Enhancing the pre-purchase experience @ The Fat Duck

I'm lucky enough to have been to much-talked-about chef Heston Blumenthal's restaurant The Fat Duck.  Far beyond the famed tasting menu (which was both curious and delicious) the entire experience was highly memorable, and certainly gave me something to dine out on for some time afterwards.  Heston's ever evolving approach to food and dining is now moving a leap further forward with the launch of a new pre-dining animated experience.... designed to tease, enhance and start the Fat Duck experience from the moment you've booked, usually 2 months before you'll sit at the table.  Smart thinking from the alchemy magician.

Watch:


Like A Kid In A Sweet Shop. from The Neighbourhood on Vimeo.

In 2010 it was Elephant Parade, this year, London street art is getting a boost from the Faberge Egg Hunt. There are over 200 eggs to find around London, each with a unique ID, a QR code and a text to enter code for the chance to win a (Queen's) Diamond Jubilee diamond encrusted Faberge egg.

I don't have the time to write reams about how well put together this campaign is, leveraging smartphones to deliver easy participation, nor wearing my consumer hat do I really care, I just know that tripping over the eggs in my daily wanderings around town brightens my day. :-)

Kinect-shopping trolley demo

Convergence of technology and shopping is happening in so many ways.

 Payment integrations via mobile, be it NFC, Paypal, Google Wallet, or carrier billing (Facebook announced more moves in this direction this week at Mobile World Congress) is all driving mCommerce growth closer to scale, and better shopping experiences whether that's sofa shopping via Amazon's very addictive iPad app or Stop & Shop's US instore trial and more mobile enabled websites are all closing the path to purchase.

Microsoft's Kinect platform is also being used in more and more ways and my Microsoft buddies shared this video with me this morning. For sure it's clever use of technology but I have to say it needs a lot of real-time, speedier response magic applied. I can just imagine the chaos it would cause in my local Waitrose on a Saturday morning if trolleys were following users automatically, running over small children and taking an age to talk to you about every purchase! Worth watching though.  Food for thought.

Virgin Money - Building Projection

Big impressive building projection stunts are nothing new, but throw in a stretchy brand known for versatility and innovative approaches along with my past associations with animation and I can't help but love this piece from the fledgling UK bank Virgin Money.

The content agenda

Is content king or is conversation king?  Debate!

It's a sporting joust I enjoy regularly with some of my digital buddies. You can play it from a variety of angles, but if it comes down to would I rather be stuck on a desert island with someone to talk to or something to talk about (to myself) I'd take the person every time.  Wearing my professional hat though, "content" is definitely something constantly on my agenda.

Most brands have now (finally) recognised that just collecting fans like a kleptomaniac serves little purpose, and it's a lot of effort +/ or money to spend to then allow to languish unattended and unloved.  So, with that context, undoubtedly content is the fuel for the conversational fire, and preferably content that's interesting, varied and added to regularly, if there's any sort of generated / earned media aspirations involved.

Embracing new models to translate the strategic into something that actually gets made isn't always easy for organisations used to just briefing 30" TVCs either, nor being smart about distributing the content and maximising the visibility thereof. Content influences conversation, which increasingly influences search and the circle rolls on...

There are brands out there who are doing a good job, some on a small scale whilst they learn,  (I like the work Nastro Azzuro are doing) and others on much bigger scales, experimenting, failing fast and learning as they go.  I liked this infographic on content via Mashable. Worth checking out.

Coming out in sympathy - Kleenex

Maybe it's because I have a nasty suspicion that I have yet another cold brewing, that's making me sympathetic to healthcare related marketing today but I just tripped over this nicely executed "random act of kindness" variant from Kleenex. Not the world's most original idea but the very human truth behind nice surprises will never fail.

Groupon shows a sense of humour

I've finally decided enough was enough with 4 superfluous emails a day from Groupon, so it was time to unsubscribe.

What was supposed to be a quick admin task turned into a moment of unexpected treasure with Groupon showing a sense of humour with their unsubscribe "punish Derrick" video.  Rather like a humorous, well crafted 404 error message, this turned my get Groupon out of my inbox experience into one that left a positive impression. Nice touch. Albeit having punished Derrick, I did decline the offer to change my mind.  For now at least.