Via

Their latest social media experiment, The Coach Poppy Project, is by far the smartest thing I’ve seen in social media year, and I am thrilled to be part of it.

Have you spotted the pretty Poppy banner on the left hand-side of my blog? Yup, that’s right they’ve managed to get almost 360 bloggers (and growing) from around the globe to install an “advertising banner” (quote – unquote) on their blogs.

The incentive (apart from the fact my blog is now WAY prettier)?

Coach have hidden some handbags within the Poppy patterns all over the web; if you spot one click on it, and you’re in for a treat! It’s kinda like the old memes we used to do back in the day where bloggers would link to back another… god I miss those! I’ve discovered tons of really cool new blogs thanks to this widget!

Play with the banner, Like the dedicated Facebook Fan Page, Tweet my personal hashtag #LondonTown #CoachPoppy (you can tweet directly from the banner) and the Poppy will get bigger and prettier!

So c’mon Poppy, grow!

For all Coach Fans out there, the London store will open in Spring 2011 – can’t wait!

They spent the $100 on essentials such as Redbull, beers, snacks and ice-cream, and created 3 iPhone games in just 3 days. That’s only 24 hour per game; pretty impressive if you take a look at this iPhone developer forum thread.

Lukas the developer who pitched me, mentioned that they had previous experience of developing iPhone games, and they simply wanted to set themselves a personal challenge, and show the world how much development is possible within 24 hours.

This is where the fun begins! Rather than just submitting the app to the iTunes store, they’ve decided to get the people of the Internets involved.

Every time a player plays one of the three games, they’ll increase its play-counter on The One Day Project micro-site. The Tiny White Tribe folks will then fully develop the most popular game chosen by iPhone users.

The app should be available on 1st September (we all know what Apple is like with apps!) – simply search for ODP in the app store as of September. So which game will you choose? Bubble Jamaica, Bear USA or Cosmos Force?

Any help spreading the word will be greatly appreciated – their project sounds like tons of fun!

Foursquare, the location based social game, has taken over the social media world.  Given that, you would think that businesses in London – the Twitter capital of the world and a European technological hub – would jump on the band wagon and use it.  But they seem surprisingly reluctant to try it.

I estimate, based on my check-ink all over London, that there are probably 30 companies using it.  That is too few if you think of the number of tech savvy people working in London and more broadly of the size of the city (7.5 million inhabitants).  It is a shame that more local businesses are not seizing this new opportunity to promote their services.

As a marketing tool, Foursquare offers lots of advantages to businesses:

• A promotional channel: A location based marketing channel (your offer appears to anyone who checks in around your venue).
• A social CRM opportunity: Insightful data about your customers: discover what kind of people check in at your venue, why they come, etc.
• A business awareness catalyst: A new way to reach online influencers as Foursquare users are the kind of people that write revues on Yelp and tell their friends on Twitter or Facebook to go to a nice bar or restaurant.

But I may be too impatient – Foursquare is only one year old (reaching 3 million users worldwide in the next few weeks) and its growth just accelerated earlier this year. And not all businesses have been shy using it: Domino’s Pizza has integrated Foursquare into its social media marketing mix, which has helped the company to increase profits by 32.7%. Louis Vuitton has used the ‘Layer’ feature to provide users with its own London experience. If a brand coming from the luxury industry  – an industry known for its conservatism – has taken the leap in the dark, then other businesses should follow.

I’ve recently started working on the Ford of Britain account, and we’ve been busy plotting internet domination for the Ford brand… well kinda

We kicked things off by inviting a few bloggers to the Ford Fair at Silverstone to celebrate the launch of the FordUKTV YouTube channel. The bloggers took part in a Ford Kuga time trial challenge and joined Paul Swift on two-wheels during a stunt.  Just an average day in the life of a blogger, really

Follow Ford Kuga on Twitter to find out more! It’s going to be fun, fun, fun!

On a slightly different note, this little blog is 4 today – woop!

Game Over

The idea of Game Over was to take something electronic and remake it by hand. Read PES’s interview about Game Over right here.

Western Spaghetti

My second favourite video is Western Spaghetti, chosen by the Time as 2nd best viral video of 2008,

Hat tip: @domlostejon

1)      Log into your foursquare account and head over to http://foursquare.com/feeds/

2)      Copy the URL for your KML feed and paste that URL into the search box

3)      Add ?count=1000 (or more/less depending on your number of checkins) after the .kml extension

Voila! Here’s a map of all your checkins (Click picture to enlarge)

N.B: Best avoided if you do not wish to share your location with the rest of the world

The new CNN International app offers an array of features to check international and local news on the go including:

Headlines: The first you’ll see on the iPhone app is the headline welcome screen. You can sift through news by top stories and by continent (USA, Europe, Asia, Africa), and the stories can be shared through Facebook, Twitter, and email. If a certain topic/article is of interest you can ‘follow’ topics/stories, you’ll receive push alerts when that story is updated.

Each story features a picture and a couple of bullet points explaining what the story is about, followed by the news article, making it easy to read on the iPhone’s small screen.

My CNN: With my CNN, you can easily subscribe to topics you’re interested in. You can also “save” stories you want to read later, better still, you don’t even need need a connection to read saved stories! Perfect when you’re travelling on the Tube!

Video: CNN’s website features lots of videos, so does the app! You can watch on-demand clips related to breaking news directly from your phone.

iReport: This is by far my favourite feature which I believe to be a total game-changer. iReport is CNN’s user-generated citizen journalism initiative, where everyday citizens can upload photos, videos, and stories about events happening near them. Some of it is even used on CNN’s news coverage.

I was also given the opportunity to interview Louis Gump, Vice President of CNN Mobile responsible for managing CNN’s mobile business in the USA.

Please note, that this is not a word for word transcript, but a summary of our conversation.

LB: What was the rationale behind creating the app?

Louis Gump: UK consumers, are increasingly accessing information from their mobiles, and there was a clear need to also offer them tailored content, which is what the app offers via the MyCNN feature.  It’s not just a marketing exercise; there are ads on the app, so it’s also an extra revenue model for us.

LB: How do you sift through the information send through by your iReporters?

Louis Gump: We currently have more than 500,000 eye reporters. We have a whole team working on double-checking and validating the information sent through by our iReporters, which is a substantial operation. The content we receive complements our own reporting.

There was for instance a firefighter who sent through some information during the DeepWater Horizon Explosion. We didn’t have a reporter on site at the time, but it sent through some information as the tragedy unfolded.

LB: How are mobiles changing the way consumer use news?

Louis Gump: I believe that the use of mobiles is the biggest shift in consumer behavior I’ve seen in years. The screens are smaller so people have started using applications to access the information they need. There is an increasing consumer demand for apps and content providers, such as ourselves, are meeting this demand.

Apps require creativity and innovation as they are very different from any other platforms out there and need to be treated differently. For instance, we present news in a way that allows consumers to sift through stories, and quickly move onto the next one.

Verdict: The app is a must have and can be downloaded right here. It’s the first news app I install on my device, and I am very much looking forward to finally being able to read news on the go.

Someone Once Told Me is an awesome idea which combines anthropology, photography and social media.

People are asked, sometimes by appointment and sometimes randomly, to hold up a large piece of paper, upon which they write something that someone once told them [...]

The people who pose often tell the story behind the message, which enriches the moment of its capture, making it a complete and often moving human document. The messages are always diverse, but the uniformity of styling points to the universality of this need to pass on messages. So the site deals with deep human instincts, captured visually, and broadcast to the world via the Internet.

‘Tu Crées Ta Propre Chance’ is the French for creating your own luck and taking ownership of your life.

Mario is currently looking for foreign languages quotes and you can get in touch with him via Twitter to organise to have your photo taken, but you can also submit your own photo via the SOTM website.

Thanks again to Andy Bargery for organising an awesome London Bloggers Meet Up last night, held at the brand new Talk Talk Experience Centre on Broadwick Street.

The Talk Talk Experience Centre, located in the heart of Soho is a convenient ‘Internet Centre’ for both Talk Talk customers and non-customers. How cool is that? Anyone can pop into the centre to use the net or recharge their phones.

If you’re a Talk Talk customer, you can make the most of their private lounge, or even book a meeting room for your client meetings; pretty awesome if you’re self-employed!

The Experience Centre is a great way of reinforcing Talk Talk’s brand values, increasing the brand’s visibility in a saturated market, but also adding value to existing customers.

More information about the Customer Experience Centre right here, or why not check it out next time you’re out and about in Soho!

The Talk Talk Experience Centre is on Foursquare and Twitter