#MKT_Innov8 115 Innovation Ideas for the Modern CMO

115 Innovation Ideas for the Modern CMO
These interesting concepts were collected during the summer of 2012 by people who organically
started to create a catalogue of innovation ideas. We supplemented what we found with entries
from around the web, trendwatcher.com and our beloved Ted.com. It is not perfect, conclusive or
exhaustive. It’s a set of thought starters.
It acts as an accompaniment to four other thought pieces developed for MKT_Innov8: a
Whitepaper, a Marketing Technology Brief, a perspective on 6 Unsung Heroes of Innovation, and a
Discussion Guide for MKT_Innov8 Results.
I chose the water butterfly to introduce you to our innovation ideas because it reminds me that
ideas are fleeting, and the only way we sustain them is to act on them.
Things at rest generally continue to be, according to the physics of the universe and life itself.
To that end, we continue not to rest - adding ideas on our MKT_Innov8 blog pages.
We encourage you to begin your own innovation journey, start anew or be excited about the path
you’re on. What you are trying to do only looks impossible to those not brave enough to attempt it.
Thank you.
Cristene Gonzalez-Wertz – MKT_Innov8 Study Lead
With… Kevin Cunningham, Debbie Rosenfeld, Liz Kaufman, Kyla Moran,
Matt Pufunt, Stanton Willins and Ryan Kosanic

p. 2 | www.covalentmarketing.com

Ideas that are well crafted, People and brands are joining together for
fit for purpose and crave engagement. the public good. Herewith, we share
examples that make us smile.

In this section, we pay homage to great
A category that covers reduce, reuse
ideas that affect our senses – tasty,
and recycle in ways that are good for
touchy, smelly things that you might find
the planet and its peoples.
interesting.

Finally, one of our favorite categories,
A category that covers all the ways
bringing you a host of interesting items
data has infused itself into our lives.
from the places we love most: Stores.

The term “oversharing” is in the public
Our 3D world was 1D for too long.
consciousness. However, here are some
great examples where sharing is caring.

> ARTFUL UTILITY Ideas that are well crafted, fit for purpose
and crave engagement
Elegant solutions to everyday problems. Innovating your life
• Haiku Deck
• 70 billion books on a thumbnail
• The T-Shirt OS
• The Grow Bike
• The Medical Locket
• Day Use Hotels
• Smart Phone? Nah,Smart Fridge
• Resolving the Outlet Shortage
• Ever Seen a Charging Handbag
• Putting Presentations Readily at Hand
• The Cure for MRI Boredom
• The Portable Restaurant
• Smarter Footballers
• Hotel Haiku
• Taking on Pancreatic Cancer
• The “Murse” of Bike Baskets


1 >Haiku Deck - presentations that work like poetry
With many presentations taking
place on iPads, the type and style
of presentation is becoming more
visual. At last, an easy way to
source images that match with
your text and create engagement.

0ur Take:
Creative Commons allows people to
share and users to mine massive
stores of free content. With Haiku
Deck’s free price, creating simple
presentations is easier. Expect
templating and functionality increases
as adoption does at a nominal cost.
What it also means: Anyone can
compete with professional looking
presentations.

p. 5 | www.covalentmarketing.com ARTFUL UTILITY

1 > 70 billion books on a thumbnail:
The point here is not just the books
(which are coded in DNA), it’s the
size dimension. The ability to place
massive data stores at our
fingertips is here today.

0ur Take:
It’s interesting that people talk
about what organizations need to
have to work with big data. The
point here is that it’s not storage.
Strive to resolve the access issue.


1 > Wear your life: the TshirtOS
The look and the feel of your
internet, email, music and phone
connected to your t-shirt.
Currently only a prototype, it
displays your tweets, videos and
other media as you curate it.

0ur Take:
Wearable has been on the horizon
for some time due to sensor
technology. And while there are no
present funding initiatives to move
TshirtOS into production, you can
expect that an effort like this will
exist by 2014.


1 >Greater utility means extending item life: Grow Bike
Grow Bike: It’s no secret, kids are
expensive. The ability to increase
the life expectancy and comfort of
a child’s bike is not only artful, it
offers renewable utility.

0ur Take:
While the reduce/reuse/recycle
approach continues on, the
alternatives around extending life
are just beginning to take hold.
Expect this to continue not simply
via extended warranty but by
modular extensible design.


1 >Fashionable Information: The Medical Locket.
Diabetic? Food allergies? Now
there’s an attractive way to take
your entire medical profile with you.
An embedded USB makes it easy.

0ur Take:
Given the aging global population
and the rise of multi-lingual nations,
the ability to provide medical
professionals with detailed health
information remains necessary (at
least until we are willing in general
to stick the microchip under our
skin).


1 >Questionable Ethics or Artful Utility? You decide
How do you solve the problem
when part of your asset sits totally
unutilized – and without generating
revenue all day? You reposition.

0ur Take:
Check-in times are moving later and
later which generally leaves you in
the lobby or Starbucks. When you
need a quiet workplace for a few
hours, hotels are equipped with
everything you need minus the
hovering waiters. Which of your
assets have sellable downtime?


1 >Smart phone? Nah, smart fridge
With apps like Epicurious for
recipes, Pandora for music and the
entire family’s Google calendar, the
refrigerator becomes the next
smart device.

0ur Take:
Few surfaces remain untouched in the
information sharing war. The latest to come
over is the refrigerator. This Samsung model
offers a small messaging space that makes it
ideal for checking calendars on the fly.

Where can surfaces share information for you?


1 >Ending battles for power outlets: charging furniture
A Finnish company introduces a
simple means to prevent clutter
while charging phones. The tables
are in production, available
commercially and accessible at
Helsinki Vantaa airport.

0ur Take:
For your business, what can act in a
multi-functional capacity to meet
the needs of users?

There is a foreseeable revenue
advantage to the first QSR to use
them at full scale.


1 >Ever seen a charging handbag? Yup.
Heretofore handbags that charged
your phone had no sense of style,
bad fabric or were designed for
men. In the Fall of 2012, all of that
is changing. I mean charging.

0ur Take:
It’s wholly expected that we would
see an uptick in the adjacencies to
smart phone technologies. Some
innovations are bigger, but smaller
adaptations can offer great value in
shorter times to market.


1 >Where’s the presentation? Readily at hand
All those lovely French cuffs can
now serve a dual purpose. Anyone
who has had to dig to the bottom
of his bag to find the USB key can
see the value in having one so
close and easy to use. It’s also a
wifi hotspot.

0ur Take:
Using space wisely, the needs of
executives who require sleek and
elegant solutions to small problems
can now be met.


1 >Cure for MRI boredom? There’s an app for that.
MRIs can be scary. They can be
boring. However, now, they can be
a little bit more entertaining as
iPads are beginning to see
integration into medical testing
and treatment suites.

0ur Take:
We believe there is a significant
advantage to any improvement in
patient experience. The ability to
create engaging experiences will
make those needing treatment
more likely to pursue it.


1 >The portable restaurant, food trucks need not apply
In this lovely example from Electrolux
and Italian Architect Park Associati,
A 140 sq meter restaurant called the
Cube is transported from place to
place every 4-12 weeks. It’s not
cheap, but it’s certainly an experience

0ur Take:
There is an opportunity to curate truly
unique experiences that cannot be
duplicated.
Fine dining is not something ever
considered “portable” in the past.
However, for an experience in which
few can partake, these are tribes who
will find an undeniable lure to this.


1 >Adidas may not be able to give footballers brains,
but they can make coaches
smarter. In a new shoe, a chip
calculates and stores speed,
distance and movement.

0ur Take:
Embedded intelligence allows much
better performance data to be
traceable and usable for everyone
from the professional athlete to the
Sunday rugby player.


1 >Hotel Haiku – poetry for Public Houses
In the second entry for Haiku,
viewers can see a hotel picture,
read a brief description and then
move to the hotel’s direct site.

0ur Take:
The continued blending of art and
technology…while this will not be a
primary usage for finding hotels,
such entrants provide a unique way
to parse content that will be
attractive to a small tribe of users.


1 >Those silly kids – they’re curing cancer
In my favorite entry in this section, 15-
year old Jack Andraka of Maryland
purposes diabetic-style test strips to
take on detection of Pancreatic Cancer.
It’s 26x less expensive, 168x faster
and 400x more sensitive.

0ur Take:
Kids are proving themselves adept at
solving cancer (in an industry that
spends more than $5B USD on
research). What should you do when
your next potentially great idea comes
from your teenager?

LISTEN.


1 >It’s the man-purse of bike baskets only cooler
Given how urbane it is to be urban
now, bike baskets needed some
serious upgrading. At $150 USD,
this offering isn’t cheap, but it is
beautiful and durable.

0ur Take:
Simple, elegant functionality will
win every time. Just ask Apple.


> RE-NEWAL A category that covers “reduce, reuse and recycle”
in ways that are good for the planet and its peoples
Taking “waste not, want not” to a new level
• DIY: Part 1 - Bionic Hands
• DIY: Part 2 – Prosthetic Hand
• Very evocative: Ecovative
• Ford: Drive Green
• Lightning Strikes >>> EV-Sexy
• Electro-Ag
• Standing for Something, Like It or Not
• New Yorker’s Newest Membership: Bike Share
• Competing to Save Energy: O-Power
• Nike’s Reuse Shoe
• How Does Your Garden Grow: YiMuTian
• Icebreaker’s BAACode
• Thinking Inside the Box: Boxed Water
• Samsung Thinks Inside the Box, too – for schools


2 >DIY: Part 1, Bionic Hands
A 51-year old Asian man built his
own from scrap parts when he
couldn’t afford others.

0ur Take:
We need to continually consider
what parts can serve which
function. In many cases, it’s a
matter of stringing together what
works, not necessarily creating
everything new.

p. 22 | www.covalentmarketing.com RE-NEWAL

2 >DIY: Part 2, Prosthetic Hands
Another entry for the kids: Max
Shepard created a prosthesis from
Lego, proving once again, those little
bricks build just about anything.

0ur Take:
Things made with Lego will always be
more than sum of their parts. The
ultimate in modularity, they are
magnificent, extensible and totally
reusable prototyping tools for
creative users.


2 >Evocative Ecovative: Mushrooms are the new cool
Using compostable crop-waste,
Eben Baver creates new eco-
materials that can replace $20B
USD and 25% of our landfills. You
put 1.5 liters of petrol in the trash
every time you get a package.

0ur Take:
Insulating, fire-resistant, and fully
sustainable. The organism does the
work, using regional byproducts and
mushrooms. Can you replace packing
materials with nature’s alternatives?

My hometown, Kennett Square, PA is
known as the Mushroom Capital of the
World because mushroom farming in
the region produces over a million
pounds of mushrooms a week.


2 >Drive Green for Life: Ford and SunPower
Don’t get hung up on perfect here,
but what if you really could use
solar to power your car and your
life? It’s not cheap yet, and it’s still
working with offsets, but it’s about
as green an option as you can get.

0ur Take:
The sun is among the largest
renewable energy sources we have.
With more and more interest in solar,
how can it be used in your supply
chain and fleets?


2 >Lightning Strikes: Making EVs Sexy
It goes 0-60 in 5 seconds and is
magnificent to look at. It has 150
mile charge and a normal charge
time of 15 hours, with fast and
ultra-fast options. It’s expensive
and not yet in the US, but still
worth watching.

0ur Take:
When ultra-luxury owners have a
choice of a true EV, will they embrace
it? If you look at the MPG on most
models in the ultra category and
other luxury lineups, alternatives
absolutely make sense.


2 >Electro-Ag
New Holland continues to pursue
EV for big equipment. This
summer, it’s testing at an energy-
independent farm in Italy. Highly
efficient and cool to look at – it’s
what all the cool farmers will want.

0ur Take:
We are learning to make EV
functionality available for all types of
heavy equipment.

Expect this to continue, as
sustainability continues to become
more important in most G20 nations.


2 >New Yorkers covet a new membership: Bike Share
When you can offer people
something less expensive than
public transportation, even the
jaded take notice. Launching
March 2013.

0ur Take:
With Citibank and MasterCard fully
funding this effort, there is no taxpayer
impact. There is however quite an
expected benefit. Its owners expect
it to be profitable and extensible.
600 stations and 10,000 bikes on offer.
Good business, great advertising –
what’s not to like?


2 >The OPower app: competing to save energy
A social app that allows users to
compare their energy usage with
others. A set of offers focused on
saving energy and some friendly
competition encourages consumer
participation.

0ur Take:
70 utilities use OPower’s platform,
generating customer engagement and
$170M energy savings.
Industry partnership often makes
data usage more effective, providing
context and content.
Where can you share to be more
effective?


2 >Nike’s Reuseashoe program
Has collected 28mm pairs of
sneakers and turned them into gym
flooring, playground surfaces or
even new sneakers and zipper pulls

0ur Take:
Using every part of the shoe in
creating new materials keeps them
out of landfills and puts them to
longer-term use. How can you
make your consumers’ trash into
treasure?


2 >How does your garden grow?
Just watch… a Chinese organic
produce farm allows viewers to
watch their organic farming in
action. By making their efforts
fully transparent, they increase
trust.

0ur Take:
Yi Mu Tian updated its systems to
include community digital cameras
that “broadcast” the entire farm. This
high-tech organic operation allows
consumers to completely trace their
food, farm to plate.
What parts of your operations can you
show off to the world?


2 >Icebreaker’s BAAcode helps you count sheep,
Specifically the ones who provided
the wool for your garment.

0ur Take:
Sustainability and traceability go
hand in glove with this company.
Easy-going and direct is an ownable
position in performanceware.
How honest, easy-going and direct
can you be with customers?
Gizmodo.com called Icebreaker the
greatest t-shirt in the world.


2 >Thinking inside the Box: BoxedWater
BoxedWater aims to reduce the
1.5mm tons of plastic water
bottles and 47mm gallons of oil
that are used to manufacture
them. They donate 20% of their
profits to charity. It’s estimated
that 80% of these bottles are
simply thrown away.

0ur Take:
I’m not sure if this is sustainable, or if it’s
truly innovation. However, if you don’t want
to carry your own personal bottle and Brita
filter, this is a good alternative.
Sometimes, just evaluating your packaging
is a good start.

BoxedWater was the official water sponsor
for Lollapalooza in Chicago.


2 >Still thinking inside the Box: Samsung
Samsung aims to educate 2.5mm
African citizens by 2015 with their
Solar Powered Internet Schools.
The program works in combination
with Samsung’s other programs on
Engineering and Mobile Apps, also
aimed at Africa

0ur Take:
A classroom by day, a community
center by night, these shipping-
container schools help develop
solutions for their region. Are your
social investments going as far as
you’d like?


> DATA DRIVEN A category that covers all the ways data has
infused itself into our lives.
Tapping into the data created everywhere by everything
• Data “Crack” for Marketers: Rival IQ
• Bluetooth Aims a Little Lower
• It’s the Journey – Ford Makes It Informative
• The Brains behind a Breast Cancer Detection Brain
• Parker, removing rage, one spot at a time
• Exerci$e – the new currency
• Are you “Upwardly Mobile?”
• Bumping Up Responds to Potholes
• BMW to the Rescue
• Turn Up the Heat – Oh, the Thermostat Already Did
• Sleep Better, Seriously
• Nike for Women, Again
• Ann Romney, Women and Facebook
• Wikinvest Makes It Easy


3 >Data Crack for Marketers
Want to look at what your
competitors are doing on their
websites? Want to know when
they launch new pages or offers?
Soon, this data will be ready with
just a few keystrokes.

0ur Take:
Timely competitive intelligence is
central to business success and
responsiveness. Applications such as
RivalIQ deliver insight that keeps you
in the know.

RivalIQ has not yet been released.

p. 36 | www.covalentmarketing.com DATA DRIVEN

3 >Bluetooth aims a little lower.
They launch a health monitoring
device. While it’s not a perfect 10
for looks and usage, it’s more
durable and has more utility than
other category entries.

0ur Take:
Non-medical health and fitness
monitoring is expanding seemingly as
fast as our waistlines.
While some entries only aim to
reposition or repackage existing
offerings, others actually strive for
improvement. Be one of “them.”


3 >It’s the Journey – made more informative by Ford.
Ford teams up with AT&T to
capture information via wireless for
Focus EV drivers to deliver a
personal EV status.

0ur Take:
The biggest hurdle for EVs is the
consumer’s fear of being stranded. The
best to counter that? Let them prove
it to themselves.
Where can sharing data make a
customer’s life richer, a little better?


3 >The brain behind a breast cancer detection brain
Is 17-year old Brittany Wenger. With
99% accuracy and a fully open model,
her approach to open data collection
can change cancer research.

0ur Take:
Using neural networks, predictability
goes from being a total SWAG to
being more and more valid by
detecting patterns.
It works for predicting breast
cancer, and it works for predicting
marketing campaigns.


3 >Parker: removing parking rage
1 spot at a time. Parking in San
Francisco will never be the same.
Parking is complex because the
inventory is filled with moving
targets. Using sensors makes all
the movement work for the system.
A direct-from phone pay option is
nice.

0ur Take:
Small sensors do a big job in
tracing parking availability. What
can you put a sensor on, in, or
around to help make your
customers’ lives easy to navigate?


3 >Paying for your groceries with Exerci$e
The folks at Artefact are predicting
that tracking your exercise might be a
new form of currency in the “Fat
Economy.” The people behind
Modwells are tracking this trend here.

0ur Take:
Using sensors can improve not only
what you know about your health but
what you can do about it.
Since data is gathered continuously,
what works – and doesn’t becomes
quickly clearer.


3 >Upwardly Mobile.
The Sunlight Foundation for Open
Government launches Upwardly
Mobile. This app uses government
cost data to calculate and compare
the cost of living in various cities
and shares the results.

0ur Take:
While it lacks a reuse component (in
earnest – you’re not going to make it a
primary destination), it shares
interesting data that can make you a
more informed citizen.

What information do you share that
makes for a more informed community?


3 >Bump up responds to potholes – with automatic reporting
When accelerometers and GPS are
in play, the user doesn’t need to do
anything, except hope his tires and
rims are okay.

0ur Take:
Why are you making customers report
data that technology can detect?


3 >BMW to the Rescue
Sending responders crash data.
Specifically, severity data so the
responding organization knows
what to do. Beyond airbag
deployment, this allows responders
to prepare appropriately.

0ur Take:
Why are you making customers report
data that technology can detect?


3 >Turn up the heat. Oh, your thermostat already did.
Smart thermostat, Nest, learns
your habits and programs itself,
allowing you to save ~30% . A little
leaf shows up when you’re saving
energy – and money.

0ur Take:
Again, devices that learn us are
making life easier. And saving
money. Why wouldn’t these
become standard? And quickly


3 >Sleep better, seriously.
Your breathing tells a lot about the
quality of your sleep. Brought out
by MIT students (yes, those kids
again – are you watching them?)
While not commercially available
yet, Restdevices.com is actively
working on it.

0ur Take:
It’s estimated that more than 50% of the
population sleeps less than it should.
Medication is a remediation, not a
solution.

How can embedded fibers help you help
customers? (Let me know when one can
physically prevent you from eating a Twix
bar. That would be really helpful.)


3 >Nike for Women, again
The Nike Women’s Training Club
app trains you like a professional
would. And we love the count-
down timer. It leverages your own
music via iTunes.

0ur Take:
This is simply a continuation on Nike’s
journey. It’s here not only because it
is focused on women, but because it
provides a series of rewards, badges
and effective encouragement. Nike
views its mission not as selling goods
but on improving fitness and we think
that’s a fundamental shift in how
most companies view themselves.


3 >Ann Romney, women and Facebook
The Twitterverse, love it as we do,
doesn’t reflect the national demos
nearly as well as Facebook. Which
makes them a little cool again,
especially as the election comes
upon the US.

0ur Take:
The misuse of social media data is
rampant, as is the overwhelming desire to
encourage friending and fanning and then
doing little to build community. However,
Facebook still provides a critical view into
our social consciousness.
When you look to social data, look to the
right tools and techniques. Start with
hypotheses and then use the data to prove
what actually happened.

3 >Wikinvest makes it easy
Portfolio tracking is an art form for
people who want to play a lot with
their accounts. However, what
happens with the regular investor
who has ended up with multiple
accounts? Enter Wikinvest, a site
that consolidates and displays your
data in one easy and informative
place.
0ur Take:
Most companies focus on
themselves. We understand that.
However, when an offering
consolidates people’s tasks and
makes viewing easy, it generally
catches on. Sometimes collaboration
and cooperation go further to aid
consumers and generate brand love
than being independent does.


> SHARABLE The term “oversharing” is in the public consciousness.
However, here are some great examples where sharing is caring.
Meet the people giving great stuff to their friends, family, communities and random strangers
• Gaming for Good
• Twit Happens
• Characters Welcome – 140 of them
• Life’s for Sharing, Especially With Angry Birds
• Hard Truths and Ugly Reviews Are Helpful
• The Zombie Apocalypse Occurred: Now What?
• Marketplaces: Bidding Online for Bodywork
• State Farm Next Door
• Chipotle Changes Menu After Avid Customer Complains
• Crowdsourced Travel for Geeks: Nerdy Day Trips
• Dabble: Learn Something
• Academic Earth – Learn From the Best, For Free
• Innovation on the Fringe: The Misfit Economy
• Spotify Enters the Dating Game: Fellody
• Kickstarter 2.0
• Hey, Wait – Let’s Hashtag the Plane


4 >Gaming for Good
In MKT_Innov8, we describe how
the modern CMO must get with the
hacker code. In this case, indie
developers contribute games
where they receive part of the
profit, and charities get the rest.

0ur Take:
Marketers must embrace the sharing
culture – opening code sets and data
to developers to create not simply
goods for themselves, but a more
common good.

p. 51 | www.covalentmarketing.com SHAREABLE

4 >Twit Happens
The Red Cross elegantly replies to
a sorely misguided tweet
accidentally sent by a drunken
staffer from the branded account.
It actually received donations with
the hashtag #gettingslizzerd or
slizzard. Apparently the sober
can’t spell it anyway.

0ur Take:
Accidents will happen. Don’t get
alarmed. Take it with good humor and
your customers will likely as well.
Admit the mistake and don’t, whatever
you do, pull an “Akin.”


4 >Characters welcome – 140 of them.
KLM personnel undertook a live
tweeting exercise in an airline
hangar to demonstrate their social
competency to respond to each
tweet in an hour. Each person
grabbed a letter – or space – and
replies were “tweeted.”
0ur Take:
Social sharing – such as Twitter – is
designed for relevant and timely
interactions. There is nothing in there
saying you can’t have a personality
and have some fun. So, go and see if
you can’t be a little more lighthearted
with your social efforts.


4 >T-Mobile is no stranger to great viral campaigning
Oops, they did it again.

First, it was flashmob dancing. Then it
was a massive sing-along in Trafalgar
Square. Let’s not forget the instrument-
less welcome home in Heathrow.
Now, along with a band and fully
interactive flying birds and crashing pigs,
they bring us a life-size Angry Birds.

0ur Take:
When a game takes such hold over the
public that it becomes a movie and is
featured on planes (yes, Finnair went
there) it’s fair, well, game. In creating a
live display, 14mm views later, T-Mobile
continues its path of engaging videos that
capture their brand: #Lifesforsharing


4 >Hard Truths and Ugly Reviews have an upside
Let’s say you’re truly customer
centric and the customer’s voice
means something to you. Here’s how
you prove it, and find out what to
change. Starwood Hotels Group is
making reviews visible. When they’re
great, they’re next to the booking
widget. When they’re bad, they’re in
the same place. That’s incentive.
Also notice, the response is from the
general manager. #Fullyengaged
0ur Take:
This sort of honesty, and willingness
to publish customer-provided reviews
is not just a best practice. It should
be an only practice. Yes, not every
experience is perfect. Admitting it
makes your guests more willing to
come back. #honestymatters


4 >Zombies, Run!
A story told in parts, designed to
encourage runners to complete
“tasks” like go on a medicine run,
while listening. It’s not a fitness
app, but is it worth the $8.00 price
for 30 episodes (23 are currently
released)? This gamification of
fitness is a model worth considering.

0ur Take:
Again, drawing from relevant social
context allows fun and
engagement. It goes in a totally
different direction, than say, the
Nike or Body Bug offerings.

What social contexts are relevant
for your brand?


4 >At last…a Priceline for Car Repairs
Few of us ever really know what
the mark-up is when that little
fender-bender you don’t want to
report to insurance is. So, what
would happen if you could get a
better price than rack rate. This
platform will let you know, easily.

0ur Take:
We have a soft spot for
marketplaces that bring buyers and
sellers together – like Etsy. We
also have a great and abiding love
of getting a deal. Who doesn’t?
We think this includes your
customers too.


4 >State Farm Next Door
When State Farm put up a
community center in a Chicago
neighborhood offering coffee and
financial coaching, one would
expect it to be a sales pitch. But
it’s not. It’s a nice relaxing space
where you really can learn a little
bit more about how to make your
financial life a little better.

0ur Take:
It’s on-brand – neighbors are next
door but not overbranded. We like it.


4 >Chipotle changes menu item
Social listening at least implies that
a company will take social action. At
least for Chipotle that held true in
response to an avid customer’s
twitter complaint. It took abut 2
hours to make the decision, according
to Consumerist.com. The menu
boards will take longer, but at least
they acted with speed and interest.

0ur Take:
Simply put, don’t say you are
listening and then not take action.
If you respond, then you are on the
hook. No ifs ands or buts.


4 >Crowdsourced Travel for Geeks
While not the smallest market in the
world, geeks are a tribe. And travel is
all about connecting to your tribe.
Welcome to Nerdy Day Trips.

0ur Take:
Geek chic is certainly a force to
watch. Nerdy is the “new black “–
having a geek or nerd attachment is
now a badge of honor worth taking
advantage of.

What are you doing to cater to a
population interested in smarter
things to do?


4 >Dabble: Learn something
Find, teach or host a class, all
made easy with a new service
called Dabble. The student pays
$20, the teacher gets $10 of that.
(Materials may be extra.) Rustic
benches in Chicago? Beer-making
in Denver? Manicuring skills?

0ur Take:
We mentioned our love of marketplaces
already, so we will spare you (or not).
However, with a spin that makes it easy
for the DIYer to find a mentor, this works.

Consumer goods manufacturers – what
can you teach? We bet quite a lot –
recipes, perfect laundry, home cleaning in
20 minutes or less? Yup, you’ve got this.


4 >Academic Earth: Learn from the best
So, you can’t afford the Ivy League?
Who cares, you can still learn from
their best professors with free
lectures from Academic Earth. The
world of education is fast
becoming egalitarian.

0ur Take:
We think stimulating curiosity and
pursuing knowledge is always worth
the effort – even more so when it’s
free. There are 218 lessons and 6
courses on statistics and 2 on
marketing. So go for it.


4 >Innovation on the Fringe: The Misfit Economy
This book (recently funded through a
Kickstarter campaign) is coming out
in Fall 2014. It’s premise: “Across the
globe, diverse innovators operating in
the black, gray, and informal
economies are developing solutions to
a myriad of challenges.”

0ur Take:
Not only is the Kickstarter model
for publishing going to reinvent that
industry (again), this concept of
innovation deriving from places like
the slums and back alleys makes
sense. Necessity being the
mother…and all that.


4 >Spotify enters the “Dating Game”
So, it took forever for Spotify to reach
the states. The online music app
extends its reach by allowing playlist
sharing and “flirting.” In 70 countries
already, it’s more a global than perhaps
a local thing, but imagine finding
someone who shares your love of the
Talking Heads is just across town?

0ur Take:
Taking something you like and being able to
connect with others is a time honored method
of community building. This sort of application
works to build strong communities (as long as
participation is solid).

It works well with creating interest in the base
product and loyalty – the part we like best.


4 >“This one time, at Bandcamp…”
With a fun funky and definitely
high-brow style, Bandcamp is the
new way to buy independent
artists. According to their site you
can browse 4,906,615 tracks and
608,744 albums from artists
spanning 183 countries.

0ur Take:
This is the disruption model – similar to
what’s happening in publishing. It
started with Derek Sivers’ CD Baby.

Continued disintermediation of
traditional retailers will provide new
ways for buyers to connect to sellers.
Understand where your competition is –
especially interesting new entrants who
tend to be particularly rabble rousing.


4 >Kickstarter 2.0
Kickstarter is not new, but there are a
few people who have not heard of it.
With a planned UK expansion and
greater public visibility into the number
of projects and their statistics,
Kickstarter is embracing transparency.
While very few projects reach
stratospheric funding levels, there are
some that have gone over $1mm USD.

0ur Take:
In addressing one of the most sizable
barriers to entry for lone innovators or
small teams, Kickstarter has defined a
niche that allows increased competition
– and competitive threat. Understanding
what types of projects in your markets
are on Kickstarter is a fair use of a few
minutes.

4 >Hey wait – let’s hashtag the plane. No, really.
Look, we got a new plane and in
celebration of Geek Chic – let’s
name it #nerdbird. Thanks, Virgin
America, somehow we needed that?

0ur Take:
At first blush, we thought it was
ridiculous. Then we considered, if you
want to make it easy for your
customers to reference you, why not?
Make it short, make it sweet, but
there isn’t any harm in making it.


> SOCIAL GOOD People and brands are joining together for the public good.
Herewith, we share examples that make us smile...
Doing well by doing good is a great business model.
• Socially Conscious Gaming
• Customer Friendly, Even When Your Vehicle Only Has Two Wheels
• Not Just Giving, Giving of Yourself: Bicycle Academy
• Pedal Powered Cinema
• Vodafone Justtext Giving
• Tide Loads of Hope
• Standing for Something, Like It or Not
• Grenewal: What to Do With That Old Strip Mall
• Own a Color For Unicef
• Guerilla Gardening
• Lifelens: Simplified Malaria Testing
• A Child’s Right: Transparency and Fresh Water
• NGOs: Show Me the Money (Where You Spent It)
• Chicago Plow Tracker
• Smarter Cities Need Smarter Citizens
• CiteGreen – Rewards the Right Actions
• Free Wifi for Finand
• The Robin Hood Tax


5 >Gaming Goes Social…Awareness
In a Facebook game that doesn’t
involve the mafia, vampires or
supervising a neighbor’s crops,
America2049 shines a bright light
where you address drug smuggling,
human trafficking and other
important issues.

0ur Take:
Facebook has had a rough few
months, we get it. However, bringing
forward a socially responsible game is
noteworthy and resonates with their
market. Being willing to take a stand
on key issues is worthy of time and
attention.

Brands need to be more visible in the
dialogue, despite the risks.

p. 69 | www.covalentmarketing.com SOCIAL GOOD

5 >Customer Friendly, Even When Your Vehicle Has 2 Wheels
In a lovely example of embracing all
vehicles, Statoil gives us a grand
example: "Dear Cyclist, You can care
for your bicycle here. You can pump
and wash your bicycle and, inside the
shop, you're welcome to borrow a free
bicycle care kit with oil, tire levers,
Allen keys, etc. Enjoy. Statoil"

0ur Take:
Yay! We love this example because it
takes negative space – a wall –
which wasn’t doing anyone any good
and would likely contain a soda or
crisps ad and puts it to good purpose.

At the same time, that cyclist is
likely to come in and grab a bottle of
water and an apple. Everyone wins,
the investment was minimal but the
brand goodwill is outsized.

5 >Not Just Giving, Giving of Yourself
Want to learn how to build a bike?
The bike you build goes to Africa, the
skills you learn are yours to keep via
the bike academy (a crowd-funded
startup). Take 4 days and see what
good can come of it. (We’re only
crushed it’s so expensive).

0ur Take:
While the price puts us off, the
concept does not. We think there
is a role for these sorts of high end
learning sessions, taught by
experts, where the benefits accrue
to those in need. Think celebrity
chefs teaching classes where the
outputs feed shelter residents or
Home Depot classes that are in
Habitat for Humanity houses.


5 >Pedal-Powered Cinema and Music
Why be a couch potato? You can
now be part of the generator for the
movie. They have a 20-bicycle
generator that drives the display of
the film (or the amplifiers in the case
of music).

What a great date idea. (Only in the
UK so far.)

0ur Take:
A similar program in France
encouraged ladies to pedal to watch a
neon man disrobe, but don’t let that
put you off. Ideas like this could work
for any environmentally conscious
business or brand, or those in bicycle
friendly cities and towns. Boulder?
Otterbox? Trek? Local water brands
(or Coca Cola…)?


5 >Vodafone “justtext” giving
Using a simple code, UK telecom
provider Vodafone allows charities
to receive donations easily and
quickly from just about anyone –
leveraging their infrastructure for
transmission and billing.

0ur Take:
Social good programs need to be
simple to understand and simple to
execute. The best ones encourage
the tribe to drive participation.
They are not self-aggrandizing and
they are not splashy. When they
use assets the customer is already
familiar with, it’s even better.


5 >Tide Loads of Hope
Proctor and Gamble (P&G) helps
disaster-torn communities with
something you simply didn’t think
of – clean clothes. Being able to do
something a little bit normal, and
have a little sense of order and
control seems priceless.

0ur Take:
The brand fit is flawless. The
charitable aspect absolutely meets
a need. The reusability of the
assets invested – sustainable and
extensible. This is a fine example
of how it’s done.


5 >Brand personality means you stand for something.
It’s not easy being yourself in the public forum – but more
and more brands will be rewarded or punished for not being
transparent in what they believe. For instance, Gay
Marriage. Both Lush Cosmetics and Ben & Jerry’s have
voted with their products and media support. Alternately,
Chick-fil-a’s less than public stand against gay marriage
originally hurt them. However, supporters turned out for
them as well.

0ur Take:
Consumers may love or hate your views, but if those
views influence your way of doing business, expect
action, support and of course, opposition. It’s not
wrong to take a stand if you believe in something. It’s
wrong to expect consumers not to do the same.


5 >Greenewal: what to do with that old strip mall
Green space has been disappearing
for decades. Up cropped the myriad
of malls to support a housing
inventory we finally found out we
didn’t need (or could ill-afford). Now
what? In Los Angeles, they’ve got a
solution: Reverse the song: we place
paradise in an old parking lot. Ok, we
modified it a little.

0ur Take:
In terms of giving back to the
community, as so many brands
aspire, the ability to address issues
like renewal is wide open. It provides
a chance to get your name out there.
Don’t buy a stadium – buy a strip mall
and make it a park. Family oriented
brands, here’s your chance.


5 >Own A Color For Unicef
In one of my favorites of the many great
examples in this section, Glidden in the
US and Dulux in the UK team with
Unicef to make a point about the broad
spectrum of paint colors and offer you
the naming rights.

0ur Take:
Again, on-brand and a great tie in make
for compelling social responsibility.
When it’s done right, it’s compelling,
engaging and interesting.

I will personally buy the color of your
choice for the first 250 people who
tweet the link to this presentation, DM
me @hermione1 for both the link and
with your choice.


5 >Guerilla Gardening: Greening Anywhere We Can
Find a neglected space. Get a few
plants. Grow something good. The UK
has become home to a new
phenomena – pop-up gardening. What
a great way to take a small space and
renew it for good? In this case, if you
build it, they will come.

0ur Take:
The concept of urban farming is
rising and fast – as is small space
gardening. The ability to stake out
a small space and make it green,
hang a sign and provide something
beautiful is worth it. Plus, your
town will love you for it. Doing it
yourself is a lot more productive
than buying a mile of highway.


5 >LifeLens – Simplified Malaria Testing
Not every cause gets Bill Gates as
its front-man. Malaria is a little
lucky that way, because he’s
optimistic. And wealthy. But when 5
US-based scientists and developers
build an app to quickly and easily
test for the disease, it’s a win.

0ur Take:
We see apps like this all day.
Developed by people wanting to do
great things. They’ve given their
time. Imagine what they might be
able to do with a little sponsorship
money. It never hurts to ask.


5 >A Child’s Right: Transparency and Fresh Water
When you focus on getting clean
water to a child, it’s not like the
McDonald’s 1 Billion Served. The
number goes up and down every day.
And while most charities report
static results, delivering water is a
daily thing, so the results need to
reflect that.

0ur Take:
This example made the list for its
inclusion of a “living number.” In
every charitable effort, there are
ups and downs. Sharing the
success and the failures is all part
of transparency.


5 >Chicago Plow-Tracker
In January 2012, the City of
Chicago created an app to show
where plows are so residents could
understand when they expect to be
free to get that quart of milk they
missed.

0ur Take:
Oh, grocery chains? This one is for you.
It’s a simple, low investment model that
gives you a much better opportunity to
connect with community.


5 >Smarter cites need Smarter citizens
Or at least socially active ones.
Seeclickfix.com allows citizens to
report a problem – graffiti,
potholes, uncollected trash – and
see the response.

0ur Take:
As the service looks to go national,
a glocal model makes sense. Being
able to support and fund local
community engagement should be a
high priority for retailers.


5 >CiteGreen rewards the right things
Never mind that it should be called
Cite Verte, but if you sign up, you can
pick the actions you want rewards
for – carpooling, recycling. Via local
partnerships and agencies, the
model accounts for actions and
credits points toward the desired
rewards

0ur Take:
Activism at its best is when you
participate because you see good.
Everyone else needs a nudge. So, how
about if you sell something in a bottle, you
take on the recycling piece? Fuel
companies, please have carpooling. It’s
yours for the asking.


5 >Free Wifi for Finland
Okay, so I don’t know how many
Fins are as addicted to Angry Birds
as everywhere else – simply that
it’s a source of national pride. To
make it easier to access those
flying little bombs, Finland
announced digital access for all
Fins by 2015. It’s considered a life
requirement, not a luxury.

0ur Take:
Expect to see this trend continue
globally, although more countries
will be less able to fund it. If you
do business in a country that
needs better access, go for it. And
get your logo on the connection
screen. Daily impressions – of the
favorable kind.


5 >The Robin Hood Tax
A less than 1% tax on non-human
bank transactions – in other words
investments and non-retail
transfers – could raise billions
each year for environmental,
community and social program.
Named for the thief who stole from
the rich to give to the poor – you
can guess who the banks are…

0ur Take:
It can be very hard to argue with
this one. Given the absence of
punishment dealt to the banks for
starting the financial crisis, and
furthering it along, this would seem
sound. However, that’s what
lobbyists are for. Expect this one
to generate interest but get
nowhere.


> SENSEABLE In this section, we pay homage to great ideas that affect our senses;
tasty, touchy, smelly things that you might find
Here are the people putting us in sensory overload.
• Coke: Blend Your Own
• Pepsi: Social Vending
• Dunkin Donuts: Wake Up and Smell The Coffee
• Vitamin Water: Energize
• Kindness – The Cure For the Common Cold
• Renew Yourself
• Going Public: Fee Elimination for Room Service
• Join a Road Train
• Fully Engaged Travel: American Express
• An Interesting Substitute: Brown Shugga Ale
• The Oven: Caribou Coffee
• The Honest Store: Honest Tea
• Living Your Brand Values: Sustainability and Biodiversity
• The Allianz Drunk Mirror
• The Sephora Sensorium
• Gamified Medication
• You’re Not Going to Eat That, Are You?
• Eating the Cookbook
• NatGeo Visual Magic


6 >Coca Cola: Blend Your Own
When you ship the syrup to a restaurant,
weight counts. More concentrated syrups
take up significantly less space. They
also allow something else – the ability to
offer more choices, even ones a company
might not have deemed economically
feasible in standalone versions. But
what’s super-smart here is to be able to
see what people are blending in the online
world and use that as a better market
indicator than traditional research.

0ur Take:
The online-offline component of this has
legs. The app makes users familiar with
the machine – which is a little
intimidating when you first approach it.
The ability to customize what once was
totally standardized is cool. Try Sprite
and Raspberry Iced Tea.

p. 87 | www.covalentmarketing.com SENSEABLE

6 >Pepsi: Social Vending
As part of their Refresh project, PepsiCo
unveiled a social vending machine with the
aim of donating 1.25mm USD in grants
every month for worthwhile causes. Drinks
can be purchased, gifted (via SMSS code).
All participants were linked to the project
website, where they could vote for the
projects they liked most. The goal was to
provide 480 grants supporting arts, music,
education and communities.

0ur Take:
The gifting part was a great idea.
The social tie in comes across as a
little more challenging since it defers
execution (you might not want to
connect to the website at the time
of purchase). All in all, a worthwhile
approach – but the gifting part,
should definitely go forward.


6 >Dunkin Donuts: Wake up and smell the coffee
In Seoul Korea, a town of coffee
drinkers, (yes, we meant that),
Dunkin Donuts created a unique
means of delivering the scent of
freshly brewed beans just as an ad
played. At the next stop, in front of
a Dunkin Donuts, people got out and
got a cup of that fine stuff. This
resulted in a 29% lift in sales during
the test period.

0ur Take:
Playing with scent on-location is
nothing new – Starwood Hotels and
others have done it for years.
However, using it off-premise to drive
on-premise traffic, now that’s genius.


6 >Vitamin Water: Energize
Bus shelters in Chicago, Boston,
New York and Los Angeles featured
USB ports to charge devices.
This went well with the brand
positioning of “Alternative Energy
Source”

0ur Take:
When you see the opportunity to
give users a chance to “power up,”
it’s a good idea to take it.
Especially when you can match it
to your brand position…


6 >Kindness: The Cure for the Common Cold
Kleenex launched a campaign in
Israel to promote its products
with random acts of kindness.
They scanned Facebook for
mentions of illness, then
connected with friends and others
to get addresses and deliver a care
package in under 2 hours.

0ur Take:
This one makes the list because
when you are feeling unwell, the
last thing you want to do is get
your own soup and tissues.
Relevant, timely and different, it
can be made to work well for
multiple brands.


6 >Renew Yourself
There are people who want to wake up
fast, and others who want to be gently
stirred. The Renew Sleepclock offers
you an option. It uses a radio frequency
emitter to capture movement and
breathing data. An easy to use app
provides a useful display.

0ur Take:
No wires or wearables, this makes
great use of ambient sensors to
capture information – making it a
great choice for many.


6 >Going Public: Fee elimination for room service
Customers feel nickel and dimed
everywhere. And in a hotel, you are
often the most captive audience
(guest, bosh!) Ian Schrager and
Jean-Georges Vongerichten make
room service fees go away
flawlessly.

0ur Take:
Removing fees makes people
happy. So does good food.
Anytime you can cause happiness,
and do so at a nominal risk, it’s
worth consideration.


6 >Join a Road Train
Texting and driving, trying to answer
that one email…even talking on a phone
is dangerous. But for people who need
their vehicle, an option might be
available. Road trains are under
exploration where cars might follow a
guided vehicle to move forward.

0ur Take:
What this does to vehicle design
and safety assurance is anyone’s
guess. However, Volvo’s
involvement allays some concerns.


6 >The travel zodiac, prepared and interpreted by Amex
Again, it’s not for everyone, but
Amex will prepare customized
itineraries based on your travel
sign (with more of your input, of
course) and then offer up surprises
and delights to keep you fully
excited about your trip.

0ur Take:
It’s unique and fresh – creative and
interesting for those wanting high-
end travel and adventure. The
aspect of “not knowing” sets one’s
heart racing a bit. Nicely done.


6 >Interesting Substitute: Brown Shugga Ale
Let’s say you produce a holiday brew,
but for some sad and mystifying
reason you can’t this year and will let
customers down. How do you handle
it? By making yourself the joke. In
language we won’t share, we can only
promise you it was funny in a profane
kind of way.

0ur Take:
Beer is not the world’s most serious
product. For many, it is convivial and
enjoyed with a sense of ease and
delight. However, when we see an
example as clearly engaging in this,
we’d simply like to encourage you to
look it up, and see if you wouldn’t
forgive their difficulties.


6 >Bus shelter advertising, not new, but it might make you want coffee
Warming bus shelter advertising that
promotes a product actually crosses
the border to innovation. Caribou Coffee
provided warming shelter in a place not
exactly known for friendly winters,
Minneapolis. As the shelters looked
like warming ovens and featured
oversized yummy sandwiches, we can
only imagine they saw a nice lift for
keeping their fellow Minnesotans warm.

0ur Take:
As with all the examples in this
section, activating one’s senses is
now more than a static or even
online tactic. Bringing a brand and
product to life requires thinking
outside a warming box. Kudos!


6 >The Honest Store from Honest Tea
Unmanned pop-up stations featured
ice cold Honest Tea in 7 large cities.
The stands were accompanied by a
bucket saying $1 per bottle which
would be donated to charity.

Now for the nice news 87% of
Americans acted honestly (the areas
were canvassed with CCTV).

0ur Take:
The brand match here was well
done and effective. The
investment was small (racks and
signage were not overdone) when
you consider the potential for
media coverage, it was worth it.


6 >Living Your Brand Values
We’ve talked about urban gardens,
but how about an ad comprised of
plants that passersby can even
water? Banrock Station installed a
large flowering billboard that
showcases their attentiveness to
biodiversity and sustainability.

0ur Take:
Eye-catching, this breaks through
clutter, offers an interactive
experience and promotes brand
values. A worthy consideration for
those who produce things from
fresh goods.


6 >Allianz Drunk Mirror Demo
A two second delay makes the Allianz
Drunk Mirror Demo more than a
campaign
We’ve been declaring things we really
liked throughout the 115 or so
examples, but this video stopped us all.
A remarkable impact on a topic that
needs a discussion – at the exact point
it needs it. Watch the video. It’s
powerful without overplaying its hand.

0ur Take:
We talk about light-hearted a lot for
brands. But there are topics that need
to be handled seriously. When you can
tell a magnificent story powerfully, it’s
absolutely worth doing.


6 >The Sephora Sensorium
A pop-up fragrance museum hit the
walls of Sephora where a carefully
curated and interactive journey
was delivered. Participants could
learn more about how scents
affect the brain. Videos were
enacted by breathing, and there
was of course, a $15 entry fee –
redeemable at Sephora stores.

0ur Take:
This presented an interesting look at
a category dominated by annoying
personnel at department stores and
those samples that fall out of simply
everything. While it might not be
easy to reproduce, it might be
effective use of dead retail space
available in most malls.


6 >Gamified Medication
For anyone who takes medication
regularly, it’s easy to forget. It’s even
harder with meds that require specific
dosing –especially for kids. However,
with asthma, getting the correct dose is
critical. So, the T-Haler for Cambridge
Consultants uses a computer game
where the correct dose gets the ball in
the hole. This visual aspect encourages
learning and better treatment.

0ur Take:
Anything that makes medication
easier to remember and more fun to
take, we’re in. This was nicely done.


6 >You’re not going to eat that, are you?
Gone are the days of sniffing the
milk carton to determine if it’s
okay to drink. Sensors can now tell
you if your food is still safe to
consume.

0ur Take:
Sensors made of silk and gold can
detect electromagnetic properties
in your fresh foodstuffs.

Freshness dating will be replaced
by sensor detecting, and it will
make things much easier.


6 >It’s a lasagna. It’s a cookbook. It’s both.
In this truly interesting application
of ingenuity, the recipe for lasagna
is printed on the pasta.

0ur Take:
Well, at least you can’t lose it,
right? Exactly what do you do with
the broken noodles?
At all costs, it’s different enough to
break through, even if it is harder
to follow than the sticker on my
spaghetti squash.


6 >Visual Magic. National Geographic
Leveraging content submitted by
users, NatGeo curates a rich
perspective of the beautiful people
and places on this earth.

0ur Take:
In making this a community versus
a display mechanism, NatGeo
creates a reason to participate –
pride of work. Incrementally, they
also offer the more casual viewer
the tools to get better; guides, tips
and tricks to better photography.


> STORE-AGE WARS Finally, one of our favorite categories, bringing you a host of
interesting items from the places we love most: Stores.
These retailers are wining the battle for consumer attention
• Tesco’s Virtual Subway Store
• PUMA Teams With SolesforSouls
• Uniqlo’s Happy Machine
• A Gilt-y Pleasure – the Many Brands of Gilt.com
• Square Evens Out the Playing Field
• Malls For Men
• The Rue 30: 30 days, one shipping charge
• MAC: Bloggers Obsessions
• Variations on a Theme: Gap Goes for Social Influence
• American Retro: Blogger Cum Designer
• Target, Neiman Marcus and the CFDA, Oh My
• Social Influence Drives Design Collection at DKNY
• Banana Republic Goes Mad, Men
• From Window Display to Your Hands in 24 Hours
• The IKEA Adult Sleepover
• The Book and The Cook: Intriguing Mixed Use Retail
• Virtually Filled Prescriptions: Walgreens


7 >TESCO HomePlus Virtual Subway Store
Brings the store to the very busy
people of Seoul, Korea. Please note
that it looks like a real display case.

Just tap to buy and pay with your
phone, pick it up on your way home.

We found this via video – which has
1.2mm views. It’s obviously gotten
some attention.

0ur Take:
With displays that look like a real
beverage case and other elements
that make it easy to select and
buy, this idea will continue to grow.
In fact, others are already getting
on board – like Peapod in the US.

p. 107 | www.covalentmarketing.com STORE-AGE WARS

7 >Puma teams with SolesforSouls
Bring a gently used pair of sneakers in and
PUMA will make sure they get to those in
need. Meanwhile – the donating party
gets 30% off a new pair of kicks.
Other events in the campaign included
two one-day non-store donation days via a
big red drop box where those giving people
– literally – the shoes off their feet – got
flip flops and a coupon.

0ur Take:
Stores had outdoor signage (I found out
about it in front of the Rush Street store
in Chicago) and other promotional
support. It’s good when you can create an
effort like this and make it carry over year
after year. Careful planning and well-
chosen partners are critical to success.


7 >Uniqlo’s Happy Machine
Featured items that dropped out at
various times within operating
hours during the relaunch of their
Regent Street store in London.
Additionally, early shoppers
received breakfasts, cashmere
scarves and limited edition bags.

0ur Take:
This is a buzz maker. For three
days, Uniqlo became the place to be
– and the follow-on, memory traffic
continues. The store is known for
quality and service. Now, it’s also
known for a happiness machine.
That’s what makes retail great. Can
Whole Foods do this?


7 >Guilty Pleasures: The Many Brands of Gilt.com
What started out as a well-crafted set of
short-inventory sales at discount prices
has turned into an empire including city-
specific offerings (including very exclusive
events), well curated travel experiences
and a whole site for the foodie. Gilt.com’s
rapid expansion has made them a force to
be reckoned with.

0ur Take:
Making judicious choices into expansion is
critical. They need to be carefully aligned to
the brand yet distinct enough to stand alone.
Additionally, Gilt.com’s ability to customize
their emails into thousands of combinations
supports preferences built on shopper
histories. Using data, display and visual
merchandising makes Gilt.com a winner.


7 >Square evens out the playing field
For smaller retailers, and mobile ones as
well, its often been a cash business.
Now, every retailer, taxi-cab driver and
street vendor can take plastic. Setting
the stage for a complete upset to the
payments market, Square announced a
flat fee that will offer many retailers the
opportunity to compete more effectively.

0ur Take:
Square is leading a charge to reinvent
payments and fees. This should be
beneficial to many retailers. What’s
more, its mobility aspects are driving
the ability to put payments on the sales
floor – making it easy for consumers to
check out. While there is not a multi-
unit program that we are aware of, we
would expect one soon.


7 >The Middle East offers malls for women, Czech goes to the men
The Czech Republic caters to the
other gender
A gentlemen’s arcade featuring 19
luxury shops is opening in the
Czech Republic.

0ur Take:
For many years, ubiquity ruled the
day. Now, with men not being fully
satisfied with having to deal with a
myriad of shops not focused on
them, we will start to see more
interesting approaches to “divide
and conquer.”


7 >The Rue 30
One shipping fee covers 30 days of
purchases
Online retailer RueLaLa.com changes
the way people view shipping while
encouraging repeat transactions. One
payment of $9.95 covers every
purchase made in a 30-day period.

0ur Take:
We all know it. Customers hate
shipping charges. Retailers like
Overstock.com make it worse for
everyone else with their $2.95 for any
order – even a mattress or rug.
However, this move makes sense and
provides a sense of continuity while
encouraging loyalty. A tough nut to
crack handled with a deft touch.


7 >MAC went to the blogs
MAC, the brightly colored and
unabashed retailer went to the
blogs or at least the Bloggers when
they teamed up to create
customized lipsticks and eye
shadows in a special collection.

0ur Take:
Making friends with the social
community gets you mentions.
Make the right friends and you
actually gain influence. This was a
great execution of a great idea. And
everyone can do something like it.


7 >Gap: Social Influence – variations on a theme
Gap teamed up with Refinery29 and
FabSugar to ask their teams of
expert bloggers to style models
with their collection for Styld.by.
All the images and outfits could be
tagged via social sites and links to
purchase were included.

0ur Take:
Women connect with various
content-based sites who
understand their style and offer
them a perspective. In leveraging
these experts, Gap got a boost that
was worth more than advertising
through implied credibility.


7 >American Retro Makes Bloggers Designers
Take six influential fashion
bloggers, offer each the opportunity
to design a limited edition item.
Feature their work in your windows
in Paris. Make friends – who will
write about you - for life.

0ur Take:
This is a variation on the theme,
and one to be cautious with. Just
because you write about fashion
doesn’t mean you can design it,
although in this case, the ladies did
extremely well, by all accounts.


7 >Target, Neiman Marcus and the CFDA, Oh My.
These two brands don’t seem to fit together
at first glance. Yet, they are teaming up on
a very limited edition set of items from the
Council of Fashion Designer heavyweights
this holiday. Target is no stranger to
creative retailing – from their Shoppes
concept to a custom-for-Target Missoni line
that sold out in hours. The items will span
all price points and include men’s and
womenswear.

0ur Take:
Target is the category innovator. Neiman
Marcus, the cool style-maker. Putting these
brands together is a stroke of brilliance that
will gain more attention as 2012 draws to a
close. There may not appear to be overlap in
the brands, but both will see a healthy draw
from this effort.


7 >Social Influence drives a designer to engage a snob, The Bag Snob
The Bag Snob – an accessories blog
tweeted rather negatively about
DKNY. In a stunning turning of the
other cheek, DKNY invited the ladies
to work with them on a collection.
Given their influence, a collaboration
made sense and allowed DKNY to win
back some respect while getting a
bunch of free publicity.

0ur Take:
If you are not listening – and
reacting to what is said about you
in the marketplace, you are missing
opportunities. There are free tools,
there are great paid tools. Just get
yourself a really decent
understanding of your social
persona. You need it.


7 >Banana Republic Goes Mad…Men
Capitalizing on the success of AMC
TV’s show Mad Men, Banana Republic
designed a limited edition collection
featuring vintage styling.

The collection was unveiled in a
unique way – with style bloggers and
staff on a Virgin Atlantic plane from
New York to LAX. Social media
abounded – due to airplane wifi.

0ur Take:
The more moving parts you put in,
the more opportunities for
something to go wrong. If you are
planning something like this, double
and triple check. Then engineer in
redundancies. It’s worth it to have
it come off effectively.


7 >The IKEA Adult Sleepover
The first 100 people over age 25 were
asked to reserve a bed for an 8PM to
8AM event relaunching IKEA’s bedding
department. They were given treats
for participating and the event –
including pajama-clad participants
was catalogued for all to see.

0ur Take:
We’d call this more creative than
repeatable. That being said for a
brand known more for its design, it
seems a little off. We wished
they’d have spent the money on
better assembly directions.


7 >Cook and Book: Intriguing Mixed Use Retail
In Brussels, this concept store is
divided into nine themed areas
each with a distinctive style and
dining offering.

0ur Take:
The concept of creating themed
areas is not new. However,
creating brilliant experiences in
each one will always be fresh. How
much can you change and still be
within your brand standard. That’s
up to you.


7 >Virtually Filled Prescriptions
After checking and banking took a turn
for the scanner, how long could it be
until other things followed? In a
wonderful bout of “easy” Walgreens
delivered a free app for customers to
reorder prescriptions. Four months after
launch, it accounted for 50% of all refills.

0ur Take:
Enabling repeat purchase is what
makes this so attractive. How can
grocers and other quick turn items
capitalize on this? How about QSR,
that one’s a no-brainer.


> THE 3D WORLD Our 4D world was 1D for too long.
No special glasses needed to experience this 3D world…finally.
• Thingiverse and Copyrights
• 3D Fetus
• Print a Couture Pair of Shoes
• Print Steak or Chicken For Lunch?
• Security Is Key
• Nokia Launches Their Latest Phone in 4D
• 3rd Planet
• 3D room mapping with Kinect
• Really hands free with Mercedes
• Urbee
• The New Theme Park
• Microsoft Operating and Kinect team up
• Fine Italian craftsmanship meets modern commerce


8 >You lost that one little piece you need, “print” it yourself
To complete your 1969 circa
airplane model, no reason to get
upset, simply 3D print a new one
from the picture in your instruction
manual. What an innovative solution
to a vexing problem. However, who
owns the rights to that one little
piece you are 3D printing? That is
currently the question. .

0ur Take:
We foresee that this will continue to
be a copyrights issue, however a
simple solution to an innovative tool
can be crafted. Think outside the
copyright and move towards the
music industry. Royalties could solve
this, right? Let the people print!

p. 124 | www.covalentmarketing.com THE 3D WORLD

8 >The DVD of your unborn baby is so last year
Who needs an ultrasound when you can have
a resin-cast 3D model of your live fetus?
That’s the latest development in 3D printing,
now available at a health clinic in Tokyo. It
costs about $1300 and parents can opt to
have a single body part instead of the entire
fetus. (OK, that’s even creepier).

0ur Take:
There are people who will want
this, we are sure, but it is
expensive. Parents could wait and
just upload to Thingiverse, at a
significant less cost. Since babies
cost enough as it is, how
sustainable is this?


8 >3D printed Couture is beyond a dream come true
For the girls at Covalent Marketing.
Continuum Fashion recently released a
pair of 3D printed Cinderella shoes. They
are created with a super lightweight 3D
printed layered nylon and a patent leather
inner sole. The bottoms are made from
synthetic rubber. They are supposedly
super comfortable. They come in all
different colors and cost $900. Gulp

0ur Take:
The cost of 3D printing will be
decreasing rapidly over time and
lets face it, these are one of a kind,
custom PRINTED shoes. We also
wonder if this is a hint of what
fashion will be in the future.


8 >Craze or crazy is what comes to mind: 3D Meat
When considering 3D printed food. A
startup wants to create 3D printed
meat
to fill the human craving for animal
protein without continuing to take an
environmental toll on the planet.
Billionaire Peter Thiel is directing
between $250,000 to $350,000 from
his philanthropic foundation toward
Missouri-based Modern Meadow to
create the bio-printed meat.

0ur Take:
Not to worry, this isn’t coming to a
table near you anytime soon, however
if you look beyond the consumption
factor and into the possibility of 3D
printing medical grade tissue, then
innovation is achieved.


8 >Zip ties may work, since handcuffs might be a problem
Now that handcuff keys can easily be
replicated with 3D printers, it seems
that some areas of our culture will
have to be completely re-innovated.

0ur Take:
This is the key, so to speak, of
innovation, never to stop creating.
That is exactly what happened with
the security consultant that used
3D printers to replicate the
handcuff keys. Use innovative
products to solve problems, even if
the problem and product don’t
necessarily seem to go together.


8 >Nokia launches their device with 4D in London – with DeadMau5.
We’d like to say more on the
display on the Millbank Tower but
we were speechless. In a good
way.

0ur Take:
When you want to do something
right, rehearse. When you want to
draw a crowd, be totally off the
cuff amazing and rehearse a lot.
When you’re losing your place in
the scheme of things, renewing
relevance counts for a lot. Nokia
pulled it off with a core group of
the phones’ target audience.


8 >3D World, Third Planet
Third planet takes you around the world
in 3D. Want to zoom up the side of the
Statue of Liberty? Hover on the
embankments of the Thames? We
understand if you lack the budget. So
how does free sound?

3D Planet enables interaction with
surfaces beyond traditional geographical
feature mapping. Now you too can hover
with the gargoyles on Notre Dame.

0ur Take:
We can continue to expect to move
from 3D geography into an object
orientation. The technology will let
us experience things at a level of
detail that has heretofore been
unprecedented.


8 >Is there someone not in on the 3D mapping craze?
It’s moved to interiors and the ability to
layer on effects and human movement.
In a surprise move, Amazon picked
Nokia’s 3D mapping application over
Google Maps for its next gen Kindle
Fire. But the bigger news is moving
inside – MS Kinect is now 3D mapping
rooms, objects and people.

0ur Take:
As the TechCrunch video shows the
complexity of the 3D assembly
process, the rich outputs on the
immediate right make it clear that
this process can transform space
planning and usage.


#MKT_Innov8 115 Innovation Ideas for the Modern CMO

#MKT_Innov8 115 Innovation Ideas for the Modern CMO

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