The North Face company wanted to promote its brand and increase foot traffic in its Manchester UK store. They knew a tried and true way of getting attention was to give potential shoppers something fun to do, so The North Face created an interactive snowboarding game.

The game, called “The North Face race,” appeared outside a busy train station on a nine-story high digital billboard. A message on the screen encouraged passersby to dial a local-rate number from their mobile phones. Once connected, a recording asked that they use their keypads to select one of three characters. The race then started and characters sped down a digital slope.

After the race, players received a congratulatory SMS-text message containing a gift voucher code that was redeemable at The North Face store. Even though the store was a fifteen-minute walk from the screen, a healthy 88% of those that played redeemed the voucher.

The game ran in October for two consecutive Saturdays. Each day it appeared on the billboard for four hours. During the first Saturday, people engaged with the screen for 10% of the total run time. During the second Saturday, the rate increased to 26%. This increase was accomplished without any marketing beyond word of mouth.

Some brands try so hard to broadcast at potential customers that they forget to think about what people want. In this case, The North Face successfully engaged people and influenced their behavior by focusing on the basics. What do people like? Fun, games, and prizes. Sometimes, it’s just that simple.

(Thanks, Rob Edwards of Canditv)

There are 159  Hard Rock Cafes  in places as widespread as Bahrain, Fiji, and Ho Chi Ming City. Each location displays rock relics from the company’s 70,000-piece collection (the most prized relic being the Hard Rock’s first  – Eric Clapton’s red Fender guitar).

So, what do you do if you want to see an artifact from their collection, but you’re not near the location housing it? The Hard Rock has solved that problem (in Las Vegas, at least) through digital signage.

In the Hard Rock Cafe Vegas Strip, there’s an eighteen-foot-long HD touch screen called the Rock Wall. The Rock Wall allows visitors to tour the restaurant’s locations and explore the memorabilia collection virtually. A deep zoom feature can give you a close enough look at the relics to see the tears in Jimi Hendrix’s coat or where the paint’s chipping on Slow Hand’s Fender.

(Thanks John. Thanks Kristen).

Travelers Insurance is using redundancy and impressionistic digital imagery to get customers’ attention.  

At the Minneapolis - St. Paul Airport, the insurance company has installed four screens. Each screen bears an identical image – the company’s trademark red umbrella. When the airport hallway is empty, the screens look like carbon copies. But, as soon as people walk by the images morph and interact with them in a fun way.  

The big digital umbrellas scatter into hundreds of small leaves and slowly reform, until somebody else passes by.

If there was only one screen, it would easily be ignored. People would walk by and not notice. By having four screens, Travelers has an enveloping presence. In addition, the umbrellas send the message that Travelers’ coverage is flexible and responds directly to customers’ needs.

The signage is more about leaving an impression than explicitly stating facts. You don’t always have to tell customers that you’re there. Sometimes you can subtly show them. 

(Thanks, Scott.)

The above video showcases the work of EasyWeb, a French company that creates “Monumental Video Projections.” To produce the projections, EasyWeb first maps the building’s exterior using architectural plans, photographs, and laser quotation. The laser quotation process allows them to calculate distances and map minute details of the structure.

Once the mapping is complete, they recreate the building’s exterior on a PC using 3D software. 3D software is also used to create the dynamic effects and graphics of the projection show.  

Finally, light “beamers” project the 3D effects onto the façade.

“Our technology is ‘very handmade,’” says EasyWeb’s PR & Project Manager, Pierre Caulet. “Like fashion designers, the production team creates unique video shows [which play] with volumes and architecture.”

EasyWeb’s goal is to create a new event marketing approach. The company delivers a spectacular visual experience sure to attract crowds and get people talking. We look forward to seeing how brands will use emerging video projection. What will they say and do for their customers once they’ve gotten their attention? A question like that’s important to answer ahead of time.  

(Thanks, Shawn T.)

Augmented Reality, which melds the physical and virtual worlds, just got its first browser: Layar.  

Layar is an application for Android phones. Users scan their physical surroundings with their phone’s camera. Then, information about points of interest, such as the location of an ATM or the cost of a home, appears layered on top of the image in the camera display, in real time.

The application was created by the Dutch company, SPRXmobile, and thus far it is only available in the Netherlands. But soon, companies worldwide will have the ability to publish their own branded content layers, the same way they can with web pages. Users will decide through which layers they view augmented reality.

Photo courtesy of Sande Edwards

Scent is an often overlooked aspect of the customer experience. But not for NCP, the UK’s largest parking garage company.

According to a blog post from The Guardian, NCP conducted an online survey of 2,000 people. One-third of the participants said they were unlikely to use a parking garage that had a foul odor. Two-thirds identified the stairwells as the worst smelling parts of the garage.  

NCP decided to take action on their findings. Thanks to new technology, they are able to pump pleasant odors into the stairwells. But before they do, they are asking customers to vote on the scents they’d like most. Possibilities include: roasted chicken, cut grass, roses, mint, leather, and wood fire.  

Once votes are counted, the scented stairwells will have trial runs in garages in London, Birmingham, Leeds, and Cardiff.

Social networking is everywhere. And everyday it seems like there is some new social networking site or platform.

So, in honor of the upcoming weekend, we’d like to get social and shed some light on how one of these new sites works.

To do so, we spoke with Josh Rachford, who works for a new(ish) contender in the social networking ring, Tumblr.

Tumblr, started in 2007, is a short-form blogging platform, which allows users to post photos, videos, audio, links, and text. Basically, it’s a way for users to share virtually anything they find (and like) on the internet.

Like Twitter, Tumblr allows its users to “follow” other site users.

When you follow someone, it brings their posts up on your dashboard page. Your dashboard page is the control panel for your blog.

So, if you like an article or picture someone posted, it shows up on your dashboard. Then, you can “reblog” it, which adds it to your personal blog.

Explains Rachford:

“For example, my friend Jacob posted a picture of both of us. I saw it on my dashboard and decided I wanted to post it too. So, I click the ‘reblog’ button, and then add a little text (’That sure was awesome.’) Now, the picture appears on my blog too, with a link to Jacob’s and the text I added.”

To us, the ease of “reblogging” on Tumblr demonstrates the potential power of these social networking sites.

With the click of a button, you can reblog something another user posted, and it is immediately accessible to everyone in your network. And everyone in their network. And everyone in their network. And everyone in their network…

You get the idea.

This Tuesday, Sony and Comcast will open a new co-branded retail store called Sony Style Comcast Labs.

The store will showcase the newest and most innovative offerings of both companies, says Marcy Cohen, senior manager of corporate communications for Sony Electronics.

As a lab, the store will sell current products and services, in addition to giving a sneak peek at “future technology” before it hits the market.

The store was conceptualized over a year ago by Howard Stringer, Chairman and CEO of Sony Corporation of America, and Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast.

Comcast already sells its services, such as high speed cable Internet, in about 5,000 retail stores, including Walmart, Target, and Best Buy.

And there are 40 Sony Style stores in the US designed to make customers more comfortable with electronics.

Putting the two together, integrating service and hardware, in one store just makes sense.

The Comcast Center, Comcast’s corporate headquarters in Philadelphia, will host the initial store on its street level.

Right now, only the one store is planned, but others may follow.

Are .net and .biz not doing enough to spice up your URL? Get ready for a slew of (dot) options.

A recent article in Advertising Age points to the proposed expansion of generic top-level domains.

Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are the short words that follow the dot in a web address, such as .gov or .edu. There are 21 gTLDs, with .com, .net, and .org capping about 91% of all websites.

A proposed expansion of these domains could add hundreds more to the mix.

The expansion would allow companies to supplement  their .com TLD with more descriptive, on-brand TLDs. For example: John Deere could use “JohnDeere.tractor,” “JohnDeere.mower,” and “JohnDeere.green,” among other options.

Who’s proposing this expansion? A nonprofit agency, the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which has a Joint Project Agreement with the US Department of Commerce. ICANN believes that opening up new TLDs would increase innovation and competition in the domain name market. And, though .coms aren’t running out, the space is crowded.

The expansion has its downsides. Mainly, it’s expensive.

Registering a top-level domain name is significantly more involved than registering a domain. When applying for a TLD, you’re applying to run an entire registry. A registry is a business, just like .com or .net, and that doesn’t come cheaply.

The application fee for a TLD is $185,000. Plus annual fees that range anywhere from $25,000 to $75,000. That’s a lot of money, especially for companies pushed to snatch up several brand-related TLDs.

What’s more, if two companies wanted the same name, the name would be auctioned off to the highest bidder.

The battles between Coke and Pepsi, or McDonald’s and Burger King would undoubtedly be epic. No wonder the expansion has caused trademark holders some concern.

Its these concerns, according to ICANN’s March 7th news release, that have kept the proposed expansion from, as of yet, going through. But that doesn’t mean it won’t.

So it’s best to be prepared. Marketers, eager to put their clients’ brands in sticky new places, should get ready to rumble.

EZface, a provider of “Virtual Makeover” applications, drew crowds at its NRF Big Show booth.

Guests sat down in front of the company’s Virtual Mirror kiosk, which snapped their picture and displayed it on the kiosk screen. The guests then digitally applied cosmetics and hair coloration products to their photo, so they could see what they’d  look like with red hair or a particular shade of eye shadow.

Once they found the right look, they printed “before” and “after” pictures, along with a list of the products they’d used (in case they wanted to make a purchase).

The Virtual Mirror provides several perks for shoppers. No longer will they have to worry about hygiene issues around sampling pre-opened products in store. In addition, the application eliminates retailers’ needs for stock samples, and allows customers to try several different products quickly.

The IBM-powered kiosk is currently being used by Israel’s chain pharmacy, Super-Pharm. The product, though, also has web and cell phone applications. The web application has already been sold to major cosmetics companies, such as L’Oreal, Maybelline, and Garnier.

If you want to try the online version, go to http://www.ezface.com.

This mirror may not tell you who’s the fairest of them all, but it can tell shoppers if that cashmere sweater comes in seafoam or if those flat-front khakis are available in 38×32.

Modestly called the magicmirror, it’s a mirror that’s also an RFID reader. So when shoppers present an RFID-tagged item of clothing or other merchandise in front of the mirror, the device will display information about the product such as size and color availability and guides that suggest other items to accessorize it with.

If the system, made by Avery Dennison, is installed in a fitting room, a shopper can use the magicmirror to request a different size or color of a particular item without leaving the room. Store employees who have handheld devices tied in with the system will get the message and can respond to the customer’s request.

Portuguese apparel retailer Throttleman is considering using the mirror. Prada already is using something similar in its SoHo and Beverly Hills stores. Mirrors in the Prada dressing room also use RFID technology to offer detailed information about the clothing brought inside and allow shoppers to see various angles of themselves as well as simultaneous pictures of them dressed in different items to compare which they like best.

Another “magic mirror” was tested in 2007 in the Nanette Lepore section of Bloomingdale’s New York flagship store. It allowed shoppers to have certain clothing items superimposed on their image in the mirror and also have video and images of them sent to the internet so friends could weigh in on the item.

Leave it to Germany’s Metro Group to get grocery shoppers to take on a more interactive role in buying Froot Loops and bottled water. The giant retailer is testing a cell phone application for use in its “Future Store” that allows customers to use the phone to scan items as they put them in their cart.

The app (called the mobile shopping assistant) also allows shoppers to locate items in the store and pull up information about a particular product.

When it’s time to check out, the program creates a new bar code that is displayed on the phone, which the shopper scans at a payment terminal. The advertised payoff here is less waiting in check out lines because everything is already totaled.

The store (located in Toenisvorst, Germany, if anyone has a trip planned) is also  testing a wine tasting counter that offers 16 chilled wines for consumers to try out before buying. Slightly more creepy are the two talking, automated robots that roam the store telling shoppers about the various technology and new ideas being tested there.

The cell phone as a scanner concept also is available to U.S. consumers. A mobile phone software program called Compare Everywhere lets users scan in a bar code with the cell phone’s camera. The app then checks the best price at stores in your local area and on the internet, as well as providing product reviews. Alas, information is not available on every item with a bar code and at this point the software can’t be used with all cell phones. Another mobile phone application, Snappr, for use on the iPhone, offers similar assistance.

It’s another bit of empowerment for consumers and a reason retailers should offer something more than price to differentiate themselves.