Blog Title: Seeds of Growth | ideas to help small business grow

Free holiday love in Manila

If ever there was a time of year made for free love, it's the holiday season. Apparently the same thought recently occurred to Manila cafe chain Delifrance, because this year it has launched a citywide Secret Santa campaign through which Filipinos can send each other special holiday treats—for free.

Two delectable Delifrance treats have been available for the giving this season: Almond Star Cookies, which were available from Nov. 10 through 23, and now Chocolate Chip Almond Biscotti, which will run through Dec. 7. To send treats, Filipinos need only enter friends' names and email addresses. Each friend is then sent an email with a special coupon that's redeemable at participating Delifrance cafes throughout metro Manila. There is no limit on the number of friends each user can treat in this way.

Free love is always a fairly sure way to win consumer goodwill, but when you give it away without limits during the holidays—and in tough economic times? Hard to imagine that could be outdone by anyone other than Kris Kringle himself! How could your brand create some free holiday cheer...?

Website: www.mysecretsanta08.com
Contact: Delifrance at 642-0021

Spotted by: Bong via Matthew Cua

Muppets made to order

Customization isn't just for grown-ups: Build-A-Bear Workshops and Ridemakerz show that that kids are keen on this trend, too. Capitalizing on this, Muppets and FAO Schwartz have teamed up to build the Muppet Whatnot Workshop. For those not familiar with Muppet vocabulary, a Whatnot is a generic extra used in Muppet productions. And the workshop gives customers the chance to design their very own classic hand-rod puppet to their own specification, taking their pick of body style and colour, eyes, nose, hair and outfit.

As of late October 2008, customers can drop in at FAO Schwartz’s New York store and design their Muppet of choice using a design kit. Staff assistance is on offer, along with video tutorials delivered by famous muppet characters, displayed on screens around the workshop. Customers watch their Whatnot being constructed, which takes about 20 minutes, before taking it home along with the design kit as a souvenir. Designing and ordering can also be done through FAO’s website. Pricing is USD 110 from the FAO store or USD 90 if designed and ordered online. For USD 130 there’s also the option of the Whatnot gift service, a mail order system that ships a design kit to the recipient and covers manufacturing costs. Gift customers currently have to collect their design from the New York store, although from February 2009 they can submit orders online.

The Muppet Whatnot Workshop is a great example of one way that manufacturers can revive interest in age-old products and brands. The engaging user experience that comes from involvement in design still has huge potential for a range of businesses and industries.

Website: www.fao.com/custsvc/custsvc.jsp?sectionId=599&WT.mc_id=k157661
Contact: faocustomerservice@fao.com
Spotted by: Miriam Brafman

Concierge service for busy moms

As college students now have their own PA and concierge service, along with expectant parents and the rest of us, it’s no surprise to see another niche being targeted: mothers. Launched by UK based Consider It Done, Mummy PA offers an extra pair of hands for desperate moms, as well as the occasional dad.

Offering help with tasks such as buying Christmas presents, ordering flowers or organizing travel plans, Mummy PA works remotely to stay out of clients’ hair and give them as much free time as possible. Working mothers are on the team, equipping staff with insight into clients’ needs and challenges. Two pricing plans are on offer: the ‘Lifeline Subscription’, providing eight hours of service per month for GBP 295 and extra hours available for GBP 35 each. The second is the ‘Now and Again’ package, offering eight hours of service for GBP 325, which can be used as and when the customer needs it. Both plans incur a one off joining fee of GBP 125.

With more and more parents unwilling or unable to give up their careers to look after their children, Mummy PA has tapped into an exciting niche. It’s currently only available in the UK, so where will the concept spring up next? And which family-focussed brands might turn it into a brand butlers initiative?

Website: www.consider-it-done.co.uk/mummyPA.html
Contact: www.consider-it-done.co.uk/contactUs.html

Spotted by: Tamara Shand

Web-based, branded karaoke for the home

Lucky Voice on Soho’s Poland Street in London is already well-known for its private karaoke party rooms, which have proved so popular that the venue has expanded to include three additional locations. Now the chain has expanded even further—right into consumers' living rooms—with a branded karaoke party-planning website and equipment.

Lucky Voice Home, which just launched into beta earlier this month, offers more than 6,300 songs that can be streamed into consumers' living rooms for club-quality karaoke fun. Users can create their own, personal playlists by searching Lucky Voice's catalogue or by browsing the lists of their friends. They can also organize private karaoke parties using the site, with features for jointly planning the playlist, sending out invitations and even sharing photos afterwards. For those in need of karaoke equipment, Lucky Voice also offers a Party Box including mic mixer with echo effect and space for two mics, a fluorescent pink microphone and the cables needed to connect it all up via a computer headphone jack and amplified speakers. For a limited time, access to the Lucky Voice Home catalogue is free, but ultimately there will be a monthly charge for access to the complete list; more than 1,000 songs, however, will always be free, the company says. The Party Box, priced at GBP 35, includes a month's subscription to the full Lucky Voice catalogue.

If there's anything better than an evening of karaoke in a private bar, it just may be an evening of karaoke with comparable quality—and even the same brand—in one's own home. What insperiences can your brand deliver....?

Website: home.luckyvoice.co.uk
Contact: home.luckyvoice.com/feedback

Spotted by: Marko Balabanovic

Internet-in-a-box for areas without electricity

Unreliable electricity and spotty internet access are a fact of life in many parts of the developing world—and part of the reason the digital divide still persists today. A new, solar-powered innovation from Florida-based GNUveau Networks, however, is bringing computers and the internet to places that have no connectivity, no phone service and no electricity.

Functioning as a sort of "ISP in a box," SolarNetOne is a terminal network system that uses photovoltaic solar electrical systems and a variety of open source technologies to make internet access a reality in the remotest areas. Included in the system are a small-footprint server and five terminals (expandable to as many as 48) that come loaded with web browsing, email, office, multimedia, software development and web development capabilities, with more than 15,000 other applications—including VoIP—to choose from as well. SolarNetOne's terminals operate as thin clients—meaning that the majority of the workload is handled by the server—and the system’s Ethernet hub provides both network connection and electrical power to the terminals and their LCD monitors over a single wire. A power subsystem including an array of photovoltaic solar panels, an advanced charge controller and ample battery storage, meanwhile, provides for all of the electrical needs associated with 24/7 server operation and 8 hours per day of terminal access. Wifi coverage spans a 2-mile radius, with no fuel costs, no polluting emissions and a long lifespan of up to 20 years with proper maintenance. The entire system, in fact, operates on about the same amount of power as a 100-watt light bulb, GNUveau says. The technology has already been installed at Katsina State University in Nigeria, and a video explanation is available here.

Helping to bridge the digital divide is undeniably a worthy effort, particularly when it's done in an ecologically responsible way. The SolarNetOne project is open to collaborators; one to sponsor, assist with, or otherwise get involved in? (Related: Open source software for low bandwidth consumers — Solar-powered cellphone kiosks for Ugandan women.)

Website: www.solarnetone.org — www.gnuveau.net
Contact: scott@gnuveau.net

Spotted by: Kevin Rombe

Mapping restaurants by photos of their dishes

For many urban dwellers, deciding what to have for dinner means deciding which restaurant to visit—a task that's not easy when you live in a place like New York City, with countless eateries to choose from. Eatbite/NYC is a new site that lets users browse through photos of individual dishes at local restaurants to let their craving of the moment dictate where they eat.

Eatbite currently features a collection of more than 200 photos of mouth-watering dishes that are served up at restaurants throughout New York City. Users can browse those photos sequentially for inspiration, or they can search by location, price range, landmark (near Columbia University, for example) or food type (Chinese, sushi or pizza, etc.). When they click on a photo of a dish that attracts their attention, the site tells them where to get it along with the price range to expect. Photos are tagged by key descriptors, and users can add comments to photos of any dish. They can also upload photos of their own and link them with restaurants from Eatbite's list.

In offering an alternative way to search information that is already widely available, ad-supported Eatbite is in many ways much like Dishola, which we covered earlier this year, but with less of a focus on reviews and more of a focus on photo-based inspiration. It also shares something in common with SeeYourHotel, which offers a slightly different twist on hotel search by focusing narrowly on location. Either way, Eatbite gives people a new way to search and restaurants another way to be discovered. Similar opportunities? On a general level, invite the crowds to contribute content of some kind, focus on a specific search criterion, and keep your costs low by using services like Amazon’s S3 for flexible hosting and Google's AdSense for easy ad income. Now that's a recipe worth sharing! ;-)

Website: www.eatbite.com
Contact: admin@eatbite.com

Spotted by: Mina Zakhary

Billboards give away free love

We've written about billboards that whisper and billboards that even talk back, but not until recently had we heard of billboards that give out free love. Sure enough, though, the outdoor outfitters at Austrian Northland Professional recently kicked off a campaign through which billboards give away free merchandise.

Beginning early this month, Northland has been affixing samples of its caps, gloves and scarves on roughly 50 billboards throughout the city of Graz. About 20 items are attached to each eye-catching billboard—for a total of about 1,000 in all—and the effort is repeated every other day. A video on the company's site shows consumers going to considerable lengths to get the items down. The EUR 35,000 campaign will run through the end of November, Northland says.

Besides free love, of course, Northland's concept also gives the lucky passers-by who snag a free accessory the chance to try it out and tell everyone they know how it came to be theirs. Free love is always a winner all around, but when you add some tryvertising and status stories to the mix? That's a combination few consumers will be able to resist. ;-)

Website: www.northland-pro.com
Contact: www.northland-pro.com/home/kontaktform.en.php

Spotted by: Florian Mayrhofer

Thankful for "Reality Check"

With so many good books out recently...

"Outliers", "Tribes", "You've Got To Be Believed To Be Heard" - had to have that in there ;-)  

why single out Guy Kawasaki's "Reality Check" on this Thanksgiving?

Because...

• It's that good.
• It's a big book.
• You can get a multitude of tips and inspiration from it.

It is also easy, fun reading, and you can pick it up and put it down. But you'll want to pick it up again because of Guy's uniquely witty and irreverent style.

Reality Check is all about communicating, in addition to it's chapter 'The Reality of Communicating'. What Guy does is give you great insights and techniques for creating an action oriented communication experience with these other chapter headings (the ones I liked best):

• The Reality of Starting
• The Reality of Raising Money
• The Reality of Planning and Executing (particularly laughed at The Art of the Board Meeting)
• The Reality of Innovating
• The Reality of Marketing
• The Reality of Selling and Evangelizing (powerful ideas for us all)
• The Reality of Communicating (best of course, and not just because I'm mentioned)
• The Reality of Beguiling (laughed again at The Art of Sucking Up, after The Art of Sucking Down)
• The Reality of Competing
• The Reality of Hiring and Firing
• The Reality of Working (don't miss Why Smart People Do Dumb Things)
• The Reality of Doing Good (and to do some good go to the Twitter Red Kettle)

Well, that's actually all of them - couldn't leave any out. Many of the short vignettes in the chapters are from Guy's great blog, cleaned up and expanded it looks like. All have either wisdom, or insight, or just plain fun. Usually all three.

That's Guy. I'm thankful he wrote the book. You will be too when you read it.

More design-your-own fabric

Consumers have already shown that they're interested in designing their own dresses, T-shirts and duvets—to name just a few—so it's not surprising to see the trend spread from finished goods to the raw materials that underlie them. Last month we featured Finnish Bon Bon Kakku and its contest-based crowdsourcing approach to fabric design, and recently one of our spotters alerted us to another design-your-own fabric opportunity in the United States.

North Carolina-based Spoonflower lets users design and print their own fabrics for just USD 18 per yard with no minimum order; custom swatches cost USD 5. After a closed beta launch in May, the Spoonflower community now boasts more than 10,000 crafters around the world who upload their own designs and use fabric to make quilts, clothes, pillows, dolls, blankets, handbags, framed textile art and more. When Spoonflower comes out of beta, it plans to allow fabric designers to sell their fabrics on the site, it says. In the meantime, users are selling their creations on Etsy, as well as participating in Spoonflower's Fabric-of-the-Week contest, the winners of which are chosen through community voting. Winning fabrics are offered for sale for exactly one week through Spoonflower's own Etsy shop, and their designers are rewarded with five yards of free fabric.

It's not yet clear how Spoonflower's marketplace feature will work, but allowing users to earn cash for their creations is critical, as we noted in our story about Bon Bon Kakku. If there's anything Generation C(ontent) consumers love more than the ability to design it themselves, it's the ability to be compensated for their output. Long live Generation C(ash)! ;-)

Website: www.spoonflower.com
Contact: www.spoonflower.com/feedback/new

Spotted by: Emma Crameri

RFID collar tag helps dog owners meet new friends

It's a well-known fact that dogs can be conversation starters that help break the ice with people their owners meet. Taking the notion a step further, a new collar tag from Boston-based SNIF Labs lets pet owners forge new connections with fellow dog-walkers, both online and off.

Available in a range of colours and patterns, the SNIF Tag is a small RFID device that attaches to a dog's collar and records his or her daily movements and social encounters. On the social side, each SNIF Tag emits a unique signal that is sensed by the SNIF Tags worn by other dogs. When Fido meets such tag-bearing playmates during a jaunt to the park, his collar stores that information and later uploads it automatically into the accompanying base station, which stays plugged into the owner's PC at home. The dog's owner can then log in to view the profiles of the owners of those other dogs and decide if they want to connect online as well. In addition to monitoring social interactions, the SNIF Tag also uses an accelerometer and motion-analysis software to record a pet's activity. Owners can monitor the dog's movements in real time while he's home but they're at work, for example; alternatively, when Fido is out with the walker, information on his activities will be automatically uploaded when he returns. Activity levels can be reviewed by the hour, day or month, and owners can compare them with those of the other SNIF Tag-wearing dogs in the neighbourhood. The SNIF Tag Starter Kit is priced at USD 299, which includes one year of web services; thereafter, premium features on the SNIF Tag website are USD 89 per year.

Where is the line that separates the online and offline worlds? Answer: It's disappearing. More on that in trendwatching.com's OFF=ON briefing. Go fetch—and be inspired! ;-) (Related: Connecting online & off with RFID for the masses — Dating cards fuse physical & virtual connections — T-shirts that talk code.)

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

Spotted by: Computerworld.com via Roberta Steinberg

Personalized in-flight magazines at Heathrow's Terminal 1

Earlier this year we wrote about idiomag, the personalized digital magazine about music, and soon travellers at London's Heathrow Airport will be able to create something similar—but in hardcover format—for use in-flight.

Starting early next month, global banking giant HSBC is offering passengers at Heathrow's Terminal 1 a chance to select magazine articles on topics they're interested in and have them bound into a hardback form they can take on their flight, according to Marketing Week. Through a kiosk located beyond security at Terminal 1, travellers will be greeted with an HSBC-branded hardback magazine cover. They'll then browse the diverse selection of loose-leaf articles arranged on backlit shelving, UTalkMarketing.com reported. Available articles will be sourced from coverage around the globe focusing on four general topic areas: home and abroad, commerce and politics, health and sport, and media and culture. Consumers will also be able to choose from among five writers, including celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, tennis legend Björn Borg and Harrod’s trend forecaster on the future of shopping. Once they've made their selections, travelers will simply take their articles to HSBC's binding bar to be neatly bound inside the hard cover. The two-week pilot effort, which is part of a campaign to promote the HSBC Premier Card, was developed by Cunning with JC Decaux Airport, Kinetic's Aviator division and MindShare.

By providing a bespoke, branded experience to Heathrow travellers from around the globe, the custom magazine project will underscore the upscale targeting of HSBC's Premier Card, as well as highlighting the company's global presence. If extended beyond the pilot phase, such an initiative could also be offered as a perk to Premier customers. Either way, it's just one more piece of evidence that the world is becoming thoroughly personalized—let consumers have it their way, or they'll have it somewhere else! ;-) (Related: Personalized travel books blend search and curation.)

Website: www.hsbc.com
Contact: www.hsbc.com/1/2/contact-us

Spotted by: Marketing Week via Peter Stevens

Pop-up store for teens doesn't sell a thing

Yes, we know you know the pop-up retail trend has been around for years now, but Teen Vogue magazine is bringing its own twist to the concept, with a space that doesn’t sell a thing. Instead, visitors will be able to try on items from the racks of clothes on display, receive advice from stylists and sample products from the perfume bar or make-up station. Free snacks and gift-wrapping will also be offered, along with access to charging stations for cell phones and iPods.

Teen Vogue Holiday Haute Spot will offer its services to shoppers in New Jersey’s Short Hills Mall between 28 November and December 26, 2008. A welcome addition for the mall’s retailers, as stylists will lead visitors to stores that stock successfully sampled items. Products from the publication’s advertisers are also on display. Although the store may be temporary, the concept will reappear in 2009: two other Teen Vogue Haute Spots will open in March and April, on both the East Coast and West Coast, promoting prom wear. In August, another two will promote back-to-school gear.

Moving beyond pop-up retail, Teen Vogue’s initiatives are part of the brand butler trend that our sister site trendwatching.com noted would be important in 2008. Rather than bombarding audiences with one-way advertising, Teen Vogue offers its readers a generous service that also benefits both in-publication advertisers and neighbouring stores. Freeing itself from the pressure to sell, the Haute Spots provide teens with a relaxed oasis from hectic shopping spaces whilst influencing opinion and boosting loyalty towards its own brand. If you’re in retail or publishing, this is one to study. Time to hit the mall ;-)

Website: www.teenvogue.com/connect/blogs/soundoff/2008/10/super-cool-teen-vogue-haute-sp.html

Spotted by: Maria Dahl Jørgensen

Professional feedback, instant & peer-to-peer

Constructive feedback is necessary for both personal and professional growth, but is the annual review really enough? Launched earlier this month, Rypple is a web-based peer review tool that enables colleagues to give each other feedback on how they’re doing. Users register on the Canadian website, ask a question about their performance and select who to send the question to. Recipients quickly answer the question and fire it back.

Employees can use the system for specific concerns, for example the impact of a presentation, or for more general issues such as areas of performance to focus on in future. Questions can be tagged with keywords, helping monitor progress in specific areas over time. Rypple’s digital interface lets it foster open and honest responses that might not be given face to face: feedback can be given anonymously, only to be viewed by the person who requested it. Still in private beta, Rypple is currently free to use, with paid services likely to follow.

For offices that use it responsibly and accept criticisms made, Rypple provides a quick, on-demand method to help workers improve their performance. The system is also set up for use in classrooms, allowing lecturers to receive immediate and confidential feedback from students. For a broader look at how we’re moving ever closer to a fully informed marketplace and society, check out our sister-site trendwatching.com’s briefing on transparency tyranny and transparency triumph. (Related: Your very own focus group: personal image appraisals tell it like it is.)

Website: www.rypple.com
Contact: admin@rypple.com

Spotted by: Stas Zlobinski

Mapping the 24/7 economy

There can be a variety of reasons consumers seek businesses that are open round the clock, whether it's to pick up medicine for a coughing child or to find someplace to eat in the middle of the night. Whatever the motivation, 2itch is a new Google Maps mashup that can help, offering a maps-based way to find establishments that are still open.

Launched late last month, 2itch displays all locations open 24 hours a day in many metropolitan areas across the United States. Users simply double-click on the area of the map they're interested in, or enter an address or ZIP code. The ad-supported site includes a variety of hospitals, restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations and activities that are available round the clock, and users who come across others can add their own along with comments. 2itch's beta version, launched in April, began with some 2,000 locations focused on its home territory of Los Angeles along with Orange County, Seattle and New York, but the site has more than doubled since then, expanding to include Chicago and San Francisco as well as the ability to add international locations. A mobile version is also now available at m.2itch.com, and an iPhone-specific version is in the works, the company says.

The majority of businesses may close up shop before midnight, but there are a significant proportion of night owls—whether by force or by choice—who are just getting going then. Cater to them, and you could say the late bird gets the worm.... ;-) (Related: 24/7 convenience stores, no vacancies.)

Website: www.2itch.com
Contact: map@2itch.com

Spotted by: RK

Free accommodation for visiting creatives

Most of the free love we've written about so far has come in relatively small doses—free photocopies, free phone calls, free taxi rides, for example. A new venture from Swedish clothing brand Elvine, however, now offers select creative types nothing less than a free place to stay.

Creators Inn is a fully equipped room with a balcony overlooking the city of Gothenburg, Sweden, and just a 10 minute walk from the city centre. Working with local independent organizers, Elvine's aim is to use the room to host artists and creatives visiting Gothenburg at no charge and with no strings attached. Foreign visitors are given priority, but anyone can apply by making a case for why they should be allowed to use the room. So far, artist, songwriter and blogger Momus and soul musician Jomo are among the guests who have been accommodated.

Elvine explains: "With Creators Inn by Elvine we tried to add some creativity to the equation, labeling what we do as CSR - Creative Social Responsibility. By offering visiting creators free accommodation, we hope to remind people of a lovely little thing called hospitality. And in addition to making the visiting creators happy and Gothenburg a more interesting city because of their presence, we hope this simple idea can be exported and implemented around the globe."

With the potential to generate a new, hip image and no small amount of goodwill among business partners and visitors, Elvine's example may well be one worth emulating for creative brands around the globe. Just furnish a room with a view, set out a doormat, and you're good to go! ;-)

Website: www.creatorsinn.com
Contact: manager@creatorsinn.com

Spotted by: Cecilia Biemann