Tag Archives: Technology

TXT2GO

20 Feb

From Media in Canada: CBS Outdoor Canada taps into texters
by Nick Krewen

The new CBS Outdoor Canada platform txt2go has a magic number.

The OOH company announced yesterday it has added text-messaging functionality to its outdoor campaigns, allowing viewers to short code 77888 and a keyword to receive promotional information, location-based offers, contests or discounts. Clients can monitor the results of the SMS campaigns via a new mobile website, developed for the company by New York-based Rip Road.

“It’s a mobile call to action,” CBS Outdoor Canada’s director of marketing Michelle Erskine tells MiC. “It enhances outdoor’s ability to reach the audience with an interactivity we didn’t necessarily have before.”

With the world becoming increasingly adept at text messaging, Erskine says the time is right to launch the service, as its appeal ranges from youth and young adults to parents who have picked up the practice to stay current with their kids. Because of its low cost, it’s a media tool that appeals to smaller businesses as well, she says.

“It’s an ideal time to offer this because you’ve got a strong number of people who are active text messengers, and since we’re reaching people when they’re out of the house, reaching them with an interactive component is just a nice marriage,” says Erskine.

“A short code and a keyword are easier to remember than a phone number and a URL,” she explains further. “So much of the world now is mobile. Life is happening outside of the house, and for those that are living off their mobile device, this is the best way to reach them.”

How do ya like them Apps, Toronto?

19 Nov

Mobile Fringe,a mobile marketing company that specializes in the production and development of proprietary applications for the iPhone and Blackberry devices has designed 3 exclusive Toronto iPhone Apps: The Toronto Eaton Centre App, Mobile Yonge App and the iUofT App.

As of last week, The Eaton Centre iPhone App is now available through the App Store.

The Eaton Centre App features include:
* The Latest Store Promotion
* Gift Card Information
* Complete Store Directory
* Interactive Mall Map
* Twitter and Facebook Connections

See the App in action:

Mobile Fringe CEO, Steve Sorge stated: “The Mobile Fringe Retail Platform is a powerful mobile marketing solution that has been built for our clients to get to market quickly, deliver real time information, and extend their marketing reach to the mobile device.”

Mobile is part of an integrated multichannel marketing plan. Smartphones are turning into the preferred way to consume content. Users want information in the palm of their hand and the app is turning into the preferred way to do this with real location based marketing.

Earlier this year, Mobile Fringe along with the Downtown Yonge Business Improvement Area launched the Mobile Yonge App.

The App features include:
* Easy Navigation to 1,000+ businesses in the area
* GPS mapping in seconds
* Map multiple stores and determine the best route
* Category driven searches to make things effortless
* Create a Favourites list for quick access to shops, restaurants, or stores
* One touch calling
* Once touch to a store’s website
* Stay connected with Downtown Yonge’s Facebook Page and Yonge Buzz

There are over 1,000 businesses in the Toronto Downtown Yonge area that are members and included in the app. They include large corporate stores like Best Buy, Jack Astor’s and Nike to local small business owners like The 3 Brewers. The main categories are Shop, Eat, Stay and Play.

“Together with the Toronto Downtown Yonge B.I.A., it is about giving citizens and visitors of the area a way to access directory and category information in seconds, and get to where they need to go fast,” said Steve Sorge. “There is no better place to do that than the mobile device when they are actually in that geographic location. The future possibilities include sending dynamic promotions and digital coupons.”

Mobile Fringe released another Toronto App this year with iUofT for students at the University of Toronto.

The iUofT app features:
* Campus departments and buildings
* GPS mapping – leveraging Google Maps
* Shops and Restaurants
* Campus Services
* Parking and TTC locations
* Access University Sports News

Mobile Fringe saw the potential for improved student communications and efficiency by introducing this application and changing the way students access information. Students are much more mobile than they used to be, they want facts in the palm of their hands. The goal is to give users the information quickly so they don’t waste valuable looking up data in the traditional methods.

Mobile Fringe website

Switchin’ It Up

6 Nov

Live Green Transit Ads

The City of Toronto’s eco-friendly living website, Live Green has teamed up with Agency59, a Toronto-based ad agency, to launch a new transit shelter ad campaign. These new ad is interactive, allowing people to flip a large switch that turns the back light of the ad on and off, enticing them with the copy “Switch this poster off” and directing them to the Live Green website for information about saving energy and living green.

There have been some criticism that the adds are not that effective as they are practically invisible during the day and too dark at night. The Torontoist ask Brian Howlett, chief creative officer of Agency 59 about the ad’s issues who stated “It woks well enough to read…That was the first thing we thought of when we came up with it, but lots of great ideas can be killed easily and we’d rather persevere because the reaction we’ve been getting from most people has been really encouraging.”

Currently, the ad can only be found at the Yonge & Empress transit shelter. Live Green plans to install more ads at King & John and Yonge & Eglinton West transit shelters. In conjunction with the transit shelter ads, Live Green is launching an online campaign featuring banner ads. This campaign involves interactive trees, then when selected with a unique visitors cursors, will add a leaf to the tree. Every time a tree gains a thousands leaves, the City of Toronto will plant a real tree.

It is a clever campaign that may be more effective if the ads more visible and had better illumination. The idea could also work at alternative media spaces that would encourage greater reach and interaction such as mall installations or subway cars and buses.

Agency 59 has done some other great environmental-themed ads for the City of Toronto:

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AGENCY 59 WEBSITE

livegreen logo

LIVE GREEN WEBSITE

Advertising that watches you, too

4 Oct

An interesting an article I found in the Globe and Mail about new technology in advertising measurement…
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/article968999.ece

Big Brother

The Changing Face of Transit Advertising

19 Sep

Diet Coke Ad

I saw this Diet Coke ad last night at the corner of St. George and Hoskins at
U of T campus. Obviously it is more effective at night when the lights can actually be seen.

I’m sure you have noticed some changes to the advertisement displays around some bus stops and subway stations. Recently, Bloor station installed digital advertisement screens on the north and south platforms. So far, I have only seen these screens for movie advertisements with usually about 5 different individual ads on rotation. In my opinion, the best use of these new media outlets were ads for District 9.

District 9 ad at Bloor station


It appears that the city’s transit advertising is evolving and becoming more technological. We appear to be getting close and closer to the Blade Runner vision. These new types of screens do present more options for how products can be advertised. They make it much easier to change the content of the ad to reflect the geographic region and can also be instantly updated. The screens allow ads from different advertisers to appear on the screen at various times. While these ads do have to share time with other advertisers on the same screen, commuters are probably more likely to pay attention to a large bright, moving screen much longer than the regular posters. I have only seen these 2 screens at Bloor but I am sure that we will be seeing a lot more pop around the city.

In a related note, in light of the Toronto International Film Festival, 270 TTC screens throughout the subway system have been playing 80 short films in collaboration with the Toronto Urban Film Festival. Read more about this project at…http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/690682

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