With plans to launch between the third quarter of 2013 and the first quarter of 2014, Blueseed will consist of a large vessel located 12 nautical miles from the coast of California, in non-territorial waters. The ship will house both living and working arrangements, as well as amenities such as a post office and medical centre. The idea behind Blueseed was conceived to help immigrant entrepreneurs having trouble remaining in the US to stay close to the centre of tech innovation — bearing in mind of course that the co-founders of Google, Yahoo! and Intel, among others, came from non-US backgrounds. Visa restrictions will not apply on the boat as it is located out of the jurisdiction of the US, although once small businesses achieve sufficient scale to need more space, the owners will also help them to gain work permits in the US. Transport to the mainland will be provided through a twice-daily large-capacity ferry – US citizens will be able to travel to the boat at anytime, while non-citizens can obtain a 180-day business/tourist visa to visit California. Although the design of the vessel is not yet finalized, proposed mock-ups depict the boat as the size of a large office complex. Startups interested in applying for a place on Blueseed can fill in a survey on the company’s website now. Accommodation (including living and working space) will be priced at USD 1,200 per month for a shared cabin to USD 3,000 for a top-tier single cabin.

Blueseed aims to bring together talented entrepreneurs from around the world into one community, which will have close links to Silicon Valley. We’ve seen quite a few organisations seeking to help tech startups now, but could something similar be applied to your industry?

Website: www.blueseed.co
Contact: info@blueseed.co

Spotted by: Kelly Nielsen

Teaming up with the Food Bank Foundation, the agency persuaded the “two most important pizzerias in Asuncion” to accept delivery requests from customers, advising them that the food would arrive within 45 minutes. Feigning bad service, all the pizzas were delivered much later than this specified time frame, prompting angry calls from those who had placed an order. However, when the food finally arrived, each box came with a note explaining: “When you’re hungry, you understand hunger.” Couriers then told each customer that the pizza was free of charge, but any money they did give would be donated to the Food Bank Foundation to help those for whom hunger is a genuine fear, rather than an irritation. The idea behind the concept was to help those who can afford takeaway food to put their complaint into perspective, in return offering them a pizza for free as a thank you for taking part in the experience. The following video was created by ONIRIA/TBWA to demonstrate the campaign:

Where traditional campaigns may appeal to rational thought or emotion to convince viewers to help, the ONIRIA/TBWA campaign gave pizza customers an unusual experience they are not likely to forget. According to a Fast Company report, the campaign helped collect 50 tons of food for the Food Bank Foundation, but would you be prepared to risk permanently dissatisfying your customers for a single campaign?

Website: www.oniriatbwa.com
Contact: www.oniria.com.py/index.php/contacto

Dubbed “Sunny Sale,” Emart’s effort involved setting up a series of what it calls “shadow” QR codes that depend on peak sunlight for proper viewing and were scannable only between 12 and 1 pm each day. Successfully scanning a code took consumers to a dedicated home page with special offers including a coupon worth USD 12. Purchases could then be made via smartphone for delivery direct to the consumer’s door. The video below explains the campaign in more detail:

As a result of its creative promotion, Emart reportedly saw membership increase by 58 percent in February over the previous month, they also observed a 25 percent increase in sales during lunch hours. Retailers around the globe: One for inspiration?

Website: www.emart.com
Contact: emartmall@emart.com

Spotted by: Regina Gauer

Ad agency JWT São Paulo created the Virtual Fridge Lock for Meta Real, a client that offers what it calls “an eating reeducation program.” The magnetic device — which is distributed to Meta Real customers when they sign on with the program — attaches to the side of the refrigerator. Then, every time the fridge is opened late at night, the device sends an alert about the raid to the user’s social networks, effectively telling all his or her friends about the transgression. The video below explains the premise in more detail:

In recent weeks we’ve also seen a gym app that imposes financial penalties on those who don’t stick with their exercise plans. How could your brand use negative reinforcement to help consumers do the right thing?

Website: www.jwt.com/brasil
Contact: ezra.geld@jwt.com

Spotted by: Regina Gauer

While other furniture companies might actively discourage customers from getting into their showroom beds, Greece-based COCO-MAT is enabling visitors to its outlet in New York City’s SoHo district to spend up to a couple of hours in its mock hotel suite, which features its Californian king-size bed, fresh linen, soothing music and a complimentary glass of juice. The brand also has a policy of ethical manufacturing – its beds are made of natural renewable materials and are produced in a sustainable manner, while the private bedroom is available to customers for free, unlike existing rental options. Speaking to MailOnline, founder Paul Efmorfidis said: “I have no trouble if they misuse [the service]. If you come here with your friends for a handful of naps and don’t buy anything, that’s OK.” His reasoning is that the free sleep service will get customers talking about the store with friends and Mr Efmorfidis believes that the next time they need a mattress, the first place they will think of is COCO-MAT. Customers can book themselves into the sleep suite or walk in if it is vacant. To top it off, every store serves free juice, espresso and Greek food to customers at lunchtimes.

COCO-MAT’s nap room offers free a service (where others charge) at the same time as allowing customers to try out their products. The brand believes this will increase customer engagement even if they don’t intend to buy. Could you adopt similar thinking to change the way customers think about and interact with your business?

Website: www.coco-mat.com
Contact: www.coco-mat.com/?i=coco_us.en.contact

Spotted by: Petz Scholtus

Aiming to open to the public in time for the festival season, visitors to the site are greeted with two options, one for event organizers looking for a host field and one for land owners wanting to make some extra money by leasing out their field. Field Lover seeks to cater for a wide range of functions, such as weddings, festivals, shows, car boot sales, sports and horticulture and can arrange rentals for half a day to agreements that are more long-term. Land owners will be able to post images of their fields, add a description and lay out their pricing, which they can alter at any time. Signing up is free as the site makes its revenue from advertising. As an introductory offer, Field Lover will be running a competition with prizes worth up to GBP 50, given to one member each month for the first three months.

Although still in its early stages, Field Lover has captured a niche market and aims to create long lasting relationships between its users. Could the popular matchmaking model be useful for your industry?

Website: www.fieldlover.com
Contact: adrian.griffith@oval.uk.com

The company is offering the card for MXN 200 and unhappy couples can purchase the product online or at their local supermarket. According to Online News, the campaign has been launched to rid divorce of its reputation for high expense, complexity and bureaucracy. Those taking up APS’ express package will need to load the card with MXN 5,000 plus VAT in order to proceed with the divorce, with the gift card price being deducted once all the papers have been signed. The company promises only four steps to complete the process – purchasing the card, filing an application, a single visit to the family court and the receipt of the documents providing proof of the separation. The Libera Pass is transferable, meaning that acquaintances who believe their friends need help in deciding where to turn for divorce can get the ball rolling with the gift card. Once purchased, users are granted 30 days in which to make their final decision to go ahead with the service.

While some may see efforts such as the Libera Pass to speed up the divorce process as discouraging couples from working through their problems, those who have their minds made up will surely welcome the ease it provides. Could this work in your part of the world?

Website: www.liberapass.com.mx
Contact: www.liberapass.com.mx/contacto.php

Spotted by: R Steinberg

Having already experimented with unusual mediums for advertising – take its pizza boxes with sound for example – GrupoFourMidio observed that once drivers buy a parking ticket they often place it in their mouths while looking for a space. By infusing the tickets with an aroma or flavor related to the product advertised on the reverse, the scheme enables brands to immediately catch potential customers’ attention and draw their eyes towards the printed advertisment on the ticket. A variety of tastes and smells can be captured and included on the tickets making the channel suitable for those involved in the food and beverage industry, as well as brands selling perfume or pleasant-smelling goods.

The concept takes Wrigley’s idea and opens it up to a number of businesses who might be looking to capture their audience’s attention in a new way, while allowing consumers to try before they buy. An idea to try out in your own experiential marketing campaigns?

Website: www.grupofourmidia.com.br
Contact: www.twitter.com/#!/grupofourmidia

Spotted by: Regina Gauer

Companies registering with the startup can add a button to their app which makes it easy for existing users to pass on a recommendation to a friend. The button, which can be customised to fit with the style of the app, takes the user to a list of their phone or social network contacts. Once the suggestion has been sent, the user is returned to the app. buzzdoes aims to make the recommendation process as simple as possible to ensure that user experience is not affected. Sharers who succeed in getting their friends to download the app are rewarded with cash, vouchers, free apps and other prizes courtesy of the startup. Developers pay for each new download they gain, meaning that the cost of each campaign reflects its success. Developers can also earn money from downloads of other apps that come about as a result of the buzzdoes button in their app. buzzdoes is currently offering a free package, which allows for up to 100 successful recommendations, alongside three paid options – Basic, at a setup cost of USD 69.90 for 300 recommendations, Pro, at a setup cost of USD 209.90 for 1,000 recommendations, and Enterprise, at a setup cost of USD 1,190 for 7,000 recommendations.

As any good marketer knows, there’s nothing quite like a trusted recommendation from a friend to help spread a brand’s name, and buzzdoes’ model helps incentives these recommendations. Could your business harness reliable recommendations between trusted sources in a similar way?

Website: www.buzzdoes.com
Contact: info@buzzdoes.com

After downloading the app — which was created for Germany-based Lufthansa by ad agency DDB Stockholm and Monterosa — users begin by selecting a standard wake-up sound, which will then wake them up each day. Every other morning or so, the app will wake the user to the sounds of a randomly selected city instead. To turn off the alarm, they must guess which city it is — if they’re right, they get rewarded with a discount for airfare to that city. The video below explains the premise in more detail:

Part brand butler and part targeted promotion, Anywake is currently designed only for Swedish users. Could your brand achieve something similar in your part of the world?

Website: www.anywake.com
Contact: www.lufthansa.com/se/en/Contact-via-E-Mail?contactChannelIndex=1

Green Product Placement is “committed to using the marketing platform of media product placement to promote products with a green, ethical, social enterprising and local entrepreneurial agenda,” in the company’s own words. Accordingly, it works to ensure that the products of its clients get seen and used as an integral part of the production design in a film, television program or web series. Green Product Placement aims to keep its own business operations as sustainable as possible as well, including using carbon neutral web hosting, a virtually paperless office, and minimal travel, it says.

There’s no doubt that today’s consumers are increasingly concerned about the environment. When purchasing products and services, in fact, roughly 50 percent look for labels regarding energy efficiency, are more likely to purchase the products and services of environmentally conscious companies, and are more loyal to these companies than other shoppers are, according to iKS. How could your company help eco-conscious shoppers and brands connect?

Website: www.greenproductplacement.com/us
Contact: info@greenproductplacement.com

Spotted by: Florent Lesauvage

XXXX Gold recently leased the 15-acre island on the Southern Great Barrier Reef and named it XXXX Island, the company announced last month. Now, the brand aims to create a place that can deliver “a relaxing few days where you can do as little, or as much, as you want with activities including fishing, touch footy, beach cricket, swimming in the ocean or simply barbecuing the catch of the day with a beer in hand,” it explains. Toward that end, it’s inviting consumers to propose ideas for features that should be added to the island, either via a verbal description or with sketches and other visual aids. All construction will be environmentally friendly, according to a Yahoo Travel report, and no damaging water sports will be allowed. Besides having a say in this new destination, meanwhile, participants stand to win a trip worth AUD 10,000 for themselves and three buddies to the island, which officially opens in October. The video below explains the premise in more detail:

Purchasing an island means that XXXX Gold will now have a permanent holiday destination to offer their fans as a prize, and by crowdsourcing ideas for features on that island, the brand have potentially greatly increased the appeal of that prize. Even if not every company has the kind of money required to purchase an exotic getaway, this is another great example of how crowdsourcing can be used to ensure customers get what they want.

Website: www.xxxxisland.com.au
Contact: info@xxxxisland.com.au

Spotted by: Jim Stewart

As part of a campaign developed in partnership with chocolaterie Folie and São Paulo ad agency F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, the seasonal delicacy — called Skol Roundy — included chocolate truffle filling blended with Skol beer. Packaged to include six chocolates per box, the candies were promoted and sold in limited quantities only on Skol’s Facebook page, according to an AdAge Global report. Beer and chocoloate lovers were also given the chance to win six packs of the eggs by completing a virtual easter egg hunt on the brand’s Facebook page. The video below tells the story in visual detail:

It seems that this was a seasonal one-off as there’s no word on stockists or pricing, but there’s no denying it was an innovative promotion. One for inspiration!

Website: www.skol.com.br
Contact: www.skol.com.br/institucional/Sac.aspx

Designed by advertising agency Pereira and O’Dell to promote Snoop’s new range of Kingsize Slim Rolling Papers, the Rolling Words pocket-size book comprises of detachable sheets of hemp seed paper designed to hold tobacco and other smoking materials. Each sheet features words from a selection of Snoop’s back catalogue printed in non-toxic ink, bound in a twine cover with a match striking surface fitted onto the spine. According to the dieline, the book will not go on general release but may see a limited edition for sale online in the near future. Those attending the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in California later this month – where Snoop Dogg is headlining with Dr Dre – will be able to sample the papers attached to posters located around the site. Here’s the man himself talking about the project:

Korefe’s creation, meanwhile, is made out of 100 percent fresh pasta and was designed for Gerstenberg Publishing House. It can be filled with ingredients and baked in the oven resulting in a classic lasagne dish, according to the makers.

While both of these examples are not currently available for the masses, the Rolling Words songbook may yet run as a limited edition. Either way, there’s plenty of inspiration here for those involved in publishing to build upon the ideas.

Website: pereiraodell.com and www.korefe.de/en
Contact: robyn.freye@pereiraodell.com and info@korefe.de

Spotted by: Zachary Love

Now in beta, Ginjex likens its service to a virtual “taxi light” that service providers can turn on when they get a last-minute cancellation. Short for Global Instant Jobs Exchange, the directory lets users search the site for whatever kind of service they need; available categories currently include IT, hair and beauty, home and garden, and “man and van”, for example. They can also indicate how far they’re willing to travel to a provider’s location. Service providers with an open time slot, meanwhile, can advertise their availability in up to 140 characters, and when a match emerges, Ginjex alerts the consumer via SMS. Also recently added to the site is a “volunteer” category allowing would-be volunteers to broadcast when they have some time, similar in many ways to what we saw a while back at Catalista.

Ginjex will soon expand its platform with listings for a variety of other goods, services, offers and deals, it says, and a mobile app is forthcoming as well. One to partner with or emulate in your area?

Website: www.ginjex.com
Contact: www.ginjex.com/contact

Plymouth-based Ribar Floral has been serving the Detroit community for more than a decade, and early this year it kicked off its Good Job Bouquet program to give something back to all those who have kept it going during tough economic times, according to a report on Detroit’s WDIV. Throughout this year, Ribar is accepting nominations of people who have done something to help others in the community, and each week it’s hand-delivering a bouquet to one of them. One early winner, for example, was Lauren Langkabe, a local restauranteur who reportedly served customers on the honor system last year when her credit card machine broke down. Ribar posts regular updates on its Facebook page.

A few other US florists — including one in Kansas and one in Connecticut — have also embarked on similar initiatives this year. Florists and others around the globe: what about you?

Website: www.ribarfloral.com
Contact: ribarfloral@aol.com

Experts can create a profile on the site manually or import one from LinkedIn; either way, they also specify an hourly fee they’d like to be paid, including the option to donate a percentage of it to charity. Businesses, meanwhile, can post details on what kind of expertise they’re looking for along with any deadline and maximum hourly rate they’re willing to pay. Experts can then bid on specific opportunities; when an expert and a business connect, fees are held in escrow until the work is completed, and a confidential conferencing service ensures that no personal contact details are disclosed. KnowHowMart keeps a service fee of 20 percent of the total sum paid.

Experts can make GBP 50 or more per hour using KnowHowMart, the site says, while companies get risk-free, pay-as-you-go advice. A new model to try out for your own needs on either side of the hiring equation?

Website: www.knowhowmart.com
Contact: info@knowhowmart.com

Spotted by: Murray Orange

Businesses or entrepreneurs who have come up with a new idea or product can sign up to CrowdIPR and post the details of their projects on the site. Other users can then provide information about similar products that already exist, in the form of patent documents or academic research. Each reply can be commented on and rated, with the researchers providing the most relevant references and users giving the most valuable feedback being rewarded with ‘karma’ points or cash. Those looking to use the site for intellectual property research – also called ‘prior art’ research – can sign up to the Basic package for free, which offers up to 30 references, or the Professional option for USD 200 per project, which includes unlimited references, ratings data and web and phone support. In the future, CrowdIPR aims to introduce its Expert package, which will enable users to get help carrying out investigations while keeping their idea confidential to only the most skilled site researchers.

Crowdsourcing has proved itself to be a versatile model and fits well as a method to help with the dissemination of information. Could researchers in your field benefit from a similar tool?

Website: www.crowdipr.com
Contact: info@crowdipr.com

Spotted by: Murtaza Patel