The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is partnering with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop new technology that turns smartphones into translation tools for soldiers. The goal of the “TRANSTAC Project” is to provide a program that allows soldier to talk into their phone in English and have the phone pronounce the words in Pashto, the local language in Afghanistan. The translation software would not reside on the phone: each phrase would be transmitted to a central server which would translate the message and relay it back to the phone in moments…
To continue reading, lease visit our Mobile Trendpool (subscription required).
One of the archetypal summer activities in Japan is attending a fireworks display. Many people go in yukata (cotton kimono) and it is popular to cool yourself with a fan. Along with tissues, plastic or paper fans are commonly distributed on the streets free to consumers, usually printed with advertising for a brand or product.
Akagi Nyugyo has produced 500 thousand paper fans featuring Garigari-kun, a famous mascot for one of their popular ice creams. The manufacturer has designated July 25 as “Garigari-kun Day” and as a lead-up to the campaign they distributed the fans from July 17 to July 25 in the Tokyo area.
The fans contain the recognizable image of Garigari-kun himself, thematically designed in summer motifs, with the shape resembling a Garigari-kun ice cream bar. The giveaways also have QR codes on the back where consumers can use their mobile to apply for mascot merchandise.
Akigi Nyugyo are cleverly taking advantage of seasonal consumer habits to not only promote a key product and tie-in with a campaign, but also connect people with incentives via useful mobile tools, one analog and the other electronic.
Are you a junior or senior college student in the New York City area? Got a knack for spotting upcoming trends or understanding consumer motives? If so, we invite you to apply for our Fall 2010 internship.
Daily tasks range from writing for our blog and the Mobile Trendpool to helping us conduct research and assisting on managing client projects. We’re particularly looking for students with experience in research, communications, advertising or mobile trends and who have excellent writing skills. Please note that this is not a fashion or design trends internship.
We’re happy to work around your class schedule, but we would like to set consistent hours from week to week. Our office is conveniently located in SoHo and has a fun, relaxed atmosphere.
Interested? Great! Please send your resume and one writing sample to paula@cscout.com with “Intern” in the subject. Thanks, and good luck!
Building on the success of Evian’s roller baby adventures through Central Park in 2009, this year Evian has designated August as “Live Young” month in New York City. Aiming to spread their “live young” vibe further, Evian have arranged celebrity surprises, free t-shirts and free water as part of their “quest to bring happiness and a renewed spirit to New York.”
Today we noticed that Evian has transformed the serial pop-up location at 201 Mulberry Street into a pink-and-white bedecked photo studio, complete with pastel pink ping pong table. Inside the space, visitors are invited to don a “Babies on the Inside” t-shirt featuring a baby’s body (in a range of PC skin tones) so they can create their own “Babies on the Inside” ad by striking their best “Live Young” pose in front of the camera. Photos will all be uploaded to the Evian Live Young Facebook page.
This afternoon at 5pm, tennis ace and Evian spokesperson Maria Sharapova will grace the pop-up space to select the best “Living Young” photograph and bestow two free tickets to the US Open on its model. The one condition is that you must become a fan of the Evian Live Young Facebook page in order to win.
(Side note: we duly tried to “like” Evian after my Living Young photo shoot but were confused by the more than 5 Evian pages that turned up. Time for a bit of cohesion there, guys?)
Update 08.26.10: We’ve been informed that the correct Evian Facebook page is www.facebook.evian.com Photos will be up this afternoon!
CScout (http://www.cscout.com/) is looking for a freelance market research professional/analyst with experience in analyzing and drawing insights from quantitative and qualitative survey data. Strong writing skills and the ability to communicate findings effectively and concisely are a must. Background in consumer trend research is preferred.
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To apply: Please send a brief cover letter and resume asap. Title email as “Analyst/ writer” to newyork@cscout.com
Image via Flowing Data (also, here’s the flickr set)
Nokia’s “Design by Community” is a crowd-sourcing project to design the ultimate smartphone. Every week from mid-March to April, Nokia had members of their Nokia Conversations (Nokia’s blog) community pool their ideas on all aspects of the ideal smartphone—including display and UI, size and shape, materials, operating system, connectivity, camera, enhancements, and name—and vote for the best. Out of all this input, the Nokia design team rendered three final concept sketches for the Nokia U, which were voted on by 18,000 people.
To continue reading, please visit our Mobile Trendpool (subscription required).
Low-cost fashion retailed UNIQLO has Sportweet, a visual Twitter service in which your tweets are matched with the outline of athletes and sports players. Examples include tennis players, soccer players and golfers. After you enter your Twitter ID Sportweet looks at your tweets and their popularity and frequency, awarding them a score which is reflected in the final image and the “ranking” you receive.
The Sportweet campaign comes after Lucky Line, which rewarded consumers who followed the brand’s Twitter account with coupons. This was also highly visual, with each new follower joining a “line” of avatars, hoping that they will be chosen to get the discount.
UNIQLO in fact only started using Twitter and other SNS like mixi in 2009, much later than other companies. However, the retailer has previously used viral web campaigns and widgets in a very dynamic way and generated much buzz like this.
Check out more innovative marketing and product trends at our Tokyo office’s site, JapanTrends.
The old real estate maxim “location, location, location” is more relevant than ever, and not just in regards to where a store is located: from farmers’ markets to handmade crafts, shoppers are seeking out goods and services that are locally produced. Most companies are proud to source goods from within 100 miles, but Freeman’s Sporting Club, located in the Lower East Side, boasts that its garments are all made within 10 miles. Of course, this locally made clothing comes at a high price—even simple pieces like t-shirts start at $40. Buying local may be better for the environment or the immediate community, but its power as a status symbol cannot be ignored.
For its “Try Something New With Omo” campaign, Omo Brazil has planted GPS devices in 50 boxes of the laundry detergent in 35 different cities around Brazil. The device is activated when removed from the store shelf, allowing on-call Omo teams in each of the cities to track the buyer to their house and surprise them with the prize of a pocket video camera. Each episode, including tracking, surprising, and handing over of the gift will be recorded and shown, along with photos and general locations of the winners on a dedicated website.
With Brazil’s high crime rate, Omo does expect some to be reluctant to open their doors to strangers, and so have
included an “authentification” buzzer which will ring from the box, proving their identity. If that still doesn’t work, a note inside explains the promotion and a phone number to call to retrieve their prize.
Although OMO should be applauded for creating a daring campaign utilizing GPS, it is not without risk of backfiring. Safety issues in crime-ridden Brazil are a concern, while privacy would be an issue in any country.
For more posts about innovations in the mobile space, please visit our Mobile Trendpool (subscription required).
If you’re a frequent visitor to CScout.com, you may have noticed a couple of changes recently. Though our site has served us well over the past three years, we thought it was time for a refresh. Our new look features bigger visuals and more intuitive navigation, not to mention the fact that it complements our sister office’s site, CScoutJapan.com. And, might we add, it looks great on the iPad!
Feel free to let us know what you think about our redesign. We hope you like the new site, and we’re looking forward to providing you with more trends and consumer insights in the future.
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