biblical and hilariously un-PC. Writing a very funny book is one thing, but offering up a stream of consistently funny tweets every day…for weeks…shows a tremendous commitment to Twitter and its power to drive buyers. It’s a darned popular Twitter account. Of course, the slogan “Follow God. Or be smited.” may have something to do with that.
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Jimmy Kimmel: Hottie Bodies Humpilates




Millions seek out Jimmy Kimmel’s promotional parodies the instant they hit the web. It’s a brilliant strategy, because it captures the essence of what makes the show different in a very crowded late night talk show market. And because celebrities need to be good sports to be on the show anyway, Jimmy makes the most of their good nature in these excellent uber viral promos.



Jameson’s: Jameson’s1790.com






This complex and engaging brand experience asks the user to identify the thief of a barrel of Jameson’s. What makes ‘er inneresting is that the thief is one of your friends, and the game asks you to determine which one by revealing clues based on their Facebook activity . These clues are seamlessly embedded in high quality videos starring eccentric Oirish folk. In addition to the concept and the watchability, the experience also incorporates great little dexterity games. When you identify the crook, the experience goes viral on your Facebook page and that of your criminal friend.
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Toddlers and Tiaras: Miss Ultimate Sexy Nevada



Reality TV’s biggest train wreck was beautifully spoofed in this parody featuring Tom Hanks and his daughter. Was it an official Toddlers marketing effort? Dunno. But clearly they garnered a lot of cooperation from the pageant circuit for this send up, and I am certain it got more than a million extra people to park their middle-aged rumps on the couch for the season premiere. There are so many superb lines in this masterpiece of tight writing, physical comedy, and spot-on timing. I think the best is when Tom tells his daughter “Don’t be a hooch.”


Posted on: 02-1-2012
Posted in: Oldest Living Digital Marketer

Meeting an Effing Need 0

I’ve been enjoying a recent issue of , an unusual magazine that has a lengthy feature on companies around the world that are proving that some of the truths we hold as givens aren’t really true at all. The article highlights newspapers that are growing in circ because of great local investigative journalism, small bookstores that are opening and thriving, CD stores very much in the black, and so on. These businesses are doing well because – what for it – they are focused on meeting real wants and needs.
And it got me to thinking about how much we in the media business tend toward lemmingness, in that we draw conclusions based upon the conclusions that others are drawing instead of thinking – really thinking – about how to meet changing consumer needs and preferences.
I think the US newspaper industry is the poster child for this tendency. It appears that many papers saw the success of TV and free online content and determined that the best way of responding to these trends is to make newspapers more like those kinds of vehicles. Shorter articles, more celebritrash, getting rid of many of the local staff to focus in favor of focusing on cheap content spoon-fed to them by companies and political figures.
The challenge, of course, is that what works in one medium doesn’t work in another. Let me pick on TV for a minute. When a 24-hour news channel displays four Twitter posts as if it is totally attuned to the public will and is as fast with trends as social media, it looks beyond pathetic. The whole idea of Twitter is participation and the cacophony of voices that you can choose (or choose not) to follow. And inasmuch as TV wants to be seen as at least a little more concerned about professional journalism than me and my friends mouthing off from our cell phones as we go to work, covering Tweets like they are the equivalent of the Watergate hearings makes them look beyond silly.
Similarly, when a newspaper tries to become more like TV – more of a headlines service – it fails at both what makes newspapers cool and as a competitor to TV. What makes newspaper journalism so distinctive – and dare I say popular with the people who choose to read it – is that it is both broad and deep. You read a newspaper because you want to get more than a headline and 4 minutes of two yutzes on political extremes throwing metaphorical crème pies at one another.
I get it that newspapers and other media need to do what they have to do in order to make ends meet. Fish gotta swim and birds gotta sing, I get that. But you don’t win by losing. You don’t win by trying to be more like things that are patently different from what you offer.
I don’t believe that Millennials who don’t pick up newspapers wouldn’t be interested in breadth and depth. Rather it simply needs to be delivered to them in ways that are relevant to them. That meet their needs. That give them a role in the discussion. All data seem to indicate that Millennials are more socially conscious than the generations that precede them. Given that, it’s nigh on impossible for me to believe that real investigating reporting, for example, wouldn’t appeal to them. It might not be on broadsheet newsprint. It might not be an entirely professional-reporter-class driven offering that would be appealing to them. But there’s a way to touch them and gain their loyalty.
The meteoric rise of Fox News provides an abundant example of how what newspapers do is actually very relevant to millions and millions of people who may not be picking up issues from their front steps. Fox News took the sensibility and approach of what the UK calls “Red Tops” and reshaped it into something that works on TV. By saying that Fox News is broadcast tabloid is not something I mean as an insult to Fox News. A UK tabloid is rather different from the US’s Weekly World News. It ultimately takes important issues and redefines them in the context of what matters to ordinary people in the street. It serves up news with visceral emotion.
OK, OK, and throws in a lot of pictures of Posh and Becks as well. But Fox News proves that the essence of at least one form of newspaper journalism has loads of legs.
Media challenged by the changing environment and the advent of digital need to think less like lemmings and more like Steve Jobs. To focus on transformation rather than a race to the bottom.

Posted on: 10-13-2011
Posted in: Oldest Living Digital Marketer

Selling Inside and Six F-Words 0

I had the good fortune this week to co-lead a discussion at the new Digital World Expo in Las Vegas with Lynn Ingham and John Durham. I was grateful for the opportunity because selling things up the ladder internally is something I really used to suck at, but thanks in part to lessons I learned from my co-presenters over the years, I got much better at it.

As is my wont, I got better with a little list of things to remember as I prepared my pitch. I thought I’d share my little list in the chance that it may help someone else improve their win rate for internal selling.

Fit: Naturally any digital solution needs to fit the brand challenges facing the company. But the better you know the immediate issues facing the brand — and the language the brand uses — the more likely you can point out the features of your recommendation that make it an ideal fit for. We complain about internal company silos all the time, but our own success as digital advocates requires that we destroy silos instead of complaining about them. By improving the flow of information we can be of greater service to our brands.

Fear: Our insular way of talking about the industry and the digital divide that separates us from “regular people” – in our companies and in our target audiences – creates discomfiture among final decision makers. When we make an effort to explain things clearly and give decision makers a chance to, for example, try new platforms, we make those around us feel smart. The security of feeling smart helps people feel good about saying yes.

Faith: We need the trust and confidence of others to succeed. There’s a certain “type” of person in our industry that tries so hard to be different than others in organizations. In my experience these people are the least effective at internal selling because in their zeal to appear different they become disconnected from the people and the business. And if people don’t trust you – don’t think you have their backs – they won’t have yours.

Fog: While keeping up with everything in digital is hard, that is often not the responsibility of the final decision maker. That’s YOUR responsibility, as is distilling the oceans of new platforms, ideas, and hype that wash up on shore into coherent strategies and programs. Digital people find this stuff fascinating. Lots of other people don’t. When we can demonstrate the value of things with clarity, and without burying those around us with extraneous information, we clear the fog that makes it harder for people to say yes.

Follow through: In an era of extreme accountability, you need to make the most of every opportunity that reaches you. Match the risk profile of your recommendations with the stage that your company is in the progression toward adopting digital as a central part of its business. And make damned sure that when you get an OK on a project you do everything in your power to make that program successful. Success opens the floodgates of budget and responsibility. Failure slams them shut. There is a lot of discussion in the industry about the need to fail to stay out front of developments. I embrace the spirit of that, but before you fail, make sure you bank some cred with some successes. Usually, the first things a brand should do in digital are not fraught with risk. The risk is in not doing them.

Fun: People get into marketing because it is more interesting than they think finance or accounting or operations would be. Launching a great new product or launching a great marketing campaign is supposed to be thrilling. In digital, we get so buried in our ability to present millions of “metrics” that we forget the emotional side of what we do. Digital efforts are inherently exciting because their capabilities are unprecedented. Help decision makers feel the thrill. Show them how social motivates real people to express their love for the brand. Demonstrate how dynamic video is so compelling. Use the feedback loop of digital to enrich the empathy that is such a central part of marketing.

For me, remembering those six “f-words” as I formulate a pitch makes it far easier to put a tick in the win column. The help people feel smart, empowered and excited about digital. When you pair those emotional wins with a compelling argument for the rational side of your proposal, you’re unstoppable!

Posted on: 09-29-2011
Posted in: Oldest Living Digital Marketer

Start-Up Watch COD: Wingsplay Rewards Influentials for Distributing Your Vids 0

Viral distribution has always been one of the Holy Grails of digital. The idea of people seeking out your marketing messages and then distributing them for you – at no cost – has activated the salivary glands of many a brand leader.
But for most brands, it shares another characteristic with the Holy Grail: elusiveness. Many brands have tried to create “viral” programs, and very few have succeeded.
Part of it is our own fault. We fail to recognize that our ham fisted marketing messages aren’t the sorts of things that people care about or want to share. But there’s another thing. Some brands jump the hurdle of relevance and make content that people would share if they knew about it. But those same brands often fail because the would be spreaders never see their content.
Enter . What this company does is offer a platform through which you can work with influential people in social media to distribute your videos on a cost per view basis. Instead of paying a publisher to drive plays, you reward influential voices online through Wingsplay.
So let’s start with the first question on your minds. Is it “OK” to reward people to distribute messages in social media? A couple of years ago there were some shady businesses driving blog posts about brands without disclosing the compensation they were providing. This ain’t like that. Rather, I’d liken it to paying a celeb to drink your Pepsi or use your basketball shoes.
Says Wingsplay Founder Olivier Lasry,
As celebrities are paid to lend their name and image to campaigns, Wingsplay rewards influential social media users to share the most entertaining viral ads. But this democratization of endorsement goes way further: contrary to working with big celebrities, influential social media users have strong ties to their social connections and 2-way conversations with these friends, fans and followers. They consequently generate much more engagement and visibility,
Online content is more likely to be played and interacted with when it has been posted by a friend versus a celebrity simply because the former values their comments and interactions much more than the latter.
Wingsplay also ensures that every post made as a result of the platform transparently communicates its sponsored nature. That ensures you live up to the letter – and the spirit – of the FTC regulations.
Not just anybody is flogging your videos. It’s not like that at all. Rather, you choose your target audience, and then set a CPV for the program. Then, those that LIKE YOUR CONTENT and are interested in your program distribute your video to people with a high degree of likelihood to be in your target audience. They are then compensated based upon the plays they drive. Obviously, programs that offer a higher bounty are going to attract more influencer attention, but in my view most of these influencers will ultimately select content they like best. But a healthy CPV wouldn’t hoit!
I like this approach. I am a huge believer in the need to seed video distribution. While we may think or hope that millions of people are constantly scanning the web looking for messages, the reality is that there is so much content out there that even the best stuff sometimes dies on the vine. I constantly find good content online that never really went anywhere because you had to really be digging around to find it. And most people aren’t spending time online doing that.
With a service like Wingsplay, you get passed the initial awareness problem so that your ideas are seen by thousands – maybe even millions. Additionally, you get to target the sorts of people who you want to expose to your video. Where it goes from there, of course, is up to the quality of the creative idea and the content itself.

Posted on: 09-25-2011
Posted in: Oldest Living Digital Marketer

Start-Up Watch COD: ThinkNear Helps Brick and Mortars Drive Business During Slow Sales Periods 0

One of the biggest challenges facing a local brick and mortar business is managing staffing levels for the amount of customer flow you are probably going to get during different time periods.
  • For example, given that employees don’t want one or two hour shifts but that many businesses have heavy sales periods during the day that last one to two hours, there’s a fundamental resource problem.
  • Another example: say you operate a restaurant in Daytona Beach. Business may be strong during the “Season” in Florida when the Snowbirds come south, But come April or May you can probably hear crickets in the kitchen. While you COULD let your employees go every year, we all know that when you find a great worker you want to hold on to them.
Do you staff for the slow periods, and risk losing customers from poor service during rushes? Or do you staff for the rush and then have staff standing around doing nothing but collecting wages? Or do you staff somewhere in between and try to balance it all as best you can?
And one friendly reminder before I get on with this review: rent and electricity don’t cost any less during slow times, so anything that can help drum up business during those periods can be a godsend.
 is a location-based promotions service for local businesses that aims to eliminate this problem by enabling store owners to drive up sales during slow periods with limited time offers delivered to smart phones within a certain radius of a location.
OK, so say you own a Subway. Your team is busy 11:30-1:30, but then has little to do from 1:30-4:00 when people begin coming in for take-out dinner sandwiches. Instead of accepting your slow time as a given, you instead work with ThinkNear to offer a $1 off coupon to individuals in the immediate vicinity, valid only during the slow period. You drive up incremental sales, ensure that your people are fully utilized, and dramatically increase the total revenue for your business.
This sizzle vid explains both the issue facing these small and larger businesses, and how their service can help turn it into an opportunity:
 
As some of you may know, I am on a bit of a crusade to point out to people that we are turning the web into a gigantic coupon ATM – and that this is not good for the future of our brands. If I hear of one more start-up working on a way to give away more of the margin, I am going to scream. But ThinkNear is different in my view. The service is clearly delivering business that would not otherwise go to a retailer, and while discounting is involved, the degree of savings is a bit more reasonable than Groupon et al.
Further, ThinkNear is something for national brick and mortar entities to consider as well. If you are Chili’s, having some incremental business around 2:00-5:00 would probably be welcome at virtually any location nationwide.
It’s an interesting service – of a type I think we are going to be hearing a lot about in the months and years to come.

Posted on: 09-25-2011
Posted in: Oldest Living Digital Marketer

Start-Up Watch COD: Wingsplay Rewards Influentials for Distributing Your Vids 0

Viral distribution has always been one of the Holy Grails of digital. The idea of people seeking out your marketing messages and then distributing them for you – at no cost – has activated the salivary glands of many a brand leader.

But for most brands, it shares another characteristic with the Holy Grail: elusiveness. Many brands have tried to create “viral” programs, and very few have succeeded.

Part of it is our own fault. We fail to recognize that our ham fisted marketing messages aren’t the sorts of things that people care about or want to share. But there’s another thing. Some brands jump the hurdle of relevance and make content that people would share if they knew about it. But those same brands often fail because the would be spreaders never see their content.

Enter

Wingsplay

. What this company does is offer a platform through which you can work with influential people in social media to distribute your videos on a cost per view basis. Instead of paying a publisher to drive plays, you reward influential voices online through Wingsplay.

So let’s start with the first question on your minds. Is it “OK” to reward people to distribute messages in social media? A couple of years ago there were some shady businesses driving blog posts about brands without disclosing the compensation they were providing. This ain’t like that. Rather, I’d liken it to paying a celeb to drink your Pepsi or use your basketball shoes.

Says Wingsplay Founder Olivier Lasry,

As celebrities are paid to lend their name and image to campaigns, Wingsplay rewards influential social media users to share the most entertaining viral ads. But this democratization of endorsement goes way further: contrary to working with big celebrities, influential social media users have strong ties to their social connections and 2-way conversations with these friends, fans and followers. They consequently generate much more engagement and visibility,

Online content is more likely to be played and interacted with when it has been posted by a friend versus a celebrity simply because the former values their comments and interactions much more than the latter.

Wingsplay also ensures that every post made as a result of the platform transparently communicates its sponsored nature. That ensures you live up to the letter – and the spirit – of the FTC regulations.

Not just anybody is flogging your videos. It’s not like that at all. Rather, you choose your target audience, and then set a CPV for the program. Then, those that LIKE YOUR CONTENT and are interested in your program distribute your video to people with a high degree of likelihood to be in your target audience. They are then compensated based upon the plays they drive. Obviously, programs that offer a higher bounty are going to attract more influencer attention, but in my view most of these influencers will ultimately select content they like best. But a healthy CPV wouldn’t hoit!

I like this approach. I am a huge believer in the need to seed video distribution. While we may think or hope that millions of people are constantly scanning the web looking for messages, the reality is that there is so much content out there that even the best stuff sometimes dies on the vine. I constantly find good content online that never really went anywhere because you had to really be digging around to find it. And most people aren’t spending time online doing that.

With a service like Wingsplay, you get passed the initial awareness problem so that your ideas are seen by thousands – maybe even millions. Additionally, you get to target the sorts of people who you want to expose to your video. Where it goes from there, of course, is up to the quality of the creative idea and the content itself.

Posted on: 08-2-2011
Posted in: Oldest Living Digital Marketer

Stop Giving it Away For Free and Start Creating Brand Value 0

There’s an enormous communication gap between we digital marketers and the startups that are trying to attract our dollars. Over the past several months, I have met with about four dozen emerging companies that hope to become a part of brand marketing plans. Almost to the company, they appear to think that my colleagues and I are desperate for new ways to cut prices by distributing digital coupons and free product.

“And you can give people a dollar off right in the aisle!” “And you can reward gamers by sending them a free six pack.” “And you can offer coupons that they can download right onto their phones.” “And you can give your best customers a 50% rebate that appears on their credit card statement.” “You’ll get lots of people in your stores because millions check in every day to get 50-90% discounts.”

These can be valuable tactics when you have very specific business goals. But for most brands such programs don’t actually constitute marketing. They’re the opposite.

At its core, a brand’s value is represented by the premium a company can charge versus its competitors. If I can get millions of people to pay $5.99 for Kellogg’s Corn Flakes versus $2.99 for generic corn flakes, that’s a strong brand. If I have to pass out $2.50 coupons to get folks to buy them, that’s a weak brand. And if people get used to receiving $2.50 coupons all the time, they’ll ultimately think less of the coupons.

We don’t need four dozen new ways to hand out coupons. We need ways to mitigate the need for distributing any coupons at all. Good marketing increases value, not decreases it.

I think part of the reason why this simple point is so poorly understood is that the realities of digital business versus actual business are so different. If you’ve existed for two years and never generated a nickel of revenue, you’re not a business. At least not yet. And the realities facing your management are rather different than those of revenue-producing businesses.

Brand marketers need to find digital tools and platforms that can enhance brand value. The great almost-depression of 2009 escalated marketer interest in digital promotional tools, and start up companies have been wise to recognize and capitalize on that opportunity. But digital marketing is not enhancing brand value if the bulk of it is driving up the amount of products and services we sell on deal.

I brought this up to one start up CRO last week, and he told me that they were in the business of giving consumers what they want. OK fine, but the consumers aren’t actually paying his salary. Brands are.

Excuse my cynicism, but what the consumer wants is everything for free. What brands need is revenue, increasing margins and long-term consumer loyalty. You (usually) don’t get that by handing out freebies.

Many of the companies I’ve seen have data indicating that as a result of distributing offers, more consumers like the participating brands. But here’s a splash of ice water to the face: a user that loves my product because they get a 50% off coupon every week is loyal to the deal, not the brand. They may like a brand for dropping the price, but for a brand, liking only matters inasmuch as it results in greater profits.

I’m not saying you can’t be successful by offering a promotions platform. The people at Coupons.com are getting rich doing just that. But marketers are becoming more acutely aware that all this discounting is hurting rather than helping. Look at Groupon’s month-over-month decreasing revenue for evidence.

A year from now, many of the startups touting their ability to distribute free product and deals are going to be gone. That doesn’t mean that someone won’t get rich by creating a whiz bang digital promotional platform. But the people that are really gonna clean up are the ones that offer digital solutions that help me charge more for something, not less.

Thanks to for publishing this first.

Posted on: 05-28-2011
Posted in: Oldest Living Digital Marketer

Start-Up Watch COD: Magnetic delivers search retargeting to millions and millions 0

am a huge believer in the potential of search retargeting to drive strong ROI for brands. The model, for those who may be unfamiliar, is that a search retargeting firm serves banner ads to people based upon their recent search history.

Now why, you might ask, would you bother targeting with banners instead of just buying the search results? Well, it’s actually not an “instead,” it’s an “in addition to.” Everyone knows SEM delivers blockbuster results. The problem is that there are not enough instances of searches to satisfy the demand from brands. You can only buy the number of searches consumers organically make. And then only one company gets to be first on the results. And even if you are first, there is by no means a guarantee that people will buy as a direct result of seeing or even clicking on your link.

Search retargeting adds critical touch points to the bottom of the funnel ecosystem, giving brands an opportunity to follow up with consumers are clearly in consideration and buying mode. The banners appear in both contextually linked content and on quality sites where the searchers visit after their telltale searches.

was the first company in the space, and collects more than five billion data points monthly through its partnerships with most of the leading search providers. Ergo more data. These partners provide Magnetic with 100% of their search queries, so the company can develop more precise user profiles of consumers.

But there are other distinctions as well. The data they get are mostly from search and e-commerce environments – that’s an important element of their value proposition. According to Magnetic, many search retargeting options are based upon data that come largely from sharing widgets. That’s OK, but the thing is that these widgets tend to appear more in news, blogs, and general edit than in environments where shoppers are actively looking for buying options. Think of it this way –would you rather show banners to someone who searched in a commercial environment, or on CNN?

There are a variety of ways that brands can benefit from Magnetic’s data. First, they can buy inventory direct from the company. Second, Magnetic works with other sellers, providing data to pubs and networks as a means of identifying more likely prospects. Finally, users of exchanges can also leverage the company’s information.

Founded in 2008, the company has amassed a broad range of blue chip customers. It’s an impressive list particularly because many of their customers are highly sophisticated DR marketers.

Through the use of the exchanges, Magnetic can make available inventory on virtually any type of site. For brands with very high levels of concern over brand safety, they can white list a set of sites that fulfill the advertiser’s specs. For example, many of their advertisers insist on inventory ONLY on the Comscore 250.

On the data provider side, sites need not provide data solely to Magnetic – they can continue to sell their data to companies like Yahoo, Google, and Bing. They can simply add Magnetic to their set of paying contracts and make more money. Always a good thing.

As I say, I am a big believer in this space. As a means of driving scale for transactional advertising, search retargeting can and should be a powerful extension of an SEM program. Definitely worth a look!

Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.

Posted on: 05-28-2011
Posted in: Oldest Living Digital Marketer

Start-Up Watch COD: Aisle 411 is your mobile shopping valet for finding, deciding, and saving 0

Find, choose, save, and have fun doing it all. That’s the concept behind Aisle 411, an iPhone app geared to helping people have better shopping experiences.

offers a variety of consumer services including:

Find It: Aisle 411 makes it easier for you to find specific items in participating stores. It actually shows the location for an item on a map in stores that have made one available to the service. You can also use Aisle 411 to physically plan your store visit.

Learn It: By scanning a UPC, you get connected to info and reviews of the item. It can help guide decisions on new items and in crowded categories.

Save It: Scan the UPS of an item to see if there are any offers for it. Or review the offers the app automatically delivers to you in store. You can also say or key in a UPC to save. The offers are delivered to your store card, so it’s easier to redeem with Aisle 411 than with rebates and coupons you need to print or clip. Savings appear on your receipt.

List It: You can make shopping lists via the app or on PC, and segment your list by retailer. So your Safeway items on one list, and your Home Depots on another.

Additionally, Aisle 411 incorporates – you guessed it – social and game mechanics to help make shopping a more fun and rewarding experiences. Users can check into stores, publicize their check-ins via Twitter and Facebook, and earn badges based upon their visits and purchases. If being mayor of a Piggly Wiggly isn’t floating your boat anymore, Aisle 411 lets you become the store Captain. OK, OK, I don’t actually know if Piggly Wiggly is a participating retailer. I just like typing the words Piggly Wiggly. But you get the point.

There are also state badges and hidden badges you unlock by visitng areas of a store and performaning desired actions. It astounds me how many people find badges so compelling sometimes, but they do so there you go!

Here’s a little film to give you the Gestalt:

As tens of millions of people begin to use their phones to help make their shopping experiences better, applications like Aisle 411 are working hard to deliver on the promise. While based upon the app reviews, the service still has a few bugs, I am bullish on both the opportunity and the set of services they are providing. After all, they are incorporating a variety of services in a single app. Many other apps have a smaller set of capabilities.

I haven’t experienced the app myself as (on the date I wrote this in April) there is no Android version. But there reportedly will be quite soon. I’ll be watching for it.

Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.

Posted on: 05-14-2011
Posted in: Oldest Living Digital Marketer

Start-Up Watch COD: Aisle 411 is your mobile shopping valet for finding, deciding, and saving 0

Find, choose, save, and have fun doing it all. That’s the concept behind Aisle 411, an iPhone app geared to helping people have better shopping experiences.

offers a variety of consumer services including:

Find It: Aisle 411 makes it easier for you to find specific items in participating stores. It actually shows the location for an item on a map in stores that have made one available to the service. You can also use Aisle 411 to physically plan your store visit.

Learn It: By scanning a UPC, you get connected to info and reviews of the item. It can help guide decisions on new items and in crowded categories.

Save It: Scan the UPS of an item to see if there are any offers for it. Or review the offers the app automatically delivers to you in store. You can also say or key in a UPC to save. The offers are delivered to your store card, so it’s easier to redeem with Aisle 411 than with rebates and coupons you need to print or clip. Savings appear on your receipt.

List It: You can make shopping lists via the app or on PC, and segment your list by retailer. So your Safeway items on one list, and your Home Depots on another.

Additionally, Aisle 411 incorporates – you guessed it – social and game mechanics to help make shopping a more fun and rewarding experiences. Users can check into stores, publicize their check-ins via Twitter and Facebook, and earn badges based upon their visits and purchases. If being mayor of a Piggly Wiggly isn’t floating your boat anymore, Aisle 411 lets you become the store Captain. OK, OK, I don’t actually know if Piggly Wiggly is a participating retailer. I just like typing the words Piggly Wiggly. But you get the point.

There are also state badges and hidden badges you unlock by visitng areas of a store and performaning desired actions. It astounds me how many people find badges so compelling sometimes, but they do so there you go!

Here’s a little film to give you the Gestalt:

As tens of millions of people begin to use their phones to help make their shopping experiences better, applications like Aisle 411 are working hard to deliver on the promise. While based upon the app reviews, the service still has a few bugs, I am bullish on both the opportunity and the set of services they are providing. After all, they are incorporating a variety of services in a single app. Many other apps have a smaller set of capabilities.

I haven’t experienced the app myself as (on the date I wrote this in April) there is no Android version. But there reportedly will be quite soon. I’ll be watching for it.

Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.

Posted on: 05-14-2011
Posted in: Oldest Living Digital Marketer
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