Tag Archives: Technology

Virtual Shopping Experience in the Path

5 Apr

From Delvinia.com: Well.ca Opens QR Code-Enabled Virtual Store in Downtown Toronto by Randy Matheson

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Every day thousands of busy people rush through the area connecting Toronto’s Union Station with the PATH system; a series of tunnels that connects nearly 50 buildings in the downtown core. The PATH contains hundreds of retails stores, services and food outlets where people stop to pick up the essential items they may need at home that night or the next morning.

This week Well.ca, the largest health, baby and beauty e-commerce retailer in Canada, has opened up a store in the PATH tunnel near the spot where Brookfield Place connects with Union Station. But this store doesn’t have any square footage and there is no need for staff. Well.ca has created Canada’s first QR-enabled virtual store, inspired by Tesco’s much-talked about Homeplus Subway Virtual Store in Seoul, South Korea. The store consists of a wall-size poster featuring shelves full of images of P&G products including Tide, Crest, Head & Shoulders and Pampers.

To use the virtual shopping experience, users first download the Well.ca Virtual Store app; available for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry. The customer then uses the scanning function inside the app to scan the unique QR code associated with each product. Once they’ve completed their selections, they can checkout and pay for their items within the app and Well.ca will deliver them for free. The Well.ca virtual store will be ‘open’ from April 2 to 30.

The Well.ca virtual store represents just one of the unique and innovative opportunities that marketers have at their disposal to create interactive experiences from static print and out-of-home ads. While QR code usage and interest may be on the verge of plateauing, new technologies use augmented reality, image recognition, geo-location, near field communications or audio triggers to connect a mobile user from a physical to online experience.

Does anyone in Toronto use QR codes?

17 Dec

From Blog TO by Erin Bury

Link to article HERE

Nuit Blanche: Where Art and Advertising meet

24 Oct

As part of Toronto’s 5th annual Nuit Blanche, two exhibits explored the relationship between art and advertising…

ENDGAME
A back alley is negative space, a liminal zone between the architectural order on either side—stage for the shady and dangerous. In Endgame, giant inflatable clown heads are stuck between two buildings high over an alley.

The heads are made of vinyl from recycled billboards. Referring to the history of collage as a tool for turning propaganda against itself, the artist has stated: “There is something satisfying in reshaping corporate ads into something whimsical, generous or even scary. Clowns on their own embody a certain tension; we expect them to be funny and yet many people experience them as sinister. The tension here is physical as the heads are held in place by their own internal air pressure. Their squeezed and distorted expressions add to a sense of urgency. It is a situation that invites any number of imaginative narratives. Perhaps they are renegade parade balloons whose joyride has gone tragically wrong. In any case, these happy-go-lucky characters are now pinned in a back alley. While still monumental, they are now vulnerable in a way that invites a kind of empathy, but possibly a guilty empathy, or schadenfreude, fear combined with the pleasing anticipation of a spectacularly destructive end.

ISO3D
Grey Canada and The Media Merchants hosted an all-night projected installation at Toronto’s Union Station sponsored by Sensodyne iso-active tooth paste. The project, called “iso3D”, showcased the product’s foaming action and is to date the largest branded, 3-D projection mapping display in Canada.

T.O Restaurants & Social Media

1 Mar

From BlogTO: Toronto Restaurants Have a Growing Appetite for Social Media by Erin Bury

When it comes to food, everyone’s a critic. Restaurants have always relied on word of mouth from satisfied diners to spread the word about their menu – especially in Toronto where there are new restaurants popping up all the time. With the explosion of social media tools, it’s easier than ever for foodies and food-lovers alike to share experiences – I always Tweet out my new favourite spots.

We recently compiled a list of the Top 10 Toronto foodies to follow on Twitter. But what about the restaurants themselves? How are they embracing social media tools – or are they? Some local restaurants are adopting new media tools, and some still have far to go.

One local restaurant recently gathered the tech foodie community for a Twitter-themed night out. A friend invited me to the Eats, Beats and Tweets event at Queen West’s Nyood restaurant, held on the opening weekend of Winterlicious. This special two-night event celebrated all things tasty and tech; diners feasted on a tasting menu while Tweets about the food were displayed on the walls, and Twitter-friendly DJs kept the crowd entertained.

Restaurants in Toronto are also jumping on the Twitter bandwagon – Pizzeria Libretto (@PizzaLibretto) Tweets photos of daily specials; the Gladstone (@GladstoneHotel) crowdsources new menu items, and my personal favourite, (@Poutinerie), shares news about upcoming locations around the city.

Another notable example is Mildred’s Temple Kitchen (@mildredstemple), who ‘pepper’ their stream with hashtags, photos, videos, and replies to future diners (food pun intended).

And if the tech crowd won’t go to the restaurant, the restaurant will go to where iPhones congregate. Local social media darling Freshii is starting to pop up as choice caterer at events around the city – from ING Direct’s recent Meet and Tweet mixer to the popular Third Tuesday social media event.

One place restaurants are lacking? Their websites. There must be an unwritten rule in the food industry that says that Flash is king. Every site has catchy music playing while images whiz across the screen – any web developer’s nightmare (just ask Bretton MacLean).

So what’s the next step for restaurants? As an iPhone addict I hope restaurants leverage mobile applications. Right now third-party applications like Urbanspoon are the go-to resource for diners looking to get on-the-go advice on where to eat. Restaurants need to take advantage of new sites like Foursquare (Magic Oven is currently looking at Foursquare promotions) and mobile coupon platforms like Clip Mobile to offer specials to consumers and bring in local traffic.

So while you can probably find your favourite restaurant on Twitter, tech foodies around the city like @SpotlightCity and @KarmaCakeDotCa agree that restaurants are just scratching the surface of capitalizing on social media tools to build their following and attract new customers. But one thing’s for sure – the tech community is looking forward to seeing what they cook up next.

Find more mouth-watering Tweets on blogTO’s Twitter list of Toronto restaurants.

Mirror Images

20 Feb

From Media in Canada: KB Media touts new tech
by Jonathan Paul

Based in Toronto, new OOH co KB Media holds exclusive Canadian rights for Mirror Image, an interactive media technology developed by Huntersville, NC-based LuxuryTec that embeds sensors in mirrors to reveal a backlit ad inside.

The company was founded by CEO Jim Kirby, formerly of Publicis Canada, The Marketing Store Worldwide and IMG Canada, and president David Brisson, whose experience lies in sports marketing, previously working with professional leagues like the NHL, NBA, NFL and the PGA Tour.

KB’s will be rolling out a national network of bars, eateries, health and fitness clubs, golf and ski clubs, retail, offices, airports and on-campus locations.

“With the launch of Mirror Image, we’re creating a benchmark for out-of-home advertising,” said Kirby, in a release. “Our new products break through the clutter, allows for brand segmentation and will provide sustainable revenue for our partners.”

The agency plans to announce digital additions to its lineup of marketing products in the process of being finalized.

“To get noticed in today’s media landscape it takes ingenuity, creativity and an element of fun,” said Brisson, in a release. “We’re confident that we have an engaging business proposition for our partners and advertisers, and we know the consumer will be wowed by the technology.”

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