Tweets Hit The Big Screen At Piccadilly Circus

Coca-Cola is spreading Christmas cheer via twitter users and a huge screen located at the busy London thorough fare at Piccadilly Circus. Twitter users who follow @cokezone can direct  their tweet to @cokezone and have it displayed on the screen for commuters to enjoy. We'll assume that because of the open nature of the tweets that there will be some form of moderation.

If you don't happen to drive through Piccadilly Circus the tweets can be viewed live on the brand’s engagement site, www.cokezone.co.uk/Piccadilly, via a webcam set up to film the sign.  

Zoe Howorth, market activation director, Coca-Cola GB, said: "The Piccadilly sign provides Coca-Cola with a unique interactive platform and we're delighted that consumers can use it to spread their Christmas messages this year.

This activation puts our fans at the heart of the activity, allowing them to engage and communicate with people everywhere." 

Source: Campaignlive.co.uk

p.s. If you'd like to run your own twitter to screen campaign check out http://screenscape.net (my employer). http://screenscape.net/blog/adding-your-favorite-tweets-to-your-ScreenScape-display

Only The Internet Could Make This Possible

When I read the Bits Blog posting entitled "Torso for Rent, Year Round" I was surprised that nobody had thought of this sooner than now and that the scheme would actually work this well in the first place. Twenty six year old Jason Sadler is selling a days worth of advertising on his T-shirt to interested buyers and the price is dependent on the day of the year, for example January 1 sold for $1 and December 31 for $365. If you've bought into the plan Mr. Sadler wears your branded T-shirt or message on your day, making appearances on high profile sites such as Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and live-streaming site UStream.tv. Since launching in November Mr. Sadler has sold 239 days or about 65% of the calendar year and expects to sell out in March netting him a total $66,795.

As you can see in the video below the requests are varied...



Good on ya Jason!
I Wear Your Shirt

The Un-branding of AOL

Time Warner Inc.'s AOL has long been synonymous with dial-up Internet connections, if you where around in the early days of the Internet you probably cursed your mailman every time an AOL disk filled your mail box. The brass at AOL are finally seeing the age of it's brand is not doing them any favors when it comes to eyeballs on websites. The AOL brand is becoming less relevant, particularly with the younger demographic and the company is allowing it's brand to take a back seat on some of it's new properties. According to reportonbusiness.com "AOL figures that to grow its audiences — and draw additional advertising the company crucially needs to offset plunging revenue from its shrinking base of Internet access subscribers — it must break from a one-size-fits-all model and let its specialty sites set their own designs and editorial tone, shedding the AOL brand when necessary." As AOL's parent, Time Warner Inc. has put it in a regulatory filing: “If AOL cannot effectively build a portfolio of alternate brands that are appealing to Internet consumers, AOL may have difficulty in increasing the engagement of Internet consumers on its Web products and services. AOL believes that the ‘AOL' brand is associated in the minds of consumers with its dial-up Internet access service.”

It's interesting to see how those properties that have been around for some time now are adapting to a maturing landscape on the Internet, one where the rules keep rewriting themselves and businesses need to be agile in order to remain relevant...