Cherryflava

USB trends: Business cards that store more than you name and number

Posted on 12. Dec, 2007 by Jonathan Cherry.

Business card design and the information your personal card conveys is an art in today’s socially connected environment.

That’s why this card that combines a business card with a USB storage devise is a sterling concept for the multimedia entrepreneurial networker.
Basically a flap on the rear of the card can be used to attach
different memory sizes, and a pair of slits can be used for the USB
adapter. It’s not the most elegant of solutions, but a start none the less. [via]

Another option when designing a memorable meeting moment is this USB Mixtape option. Remember those old TDK and Maxell Metal cassette tapes that you used to tape everything from Duran Duran to Iron Maiden on? Well, relive the 80’s in 2 Oh Oh Ate with this one. Podcasts, blog posts, online TV shows all on your 90 retro ‘leave behind’. [via]   

Retro brand revival: Lion Lager is back

Posted on 11. Dec, 2007 by Jonathan Cherry.

Yesterday, while searching for a cold refreshing beverage option in can form for our upcoming year end function on the Orange River, we stubbed a toe on a case of Lion Lager.

At first we thought we’d been hanging out in the near freezing beer fridge for too long, but on closer inspection the throbbing pain had indeed been caused by a case of vintage Lion Lager.
We thought they got rid of that stuff together with the old South African flag and the word ‘Transvaal’.

But maybe Lion’s return has something to do with a ‘Bring Lion Lager’ group, which was created on Facebook? Ok – there are only 93 members of the group, but could the mere existence of a Facebook community have sparked a management meeting involving old beer recipes and dodgy rugby ads?

Remember this thing?

The team from Stormhoek are using Facebook in an innovative way as part of their marketing leverage into Checkers stores.

See: Stormhoek / Facebook offer
Join: The Stormhoek group:
The Bring back Lion Lager group

Buy your own surf brand for just $50

Posted on 11. Dec, 2007 by Jonathan Cherry.

After our previous post on Swarm Theory, Brendon sent us some information about a Community-Managed, Eco-friendly Clothing Company, he’s recruiting members for.

nvohk (pronounced ‘invoke’), combines the best of crowdsourcing and
crowdfunding business models to develop and launch a new lifestyle
brand that blends social responsibility and financial performance.

nvohk
is recruiting 20,000 – 40,000 members to contribute $50 [R350] a year to
develop and shape the nvohk brand. Members will make major business
decisions including logo design, web design, product design,
advertising, etc. Members will also receive a free member t-shirt, 35%
of nvohk’s net profits in the form of reward points that can be
redeemed to purchase products, and 25% off all nvohk products. nvohk
will donate 10% of net profits to environmental organizations selected
by its members.

So far, it looks like they’ve just started signing up owners, but if you have a passion for designing surfwear and use sex wax as a deodorant on every other day, then sign up and give it a whirl.
We predict the biggest problem they’re going to have is to get 20 000 people to agree on a logo design without there being tears and death threats.

Website: Projectnvohk

iCatching: Turns out anti-drinking campaigns may actually promote drinking

Posted on 10. Dec, 2007 by Jonathan Cherry.

- Hallelujah – some flash, scientific blokes armed with pocket protectors and test tubes have come to the same conclusion we’ve suspected for some time now – that those cheesy ‘don’t drink and drive’ ads actually end up promoting the very behaviour they are trying to stop.

Read: Warning on Anti-drinking adverts – BBC

- The headline reads – ‘Armed Robbers strike Nando’s outlet’. Nando’s and a headline like that must equal marketing campaign. Surely….come on!

Read: Armed robbers strike Nando’s outlet – M&G

- Apparently the security guys at N1 City mall are using Segways to catch perps. [There goes the cool factor on that brand.] Just in time for Toyota to reveal their proposal for a personal transporter of the future called the i-Real.

More: i-Real – TFOT, video evidence here.

- In lesson no. 34 of how to make a commercial, which stands a chance of being distributed by millions of web users for free – make a funny ad which would normally be banned by the ASA. Here’s a good example of this technique.

The Web 2 point Oh No thing is so &^%$£@

Posted on 07. Dec, 2007 by Jonathan Cherry.

Oh well – the whole Web II thing was all about enjoying a smoke and a pancake at the same time in anycase.
Come Monday maybe the caretaker will loose the ignition key for the Internet and we can all go back to having real lives.

Geeks – sell you companies now, before the others find out about your cunning plan.

See: Here comes another bubble – YouTube

How to predict the future

Posted on 07. Dec, 2007 by Jonathan Cherry.

Remember that TV show that used to be on in the 80’s called Beyond 2000?

Yeah – it was full of wild predictions of the future. Being Australian, they used to focus a lot on farming and new methods of drinking beer, but it was entertaining none the less.

But now – 20 year’s since Buck Rogers was scheduled to find new life forms on planet earth and zap them with a white, stylish lazer gun, the future has been neatly wrapped and packaged for your ease of use and convenience in a new meme called Future Scanner.

It’s still in a testing phase, but the site tags stories from around the world that have elements of future predictions and pops them onto a navigable site, which can have you future forecasting for a couple of hours at a time.

For example, in 2010 South Africa will not only be hosting the FIFA World cup, but an Australian town will run entirely on solar power, personal jets will be a big thing and Carbon Nanotubes will replace silicone (your guess is as good as ours on that one).

Check it out: Future Scanner
[via]

Arrive Alive reckon that you might think twice about driving pissed because of these

Posted on 07. Dec, 2007 by Jonathan Cherry.

Arrive Alive – the people everyone ignore as they go on about how bad drinking a few harmless shots of Absinthe and then climbing into a one tonne speeding missile – have released a new crop of think-before-you-drink-and-drive ‘reminders’ for the festive period.

Yes – this one above is a floor sticker of somebody suffering, what looks like food poisoning, sporting a prophetic message on their clothing. How did they know it would end like this?

Oops – steady as she goes – Tequila and red wine combo not agreeing with you there love?

[...]

If there’s wisdom in crowds – why don’t we let the masses rule?

Posted on 06. Dec, 2007 by Jonathan Cherry.

What would happen if a company had no recognisable leader – or management structure for that matter?
Yikes – chaos most probably.

Imaging a company as big as…say… Vodacom where everyone was paid exactly the same and had no leadership structures, everybody just followed everyone else and as a group decisions where made for the good of the crowd.
Thats what ants, birds and bees do and they run remarkably fine tuned organisational machines. So why is it so far fetched to imagine that happening in a commercial human organisation?

An interesting, growing trend in the world of business is what’s known as crowd-sourcing or crowd clout and the theory is that ‘the collective wisdom of a crowd is infinitely more powerful than the efforts of one’.

But how far are prepared to put this theory to the test. So far every experiment has been web-based, things like Myfootballclub and Digg string immediately to mind, but what would happen if a large, real world corporate had to try this out?

Our hunch is that bees, ants and birds don’t have giant egos to feed – so they’re naturally more inclined to let go and make it work. Maybe working together in a team goes against our natural human instinct of individual survival and is fundamentally flawed.

Check this amazing clip of the coordination of a swarm of birds in-flight:

…and for more, read Swarm Theory on the National Geographic site and how the theory is being used by FedEx and other transport companies.

[thanks to Espen for the link to the clip] 

Nando’s takes the viral gap

Posted on 06. Dec, 2007 by Jonathan Cherry.

South Africa’s premium fixed-wing chicken outlet, Nando’s, have created a series of Leon Schuster / Jamie Uys hidden camera-type clips. Featuring Steve Peri and JJ Hotstix as two hot flying squad cops on the prowl for offenders.

[...]

What’s up with all the flippin’ Hummers

Posted on 05. Dec, 2007 by Jonathan Cherry.

A few year’s ago the advertising giveaway product of choice was a Playstation 2. Then it evolved into the iPod and now….it’s the Hummer H3.

Why? Are we at war? With the petrol price as it is – it’s cheaper to fill your tank with bottles of Jack Daniels than stop at a designated pump. So what does the second placed winner of these competitions get…..Two Hummers?

BTW – this Nando’s ripoff of, the now dated, MTN Yello Summer campaign is a scream.  It’ll end in tears for sure.  MTN should be rubbing their hands with glee [cause Nando's are now indirectly doing a bit o' MTN brand building on their behalf], but egos will come into it and suited cleaners will be called in to ‘eliminate’ the problem.

With all these Hummers set to take the road thanks to these things, you’d swear we didn’t have an environment on the brink of disaster to worry about. Maybe everyone who drives a Hummer, won it in some competition. Gives us an idea for the local church Tombola coming up soon.

More: Here’s what the rest of the world thinks of you and your Hummer – FUH2

[Nando's sighting via Sarah Britten]