Co-render.com

Like most Pixar films, Wall•E contains some “adult humor” moments; social commentary that is perhaps beyond the scope of the target audience.   And, like most Disney films, Wall•E is also supposed to sell toys.

Spoiler Alert: Wall•E is basically a post-apocalyptic vision of a consumer society.

Well here’s some clever marketing, why not hand out cheap disposable watches to the kids on opening night, so they can help fill those landfills faster, and bring Wall•E to life!  Talk about engagement…or a self-fulfilling prophecy.

At any rate, shelling out $10 for a ticket to Wall•E isn’t a, wait for it, waste.

Dissecting brand meaning, and what precisely makes a meaningful brand, is popular fodder for the academic disciplines, and better business blogs.  It’s also a key component of what we do as market researchers, and we spend a lot of mental energy thinking up new ways to induce consumer definitions of xyz brand, and unpack what said brand “means.”

As such, we’ll be giving this pithy brand map technique from Dear Jane Sample some serious consideration;

Why is mapping exercise this significant from a research perspective?  Excellent question, and Grant McCracken has an excellent response;

Noah’s brand tag exercise defines brands in terms of our adjectives. Jane’s project gives us a chance to see how we define ourselves in terms of brands.

This is both halves of advertising’s meaning making arc. Meaning goes into brands. Meaning comes out of brands into us. (emphasis ours)

In a sense, both halves are pretty obvious, or else companies wouldn’t come to us to find out what their customers say/think/feel about their brand/product/service.  However, like academics and bloggers, consumers are quick to focus on the theoretical, or abstract meaning that defines a brand.  This technique of “brand mapping”  seems to ground the definition of a brand within daily life, thus revealing how the meaning (not the brand itself) manifests in actual consumer behavior.

Chumby is basically a clock radio with the passive functionality of a laptop.  It’s also;

internet-connected, runs on Linux software and is extremely hackable. In other words, it is a thoroughly open-source device. But alpha geeks are a small customer base, and Chumby Industries is betting that those early, tinker-mad consumers will transform its product into something more compelling to the rest of us…the alpha-geek development model proposes a revision of a gadget’s life cycle: As creative people keep hacking into what a Chumby can be, the device theoretically becomes more useful the longer you own it. (Rob Walker, Consumed)

Is this the “upgrade economy” described in Blur, almost ten years ago?  Maybe.  We’re certainly open to the possibility that co-rendering can make nifty tech gadgets more like a fine bottle of wine, rather than an expensive brick.

Orange, the UK phone company, is sponsoring an Internet Balloon Race scheduled to kick off tomorrow at noon.  It’s a whole new take on website navigation, with a little adventure racing thrown in.  Every page of the course has two “exits” to choose from, and each site is the equivalent of one internet mile.  The point is to travel as “far” as possible, and the winner will receive a trip to Ibiza.

Unfortunately, it is too late to register at this time - as a balloonist or as part of the course as it were;

…users register their “balloon” and they can race from site to site… as for where they go? Sites like this one, can register on their page and put up little balloons, so when people are racing, they go through your sites! (and who knows, some might come back later!)… SO, free advertising for the sites, which give free advertising for Orange, and fun exploring the internet for the users. (via NOTCOT)

Obviously, the whole idea is pretty genius, because everyone (Orange, racers, websites) benefits by participating.  More importantly, there’s more than one way to participate; if we’d heard about the event sooner, we’d have registered a Goodmind balloon and submitted Co-render.com to the course.

Update:  We’ve actually received word that it’s not too late to join the Internet Balloon Race.  Register here.

Debrett’s is the modern authority on all matters etiquette, taste and achievement.

Recognising people of distinction and the finer things in life are true to Debrett’s heritage, rooted in publishing chronicles of the great and the good over the past two centuries.

In addition to producing the definitive guide to Britain’s aristocracy, the Debrett’s library includes indespensible reference material for all sorts of social situations such as weddings, bar mitzvah’s, house guests, as well as Correct Form; a comprehensive guide to everyday manners for both ladies, and gentlemen.

Centuries of experience also make Debrett’s the modern authority on  Online Etiquette Rules, which they have dutifully posted on their website.  There’s always been something slightly unsettling about Facebook ‘pokes,’ but perhaps they only seemed uncomfortable, because we simply weren’t familiar with proper poking etiquette.  Thank goodness for Rule #1: Think before you poke.

It’s nice to think that even the Duchess of Cornwall is obliged to think before she pokes — which is probably the entire founding premise of the etiquette market.

(via bub.blicio.us)

Al Gore is neither the first, nor the last unsuspecting citizen to have his inconvenient truths rendered public information.  Here’s some co-rendered embarrassment for your entertainment;

The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, according to the Department of Energy. In 2006, Gore devoured nearly 221,000 kWh—more than 20 times the national average.

Last August alone, Gore burned through 22,619 kWh—guzzling more than twice the electricity in one month than an average American family uses in an entire year. As a result of his energy consumption, Gore’s average monthly electric bill topped $1,359. (via the Tennessee Center for Policy Research)

We all contribute to global warming every day. The carbon dioxide you produce by driving your car and leaving the lights on adds up quickly. You may be surprised by how much Co2 you are emitting each year. Calculate your personal impact and learn how you can take action to reduce or even eliminate your emissions of carbon dioxide.  (emphasis ours)

Stranger things have probably happened, but McDonald’s, of all corporate entities, has actually elevated the status of the blogger in the professional hierarchy.  (In stark contrast to the AP’s best efforts to prevent bloggers from re-publishing excerpts from their articles).

While internal employee social network sites to promote “ownership” are nothing new, Station M made good on the promise, and held a contest where first prize was the prestigious position of official Station M blogger.  The eventual winner, Rick, has been taken off fryer-duty to focus exclusively on his new role.  And of course, his promotion is a great promotional angle for the world’s largest fast food chain.

He hasn’t posted anything yet, but when he does, we hope he doesn’t try to incorporate any AP sourced insight.  Maybe it’s OK to blur the line between producer and consumer when you’re working the deep-fryer, but  it’s apparently legitimate cause for legal action, when intellectual property is at stake.

The electoral process is always contentious, and of late, so has the electoral system itself.  The Open Voting Consortium hopes to put all the talk of super-delegates named Chad to rest by applying the principles of Open Source to electoral software;

Though the United States has made a wholesale switch to electronic voting machines in the last decade, the software in those machines is all proprietary and closed source…The OVC’s argument is straightforward: democracy benefits from operating in an open, transparent manner - and the best way to ensure that for voting is to make sure that the software used is open source. They’re putting their money where their mouth is, too: they’ve developed a prototype system in Python on Linux that is open source and designed for ease of use, as well as to preserve a paper trail.

Hmmm, aren’t the Russians switching to Linux too…

(via OStatic)

It was a newsworthy event for ambitious developers everywhere when Apple opened up the iPhone API last fall. So maybe this equally ambitious “iWish” list from Portfolio stands a chance after all - if the open source model can defy the laws of physics that is.

Our favorite fantasy feature for the iPhone is probably the iPal concept;

iPal: Most iPhone users are busy people leading hectic lives, and the least Apple can do for $499 is provide you with a friend and confidant. The iPhone’s iPal should know how to comfort you when you’re down (automatically load laughing-baby clips from Youtube?) and be your wingman when you need a drinking buddy. Have you ever seen an iPhone after a few beers? Me neither, but I’d like to.

Nothing like kicking back a few with your iPhone at the local Genius Bar, getting “brick-faced.”

Jacob Morgan wrote a handy post for bub.blicio.us yesterday, summarizing the topline findings from the “Social Media Resistance Survey” (conducted by the USC Marshall School of Business, and the Institute for Communication Technology Management).

We found one of his observations on the wording of a question particularly interesting, partly because the question might actually suggest a larger trend in the way people want to use social media;

Most companies believe that online video, rss feeds, and podcasting are the most valuable tools a company can use in order to enhance a company image or increase productivity. If you’re thinking what I’m thinking then you’re right. Aren’t enhancing a company image and increase productivity 2 separate things? I think so. Business network sites came in 4th place followed closely by social media news releases. (emphasis ours)

Maybe the folks at USC and the CTM are onto something here, since productivity is a meaningful component of company image.   After all, outward bound social media applications, such as online video, are an efficient (productive) way to enhance image, create buzz, all that good stuff.

Maybe the small, mid, and large size companies surveyed don’t see image and productivity as totally distinct concepts.  How else can you explain the disappointing fourth place finish of business network sites (without acknowledging the personal image benefits)?