Feel Creative

The death of the newspaper may be oft-discussed and widely predicted, but every once in a while a bit of evidence comes along suggesting that those predictions might be premature. Last year we saw the arrival of The Printed Blog, which aggregated blog content into a newspaper package tailored for local readers. That effort didn’t survive the year, but now a German counterpart has picked up the torch and revived the idea with a personalised web-to-print newspaper service aimed at young readers.

Launched in November for Berlin residents, Niiu has partnered with 17 daily papers—both national (such as the Berliner Morgenpost, Der Tagesspiegel and Bild) and international (including the New York Times and the Washington Times)—to give readers a choice of content. Customers begin by selecting which pages or sections of those papers they’d like to fill their own 24-page publication, as well as any content they’d like included from hundreds of online RSS feeds. Those who don’t want to specify their content piece by piece can also choose from a variety of predefined profiles focused on emphases like fashion or business. The paper can be further customised with a name and a color for the front and back; users can even choose to add a greeting, slogan or uploaded photos. Then, following an entirely outsourced production process, the resulting creation is delivered to their door. Orders for a single issue need only be placed by 2 p.m. for next-morning delivery. Per-issue pricing is EUR 1.20 for students and EUR 1.80 for everyone else, with an introductory offer of three free issues.

Cofounder Wanja Oberhof explains: “It’s an individualized paper which has a wide appeal because people, especially students who grew up with the Web, want to get their news from different sources.” Despite the diversity of media they’re familiar with, however, such readers still prefer print, he told The Editor’s Weblog: “We asked this target group which is the most comfortable and which is the best distribution channel; is it an e-paper, is it only on mobile, is it printed or online? The feedback was that for now, paper is still the best distribution channel.”

Niiu is currently available only in Berlin, but it plans to expand soon to other German cities. And with its highly targeted model—benefiting not just readers but advertisers as well—the concept might just work. Definitely one to watch! (Related: Web-to-print tool creates personalised magazines — Customised magazine from Lexus, Time & Amex — Magazine publishing for everyone and every niche — Personalised music mag.)

Website: www.niiu.de
Contact: www.niiu.de/kontakt

Spotted by: Lieke Voermans on www.springwise.com

There are ever more connections being forged between the online and offline worlds, as we’ve been noting regularly for years. We’ve already seen T-shirts printed with scannable QR codes, and now a Pennsylvania startup is adding flexibility to the concept by putting the codes on patches that can be affixed practically anywhere.

Pennsylvania-based Tikaro Interactive now offers a series of 2-by-4-inch, Velcro-backed patches with a “mysterious commando” design on top and a QR code on the bottom. The code on each p8tch, as they’re called, is actually a URL that can be scanned with a smartphone. Initially it directs scanners to the domain “p8t.ch,” but patch owners can set the redirect target of the URL to whatever page they wish, much like with TinyURL or other URL shortening services. Bloggers, for instance, can redirect the code to their blog; videographers can send it to their latest YouTube video. Users can change the target URL as often as they like. Each patch costs USD 19.95, including one waterproof, machine-washable patch along with two rectangles of Velcro “loop” fabric for attachment to a jacket, backpack, laptop sleeve or other visible spot. Also included in the price are a pass phrase for redirecting the patch’s target URL and two .png files of the associated QR code.

Just as consumers have long used real-world products and brands to tell the world who they are, so too have online destinations come to play a similar role. The opportunity? Create a digital lifestyle lubricant that lets users flaunt their online affiliations in the offline world, and you may receive some nice lifestyle lubrication in return! (Related: Google window decals link online & off for retailers — Bumper stickers recruit Twitter followers in traffic — Electronic business card forges online connections.)

Website: www.p8t.ch
Contact: john.young@gmail.com

Spotted by: Jeremy Pope

Whether you are a business or an individual there are many complex issues to wrestle with when it comes to social media.  Often these can be overwhelming.  Where to even begin you might ask?

Rather than be paralyzed, it’s often best to understand that there are four simple, yet critical, steps to social media which are outlined in the diagram below:

As showcased in the diagram, the four steps are:

1] Listen

2] Interact:  Join the conversation

3] React:  Adjust your product or service based on [2]

4] Sell

Companies often enter the social media fray and jump straight to step four, selling.  This is the worst thing you can do, and it will not be effective.  You need to start with step one which is listening.  Without listening the other three steps will not achieve any degree of success.  As many have said before me, there is a reason we have two ears and one mouth.

Notice in the diagram that the steps for the customer than happen in the reverse order of the company.  If it makes it easier to grasp you can consider these steps 5, 6, 7, 8.  Here the customer buys the product from the selling company.  The customer’s first step is to LISTEN for what to expect and do with the product or service.  They will then INTERACT with the product or service and REACT according to their experience (good/neutral/bad).  The consumer’s reaction to the product or service will determine if they SELL for or against (the company/product).

That is the beauty of social media.  As a company, if you appropriately engage in the four steps than the stairs act more like an escalator (pun intended) rather than a traditional stairway.  It will create a positively circular motion, which, with the appropriate greasing (effort), will continue to take your product or service to the top.

A big congratulations is in order for our 2 favourite CMS platforms: MODx and Wordpress, for taking out the top 2 places in the annual Open Source CMS Awards:

“We are pleased to announce that WordPress has won the Overall Best Open Source CMS Award in the 2009 Open Source CMS Awards. WordPress has won this Award for the first time in the past four years, earning itself a place in the Hall of Fame category for the Award next year.

While WordPress occupied the top spot in the Overall Award, the other two extremely popular finalists MODx and SilverStripe tied for the first runner up position.”

More from the awards

T-mobile and Saatchi & Saatchi follow up their brilliant Flash-Mob Dance Ad by playing a game of one-upmanship with themselves. This time the crowd, expecting another dance routine, were surprised when 2000 microphones were handed out.

What resulted was an joyously uplifting karaoke party, captured beautifully by 24 cameras and brilliantly reinforcing the company’s “Life is for sharing” brand claim.

A chorus of “Hey Jude”

Pink makes a surprise appearance

A Medley of all the songs

Shy guy gets caught out

This reinforces the brilliantly human aspect of this campaign.

Following a multimillion pound refurbishment, and using little more than seawater, SEA LIFE London Aquarium ran a (close to) zero-impact advertising campaign in the streets of London earlier this week.

Dubbed ’sea tagging’, this tool simply entails spraying seawater through custom-made stencils. Salt water evaporates more slowly than fresh water, and the stencilled graphics are visible for 5–15 minutes.

For the SEA LIFE campaign, over 2,000 images of sea turtles, sharks and seahorses were sprayed on streets, walls and sidewalks in 300 locations by a team of taggers dressed in scuba diving gear. Since the adverts are temporary and consist of nothing but water, there was need to to worry about permission or permits.

Considering the amount of visual clutter in public spaces that’s created by non-stop marketing efforts, a campaign that leaves nothing behind but a dusting of seasalt is as appealing for aesthetic reasons as it is for its low impact on the environment. While it may not work in hot cities, we expect to see sea tagging appear (and disappear) in other parts of the world soon.

If billboards can be used to give out free samples of scarves, caps and gloves, why not a little sympvertising in the form of a branded dinghy? Which is just what Indian mobile provider Aircel recently did in Mumbai in the days leading up to this year’s monsoons.

Aircel’s billboard, erected by outdoor agency Primesite near Mumbai’s Milan Subway, bore a large, inflated dinghy along with the line, “In case of emergency, cut rope.” And on July 15, such an emergency did indeed arise when monsoon floods made the Milan Subway virtually impassable. The rope was cut on Aircel’s billboard, the boat was released, and stranded pedestrians were ferried to safety. The result? Near constant local media attention for Aircel, even including the headline, “Aircel did what [government agency] BMC did not.” Reportedly, Aircel now plans to implement something similar in Delhi and Kolkata as well, according to afaqs.

Beyond generating free publicity, of course—glowing as it was—Aircel’s effort is also a prime example of the corporate generosity that’s increasingly being expected by today’s consumers—referred to by our sister site as Generation G. Whether it’s helping wildfire victims find a bed for the night or generating support so financially strapped families can keep their homes, there are countless ways companies can show that they care. Help consumers, and you help yourself!

Website: www.aircel.com/Mumbai_sails_through_aircel/
Contact: www.aircel.com/ContactUs/contactus.asp

Very useful little bit of code that turns your plain jane unordered list (the kind that most content management systems spit out for their navigation) into a slick looking, functional sitemap. It handles up to 3 levels but can easily tweaked to handle more. Either download it, or view the demo.

Hi guys, alot of people find z-index a tricky property to use, and alot of the time they feel it doesn’t work. Smashing Magazine have written a post that explains how it works in great details, but I’ll cut to the chase, when it doubt add position:relative (unless ofcourse you don’t want the position to be relative, in which case choose absolute or fixed).

If adding that didn’t help, get the full rundown at The Z-Index CSS Property: A Comprehensive Look.

Just in case you’ve been living under a rock this past year.. ReadWriteWeb have put together a nice succinct guide to whats been goin down on the interwebs in 2009. Interesting reading: