Cell Phone App for Marketers

A Dummy's Puppet's Ramblings - from Chip Martin, Puppet
Mannequin American views and guidelines on marketing/PR trends, news from the world of puppets and ventriloquism, bits of humor and other interesting but useless information. I post every Tuesday and Friday.

It's No Longer About Your Cell Phone ... It's About Your Apps
So your cell phone has a brushed-metal shell, can flip and slide four ways and has more buttons than an airplane cockpit. Big deal.

The popularity of applications for the iPhone is driving a fierce competition among Apple and the makers of the BlackBerry and Palm devices.

Since July Apple has posted more than 10,000 programs to its App Store; 9 out of every 10 iPhone users have downloaded applications - more than 300 million over all. Some applications are free (like Stanza, which lets you download and read books) while others help users navigate roads, find friends, find local restaurants or play games.

Users say some programs can genuinely help productivity, but more often than not, they are time-wasting and sometimes - by showing off the powerful computing power of phones - jaw-dropping.  For instance, one popular application called Shazam lets users hold the phone up to a radio to identify within seconds what song is playing and by whom - and then give users a way to buy it on Apple's iTunes Store. 

The applications have also become a form of social status, as users compete to find the latest quirk, show off to friends or one-up each other with their discoveries. Peter Szurley, a lawyer in San Francisco, used his phone at a meeting two weeks ago to break the ice. At a restaurant, he started the meal with a new client by pulling out his iPhone, putting it to his lips, blowing into the microphone slot and moving his fingers across the touch screen. From the phone emanated the sounds of a flute. The application he was showing is called Ocarina. A 99-cent program that turns the phone into a digital flute, Ocarina is one of the most popular applications, having been downloaded by more than 400,000 iPhone owners.

Ian Mackey uses a program called Labyrinth, in which the user tilts the motion-sensitive phone to carefully guide a ball through a maze and avoid holes. He also has an application called iBeer that lets him tilt the phone back to make it look as if he is guzzling down a frosty cold one. That's about as close as he plans to come to actual beer for awhile; he's 11.

Click here or on the photo for an example of an unusual phone-movement app ... you may have to confirm your age to see it ... but it's office friendly.

It's stupid but a bit mesmerizing.

Here's an App Marketers and Buyers Will Welcome
Microsoft Tag allows anyone who sees print advertising, billboards, product packages, information signs or in-store merchandising, to use their cell phone to take a picture of the physical media and instantly get connected to online information. 

With the Microsoft Tag application, just aim your camera phone at a Tag and instantly access mobile content, videos, music, contact information, maps, social networks, promotions, and more. Nothing to type, no browsers to launch!

For instance, if you see a billboard about a local restaurant, you could aim your camera phone at a tag and instantly be able to make a reservation.

Below is a real tag that will be part of a direct mail piece that I'm creating. You can take a photo of this with your camera phone and if you have the Microsoft Tag app, you will instantly go to my favorite Web site. This technology is sure to become commonplace within the year and open up many creative avenues for marketers.

Lactivists Upset With Facebook
Facebook has ticked off various constituencies over the years, but recently it has pushed the button of one group that advertisers have learned are a force to be reckoned with: online moms. Specifically, in this case, lactivists -- or breastfeeding advocates.

(This photo was deleted from Facebook)

The group, "Hey Facebook, Breastfeeding Is Not Obscene," was formed in the summer of 2007 to protest Facebook's deletion of photos of breastfeeding moms and has spawned MILC -- or Mothers International Lactation Campaign. Facebook has yet to change its terms of service, which state that pictures exposing a full breast will be taken down.

A recent protest by the group involved nursing moms staging a "virtual nurse-in" outside Facebook's Palo Alto, Calif., headquarters and moms changing profile pictures to photos of women or animals nursing.

While I applaud the exercise of free speech, I don't understand the problem? Facebook isn't saying photos of women breastfeeding won't be allowed on its site; it's saying only pictures that expose the full breast will be taken down -- whether they involve breastfeeding or baring it all to sell beer. But in response MILC created a place to collect all the photos Facebook has removed. (Seriously, if it was your mom, I doubt that you'd want some of these photos on the internet for the entire world to see.)

Use the comments section below to voice your opinion.

Would These be Censored on Facebook?

Sometimes I'm just soooo proud to be from Wisconsin ...

They Use to Smoke in Cartoons Too
If you don't remember cigarette advertising on television, then you certainly won't remember this ad from the Flintstones that showed Fred and Barney taking a cig break. I remember that TV doctors routinely smoked in hospitals and offered cigarettes to their patients. But I didn't remember this Flintstone ad ... which today seems so inappropriate that it's comical. And it's another reason that we still remember, "Winston Tastes Good, Like a ... ."