Cherryflava

Facebook for dogs...designed by South Africans

..

Actaully Sniftag is more like a speed dating service disguised as dog ownership.

According to the marketing info: Sniftag is a sleek, little pet accessory that combines wireless sensing and social networking technologies.  The makers came up with the idea when they realized that although dog owners in Boston Common [USA} meet every day, they do not connect or make friends. By recording encounters with other dogs in the park and automatically downloading the information once home, owners can connect with other owners in a safe and easy way. [thanks Tasos]

The success of the social networking side of the product will obviously depand largely on the number of units which are purchased. At $299.00 for the starter kit it's not cheap, but then that also ensures a filtering of inappropriate riff raff dog owners that are going to waste your valuable coffee date time.

Update: Almost forgot to proudly mention that the product was designed by a South African  company by the name of Readymade. Nice one guys.

More:

Sniftag video
Sniftag products

Halloween marketing: Oh how the mighty have fallen

Nicknamed 'The Gorilla of Greed', this Halloween you can scare the living daylights out of your equity trader friends with this Richard Fuld [the ex-CEO of Lehman Bros.] mask.

Surprisingly to us, it's part of a series of masks [The scariest people of 2008] made available this year by respected business media title Forbes. Knowing now that they have a serious sense of humour makes them just that much more... there.
There's even an Amy Winehouse version, which should you choose to wear it, is guaranteed to get every single drug merchant in Woodstock squealing like a 5-year old on a school outing to Beacon.

Great marketing idea.

Perhaps the Financial Mail can offer us a Julius Malema version?

More: Halloween masks - Forbes.com [get them all]
[via Gawker]
 

Purple bikes and pics

What are purple pedals? @ Yahoo! Video

Imagine if every journey you took was automatically captured in pictures for others to see. 'Life caching' without the hassle of worrying if everything is in focus.

That's the idea that Yahoo are busy pioneering with a project called Purple Pedals.
To essentially showcase the power of their Flickr Maps, the company have launched a couple of cameraphone-rigged and GPS-enabled bicycles in selected cities around the world, which take photos in one-minute intervals while the bike is moving. The photos are then uploaded and geotagged immediately on the bike’s own Flickr account for everyone else to enjoy.

Pretty handy in documenting your travels or the number plate of that pesky &*^% that has the balls to cut you off in the traffic.

Also see: The Cherryflava Flickr Map
[via]

Invitation: Play with your streets

At last week's Creative Cluster meeting we presented our various ideas for turning the Cape Town inner city into a playground, so it stands to reason that we're loving this 'bus stop swing' done by Bruno Taylor.

If you watch the video, it's amazing how apprehensive people are at first to play like kids again...until they realise that nobody is watching them.

71% of adults used to play on the streets when they were young. 21% of children do so now. Are we designing children and play out of the public realm?

This project is a study into different ways of bringing play back into public space. It focuses on ways of incorporating incidental play in the public realm by not so much as having separate play equipment that dictates the users but by using existing furniture and architectural elements that indicate playful behaviour for all.

It asks us to question the current framework for public space and whether it is sufficient while also giving permission for young people to play in public.

Play as you go…” Bruno Taylor." [via Wooster Collective]

 

On that note - if you would like to be added to the mailing list for an afternoon game of 'street bingo' which we're organising in a couple of weeks time in Cape Town, please let us know by mailing: tips [at] cherryflava [dot] com 

Water art

You may have experienced the 'dancing fountain' in Vegas and thought that was pretty out there, but this 'advertising-ready' shower machine is simply astounding. [video link]

We can see Vodacom all over this thing. [thanks Dave]

Nike wanting athletes to bring back the 'stache

The marketing muscle at Nike believe there is real brand power in associating themselves with the good ol' 70's style mustache.

Yip, think Daley Thompson [pictured here], Sarel vd Merwe, Jimmy Cook, Clive Rice - athletes from yesteryear who really took command of a sporting occasion.
The secret to their sporting excellence - their distinctive exposed lip hair, which perhaps magically filtered the air entering their lungs, improving their athletic performance.

Now you too can partake in the power of the stache [if you're male...or a Bulgarian female table tennis player] thanks to their latest marketing campaign for Nike Vintage.

“Is your mustache not quite up to snuff?” the Nike Vintage site asks. “Having issues attracting that special someone because you can’t grow that thick, macho, manstache? We’ve got you covered. No matter what your style might be; the walrus, the handlebar, or even the chopper, there’s no resisting these whisker-kissers. They’re guaranteed to please.”

Thanks to their website - you can download and cut out your own instant 'besem snor' to test out your new look. Cause nothing shouts 'cool' more than looking like Magnum PI.

Link: Nike Vintage
[via]

Giant telectroscope connects New York to London

It sounds like something out of a fantasy book and perhaps in this digital age a little primative, but a story about an undersea telectroscope that connects New York City with London has got to be worth the trip out to see.

More: Telectroscope Home page
Found via The Coolhunter

Karaoke in the form of photography

Much like we as South Africans love to braai, Americans seem to have a dedicated fascination for photobooths. You know, that cupboard structure that best friends squeeze themselves into to capture their youth with a blinding flash of light and a hushed 'poof'.

PSFK points us two two fresh photobooth concepts, which are generating a bit of traction over the pond.

Photoboof is a free of charge service spotted at Burning Man is a mobile photo booth filled with bizarre props and travels to parties where groups of people can pile in and take a fun series of shots. The rig instantly spits out prints while simultaneously uploading the images to an online gallery.

The other is Polite in Public, which is the Rolls Royce of party accessories. This system digitally drops guests into elaborate backdrops for around $2500 per function, and from the images we've been studying it's truly impressive. See more over at NOTCOT.

Like karaoke, digital photobooths are only going to catch on in certain parts, but variations on this theme are endless. Nice small business idea of the out of work mobile DJ.

 

Brandspam: The Matter Box

Would you sign up for a service that sends you a goodie bag of branded stuff every month...for free?
At events like the Two Oceans and the Argus they've been handing out goodie bags to the participants for years, but now [in the UK] you can sign up for one even if you never leave your couch.

Matter is a new and unique idea in communications that brings companies and people together around real, physical stuff–things you can hold in your hands, keep in your drawer, or give to your friends. It's a new way for companies to introduce themselves by giving you something you might like.

Interesting concept of 'tryvertising'. There's no doubt that many corporates have warehouses full of old promotional stuff that could easily be 'redistributed' via a system like this. We guess the success of the idea really depends on how cool the items are that you're sending out.

Website: Matterbox

[via]

One day version of The Amazing Race

Have you ever watched that TV show 'The Amazing Race' and thought that it must be a radical way to see a country?

Well a new urban game project / tour company have set up something new and exciting in the US called Urban Dare. 

Essentially it's a competition that takes teams of two and sends them out into a city to complete various challenges in what is essentially a modern scavenger hunt. Part photo hunt, part trivia, part dares, teams solve clues to reach checkpoints where they must complete challenges and document it with a digital camera before receiving a ‘passport stamp’ and moving onto the next checkpoint. [via PSFK]

Great idea and beats the pants out of sitting in a bus and seeing a city go by. We always had a bit of a dream to take part in the Amazing Race, but if Urban Dare started in Cape Town we'd be just as happy.

See: Urban Dare
Previously: City running tours - Cherryflava