Neal's Notes

The annual SIGGRAPH conference, which recently concluded in Los Angeles, always draws an eclectic bunch of developers, artists, filmmakers, scientists, academics and students from around the globe.

This year was no exception – SIGGRAPH reported that 21,212 attendees from 19 countries roamed the exhibit hall at the Los Angeles Convention Center. There were also more than 1,200 speakers/contributors who participated in an array of panels, screenings, tutorials and presentations.

One of the most interesting exhibits was a human-plant interaction that added capacitive touch to ordinary plants. As reported by engadget, Walt Disney’s development arm, Disney Research, unveiled a project called Botanicus Interacticus.

engadget said the project is centered on a custom-built capacitive sensor module, which pipes a low current through a plant, then senses when/where you touch (bit creepy).

“Assuming your body is grounded, the device uses more than 200 frequencies to determine exactly where you’ve grabbed hold of a stem, reported engadget. “Then, depending on how it may be programmed, the sensor can trigger any combination of feedback, ranging from a notification that your child is attempting to climb that massive oak in the yard again, to an interactive melody that varies based on where your hand falls along the plant.”

Besides new things to do with house plants, a section of the floor was devoted to – there were more than two dozen innovations submitted from the U.S., China, Hungary, Japan, Singapore, and other nations worldwide.

SIGGRAPH featured a number of them in pre-conference announcements. Three of these included:

TELESAR V – Created at Tokyo University, it enables users to bind with a dexterous robot and experience what it feels with its fingertips when manipulating/touching objects remotely.

MIT Media Lab – Demonstrated ‘Tensor Displays: Compressive Light-Field Synthesis Using Multilayer Displays with Directional Backlighting.’ In plain English, glasses-free 3D displays that are viewed from any angle. Very cool.

Gocen – From Tokyo Metropolitan University. It’s a small optical musical recognition device that detects musical notation from handwritten notes. When connected to a MIDI instrument (Musical Instrument Digital Interface; a communications protocol/hardware standard that enables electronic musical instruments and computers to communicate), it plays the notes as the Gocen sensor bar is traced over them.

Next year SIGGRAPH heads south to Anaheim. I’m thinking of bringing along some of my house plants so they can enjoy the show too.

Way back in the summer of 2000, I wrote a story for Digitrends, a now defunct tech publication, which focused on how the surf industry was utilizing the Internet for branding, marketing, and sales purposes.

Fast forward 12 years later to July 2012 – which probably equates to about 200 years in tech time — and not surprisingly, there’s been a sea change (pun intended) in the industry. SurferToday.com , an international surfing news center, estimates annual revenues – about $15 billion in 2000 – now top $20 billion.

Not surprisingly with that much ka-ching at stake, surf associations, non-profits, surf shops large and small – have not only embraced the Internet, but are using every available social media tool to create and generate both buzz and revenue.

Gnarly.

So how has the industry evolved and grown online in just over a decade? Last April, the Surf Industry Manufacturers Association (SIMA), which bills itself as ‘the official working trade association of more than 300 surf industry suppliers,’ held their annual Visual Merchandising and Retail Marketing Boot Camp in Dana Point, CA. Attendees and presenters talked about their digital experiences in surf retail shops.

A creative director for an interactive marketing company made a particularly cogent remark at the boot camp:

“The youth are consumers of tomorrow, not knowing a world without digital interaction.”

With this in mind, here are three brief examples of how some companies, to use some surfing slang, are ‘cranking and cooking’:

Green Lightning Surfboards

Mike Emery co-founded New Hampshire-based Green Lightning Surfboards . The company constructs boards only with recycled foam, bio-epoxy resin and hemp fabric to significantly reduce the use of fiberglass. Emery currently derives about 30% of his business from online sales.

Emery constantly scours the web for the latest in surfboard craftsmanship, and connects directly with shapers to glean the latest techniques.

“The comments and suggestions we get from some of the world’s best are right at our fingertips – it’s R&D gold,” said Emery.

Emery added that Green Lightning Surfboards regularly uses major social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to communicate with fans and followers.

“They provide us with a global reach to help prove that performance and sustainability are not mutually exclusive,” said Emery.

Wegener Surfboards

Jon Wegener, principal of Wegener Surfboards has been churning out surfboards in Southern California ‘for decades.’ He now regularly uses social media to get some traction on new projects and said about half of his sales are generated through people finding him and his company online via Facebook or his blog.

One example is his ‘greener product’ surfboards. To generate some buzz, Wegener constantly posted visuals and info about the new boards on his company’s site, emphasizing the environmentally-friendly materials used.

Most recently, the company has developed a paipo (a Hawaiian word designating a short or small board; in short, it’s a belly board). To help generate sales, one of Wegener’s friends launched a website, The Paipo Society. The site’s online mission statement reads: “We are a collective of waterborne individuals who enjoy riding finless, Hawaiian-style wood paipos. Our mission is to get every surfer to add a paipo to their quiver.”

Within a short time span the online chatter intensified and a ‘Paipo Stokefest’ is now slated for July 29 at the Scripps Pier in La Jolla, CA.

Ed Lewis Design

Ed Lewis and his partner, Kipp Denslow, are “a couple of Southern California guys who love surfing and making things.” In the past, noted Lewis, “we would never have had an audience as we lacked the budget for magazine ads and had no connections in the mainstream surf media.”

But armed with a blog, Enjoy Handplanes , the company built an audience and let the world discover what they were doing.

“Over a short time we built a business out of having fun in the garage and sharing with others online,” said Lewis.

Lewis also launched a surf blog aggregator called The Daily Shaka that puts all the people he follows into one space so others can discover and find them.

“It was really just for me so I could have a place to consolidate my favorite places, but now people worldwide use it to get stoked and the blogs on the site reap the benefits from the extra traffic – a win win,” he said.

Surprisingly, added Lewis, the bulk of his business still doesn’t come from online sales – the surf shop is the hub for closing the sale. But Lewis said their online presence helps drive customers to the shop.

Virtually every surf industry company has a website these days and most avail themselves of commonly available social media tools to augment their business.

But Lewis succinctly summed up what gets people amped (more surfer slang):

“If you can genuinely have fun at what you do, inspire the surf community with authentic material and share that through your online channels, you’ll get the most eyeballs, gather a following, and be successful.”

Cowabunga!

According to the Society for Information Display (SID), “the display industry is valued at over $100 billion annually.”

No small change. Not surprisingly, the annual SID Display Week conference attracts scores of companies, editors and analysts worldwide.

This year’s 50th anniversary conference recently wrapped up in Boston. There’s always a central theme – this year there were actually four– Touch & Interactivity, Flexible Electronics and Printed Displays, and Green Technologies. Anything remotely related to display could be found – manufacturing, measurement, systems, emissive and flexible displays, touch and interactivity, even OLEDs.

Out on the exhibit floor, there were a lot of innovative products/services on view, some of them that could be game-changers:

• Bordeaux, France-based Stantum and their Kyoto-based partner, Nissha Printing Co., Ltd., introduced FineTouch Z, a disruptive, pressure-based transparent touch-panel technology.

• Corning Glass Works debuted Willow glass, which the company formulated for electronic components such as touch sensors, as well as serving as a seal for OLED displays and other moisture and oxygen sensitive technologies.

• Samsung exhibited a 55-inch OLED TV. As reported by Information Display’s Jenny Donelan, Samsung showed three of the panels in three different implementations – dual-view, 2D view and 3D view. The dual-view implementation allows two viewers to watch and hear completely different content on the same screen.

• LG rolled out a 55” AMOLED TV which featured a new 4.5-inch AS-3D display that uses eye tracking to deliver what it calls Viewing Angle Free 3D.

• E Ink showed off a wide array of potential apps for its e-book reader (EBR) space. One off these included front-lights for night reading.

SID also unveiled the I-Zone (‘I’ for Innovation), a new exhibition feature for companies and organizations to showcase their demo units and prototypes. The buzz at the conference was that the I-Zone was well-received and will probably become a regular feature.

Some examples of I-Zone participants that offered some interesting technologies:

• Luxint debuted a solid-state light-source technology that it claims meets brightness/cost requirements of all types of projectors.

• Mirametrix rolled out what they call ‘consumer eye-gaze technology.’ This enables users to interact with virtual/real-world objects in 3D physical space or display environments using their eyes, “without the need for head-mounted equipment or expensive add-on hardware.”

In addition, a few universities and independent labs had some cool stuff to display.

• National Chiao Tung University and AU Optronics Corporation demonstrated what they claimed to be the world’s largest field-sequential-color (FSC) LCD without color filters.

• The Chinese Academy of Sciences exhibited a wedged waveguide and prism array with an edge-lit collimated (which adjusts the line of a sight in an optical device) backlight.

Next year’s venue is in Vancouver, BC. I’m sure we’ll see even more innovations as the display industry continues to evolve and develop market niches for both the B2B and B2C communities.

Architecture, engineering and construction firms, often lumped together under the moniker ‘A/E/C’, have until recently lagged considerably behind other professions in jumping on the social media bandwagon.

The numbers are steadily increasing but a white paper issued in August 2011 by the Society of Marketing Professional Services (SMPS), entitled, ‘The Client’s Use of Social Media and Social Networking’ demonstrated it’s still an uphill climb. More than 1,600 surveys were distributed; 160 responses received. The breakdown of firms using some form of social media was 36% engineering; 24% architecture; and 17% for construction, landscape design and facility owners.

“For many construction firms, all their work is about getting a project off the ground,” said Daryl Andrews, vice president of marketing and business development at 360 Construct, a building management firm. He added that it’s still a slow-go for the construction industry to use social media as part of their business strategy.

Most architectural firms currently using social media tend to be larger, primarily due to the investment in time/labor and having the requisite skills to navigate/communicate effectively on key social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

The engineering community, on the other hand, has been quicker to adapt social media. Way back in Fall 2009 (probably equates to about 50 years in tech time), CE News conducted a survey on social media and mobile devices that was sent to about 750 civil engineering firms. Slightly more than half- 51% – said they use regularly use professional networking sites like LinkedIn; 30% said they use social networking mediums like Facebook to promote their business; 20% use Twitter or blogs. Those percentages have undoubtedly increased.

“Engineering firms can take advantage of social computing tools for knowledge management, expertise sharing and information retention, which is especially critical with the pending retirement of baby boomers and incoming millennial generation,” said Brian Zeve, managing director, Microsoft Professional Services Industry. “Web-based collaboration through wikis, blogs, tagging, and other content management tools can provide firms with a whole new way of architecting knowledge and enabling input and expertise to bubble-up within the firm.”

The current social media flavor of the month, Pinterest, has exploded onto the scene in recent months and quite a few A/E/C firms are now sharing their ‘pins’ in the form of visual portfolios of previous jobs, ideas, and designs conducive to their respective business. Most A/E/C firms usually have a welter of images for key projects so Pinterest is fast becoming an attractive forum to showcase work.

So with the aforementioned in mind, here are a few examples of how a handful of A/E/C firms in the U.S. and abroad are effectively using social media:

Burns & McDonnell

Established in 1898, the venerable Kansas City, MO-based firm has more than 3,400 employee-owners including engineers, architects, construction experts, planners, estimators, economists, technicians and scientists. Burns & McDonnell plans, designs, permits, constructs and manages facilities worldwide. The company also ranks 26th in Fortune’s 2012 list of ‘100 Best Companies to Work For.’

While the 113-year-old firm has roots dating back to the 19th Century, Burns & McDonnell hasn’t rested on its laurels and has readily embraced 21st Century social media avenues.

For starters, the company maintains a comprehensive Careers Blog; recent posts have included ‘How to Establish Your Online Presence’ (see YouTube video in this post; the company also maintains a dedicated YouTube page containing numerous videos); ‘LinkedIn: 4 Things You Need to Know About This Powerful Tool;’ ‘7 Tips for Stress-Free Business Travel;’ and ‘What Recruiters See When They Read Your Resume.’ Posts are cross-linked to the company’s LinkedIn site and tweeted.

Burns & McDonnell also uses LinkedIn for recruiting – two recent posts, for instance, advertise openings for a telecommunications coordinator in the Kansas City headquarters, and a project manager-substation design, in Wallingford, CT.

The Facebook home page currently has 915 Likes; it also features numerous shared links to stories in the news that are of interest to employees, project photos, even volunteer opportunities – a recent one was for Jazzoo, the Kansas City Zoo’s largest annual fundraising event.

As of today, the company had 3,271 followers on Twitter (@BurnsMcDonnell). In addition to company-related tweets and retweets, Burns & McDonnell also uses Twitter for recruiting. Here’s one example from yesterday: #Engineering student looking for the coolest jobs? Check out @BurnsMcDCareers.

Snow Architects

Located in Liverpool, United Kingdom, Snow Architects is a RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) Chartered Practice; projects range across the board – residential properties, apartments, restaurants, hotels, mixed-use city center developments.

The firm utilizes a wide variety of the most popular social media tools – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter; posts photos/videos on Flickr, Vimeo and YouTube. The company’s director, Dave Cornett, is also using QR codes and Augmented Reality (AR) to help with practice development.

“We’ve been using QR codes in our printed brochure to link to additional information on the website, such as videos or additional photographs of the project,” said Cornett.

Cornett’s enthusiastic about how AR can be applied to architecture.

“We’ve done some image based AR and 3D models to show clients; they’ve been impressed when I pull out my iPhone and guide them through their building,” said Cornett.

He added that the company has also been looking at geo located models – these are superimposed over a phone’s camera as you look at the site.

“We’ve had a lot of Twitter interest in this worldwide, which is something I didn’t expect. The main disadvantage right now is that there isn’t a single app which can do all the things I would want to so it’s a case of switching from app to app,” said Cornett.

Cornett said that social media has helped increase brand awareness for his practice.

“Most people have actually now heard of us when we go to industry events in Liverpool and Manchester; we have also had job enquiries via Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook on the back of a tweet or status update which jogs someone’s memory,” said Cornett.

Martell Home Builders

The Moncton, New Brunswick construction firm is one of Canada’s largest home builders.

The company made the plunge into social media because of a key problem – customers didn’t know where to find them when they needed them. So Martell resolved this by adding a ‘Where’s My Contractor’ feature on the web site which lists Twitter accounts of the firm’s managers – this way clients could see what they were doing and know how to find them. The web page is also connected to a Google Map API (application programming interface), which puts a stickpin on a map, making it even easier for customers to find their contractor.

Martell’s Twitter page is popular – to date, @martellhomes has 12,495 followers and the company tweets about a half-dozen times each day on a wide variety of topics – some recent tweets (with links) have included: ‘21 ways of turning pallets into unique pieces of furniture;’ ‘Top 10 ways to add value to your home;’ and ‘What tool can you not live without? 14 must-have tools for new homeowners.’

The company has an extensive YouTube archive – there are currently 79 videos for viewing covering a wide expanse of helpful homeowner-related topics.

Some of these include:

• How to fix a door latch
• How to adjust or replace a shower
• Maritime energy solutions

While the jury is still out on whether social media is generating billable projects, it’s definitely helping the A/E/C industry connect with the public and ultimately may lead to new collaborations and clients.

Jing Liu, principal of Brooklyn, NY-based Solid Objectives-Idenburg Liu, an architectural design firm, believes social media will gain momentum across the A/E/C divide over time but with a caveat:

“Younger people who are in their 20s are very much in touch with the technology,” said Liu. “Online there is so much information, however, that I don’t think people completely trust what they read. They need to get know you personally before they give you a project.”

Stay tuned.

A buddy of mine who was traveling on business last week knew he was going to miss his annual Passover Seder. Not to worry – while he couldn’t be there in real-time, he simply logged on to OurJewishCommunity.org via his iPad and participated with other Jews worldwide in a virtual Seder.

That got me to wonderin’ – how do some of the world’s most popular religions, in effect, ‘market’ themselves? What are some of the digital tools available online and does going the virtual route somewhat detract from physically being in a place of worship or complement someone’s spirituality?

So I spent a bit of time wandering in the digital desert and came across a number of interesting sites and apps. Here’s a snapshot (alphabetized — not listed in any particular order of preference):

Buddhism

Sumi Loundon Kim, the Buddhist chaplain at Duke University and minister for the Buddhist families of Durham, NC, summed up the dilemma of teaching Buddhism to a new generation that uses texting, Facebook, Twitter and other online social media.

“These other worlds exist only through the eyes and mind; there is no touch, no taste, no smell, and very little hearing. As such, virtual worlds present us Buddhist teachers with students who live not just one step removed from reality, but two,” said Kim.

Kim added that Buddhist teachers can’t afford to underestimate the impact of social media on young people today since they have become ‘neurologically adapted’ to this lifestyle.

“The next generation of dharma teachers must not shy away from understanding the force of technology,” she said.

And one of these entities is The Buddhist Channel (www.buddhistchannel.tv). The site’s home page has a pithy slogan on its landing page – ‘Bringing Buddha Dharma Home.’ The Buddhist Channel offers a welter of information and tools – global news related to Buddhism, features on archaeology, arts & culture, healing, travel, various podcasts from Buddhist scholars, even e-cards and games.

Another site, Unfettered Mind was established in 2001 by a Buddhist teacher, Ken McLeod. It provides scores of hours of iTunes podcasts, Buddhist text translations, sutra sessions, and more.

In South Korea, where smartphones are more ubiquitous than in the U.S., there are numerous Buddhist apps ranging from a mobile version of Buddhist prayer beads to a location search program that uses GPS to find the nearest temple. Another app, ‘Hello Dharma School,’ features pop-up animations of the Buddha’s life and uses simple vocabulary to explain basic Buddhist philosophies.

“Modern day people are too busy and don’t have time to visit temples,” said Jung Ho, director of missionary research at the Jogye Order, the biggest Buddhist sect in the country. “With mobile apps, people can keep in touch with Buddhism – smartphones can serve as mobile temples.”

Christianity

Even the pope’s gone digital. The Vatican is using technology to help Pope Benedict XVI reach out to his flock of more than one billion Catholics worldwide. The site has its own multimedia player called Vatican Player that aggregates content from Vatican media (managed by Vatican Radio). On the site you can access the pope’s encyclicals, homilies, read apostolic letters, download info on basilicas and papal chapels, etc.

But in one of his messages, the pope offered a caveat. New media and social networks offer a ‘great opportunity’ but he warned of the risks of having more virtual friends than real ones.

“It is important always to remember that virtual contact cannot and must not take the place of direct human contact with people at every level of our lives,” said the pope.

Another thriving Christian online site is GodTube.com, which is now drawing over two million monthly users. CEO Chris Wyatt recently said “we apply web technology to the Gospel in a way that appeals to young people – we call it Jesus 2.0.”

Chris Ford, a social media expert with the Southern Baptist Convention, said social media is a big plus for Christianity and has had an overall positive impact in three areas – evangelism, ministry outreach, and educational communications.

“It should be no surprise that, for spreading the Gospel and globally mobilizing people for missions, social media also can have significant, positive implications,” said Ford.

Brandon Vogt, a Catholic writer/speaker who also blogs at ThinVeil.net, said that at its core, the church is ‘one giant social network.’ Church fellowship, noted Vogt, shouldn’t be exclusive and closed in on itself – it should always be outward-focused and mission-oriented.

“Fellowship in the past was constrained to times when people gathered at churches or in homes, but now conversations about Sunday sermons can linger throughout the week,” said Vogt.

Vogt added that social media also opens the doors of Christian fellowship, inviting millions of outsiders to join the community.

“Young secularists who would never darken the doors of a church find themselves dialoguing with Christian bloggers, and an atheist YouTube viewer stumbles across a religious debate and becomes intrigued by the idea of God…when used prudently, social media tightens the bonds among Christians and also connects them with millions outside the faith,” said Vogt.

Hinduism

Hinduism, the world’s third largest religion after Christianity and Islam, has about 950 million followers. It’s the dominant religion in India, Nepal and among the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Hindu Online purports to be the world’s largest portal on Hindu religion, culture, shastras, and more. There’s a vast array of information available on the site – scores of articles, sections devoted to religion, culture, community, a digital library featuring manuscripts (e.g., Veda, Upanishads, Ayurveda), even a Learn Online area where you can get up to speed on everything from Sanskrit to Vedic mathematics.

Two more interesting examples:

Kauai’s Hindu Monastery, located in Kapaa, HI, is a monastery-temple complex with 21 monks. Established in 1949, the monastery has a very popular Facebook page – at last count almost 4,200 had ‘Liked’ it. The Facebook page features photos and videos of the temple, and site visitors share their thoughts and experiences on the monastery’s Wall. Lastly, the site provides links to other Hindu organizations such as the Hindu Students Association, Hinduism Today Magazine and Hindu American Foundation.

Twitter is also being used more frequently for major religious holidays.

Diwali, India’s biggest and most important holiday of the year, is celebrated in October or November each year and is also known as the Festival of Light. Run a search that time of year and you’ll find that #HappyDiwali will be trending.

One popular Tweet last year came from Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor:

“A very happy Diwali to all of our followers! Spend some quality time with family and friends and be safe!”

Popular Hindu leaders have jumped on the Twitter bandwagon to reach out to their followers. Devotees of Mata Amritanandamayi, a spiritual leader and guru who is sometimes referred to as ‘The Hugging Saint,’ regularly tweets (@amritapuri) in order to provide real-time updates of her activities.

Islam

It has been well documented how social media helped usher in last year’s ‘Arab Spring.’ But technology is also playing an important role in reaching out to Muslims worldwide on religious matters/issues.

For starters, there have been a suite of apps developed for smartphones that have become popular during Ramadan, the ninth month on the Islamic calendar. Ramadan generally lasts about 30 days; participating Muslims refrain from drinking, eating, smoking and sex during daylight hours. Other apps help find the nearest mosque or halal (food that’s permissible per Islamic law) restaurants in various cities.

Some examples:

iQuran, an Android app on Google Play, enables viewers to read the Holy Quran in Arabic alongside its translation. It provides verse-by-verse audio playbacks, repeat functions and unlimited bookmarks.

The Essentials of Ramadan, available on iTunes, provides in-depth info on the rules and laws of Ramadan.

Find Mecca, also on iTunes, uses GPS to locate the Qibla (the direction that should be faced when a Muslim prays; it’s fixed as the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca) anywhere worldwide using an iPhone or iPad. Users can see Mecca with the camera in augmented reality mode; the app also can set an automatic countdown to the next required prayer and adjusts to various time zones.

Nidhal Guessoum, reporting in The Huffington Post, said Twitter is now being used frequently to send Quranic verses and religious injunctions; YouTube and Facebook to disseminate sermons.

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamanei, even issued a fatwa (a juristic ruling issued by an Islamic scholar) on using Facebook:

“In general if it requires engaging in immorality and evil acts such as spreading corruption, lies and false materials, or if there is concern that it is sinful, or it strengthens the enemies of Islam and Muslims, it is not permissible. Otherwise it’s fine.”

Judaism

There are about 13.4 million Jews worldwide, about 0.2% of the world’s population, with about half in Israel, half in the United States. The rest are scattered widely.

One rabbi in the U.S. has taken proactive steps to bridge this diaspora.

Rabbi Laura Baum founded OurJewishCommunity.org – catchphrase under the Welcome sign on the landing page reads ‘Bringing Judaism to People Where They Are.’

The site’s chief objective is ‘to provide the same services of a brick-and-mortar congregation, such as access to rabbis, sermons, educational materials, social networking, discussions, and more.’

OurJewishCommunity.org uses a variety of tools to generate live content – live stream, blogs, video casts on YouTube, audio podcasts on iTunes, a Facebook Fan Page (currently more than 5,200 fans from 18 countries) and a Twitter feed.

Baum recently presided over an online Passover Seder, which attracted over 400 people – but no Orthodox Jews, who are not allowed to use electronic devices during the Seder or Sabbath (Friday night through Saturday sunset).

“Sitting in a room is a powerful way to have community; but the fact you can do Passover with people all over the world, that is not any less of a community,” said Baum.

There are also a number of interesting mobile apps being used by Jews around the world.

The Orthodox Union recently released a new mobile app that provides information on what food products are kosher for Passover.

Crowded Road, a software firm, rolled out iTorah-iPad Edition, which even includes vowels for Hebrew text to make it easier to read.

Davka Corporation, which bills itself as ‘First in Judaic Software,’ offers the Tanach Bible, a Study Tool for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. It includes the Hebrew text and English translation of the Torah and other important works, and can be downloaded on iTunes for $1.99.

Can social media glean modern day solutions to the challenges that first arose during biblical times and are still with us thousands of years later?

Jury’s still out.

But these digital tools are having a significant impact on the social and religious lives of people of all faiths and denominations.

To paraphrase that famous cartoon philosopher, H. Simpson: “Mmmmmm. Chocolate.”

I’m sure my hypothalamus is hardwired for chocolate – that old adage, “out of sight, out of mind” may work for some folks – not me. If there’s chocolate in the upper reaches of the pantry or it’s buried two-feet deep behind various foodstuffs in the fridge, my brain immediately sends out tracking signals – a cranial GPS (Godiva Positioning System), I reckon.

So not surprisingly, as a self-confessed ‘chocoholic’, I was thrilled a few years ago when I started reading reports about how dark chocolate – eaten in moderation (inhaled is more accurate for me) – may be good for the heart.

Some dark chocolate confections even contain various vitamins, nutrients and probiotics. Some research has shown that flavonoids – antioxidants found in cocoa beans – may help lower blood pressure and LDL (think ‘Lousy’ – it’s the bad acronym) cholesterol, and also improve blood vessel function.

In fact, noted Joy Dubost, a nutritionist and spokesperson for the Washington, DC-based Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, “the higher the percentage of cocoa, the higher the flavanol content, the higher the antioxidant content and thus we believe the greater positive health benefit.”

All of the aforementioned now fully justifies my quarterly trips to Ghirardelli’s in San Francisco – I now order guilt-free the hot fudge sundaes with dark chocolate sauce.

This then got me wondering about innovative marketing campaigns various companies have rolled out to drum up sales for their dark chocolate products, and in some cases if interesting enough, plain old milk chocolate.

Cadbury

One campaign that Cadbury would probably like to recall/reboot was to promote Bliss, a chocolate product. The august British company (established 1824 and now owned by Kraft Foods) ran an ad for the product with the heading, “Move over Naomi, there’s a new diva in town.”

Supermodel Naomi Campbell wasn’t thrilled about being compared to a chocolate bar and even her mum, Valerie Morris, chimed in, saying “I’m deeply upset by this racist advert. Do these people think they can insult black people and we just take it? This is the 21st century, not the 1950s. Shame on Cadbury.”

Cadbury, it should be noted, did do the right thing – the company pulled the ads and issued an apology to Campbell.

On the flip side, another campaign rolled out by Cadbury India fared much better. To publicize its premium dark chocolate brand, Bournville and further promote the catchphrase, “You don’t just buy a Bournville, you earn it.”

Cadbury launched a blog called The Dark Truth and introduced a virtual character – Old Hound. In one story, another virtual character, Mark, a friend of Old Hound, disappeared. While trying to find Mark, Old Hound got a clue that if he collected 100 stories about people receiving something after they have earned it, he would discover the whereabouts of his friend. The posts generated more than 2,000 daily readers.

Haagen-Dazs

A few years ago Haagen-Dazs rolled out its Dark Chocolate Orange flavor at 14 outlets in Singapore and Malaysia. A campaign slugged ‘Slow Melting in Progress’ was aimed at female professionals in their 20s and 30s who are “engrossed with their profession and family and tend to forget themselves in the process, neglecting to pamper themselves.”

That verbiage seems a bit askew but the radio/print/web campaign apparently worked as Dark Chocolate Orange became a popular flavor in that corner of Southeast Asia.

Cocoa Metro

Cocoa Metro, located in Auburndale, MA, markets various dark chocolate drinks. Their catchphrase on their home page immediately grabs your attention: ‘Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark.’

The sweet maker recently rolled a multi-media ad campaign. One image depicts how Cocoa Metro’s decadent chocolate can be consumed – via juice boxes, pop cans and flasks, for example. Another series of ads relies more on clever verbiage and fonts to capture your attention (having a refrigerated backyard bunker full of chocolate seems like a very sound idea).

Rom

While not a dark chocolate, this campaign merits a brief mention. Rom is a hugely popular Romanian chocolate bar, first introduced in 1964. It features the Romanian flag on the wrapper and probably everyone from Bucharest to Brasov to Baia Mare has gobbled one down.

To fuel international sales and branding, the company rolled out a week-long hoax – the American flag was used on the packaging and various YouTube videos explained that due to a poor economy and a frustrated youth culture, Rom was ditching its Romanian heritage. Literally tens of thousands of angry Romanians vented their outrage on Facebook, YouTube and countless blogs.

The campaign was a stunning success – it reached almost 70 percent of all Romanians. Rom’s Facebook page fan total increased by over 300 percent and it’s estimated the company generated about $500,000 worth of free media. McCann Erickson’s Bucharest office also garnered two Grand Prix Cannes Lions awards in the ‘Promo/Activation’ category (for advertising programs that bring on immediate responses/engagements), and the ‘Direct’ category for direct marketing.

There are scores of other examples but quite frankly, I’ve written enough – time for some chocolate.
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With the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco just looming over the horizon, what’s on tap for the industry? Any integral trends/issues that might be game changers?

For starters, what you don’t readily see is vitally important. UK-based, publicly-held Imagination Technologies creates and licenses multimedia IP cores for graphics, video, and display processing; licensees include many leading semiconductor and consumer electronics companies.

According to VP-Marketing Tony King-Smith, a key issue is improving texture compression in order to get the best quality game with the fastest download times.

“Increasingly in software downloads the total file size is dominated by texture data – indeed, up to 70% or more of a top game title may be textures,” says King-Smith. “This has had a massive impact on everything from app store download and update times through to device main memory usage.”

The most notable trend we’ll see this year is the shift to mobile games – from independent developers to traditional publishers, most companies are now directing their efforts around mobile strategies (smartphones, according to IndustryGamers, already comprise the majority of handheld gaming revenue).

Wanda Meloni, who heads up Encinitas, CA-based market research firm M2 Research, projects the mobile games market will exceed $6 billion this year.

“With mobile comes more social games and more companies are starting to target core gamers,” said Meloni. “This in turn will lead to higher quality graphics in mobile and social games which we believe will start to play a defining factor with consumers.”

Ultimately, noted Meloni, as competition heats up in the mobile games space, more companies will be looking to differentiate around feature sets such as enhanced graphics quality, deeper game play, and engaging storytelling.

“We are still just at the beginning of the growth curve for mobile games,” said Meloni.

Games on the iOS and Android ecosystems will continue to grow in terms of development support, user base and revenue. And the industry is clearly developing different ways of playing and interacting with games and media.

“Smartphones and tablets are offering ways for smaller and indie developers to get noticed and sell their game to potentially millions without needing a huge budget or marketing campaign,” said Kristina Kozlova, a marketing manager at Altabel Group, a Vilnius, Lithuania-based software development/consulting company.

“We’ll also continue to see voice integration as well as motion controls make a big push in 2012,” said Kozlova.

Ted Pollak, a senior gaming analyst with Jon Peddie Research, a Tiburon, CA firm that provides consulting/market forecasting services, added that the handheld market may lose some casual consumers to smartphones and tablets, but the 3DS and PSVita control dynamics “blow away the competition in most cases, and playing handhelds doesn’t decimate your smartphone battery. Gamers get this – build them and they will buy them – tens of millions of them.”

A few more trends worth mentioning.

Denuo, a digital marketing shop, predicts that this year we’ll see a game come close to breaking the $1 billion sales mark in its first week.

“We’ll also see huge growth in the approachable games category as well. A social game will break the 250 million player mark thanks to being available on multiple platforms in addition to Facebook. Across all categories of games, our minds will be blown by the number of gamers these big titles are able to acquire.”

Denuo also thinks we’ll see more downloadable content releases to keep gamers engaged.

“There will be more collaborative development of game play and associated assets. Developers will work alongside consumers to produce game titles and create a vested sense of commitment with their players.”

Streaming games will make an impact in 2012 too. Last month at CES, it was announced that Gaikai is being built into new LG televisions and OnLive is being built into Google TV.

Steve Peterson reported in IndustryGamers that every big TV set manufacturer will include some degree of connectivity in most new sets.

“This means significant numbers of people will be exposed to a wider variety of gaming, with a variety of business models making it easy to try out games,” said Peterson. “More games getting to more people means good news for the gaming industry.”

I could prattle on as all of the aforementioned is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg, but you get the gist. There will be some upheaval, of course, but the industry should continue to post healthy double-digit growth rates for the foreseeable future.

That now hoary ad campaign, “This is not your father’s Oldsmobile…This is the new generation of Olds,” captured our imagination many moons ago. It has now become a popular culture catch phrase that has spawned endless variations used for countless products and services.

But catch phrases don’t sell cars. The Oldsmobile didn’t evolve with the times and was phased out in 2004.

Oldsmobile executives probably didn’t bother to attend CES. If they did, they would have picked up valuable market intel on where the automotive industry’s heading.

At last week’s CES, there was a lot of buzz about how cars are connecting with the cloud, and talk about exciting new apps either on the market or destined for your vehicle in the near future.

One part of your car that is already being dramatically transformed is the dashboard.

Tony King-Smith serves as vice president-marketing for UK-based Imagination Technologies, a leading multimedia and communications technologies company. As reported in EE Catalog, King-Smith said manufacturers have now recognized that a global chassis approach in car manufacturing will result in cost reductions if adopted in high volume.

“Being able to configure more customer options at the dealer rather than custom fit on a production line has major benefits to the retail channel,” he said. “That’s good news for everyone in the car supply chain.”

King-Smith said we’ll see more and more car models utilizing software-configurable dashboards using flat panels.

By combining a high-performance graphics processor with video, King-Smith said engineers are now developing apps like augmented reality for head-up displays and navigation point-of-interest recognition.

Imagination Technologies, for instance, is working with companies like Navteq in developing next-gen navigation solutions and with leading car manufacturers.

King-Smith added that utilizing low-power graphics processors (GPUs) will increase dashboard usability, as GPUs provide an increase in performance/quality and reduce power consumption/heat build-up.

And the synergies between the automotive and consumer technology markets are poised for explosive growth. The Consumer Electronics Association predicts total shipment revenues of total automotive technology will top $9.3 billion in 2012, up from $9 billion in 2011.

Harry McCracken, editor of Technologizer, said the automobile industry is finally seeing cars as consumer electronic devices.

“Today, young people live for the day when they can have their own smartphone. Car companies now understand this – while safety is paramount, they also want to build things that are cool,” said McCracken.

And there was a lot of cool automotive software bling at CES, all playing up the connectivity angles.

“Connectivity has gone from being a unique feature that makes some brands stand out for having it to being a must-have feature that makes some brands stand out for not having it,” noted IHS Analyst Aaron Bragman.

Ford, for instance, announced five new apps for its Sync hands-free entertainment systems. One of these was a partnership with National Public Radio (NPR). Ford’s Sync AppLink, via an NPR app, will enable Ford customers to listen gratis to any public radio content on demand – via voice command. Another is Roximity, a daily-deals app providing real-time discounts relevant to a driver’s location.

AppRadio2, a car radio interface from Pioneer Electronics USA Inc.’s Car Electronics Division, now works with various Android platforms that have HDMI or MHL connectivity. It’s also iPhone-compatible.

Korean car manufacturer Kia showed off its Uvo eServices infotainment and telematics system. As reported by CNN, Kia is also testing a system that would recognize whether a driver’s eyes are opened or closed – it would employ an infra-red LED and camera to monitor a driver’s face for alertness.  Bottom line objective is to prevent accidents caused by drivers falling asleep.

But Mercedes-Benz really captured the spotlight at CES. The company unveiled the second generation of cloud-based Mbrace, which connects drivers online with customized apps controlled by voice commands or on a dashboard.

Dieter Zetsche, chairman of Daimler AG and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, delivered a keynote address covering a wide array of cloud computing-related advancements being developed by the German car company. Mercedes, for instance, will be using smartphones as links between electric-drive vehicles and the infrastructure needed to charge them.

“You’ll be able to use the Internet to plan your route, check your car’s battery status and find nearby charging stations,” said Zetsche.

“Through connectivity, cars might eventually become smart grids on wheels, efficiently storing electricity from renewable sources.”

Mercedes also plans to roll out Car2gether, a peer-to-peer ride share for mobile users wanting to offer rides to strangers.

“This new generation of vehicles will serve as digital companions,” said Zetsche. “They learn your habits, adapt to your choices, predict your moves and interact with your social network. The connected car is the proactive car.”

Odds are you’re using Facebook, Twitter, other social media tools to communicate with your kids, nieces, nephews, etc., that are away at college. I suspect there are quite a few first-year students who might be flabbergasted to discover that they can actually make and receive calls from their cell phone.

Not a major headliner these days, but colleges and universities have been tapping social media for a number of years now to not only reach students, but alumni as well as working adults 30+ who only attend online and/or evening classes.

According to a recent study by the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, 100% of universities surveyed used social media to communicate with students, up from 61% in 2007-2008. The study also revealed that 98% of the responding colleges have a Facebook page; 84% have a Twitter account.

“Social media is past the fad phase,” said Nora Barnes, director of the center. “The numbers speak for themselves. Many students can’t afford to visit the campus, so they are depending on podcasts and blogs to get answers.”

One San Francisco-based company, Inigral, has created a Facebook app that helps colleges create centralized Facebook sites. Arizona State University (ASU) used Inigral’s The Schools App that enables students to interact with faculty and staff without becoming Facebook friends – it allows all parties to keep their personal lives personal, while benefitting from school-specific communication that the app fosters.

A number of other higher education institutions are also doing some really interesting stuff as of late:

A few examples:

• Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton is using Foursquare to let students check in via SMS or a smart phone app and share their location with friends while also collecting virtual badges and points.

• The University of New Mexico has an active group on Flickr – more than 350 members, 900 items available that highlight events, campus activities, art projects, and work done by students.

• The chairman of the math department at Berry College developed a calculus music video with his students, who sang about derivatives in a YouTube video (The Derivative Rag).

• The University of Kentucky created a campaign around the school’s blue and white colors and a site, SeeBlue.com, which includes videos from students and staff.

• Kaplan University in Fort Lauderdale uses LinkedIn to support career endeavors for its 53,000+ students and alumni. Sophie Vlessing, the university’s VP-strategic marketing and student experience, said the school has posted webinars and 80 videos from Visionary Voices, a recurring series of discussions with thought leaders.

• Highbury College Portsmouth (United Kingdom) uses QR codes on posters to drive potential students to find the college on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, encouraging them to enroll.

• Pace University established a Facebook question and answer interaction board where potential students discuss issues/concerns/questions with students who’ve previously attended the institution.

The examples are endless but you get the gist – this ain’t your parents’ university.

Dean Tsouvalas, editor of StudentAdvisor.com, summed it quite nicely.

“A successful social media campaign is when students are able to have a one-to-one connection, speak directly to the school and get interesting information that they never knew before,” he said.

The Who’s seminal 1971 song, ‘Going Mobile,’ was really more a celebration of wheels and the joy of cruising down highways and byways. But two lines of the song, “Going mobile; keep me movin,” is – more than a generation later, a spot on description of how billions of folks around the globe will be using the mobile web in 2012.

So with only 36 days left until 2012, what’s gonna be hot? What are some key trends to look for?

A few bullet points to further elucidate:

• The CTIA Wireless Association recently said more than 250 million Americans now have mobile phones. Four out of five teenagers carry a mobile phone, with 57% of them believing their device is the center of their social universe. More than 10 trillion (yes, that’s a ‘t’) text messages will also be sent/received next year. Your 14-year-old daughter will generate half of these.

• Biz Report predicts text messaging programs will account for about $14 billion of the more than $19 billion they say will be spent on mobile campaigns in 2012.

• Market research firm Gartner predicts mobile e-mail users worldwide will increase from 354 million in 2009 to 713 million in 2014. Gartner also expects mobile instant messaging (MIM) to attract consumers to new types of unified communications (UC) clients provided by over the top (OTT) service providers – Skype’s one example.

• More than five billion people worldwide have mobile phones, and mobile data traffic is trebling every year.

• More consumers are planning to use their mobile device to make a purchase this holiday season, according to a joint national survey conducted by Sybase 365, a subsidiary of Sybase Inc., which provides mobile messaging and mobile commerce services, and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), a global trade association for the mobile industry. The survey of 1,000 consumers found that 62% would be willing to make a purchase on their mobile device this holiday season if prompted by coupons, discount offers, text alerts, gift cards or loyalty points. A year ago, Sybase 365 reported that only 32% of respondents would purchase anything on their mobile device, even when laden with incentives.

• Mobile barcodes will continue to evolve rapidly worldwide. “Mobile barcodes offer unmatched opportunity to increase brand value by adding measurable interactive functionality and richer consumer engagement,” said Nicole Skogg, CEO of SpyderLynk and co-chair of the MMA’s Mobile Barcode Task Force. “Mobile barcodes make static media – like packaging, print ads, broadcast TV and billboards – interactive.”

In a report from market research firm Juniper Research, “Mobile Retail Marketing, Advertising, Coupons and NFC Shopping, 2011-2016,” co-author David Snow predicts the value of mobile retail marketing will hit $15 billion next year, a 50% jump from 2011. While this is a drop in the bucket when compared to other retail marketing methodologies/avenues, it’s important to remember that mobile retail marketing is still in its infancy — and traditional advertising outlets will continue to lose market share – these include newspapers, magazines and various regional/national Yellow Pages.

“Mobile retailing is undergoing rapid change,” said Snow. “We’re starting to see an ‘arms race’ as the power of the mobile channel equips both shoppers and retailers with capabilities they never had before. Each side has to keep up with the other and gain an advantage in order to clinch the purchase transaction in their favor.”

Snow added that mobile Point-of-Sale (POS) technology and Near Field Communications (NFC; this technology allows an enabled mobile phone to be swiped past a merchant’s reader to pay for goods/services) are two areas that we’ll see accelerated growth and innovation. Most analysts, however, don’t think NFC will become main stream until 2015 because payment solution providers still need to address ease-of-use for users and ease-of-implementation for customers without compromising security.

As for what’s hot, there are scores of companies that are rolling out innovative mobile services/products. One area – services built on tags – will continue to grow in popularity.

And one of these, Pinterest, was recently recognized as one of the 50 best websites of 2011 by Time. Pinterest is a virtual pinboard – you can organize/share things on the web via a ‘Pin It’ button. Pinterest says “browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.”

Another area to watch is social fashion. The mobile world is rapidly changing the shopping experience. One company, New York City-based Go Try It On  has an iPhone app allowing users to share photos of themselves in various outfits and get real-time feedback.

So get ready for the mobile tsunami in 2012 – should be quite a ride.