For the launch of Premium Economy, Virgin Atlantic have decided to do something different and offer punters the chance to win a real title. But first they have to take a ‘poshness’ test at www.getusedtofeelingposh.com.au
Whilst online, users can also explore the new Premium Economy cabin and all it has to offer. To drive traffic to the site, NetX developed a big offline campaign, ‘poshing up’ Martin Place rail station and turning it into ‘Martin Palace’. Practically every poster site, along with floor and escalator media in the station has been usurped by Virgin Atlantic. And cabin crew handed out samples of a new fragrance, Le Cuir - the scent of real leather (seats).
With the promotion running throughout May, it won’t be long before we discover who will be the first Baron of Bondi. Or Marquis of Malvern.
A collaborative effort between our friends at One Green Bean and Mitchells and NetX.
Forget Big Brother 08. Check out Big Chicken 08. A twisted version of the original with chooks replacing the err, adults (?) Eight Chickens. One Hen House. Only one winner will make it through to the flame grill. A gripping six part serial for Nando’s. Get online and get addicted. Find out which chook will be Australia’s favourite fowl. And whether there will be any turkey slapping. Vote for the bird that takes your fancy here: www.bigchicken.com.au
Phone technology and innovation has long been dictated by the large telcos - but what happens when you approach traditional phone technology in a Web 2.0 manner? You end up with Ribbit
Its the next generation phone platform that brings together the mobile phone and the wide variety of other communication devices that have become integral to our daily lives - Facebook, MSN, Twitter, Skype, in fact pretty much anything as in true web 2.0 fashion the site is built on a open source platform allowing developers full access to its functionality and the opportunity to innovate further.
Imagine your mobile phone ringing, but you’ve left it in the car, so you answer it from your facebook profile instead. As you pick up the the call, you select caller id, which rather than just letting you know who is calling, feeds you their current facebook status, twitter messages, myspace blogs in fact every detail you have about that person!
After a brief hiatus, the Lab blog is back up and full of beans. As we were moving gear from Balmain to St. Leonards in a recent change of digs, the server fell out the back of the company Volvo in the cross city tunnel. It was rescued by a couple of students, repurposed and given a new assignment as a dedicated Botanicalls server. We tracked the Twits down though after noticing some uncommonly green areas of Redfern, and everything’s back to normal (although there’s a couple of wilting gardenias who haven’t yet forgiven us).
Thank you for your concerned enquiries, it’s good to be missed and you’re all on the top of our Christmas card list (sure you’ll be happy about that).
In other news, James is considering getting a tattoo of two seagulls fighting over a chip.
This blog is very sad to lose a major contributor with now Ex-Xer Tim Buesing moving onto different coloured pastures. His thoughtful ponderings on all things creative and technical will be sorely missed around here. And he has shaped some of the best work to come out of NetX and St Edmonds Lab. Of course his new employer is very lucky to have him and will benefit greatly from all the expertise we here at the Lab have imparted to him (he is certainly a better German for having known us.)
After you have been to a few “latest-buzzword-on-the-mobile” events, it is likely you become a bit jaded. Hype after hype wave breaks onto our shores but we are still missing a sizable audience changing its behaviour. Where is the move from voice and SMS towards mobile data usage (MMS, email, IM, WAP, web, widgets)? Last night, Mobile Monday’s panel handed out some refreshingly honest opinions without the inflated projections.
Instead the talk was more about:
what will constitute a truly mobile digital experience (immediate, identifiable/personal, always-on, context, location, social graph)
that Mobile 2.0 will therefore be different from but build upon Web 2.0 (like TV built on theatre and radio, web on print and TV)
the (slow) arrival of pricing models that are less about “bill shock” and more about “worry free use” aka data flat rates
carriers hopefully becoming “smart pipes” and sharing traffic and customer data, thereby helping to combine and improve mobile experiences
developing widgets which don’t require a browser in an open-standards-platform
social networking as one key experience defining 3G (like voice did for 1G and SMS did for 2G)
Mobile Monday’s panel, picture taken with iPhone by Halans
NetX has opinions on the coming digital developments. Some are about strategy, some about technology, some are about our mothers. If you want to read up on how the next year pans out, look no further than this post. To mimic the style of Twitter, one of the most talked-about micro-blogging tools of 2007, we limited the predictions to 140 characters each.
Georgina
Context aware mobile communication in ad-hoc environments filter into our lives. Coupled with SNT’s = a powerful form of real time marketing. Pascal:
2008 will be the beginning of the end of the predominance of email. It will be replaced by social network messaging on mobile devices. Thomas:
Facebook will be released in hardback. Yahoo! will calm down. There will be a worldwide pixel shortage. Tracey:
The world will end in one giant POKE! Justin:
Al qaeda takes over facebook followed by myspace, forcing the internet to cease all social networking sites. Kelvin:
The US will have its first female president. Web 3.0 will become a cliché. I will give too much of my money to Apple, IKEA & Threadless. Janine:
I predict there will be no more mobile phones. Just iphones. Allen:
Expect the social networking bubble to burst. Data rates continue to cripple true mobile internet in OZ. My mum will finally “get” email. George:
Facebook gains its own consciousness and systematically hacks into the American stock exchange thus forcing a global panic devaluing stock. Trina:
We adopt the Japanese advertising model of bombarding users with five second ads and epileptic flashing lights James:
My skin consists of LCD pixels and each morning I download a new outfit from the internet. Sam:
iPhone chip implant inside your ear: Tap temple twice to pick up, once to hang up, scroll your cheek for more options.
Yes, it’s the silly season – and it doesn’t get much sillier than this.
For all your support and friendship during 2007, we’d like to express our sincere appreciation through song.
We only ask for one small favour in return – your patience. There are megabytes of love coming your way, which could, depending on the size of your chimney, take a few minutes to download. So please, get comfortable, have a Merry NetXmas and give it to someone special: Watch and listen to our NetXmas
For everybody who enjoys a look behind the scenes:Have a peek at our elaborate set and the no-expenses-spared filming. When you see it, it is hard to feel worried about Hollywood’s writers strike.
Over the last couple of days a couple of people have asked me what I’ve added to my iPhone. There are already thousands of iPhones hooked up to Australian carriers (anyone from Telstra, Voda, Optus wanna tell me how many?) and every one of these is open to the efforts of worldwide application developers. Here’s a bunch of shots of some of my favourite functions. They’re a combination of pre-installed apps, apps that i’ve added and made-for-iPhone Safari-based sites. Let me know if I’m missing out on anything interesting!
Apparently some CDs didn’t see the funny side of being sledged by text (SMS) at the AWARD party at Sydney’s great arts venue Carriageworks on Friday. Guests could text comments with their mobiles that appeared in speech bubbles over pictures of the award winners.
Most of the comments were funny or in good spirits but as the night wore on and the alcohol kicked in the barbs became more poisonous.
We knew this was an experiment and therefore going to be a bit risky (see a similar use at re:publica conference). And some people will always go too far. However we wanted to show that at events, technology and interactivity can come together in a very intuitive way. It was an opportunity for people to experience first hand how easy-to-understand and engaging an interactive idea can be.
Video of the projection at the AWARD 2007 party:
We set it up using a standard SMS gateway, drawing the incoming live data (text messages) into a flash file which constituted the projection of photos made a few moments earlier. This might have been the first time such technology has been used at an Australian event.
If you know of similar applications or would like to comment (sledge?), please drop us a line.
Update:
The SMS celebrated its 15th birthday two days after we invited to text to the AWARD screen. Of course, we hereby salute the engineers at Airwide for their brilliant addition to the world of communication.
