I take the subway to work -- or the “tube” if you will -- every morning here in Hong Kong. Just like any other robust city, mornings on the subway are quite a sight to see: the endless sea of people walking towards the same direction for work, the funky beat ballad comprised of the heels of shoes, the charcoal wave of suits and ties. To be honest, I quite enjoy this moment of people-watching. With the new H&M store (the first one in Asia) opening in the heart of Central this month, subway-ers are greeted with lined tunnels of Madonna, Madonna and more Madonna.

However, something else other than Madge caught my eye recently. A new campaign by DHL makes use of the movement of the escalator in the station leading up to the concourse:

Continue reading "Life in the Fast Lane"

US slips in global info and comm tech rankings

Prepare yourself for a prolonged round of chest-thumping and prognosticating about the sorry state of high-tech in the US in response to the World Economic Forum’s Global Information Technology Report 2006-2007. The rankings, released 3 April, show the US slipping from first to seventh in WEF’s Networked Readiness Index (NRI) – a composite scale measuring the ability of 122 different countries to take advantage of their information and communication technology resources.

The ratings measure 3 key things:
•The readiness of governments, businesses, and individuals to effectively utilize info and comm techs
•The general regulatory, business, and infrastructure environment
•The usage of available technology by the above stakeholders

In the report released this week, Denmark was rated #1, followed by Sweden, Singapore, Finland, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. But before we all pack up our cords, cards, gadgets and gizmos and head to Scandinavia or Southeast Asia, there are a whole lot of good things going on in tech enterprises in the US, according to a different rating measured by the very same World Economic Forum. Of 47 companies recognized by WEF as Technology Pioneers in 2007, more than half (27) are from the US. No other country has more than 6.

Also, let’s be sure not to confuse networked readiness with market opportunity. On the WEF NRI index, China slid eight positions down to 59, while India slid four places to 44. But remember, even a small percentage of either population is many times larger than the total population of the first 6 countries combined.

So what does this mean for experiential marketing? It means we have a whole lot more high-tech tools in the toolkit – from mobile phones to handheld devices and RFID tags – that we can use in an increasing number of markets to expand, enhance and extend experiences for global clients.

-Joe Panepinto, PhD, Jack Morton Digital, strategist

I went out for a lovely dinner last night in a restaurant that is touted as one of the best that Brooklyn has to offer. Everything was fantastic: personable service, fresh, inventive food, decadent desserts, interesting wines--until I got my coffee. It tasted like the kind coffee you get at high school football games or in retirement homes---weak, watery and oddly burnt. I was so surprised that such an impressive restaurant would serve such sub-par coffee and left the place with a slightly bad taste in my mouth about the whole experience (burnt coffee taste aside).

On the walk home, I got into a discussion about experiences in general and what's more important: the first touchpoint or the ending? If my appetizer had been only OK, I probably could have been won over by the entree and dessert. Because my crappy coffee came at the end of a fine meal, I was a bit more forgiving than normal.

Continue reading "Is it the end or the beginning that matters?"

The newly-designed set for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart premiered on Monday, April 9th to rave reviews from Jon! He spent the first several minutes of his opening show gushing over his new "toy". Jack Morton Design/PDG was hired to design Jon's new set after we impressed him with the design of the set for the mid-term elections.

Enjoy the renderings - they look exactly like the actual set!

Then

Now

Some time in 2006, environmental advocates, architects and city planners in São Paulo fought to cleanse the city of all outdoor advertising, which millions of residents described as “overwhelming visual pollution.” With enough momentum, they proposed legislation to this end. It passed with only 1 dissenting vote.

Continue reading "Advertising's Death Begins?"

I've been keeping track this year, and to date, the only mail receipt I've had that I wanted, needed or kept is my subscription to the Harvard Business Review. Really... nothing else. Granted, I'm not the one in the office that processes invoices, but even a lot of that is electronic these days. My pay check is direct deposited and the pay stub is only available online.

At home, we use electronic billing, payment, monthly statements, and everything else that matters. (I've even stopped apologizing for sending most of our holiday greetings via email.) What's left in the mailbox? About 82 pounds of junkmail. The average adult receives 41 lbs of junk mail a year. There's an environmental organization called 41pounds.org focused on helping you eliminate that!

Continue reading "Is "Snail Mail" obsolete?"

Do you have any friends who drive a Prius -- Toyota's game-changing hybrid? Since its debut a few years ago, the Prius has led the way in proving that a hybrid vehicle is mass-marketable. Where I live in the SF Bay area, it seems like a Prius convention. They're everywhere!

In the past 2 weeks, three of my friends have talked about their Prius with me, and in each case, they offered to swap cars for a day so that I could experience it. I've seen lots of popular products before, but none seems to motivate this kind of word-of-mouth (WOM). Nobody ever offered to lend me their iPod for the day.

So yesterday, I accepted one of the offers and I swapped my Infiniti for a Prius -- just for the day. Driving a Prius is a new experience. Now I get it.

Continue reading "WOM: What is it about the Prius?"

About a year ago, as a means of reducing my total spending on cable, internet and phone service, I canceled my two phone lines (voice/fax) and signed up for Vonage -- VoIP service that rides on top of my cable internet access. (When I called the phone company and requested them to remove the line from the street to my house, they were dumbfounded. First they said they couldn't do it, so I said "ok, I'll just pull it loose and leave it in the street." They came out the next morning!)

My experience with Vonage has been mixed.

Continue reading "Vonage: Hold or Fold?"